CLEMSON — Before Dabo Swinney, no football coach at Clemson had more wins than Frank Howard.

From 1940 to 1969, Howard’s Clemson teams won 165 games, eight conference championships and three bowl games. Twice he was the ACC Coach of the Year, and during his time he was one of the most respected and beloved coaches in college football.

But despite all that success, Howard’s legacy at Clemson was tainted by one mark – he had a losing record against South Carolina. In fact, Howard is the only Clemson coach with a minimum of four games to have a losing record against the Gamecocks.

How crazy is that piece of information?

Howard was 14-15-1 against Carolina in his 30 years as Clemson’s head coach.

Fast forward 55 years, and Dabo Swinney has done things for Clemson no one, including Howard and Danny Ford, has ever done. He took the Clemson program to heights it has never seen before, making it one of the elite programs in all of college football.

Swinney has already passed Howard with 186 wins, which is also an ACC record. He has won nine conference championships, two national championships, played for the national championship four times, six final four appearances and seven appearances in the College Football Playoff.

A former national champion at Alabama, like Howard, Swinney has wins over some of the greatest programs in college football history, including two wins over Nick Saban’s Alabama teams in the national championship game.

However, and though Swinney may not want to spin it that way, he is approaching a mark that, like Howard, can tarnish his legacy a bit in Tigertown.

Heading into Saturday’s game versus the Gamecocks, Swinney is just 9-7 against Clemson’s biggest rival, and he is hoping to avoid a third loss in the last four years to Carolina.

At one point, Swinney lost five straight to USC, the longest losing streak by the Tigers in the all-time series. The Clemson coach said those losses did a lot for the program, though. He used it as a base for showing his players how to get past the tough times, allowing it to lead to bigger things.

So, here is the question.

Is it fair that Swinney’s legacy at Clemson could be tainted if he posts a similar record against the Gamecocks, as Howard did, when he eventually hangs up the whistle? Or will he be remembered for everything else he did and his record against South Carolina will be a great trivia question on the board game Trivial Pursuit?