CHARLOTTE — During its current run, Clemson has broken a lot of school, ACC and national records on its way to being one of the more dominant teams in college football.
Since 2011, the Tigers have won 109 games, 5 ACC Championships and 2 national championships. Clemson has not lost a regular season game since 2017 and currently owns the nation’s longest winning streak with 27 straight victories.
The third-ranked Tigers (12-0, 8-0 ACC) will be shooting for its 28th straight win and another ACC Championship on Saturday when it plays No. 23 Virginia (9-3, 6-2 ACC) at Bank of America Stadium here in Charlotte. A win would give Clemson an all-time record of five straight wins in a conference championship game and will be become the first team since Alabama in 1975 to win a fifth straight outright conference championship.
A 28th straight win would also move the Tigers within one win of tying Florida State’s ACC record of 29 straight wins from 2012-’14.
“I’d like to break it because that means we would be at 30 in a row and that is what is going to take for us to achieve the ultimate goal, I guess,” head coach Dabo Swinney said Friday from the ACC Coaches Press Conference. “To be where we are right now, I don’t even think about it to be honest with you. It is just a blur.
“You just get so busy working and on to the next game and starting over every week, it is hard for me to even think back 27 games.”
Swinney says the 27-game win streak and the Tigers’ success the last nine season has just been a product of the culture they established at Clemson. It is part of the process. They don’t think about winning streaks or winning championships, it about winning that week and staying focused on the task at hand.
“We just have a process that we believe in and our guys and our culture help cultivate and nurture that mindset of just being excited to have a chance to go win again and not getting bored,” he said. “Every week is the biggest game of the year for us and that is really the kind of mindset that we have and that is kind of a function of how we go about our business, I believe.
“It has been an incredible run, there is no doubt about it. To win tomorrow, it would be 28. So, if we could win 28 then we are going to get the opportunity to play on Dec. 28 (in the College Football Playoff). So, 28 will be the one that I am focused on. You can’t win 29 until you win 28. That is all we are worried about right now. It has been a special run and there is so much consistency and hard work put in by a lot of people.”
We are pleased to announce a new partnership with Fanatics. This is great news for Tiger fans as they have the officially licensed Clemson gear.
The Clemson Insider will get a portion of all sales so get ready for another championship season by ordering your Clemson gear today and help support TCI.
