CLEMSON – Two decades, six presidential elections, and two National Championship victories have occurred since the last time Clemson lost three home games in a season in 2001. After 14 consecutive nine-win seasons under head coach Dabo Swinney, the Tigers find themselves fighting for bowl eligibility after a rocky start to the 2025 season.

Most freshmen and sophomores on the Tigers (3-4, 2-3 ACC) team, either fresh off of a successful high school career or an ACC Championship win, have never experienced this level of adversity while playing football.

Sophomore cornerback Ashton Hampton believes because of this history, older veterans on the team have been able to encourage younger players after experiencing adversity of their own in 2023. 

“(The upperclassmen) really haven’t flinched at all because in 2023 when I was a senior high school, they had something similar to this season,” Hampton said. “I hate to say this, but it’s not something that’s new to them. So, for a guy like me who’s never been through something like this, they’re really like helping keep my spirits and stuff like that.”

Hampton, who played wide receiver in high school in addition to defensive back, was rated the No. 22 “athlete” in his class by On3.com, and led Florida State University High School to a 10-3 record his senior year. In his sophomore year of college, the Tigers have already surpassed the losses he faced in his final high school season with five games still to play.

However, Tigers upperclassmen like Tristan Leigh, Walker Parks and Aveion Terrell experienced a 4-4 start at Clemson while Hampton was still in high school, after four early ACC losses tripped up the young team two years ago. This experience, Hampton said, has kept the leadership solid in the locker room this season.

“Guys like Tristan Leigh, that’s a leader right there,” Hampton said. “That’s somebody that when I first came in, he always looked out for me. He said if I ever need anything to come talk to him and a guy like him, Cade (Klubnik), they’re keeping everybody’s spirits up. They’re staying happy. They’re staying motivated. Like, if we were 7-0 they wouldn’t have changed at all.” 

The adversity has given Hampton a fresh opportunity to learn about himself. Through seven games, the Tallahassee, Fla., native has notched 24 tackles, four pass breakups, and an interception. 

While Clemson has not had the season Hampton, his teammates or many fans anticipated, he has maintained his personal competitive fire.

“I’m a competitor at the end of the day,” he said. “Whether we’re down by a couple points or we’re winning, I’m going to make sure I’m competing. I’m giving my all in whatever I do. And quitting is just something that’s not in me. That’s not something I’m going to do. So I make sure I continue to fight for Clemson, fight for myself, my parents, my family, my teammates, the seniors who won’t get this opportunity back… just continue to fight for them because at the end of the day it’s their last season.”

With College Football Playoff, ACC Championship and premiere bowl game hopes all but eliminated, Hampton noted that the mood in the locker room has been “a little down,” but thanks to the leadership of players like Leigh, the team is still bought in to finish the season strong.

“Just keep fighting because we know the talent we have in the room,” Hampton said. “We know we have great players on both sides of the ball. We just got to put together and play complementary football like Coach Swinney always says and at times we’ve done that in the season. We had a two-game winning streak and at times we haven’t… that’s something we got to keep like continue to work on and strive to get better at.”

Hampton and the Tigers will have two weeks to work on “putting it together” as they approach their second bye week of the season, before a home matchup against Duke (4-3, 3-1 ACC) on Nov. 1. 

The last time Clemson had a bye week, it went on two consecutive road wins against UNC and Boston College, as Hampton alluded to. This time, however, the Tigers will host the Blue Devils and hope to pick up their first Power 4 win at Memorial Stadium in over a year.