Having A Record Year

Deshaun Watson led Clemson to two-straight ACC titles.
That is among myriad other accomplishments by this Tiger team.
(Photo courtesy Clemson Athletics)

With all due respect to Eric Church, it's the Clemson football team that truly is having a record year.

In an effort to savor the moment and not take this time in Clemson football history for granted, I wanted to make a list of accomplishments for the current Tigers. This is not an all-encompassing list. I don't have every statistic featured. It's just some perspective on what we have witnessed with this group. It's a long list, so let's get to it.

• Clemson has been ranked in the Top 5 of the AP Poll 23 consecutive weeks. The Tigers are No. 3 in the current poll. The current streak includes the entire 2016 season, which has never been done before in program history. It also is the longest active in the NCAA. Alabama is second at 21 straight weeks. 
• Clemson has been ranked in the Top 25 for 35 straight weeks. That is good for the fourth best streak in school history. Clemson's longest streak is 50 weeks, accomplished twice (1989-1992 and 2011-2014). The Tigers were ranked 41 straight weeks from 1986-1989. The current streak began in 2014 and is tied for 121st all-time.
• The Tigers won their 16th ACC Championship, breaking a tie with Florida State for the most in the conference. It was the second straight championship for Clemson, the first time that's happened since a three-year run from 1986-88. Clemson has won three of the past six ACC titles after going 20 years between titles (1991 and 2011).
• Clemson has won 10+ games six consecutive years, tied with Alabama for the longest streak in the country. Prior to the streak starting, Clemson had not won 10 games in a season since 1990. Before these six seasons, Clemson had only seven season in its history with 10+ wins (1948, 1978, 1981, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990).
• The 12-1 record this year is only the third time in school history that Clemson has won 12 or more games. Clemson went 12-0 in 1981 en route to the program's only National Championship. Last season, the Tigers finished 14-1 with a loss in the National Championship Game.
• This season, Clemson played 11 bowl eligible teams and went 10-1. The 10 wins are the most in the nation and the most in Clemson history. 
• Clemson's senior class is 47-7. The 47 wins are a Clemson record for a senior class. Including two ACC Championship Game wins, the seniors have won 30 ACC games, also a school record.
• Deshaun Watson has thrown for 37 touchdowns, a school single-season record. As a team, Clemson has a school record 41 TD passes.
• Watson is 30-3 as a starter. The school record for wins by a QB is 32 held by Rodney Williams (1985-88) and Tajh Boyd (2010-13).
• Watson became the first player in ACC history to win back-to-back ACC Championship Game MVP awards. In two games, he's pass for 577 yards and six touchdowns, and rushed for 216 yards and four touchdowns. Clemson scored 87 points in the past two ACCCG's, with Watson's TDs accounting for 70 of those points.
• Watson became Clemson's first Heisman Trophy finalist in 2015. He will be in New York for a second consecutive year to become the first two-time Heisman finalist to don a Tiger uniform. If he wins, he of course would become the first Heisman winner in school history.
• Mike Williams' 1,171 yards marks the second season he's surpassed the 1,000-yard mark. Williams joins Rod Gardner and Sammy Watkins as the only receivers in Clemson history to reach 1,000 yards in two different seasons.
• Wayne Gallman is now over 1,000 yards rushing for the second straight season. Gallman has 3,298 rushing yards in his career and is just the sixth running back in Clemson history to surpass 3,000 yards.
• Jordan Leggett passed Dwayne Allen (2011) for the single-season receiving yardage record by a Clemson tight end. Leggett (637 yards) is the first Tiger tight end to post at least 600 receiving yards in a season.
• Leggett is tied with former Tiger wideout Terry Smith for sixth in Clemson history with 18 touchdown catches.
• Artavis Scott is tied with Sammy Watkins for the career receptions record at Clemson, putting him at 240 in just three seasons.
• Scott caught a pass in his 36th consecutive game, tying Jerry Butler and DeAndre Hopkins for the school record.
• True freshman Dexter Lawrence was named the ACC's Defensive Rookie of the Year.
• Clemson placed 16 players on the All-ACC team as voted on by the coaches, and 15 All-ACC players as voted by the media. There were eight Tigers on the coaches' first team and nine on the media first team, including three offensive linemen. Carlos Watkins, Ben Boulware, Cordrea Tankersley and Jadar Johnson were the Tigers' four first-team defensive players.
• Clemson has scored 522 points, an average of 40.2 points per game. Clemson's defense has given up 239 points, an 18.4 points per game clip.
• The Tiger defense has recorded a sack in 43 straight games. 
• Clemson has won four straight bowl games - not including the CFB National Championship last season. The Tigers defeated LSU in the 2012 Chick-fil-A Bowl, Ohio State in the 2014 Orange Bowl, Oklahoma in the 2014 Russell Athletic Bowl, and Oklahoma again in the 2015 Orange Bowl. The Tigers face Ohio State in the 2016 Fiesta Bowl. Clemson has never played in the Fiesta Bowl game.

The Power of the Paw

Logo courtesy of Clemson University

The Tiger Paw is synonymous with Clemson athletics. Simple, yet unique, the Paw gives Clemson a universally recognized symbol. 

Over the past three months - since Oct. 3 really - the Paw has been on display seemingly on a 24-hour loop on ESPN. That night, Dabo Swinney and the Clemson Tigers football team knocked off national brand Notre Dame following a full day of Clemson advertisement. College GameDay, the pregame show of all pregame shows, originated from Clemson's campus, and despite an incoming hurricane, the Tiger faithful showed up in droves for the show. There was belly-flopping in the mud and "sloppy body" shirtless guy showing off his, uh, sloppy body for the second time on GameDay.

But it was a four-letter acronym that caught fire across the country.

"B.Y.O.G."

Following the 24-22 thrilling win, Swinney was in true form for his postgame on-field interview. To paraphrase, he told his team that he could give them scholarships, meals, housing, nice equipment and gear, but for this game he wanted them to "B.Y.O.G. - Bring your own guts!" Swinney later showed off his dance moves, doing the "Whip and Nae-Nae," and the national media ran with clips of the fun-loving, over-the-top coach on a weekly basis.

Of course it helped that Clemson kept winning and Dabo kept dancing. And a week later he went on a rant about the word which shall not be named in this blog that rhymes with "Schlemsoning."

For the next several weeks, Clemson received more free advertising from ESPN, ABC, CBS, Fox Sports, and other national and local media outlets. Swinney's smile and good ole boy accent graced interview after interview. Highlights were shown of the Tigers' wins. Deshaun Watson gained notoriety for his impressive stats and poise in leading Clemson to an undefeated season. Now, he's headed to the Heisman Trophy Ceremony in New York City, the first player in Clemson history to be named a finalist.

And at the center of all the highlights, interviews, and discussion is the Tiger Paw. That familiar orange and white tilted paw with the little fish hook in the bottom-right corner.

The Clemson coaching staff doesn't have to fly to California or Texas or Iowa to show off the brand and recruit.

No, the Tiger Paw has entered every living room with a TV for the better part of the past two months. It will continue to do so because Clemson is the lone undefeated team in the nation and is headed to the College Football Playoff. The focus of bowl season is narrowed to two games, one of which involves the No. 1 team in the land. That'd be Clemson.

Even on Twitter, users will be able to use the hashtag "#ALLIN" and an orange Tiger Paw will accompany the phrase for the next month. I mean, how cool is this?!?!

The Paw will continue to be seen on upcoming awards shows, discussions about the Playoff, and pretty much anytime you turn on SportsCenter or one of the upcoming ballgames. Sports talk hosts can't stop talking about Clemson.

I don't know how much marketing dollars all this has equated to or will equate to when it's all said and done, but I'm guessing Clemson could spend the next 100 years coming up with money to spend on advertising and wouldn't receive this kind of exposure.

For my university in the sleepy town in Upstate South Carolina, it's an incredible thing. Think of the people who didn't know where Clemson was or had never really given thought to the Tigers as being a top-tier football program.

That's all changed. Clemson is on its way to becoming a nationally recognized brand. People know the university rests in the foothills of the South Carolina mountains where the Blue Ridge yawns its greatness.

(Photo courtesy USA Today Sports)

How? Why?

The Paw says it all.

-BtW