Clemson friends of ours hosted us and took us to the Clemson vs App State game. Other than a handful of UCF games, while I was living in Orlando, I’d never attended a non-Gator regular season game! The entrance is unique in the players run down “The Hill” onto the playing field. The stadium, “Death Valley”, seats fewer than Ben Hill Griffin but seems higher. We were in the nose bleed section. Tailgating was off the charts, much larger (I think) than at Florida games and I was told that some fans don’t even bother to go into the stadium, instead they party outside and watch the game on screens. Going into the stadium, App State fans were rowdy, but overall everyone we encountered of sat near were courteous. Clemson fans were surprisingly upbeat considering the blowout against Georgia. Oh, the game. Clemson scored TD’s on each of its first eight possessions. Even Clemson fans were leaving at the half. I was shocked that “Giant Killer” didn’t put up a better fight. They were only 7 point dogs.
He was nearly flawless and Clemson had over 500 yards at halftime. I’ve never seen so many explosive plays over a matter of a few minutes. App State never got off the bus.
App State was a team that some talked about sneaking into the playoff. Arguably their worst on field showing for a big game in a decade. Some of the best fans in the country. They are my go to when the Gators suck. Welp.
I have good friends that are die hard Clemson fans, and they love going to the games. They even rent two tailgate spots side-by-side to have extra room.
Stayed with them in their lakefront place near Salem. But you’re right about Greenville punching above its weight!
My daughter just wrapped up 2 years there. It's everything they tell you. (She moved home to finish her last 2 years at UNCW.) I am glad she is home, but will miss the frequency of the Boone trips. That town lives for those 6 Saturdays. We are still going to try and make a game each year.
My wife and two of my kids went there,..it's as big a game day atmosphere as there is. I think they still allow you to leave the stadium during the game and re-enter, great for refilling "refreshments". One thing Dabo did this past week was play two freshmen wideouts that were very highly recruited the entire game. He didn't put them in till the last few minutes against UGA. They provided their QB more open targets against an inferior team. Clemson has a very good D (I know, UGA thumped them, but they're gonna thump a bunch of folks) and if they've found something in Klubnik's play they will finish the year strong. He's not been what they expected,...yet. I've been to Death Valley 10-12 times and like so many others they've been real good when their QB play has been good, and they've had some good ones the last 10-15 years. One of the few colleges I've been to where when you walk down the sidewalks kids will look you in the face and speak to you. I'm a gator grad but you could sure pick worse places for your kids to go!
Clemson is a really nice small (very) college town. Great setting for football, with a very passionate and loyal fan base. Not a lot of outside distractions there. This very much helps Dabo build his culture, it would not work everywhere, imho. Greenville is not far away for a bit more stuff. I have been to Clemson several times, never for a game though. Clemson is at the top of my wish list for a home/home series. The two programs have only played a handful of times. It’s such a natural, they’re right there, easy to get to, both fan bases would love to visit the other.
I know a lot of Gator fans won't like this, but as a dad of 2 Clemson grads I've often thought of how much we have in common. 1) Both in real college towns. (Instead of a Columbia, SC or Miami or Nashville.) 2) Both good engineering/ agricultural. 3) Football schools with some basketball success. (We've had a lot more than they have.) 4) Rapidly improving academics. (Again, we are ahead of Clemson, but both have gotten much better in the last 20+ years.) 5) Both regarded as the red-headed step child of their conference. (Again- less true now as the ACC has grown, but oh my did the ACC look down at Clemson in the old days.) 6) Both feature orange as their primary color (less true of us now.) 7) Both coached by Charley Pell, both on probation in the 80s during their first glory years. 8) Both given additional punishments for those probations by their conference. (Again, see #5.) 9) Both are a good bit removed from any other population center in their state. i"m sure there's more... I just wish we could get back to our old level in football soon so we can play Clemson in a top bowl.
What? Why is it like that for Florida? As someone who didn't grow up following Gator football (my daughter is attending now), I'd like to know.
I live 10 minutes from Clemson, my whole family are gators but my two girls will go to Clemson for college. Great community, and solid education. Love it up here after living in SW Florida for 35 years.
The SEC is run from Alabama. Alabama, Auburn, UT, and UGA are the royalty. We are not southern and not one of the boys. Has there been another school whose SEC title was retroactively taken away from them, like ours was in 84? Further- we could have/ should have been allowed to play in the Sugar Bowl after the 84 season (the NCAA allowed it) but the SEC stopped it. But it shows up in a lot of other ways- one is officiating bias to help Bama and to a lesser extent Auburn.
I thought that UF fell on its on sword regarding post-season play hoping it would lessen NCAA penalties during the appeal. Even so, the SEC might have done that had we not withdrawn voluntarily.
This is all from my memory, but I thought the NCAA said we had to take 2 years probation, but we could have it as 85-86 for the bowl ban. Then the SEC said NO- you are on probation you have to start now. So our bowl ban was 84-85 but our probation was 85-86. BTW, we could have gone to a bowl in 86 if we were good enough that year. We ended up going 6-5 but the last win (at Tally) was after the bowls were locked up.
