The 2015 football season has obviously been a banner year for Clemson.
The Tigers, who will play No. 2 Alabama in the National Championship Game on Tuesday, have already established a school-record for wins in a season with 14, which also ties an ACC record with the 2013 Florida State team.
They have set a school-record for consecutive wins with 17 and have been ranked eight straight weeks as the No. 1 team in the country. Clemson has beaten a record five teams who have won at least 10 games this season, more than any team in the country.
But on the field isn’t the only records the ACC Champions have established.
“Everybody talks about being 14-0, and we’ve set a lot of records around here, not just this year but the last seven years. We’ve set a bunch of records,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said, “but the record that I’m most proud of is we set the school record for honor roll students this fall.”
Clemson had a record 48 players make the honor roll this fall. That means they had to have scored at least a 3.0 GPA to earn honor roll status.
“And I’m more proud of that than anything,” Swinney said.
As he should be. The football program set a GPA record this fall as well. The previous best came last spring.
“Everybody looks at our team and they talk about winning,” Swinney said. “We’re winning because we win off the field, too, and that’s what I’m more proud of than anything. Six of our seven years we’ve been top 10 academically, so I think you can win at the highest level. But you can be the epitome of what a student-athlete should look like, too, and you can do it the right way, and that’s what our guys have done.
“I’m just really proud of our guys for how they’re handling themselves on and off the field.”