CLEMSON — One of the things I look forward to the most is when Ross Taylor sends out his weekly game notes during the football season.

If you have followed me long enough you know I am stat geek – a stat geek from the traditional sense. I am not a fan of analytics and all that modern garbage. Those are not stats to me, those are probabilities, which I think has ruined the game a little bit, but I will get into that another day.

I am a traditionalist. I love history. I love traditions.

Clemson’s football traditions are among the best in the country. Always has been. And Clemson’s weekly game notes always display those traditions and history and how it relates to the current team.

With that, it is fair to note that some of that history will be on display Saturday at Memorial Stadium when the Tigers take on Duke (noon, ACCN). It’s Homecoming weekend, a proud weekend for Clemson, as it welcomes back its alumni.

The Tigers have been good to their alumni on Homecoming.

According to Taylor’s notes, Saturday will be Clemson’s 101st Homecoming game on record since the first celebration in 1922. Clemson has an overall record of 78-19-3 in its previous 100 Homecoming games. That includes a 47-4-2 record (.906) in Homecoming games since the 1971 season.

Clemson’s has won 13 straight homecoming games, dating back to 2010 when it lost to Miami. However, since 1971, the Tigers are 8-0-1 against the Blue Devils on Homecoming.

They have also won 15 straight home games against Duke, which dates to a 34-17 loss to the Blue Devils in 1980.

Also, Duke has not defeated the Tigers in back-to-back games in the series since the 1969 and 1970 seasons. The Blue Devils beat Clemson, 28-7, in their most recent contest which opened the 2023 season.

Keep in mind, this is not your grandfather’s Duke Blue Devils coming into Memorial Stadium on Saturday. These Blue Devils are pretty good, and they have one of the best quarterbacks in the country in Darian Mensah.

The junior leads the country in passing yards per game, as he averages 315.9 yards per game. Mensah has thrown 17 TDs to 2 INTs this season and is completing 70.3 percent of his passes.

By the way, Clemson (3-4, 2-3 ACC), is also trying to avoid its worst start to a season since 1998, when those Tigers won just two of their first 10 games. The 1998 season is also the last time Clemson produced a losing record at home during a season (2-4), which can happen with a loss to the Blue Devils on Saturday.

So, Saturday can be a historic day in Clemson, but maybe not in the way the Clemson alumni would like.