Clemson, Georgia Tech Game Notes
***Former Clemson head coach Danny Ford will be honored prior to Saturday night's game for his induction into the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame.
Georgia Tech and Clemson are meeting for the 83rd time in a series that dates back to 1898, a 23-0 Clemson win in Augusta, GA, just the 11th game in Clemson football history. Clemson won the first four games of the series, including games in 1902 and 1903 when John Heisman was at the helm.
Clemson defeated Georgia Tech in Atlanta 73-0 in 1903 with Heisman as head coach. Heisman then left Clemson after that season to become Georgia Tech’s head coach.
The Yellow Jackets hold a 52-29-2 advantage in the all-time series.
After playing their first two games at neutral sites (Augusta, Ga. in 1898, Greenville, S.C. in 1899), the schools next 41 gridiron matchups between 1902-1973 were all held at Georgia Tech.
In 34 matchups since the Yellow Jackets joined the Tigers in the ACC in 1983, Clemson officially holds a 18-16 advantage.
Georgia Tech is 6-13 all-time at Clemson, including four-straight losses at Memorial Stadium. The Yellow Jackets’ last win at Clemson was a 21-17 triumph on Oct. 18, 2008.
Clemson is Georgia Tech’s fourth-most common all-time opponent.
Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson is officially 4-5 against Clemson, while Clemson’s Dabo Swinney
is 5-5 against the Yellow Jackets.
Dabo Swinney is in his ninth full season and 10th overall as the head coach at Clemson after taking over the team as interim coach midway through the 2008 campaign. Under Swinney, the Tigers are 61-17 in ACC play and 56-7 at home.
Saturday’s game at Clemson is only Georgia Tech’s second true road game of the 2017 season. Georgia Tech and Florida are the only NCAA Division I FBS teams that have played fewer than two true road games this season.
The defense has been the calling card for the seventh-ranked Tigers this season, as they lead the ACC and rank 10th nationally in total defense (289.4 yards per game). Clemson leads the nation in sacks (4.0 per game). The Tigers also rank second in the ACC in scoring defense (13.6 ppg), rushing defense (107.9 ypg) and passing defense (181.6 ypg).
Offensively, Clemson is led by junior quarterback Kelly Bryant. Bryant, who left the loss at Syracuse due to injury, has accounted for 1,768 yards (1,375 passing, 393 rushing) and 11 touchdowns (four passing, seven rushing) in seven games this season.
This has been a home stadium series advantage in recent years. The home team has won seven of the last eight games in the series with the only road win taking place last year when Clemson won 26-7 in Atlanta. That was Clemson’s first win in Atlanta over Tech since 2003.
Twelve of the last 21 games have been decided by five points or less, including a six-game streak between 1996-01 in which every game was decided by exactly three points.
That might be a first in college football history. We aren’t talking by three points or less, but exactly three points. Eleven of Georgia Tech’s last 14 wins in the series have been decided by a touchdown or less.
Over the last 21 years, Clemson and Georgia Tech have played 12 games decided by seven points or less. Georgia Tech is 9-3 in those games.
Clemson has won the last four games played at Clemson, all under Dabo Swinney. Swinney is 4-1 against Georgia Tech in Memorial Stadium and the only loss took place in 2008 when he had been named interim coach the Monday before the game. Tech won that game, 21-17.
In 2009, Georgia Tech won in Atlanta in the regular season 30-27 and in the ACC Championship game in Tampa by a 39-34 score. That ACC championship game was a bizarre affair as neither team punted and both teams gained at least 300 yards rushing. It was the first game in Clemson history that both
teams didn’t punt, and the only FBS game in college football in 2009 in which both teams had at least 300 yards rushing.
Clemson was victorious in 2006 behind the running of James Davis and C.J. Spiller. The duo combined for 332 yards rushing and four touchdowns, three rushing, in the 31-7 Clemson win at Clemson, a day in which ESPN’s College Gameday was in town for the first time. Davis had a career-high 216 yards rushing and Spiller became the first player in Clemson history with a touchdown rush and a touchdown reception of at least 50 yards in the same game.