OVERVIEW
CLEMSON’S FOOTBALL HERITAGE Academic Excellence
• Clemson has had 62 players in the last 12 seasons who have played for the Tigers after they earned their undergraduate degree. That includes six graduates on the 2012 team that won 11 games. In three of the last seven years, every senior on the roster earned his degree, including all 13 seniors on the 2012 team. • Sixty-five of the 72 senior lettermen (90 percent) in Dabo Swinney’s four full years as head coach have graduated. The only seven who have not graduated are on NFL rosters. • Clemson’s football program was #4 in the nation with a 985 APR score in 2013. It marked the second year in a row Clemson was in the top 10 in the nation. • Six Clemson football players were named to the 2012 AllACC Academic team. The list included Dalton Freeman, who made the team for the fourth straight year. In each of the last two years, only Duke has had more selections to the All-ACC Academic team than Clemson. The 2012 season marked the sixth consecutive year that Clemson had at least five players selected to the All-ACC Academic squad. • In the last seven years, 118 of the 129 players (91 percent) who have stayed at Clemson until their final year have graduated. That includes a graduation rate of 88 percent (92-103) for scholarship players who have stayed until their senior season. • Chad Carson and Kyle Young were first-team Academic All-Americans in 2000 and 2001. Clemson was the only Division I school in the nation with two first-team picks each year. Young was a first-team Academic All-American from 1999-01 and became just the second ACC player in history to be a three-time, first-team selection. He is one of just two offensive linemen in college football history to be a three-time, first-team Academic AllAmerican. He is currently an associate athletic director in the Clemson Athletic Department. • Dalton Freeman was an All-American on the field and off the field in 2012. He was a first-team All-America center according to AFCA and second-team Academic AllAmerican by CoSIDA.
All-Star Selections • Clemson has a history of decorated football players. The program boasts 69 different players who have earned first, second, or third-team All-America honors in its history, including four members of the 2012 team. It tied for the second-most All-Americans in one season in Tiger history. • The four players who were named All-American in 2012 were Tajh Boyd, a first-team selection by AFCA, Dalton
THE PERRY BROTHERS, WILLIAM (LEFT) AND MICHAEL DEAN (RIGHT), WERE TWO OF NINE TIGERS NAMED TO THE ACC’S 50-YEAR ANNIVERSARY TEAM.
Freeman, a first-team pick by AFCA, DeAndre Hopkins, a second-team selection by many services, and Sammy Watkins, a first-team pick by College & Pro Football Weekly. • In 2011, Dwayne Allen and Sammy Watkins were both AP First-Team All-Americans. It marked the first time that Clemson had two AP First-Team All-Americans in the same year. Watkins made it as a first-year freshman all-purpose player. He joined Georgia’s Herschel Walker (1980), San Diego State’s Marshall Faulk (1991), and Oklahoma’s Adrian Peterson (2004) as the only first-year freshmen in history to earn AP First-Team All-America honors. • Andre Branch joined Dwayne Allen and Sammy Watkins as All-Americans in 2011, giving Clemson an All-America defensive lineman for the third time in the last six years. Branch was a finalist for the Ted Hendricks Award, giving Clemson a finalist for that honor each of the last two years. • Clemson had a national position award winner in 2010 and 2011. Dwayne Allen won the John Mackey Award as the nation’s top tight end in 2011 and Da’Quan Bowers won the Bronko Nagurski Award as the top defensive player in 2010. Bowers also won the Ted Hendricks Award in 2010. • Clemson has had a first-team All-American (Football Coaches Association) each of the last four years, joining
ANDRE ELLINGTON (LEFT), DALTON FREEMAN (CENTER), AND CORICO WRIGHT (RIGHT) ALL RECEIVED THEIR DEGREES IN DECEMBER OF 2012. FREEMAN WAS AN ALL-AMERICAN ON THE FIELD AND IN THE CLASSROOM IN 2012. 4
2013 FOOTBALL MEDIA GUIDE
Michigan State, Oklahoma State, and Stanford. C.J. Spiller was a unanimous All-American in 2009 and Da’Quan Bowers was a unanimous pick in 2010. Allen and Watkins were first-team All-Americans in 2011, and Boyd, Freeman, and Watkins were first-team selections in 2012. • Clemson has had at least one All-American in 33 of the last 36 years. • Clemson has had at least one First-Team All-ACC player each of the last 36 years, the longest active streak and the longest overall streak in ACC history. In 2012, Clemson had six first-team selections in Tajh Boyd, Andre Ellington, Brandon Ford, Dalton Freeman, DeAndre Hopkins, and Brandon Thomas. All six were offensive players, as it marked the first time since 1995 that an ACC team had six players on the first-team offense. • Clemson had nine players named to the ACC’s 50-Year Anniversary team, more than any other school. The list of honorees shows the balance of the program over the years, as every area of a football team (by position) was represented. The nine players are Joe Bostic, Jerry Butler, Bennie Cunningham, Jeff Davis, Steve Fuller, Terry Kinard, Michael Dean Perry, William Perry, and Anthony Simmons. All nine players were All-Americans during at least one season at Clemson and played in the NFL.
Bowl History • Clemson’s victory in the 2012 Chick-fil-A Bowl over #7 Louisiana State was its 17th bowl win, 18th-most in FBS history. Clemson has played in 35 bowl games over the years, 17th-most in FBS history. • Clemson’s first bowl game was a 6-3 victory over Boston College and Head Coach Frank Leahy in the 1940 Cotton Bowl. Leahy is still second in college football history in winning percentage. • Clemson won five straight bowl games between the 1986 and 1990 seasons, tied for the eighth-longest winning streak in college football history in consecutive seasons. Clemson defeated Stanford, Penn State, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Illinois during its bowl winning streak. • Clemson has defeated some of the top coaches in college football history in bowl competition. Among the list of celebrated head coaches who have lost to Clemson in bowl games since the ACC was founded are Joe Paterno (winningest coach in Division I history on a totalvictories basis), Barry Switzer (#4-winningest Division I coach on a winning percentage basis), and Tom Osborne (#7-winningest Division I coach on a winning percentage basis). • Hall of Fame Head Coach Woody Hayes suffered his final defeat against the Tigers in the 1978 Gator Bowl. Overall, Clemson has defeated nine head coaches in bowl games who are enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame.
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