CLEMSON — Ten years seems like a long time ago, I think.
I guess it depends on the individual. For a kid, 10 years might seem like an eternity. For an adult, 10 years seems like a blink of an eye.
There is a reason for that, but I am not going to get all scientific on you.
Back to my point.
When I was nine years old, Clemson football did the unthinkable. They steamrolled through the 1981 season and went undefeated. The Tigers capped off the dream season with a victory over Nebraska on January 1,1982 in the Orange Bowl to capture the 1981 National Championship.
Man, what a time to be a nine-year old and living in the Upstate of South Carolina. It was truly a magical season, and because I was nine-years old, it seemed like Clemson held that title forever.
As the years went by, and my passion for football continued to grow, 1981 seemed like a distant memory. I remember when Clemson came off the probation years and recaptured the ACC Championship in 1986.
From 1982–the last time Clemson was allowed to claim a championship before probation–to 1986 was just four years. But I was just 14-years old, and those four years seemed like 40 in my mind.
From 1987 and through the early 1990s, it always seemed like Clemson was close to getting back to the promise-land but could never get over the hump. But time was speeding up, though I did not realize it at the time.
First college happened, then life and finally marriage. Life, like it does for all of us when we start to get older, started to fly by.
Suddenly 1981 was 15, 20, 25, 30 and 40 years ago. All of a sudden, I went from a little boy who was just learning the game that has brought him everything in his life, to a middle-aged man who is now closer to retirement than I ever imagined I would be.
Life sneaks up on you fast.
It does in football, too.
Can you believe this is the 10th anniversary of Clemson’s second national championship in football? That’s right, 2026 is the 10th anniversary of the 2016 National Champions – the story of the team that never gave up.
This time 10 years ago, we were all wondering if Clemson could return to the title game after losing a heartbreaker to Alabama in the previous year.
Can you believe it has already been 10 years? It seemed like it was just yesterday we were all predicting a Clemson-Alabama rematch.
It turns out we were right, and the rematch was better than the original. Luckily, we did not have to wait another 35 years in between national championships, as the Tigers did it again in 2018.
However, it has been seven years since the last one, though Clemson played in the 2019 Championship Game, too. Hopefully, we don’t have to wait another 28 years before the next one.
If we do, I guess we do not have to wait too long or at least that is how it will seem.
