CLEMSON, S.C. — It’s Game Day in Death Valley where No. 1 Clemson battles Georgia Tech to open the 2019 season and the ACC Network.

Location: Memorial Stadium (Death Valley)

Kickoff:  8:00 p.m.

Television:  ACC Network

Announcers:  Dave O’Brien, Katie George, Maria Taylor, Tim Hasselbeck

2019 Record: Clemson  0-0,  Georgia Tech 0-0

ACC Record: Clemson 0-0, Georgia Tech 0-0

Series History: Clemson trails 31-52-2

Last Meeting:  Clemson won 49-21 in 2018

WHAT TO WATCH FOR THIS SEASON

– Clemson attempting to become the first repeat champion in the College Football Playoff era and the first repeat champion overall since Alabama across the 2011-12 seasons.
– Clemson attempting to win back-to-back national championships for the first time in school history.

– Clemson, which is already the first team in ACC history to win four consecutive outright titles, attempting to become the first team in ACC history to win five consecutive ACC titles outright. (Note: Florida State
earned at least a share of nine consecutive ACC titles from 1992-2000 but never earned more than three consecutive titles outright.)
– Clemson attempting to become only the second team ever to earn five consecutive College Football Playoff berths (Alabama, 2014-18).
– Clemson winning 10 games for a school-record ninth consecutive season. Clemson would match Texas (2001-09) for the third-longest streak of 10-win
seasons in FBS history.
– Clemson entering the year with 103 wins this decade. With 12 wins, Clemson would join Penn (124 in the 1890s) and Yale (116 in the 1890s) as
the only major college football programs to win 115 games in a single decade since 1890. (Note: Alabama can also accomplish the feat for this decade with two wins in 2019). At 103-22 entering the 2019 season, the 2010s are already the winningest decade in school history, outpacing the 87-25-4 mark set in the 1980s.
– Clemson (41 from 2016-18) winning 14 games to tie the 2018 Clemson senior class as the winningest class in school and ACC history while matching the 2018 Clemson and Alabama seniors as the winningest
class in major college football history. Fifteen wins in 2019 would secure that title outright.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR THIS WEEK

– Clemson opening the season on the earliest date in program history. The Aug. 29 kickoff is Clemson’s earliest all-time, surpassing the 2003, 2008 and 2014 season openers held on Aug. 30 of their respective years.
– Clemson opening a season on a Thursday for the first time in school history.
– Clemson hosting a Thursday game for the first time since Nov. 14, 2013, a 55-31 win against Georgia Tech. The game will be only the 14th Thursday home game in Clemson history and only the fifth since the opening of Memorial Stadium in 1942. Clemson is 2-2 on Thursdays at Memorial Stadium all-time.

HOME OPENERS

Even though 2019 represents the 124th season of Clemson football, Clemson has had just 118 home openers in its history as a function of the five seasons
in which Clemson did not play a game at home. In 118 home openers, Clemson has a 93-17-8 record (.822) against 38 different opponents. Clemson has won 15 straight home openers with the last loss coming in Dabo
Swinney’s first year as an assistant coach, a 30-0 loss to Georgia in 2003.

CLEMSON IN ACC OPENERS

The 2019 season marks Clemson’s 67th year of membership in the ACC, dating back to the conference’s first year of play in 1953. In its previous 66 seasons of ACC membership, Clemson has posted a 40-25-1 record in conference openers.

Clemson has won its last four ACC openers, including road victories at Louisville in 2015 and 2017 and a road wins at Georgia Tech in 2016 and 2018. The 2019 season breaks a streak of seven consecutive years that Clemson had to travel to open ACC play.  Head Coach Dabo Swinney is 6-4 in ACC openers at Clemson, with all four losses coming to Top 20
opponents, including No. 15 Georgia Tech in 2009, No. 16 Miami (Fla.) in 2010, No. 4 Florida State in 2012 and No. 1 Florida State in 2014. Three of those four contests were on the road.

SERIES HIGHLIGHTS

– Every game between the two teams between 1907-74 was held in Atlanta. Clemson’s only wins in those 36 meetings came in 1907, 1936, 1945 and 1969, the last of which was Frank Howard’s final season as head coach. Howard won just twice (1945 and 1969) in his career in Atlanta, but Clemson made the trip every year to help balance the athletic department budget.
Howard was also athletic director his entire time as head coach (1940-69).
– The two teams have played on a neutral site just three times. Clemson won a 23-0 victory in 1898 in Augusta, Ga., and a 41-5 win in Greenville, S.C. in
1899. Georgia Tech won the ACC title game in Tampa in 2009, 39-34.
– The first time Georgia Tech played at Memorial Stadium in Clemson was 1974, a 21-17 Clemson victory. Clemson won that game on a three-yard
touchdown pass from Mike O’Cain (later a head coach at NC State) to All-America tight end Bennie Cunningham with 8:26 left.

TIED FOR MOST WINS SINCE 2015, SECOND-MOST SINCE 2011

Clemson has a 97-15 record since 2011. The 2018
campaign marked Clemson’s eighth consecutive season
with double-digit wins, the second-longest streak in the
country. Only Alabama (103-10) has more wins the last
eight years.

The Tigers also have the second-highest winning
percentage (86.6) in that time frame.

A CENTURY MARK FOR THE DECADE

Head Coach Dabo Swinney can vividly recall the looks he received when he said Clemson was on the cusp of the winningest decade in program history
following a 2010 campaign in which the Tigers finished 6-7. In 2017, that vision became a reality with two seasons to spare when Clemson collected its 88th win of the decade in the ACC Championship Game against Miami (Fla.) to surpass the Tigers of the 1980s (87) for most wins in any decade in school history.

With a rivalry win against South Carolina to close the 2018 regular season, Clemson reached triple digits in wins in a decade for the first time in program history.  Included below are the schools that have accomplished that feat.

TCI Predictions 

Robert – Clemson 63, Georgia Tech 17

Gavin – Clemson 52, Georgia Tech 14

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The Clemson Insider will get a portion of all sales so get ready for another championship season by ordering your Clemson gear today and help support TCI.