It’s finally Game Day where No. 1 Clemson battles Wake Forest as the road to Miami begins for the Tigers.

Location: Truist Field, Wake Forest

Kickoff:  7:30 p.m.

Television:  ABC

Announcers:  Sean McDonough, Todd Blackledge, Allison Williams, Todd McShay

2020 Record: Clemson  0-0,  Wake Forest 0-0

ACC Record: Clemson 0-0, Wake Forest 0-0

Series History: Clemson lead 67-17-1

Last Meeting:  Clemson won 52-3 on November 16, 2019

CLEMSON OPENS 125TH SEASON SATURDAY AT WAKE FOREST

After an offseason of unexpected twists and turns, Clemson will kick off the 125th season in program history on Saturday, Sept. 12, when the team faces the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. Kickoff at Truist Field is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.

Clemson’s prolific run in the last decade has illuminated a pathway to a number of historical feats that can be accomplished in 2020, but the road to those accomplishments begins with the team’s first stated goal: “Win the Opener.”

Clemson has won the opener in 10 of Dabo Swinney’s 11 full seasons as Clemson’s head coach, including each of the last five since 2015. This year marks Clemson’s first time opening a season on the road since 2016,
when second-ranked Clemson defeated Auburn, 19-13, at Jordan-Hare Stadium to kick off an eventual national championship campaign.

Members of Clemson’s program wore shirts in camp bearing the term “2020 Vision” on the front (with the zeroes represented by All In chips) and “Double-Double Mission” on the back, signifying Clemson’s pursuit of a
10th straight 10-win season. With 10-plus wins this year, Clemson would join Florida State and Alabama as the only programs ever to accomplish the feat.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR IN 2020

– Clemson, which is already the first team in ACC history to win five consecutive outright titles, attempting to become the first team in ACC history to win six 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 the first team in any active conference to win six consecutive outright conference titles. Clemson’s five consecutive outright titles from 2015-19 are tied with the 1971-75 Alabama Crimson Tide and 2015-19 Oklahoma Sooners for the longest streak of outright conference championships of any current conference.
– Clemson attempting to become the first program to win 20 ACC titles. Since helping form the conference in 1953, Clemson leads the ACC with 19 titles all-time, including 18 outright.

CLEMSON IN ACC OPENERS

The 2020 season marks Clemson’s 68th year of membership in the ACC, dating back to the conference’s first year of play in 1953. In its previous 67 seasons of ACC membership, Clemson has posted a 41-25-1 record in conference openers.

Clemson has won its last five ACC openers, including road victories at Louisville in 2015 and 2017, road wins at Georgia Tech in 2016 and 2018 and a season opening home win against Georgia Tech in 2019. Last season broke a streak of seven consecutive years that Clemson had to travel to open ACC play, so this year will represent the eighth time in nine years that Clemson will open ACC play on the road.

Head Coach Dabo Swinney is 7-4 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.

SEASON OPENERS

Clemson has won 28 of its last 35 season openers.  Head Coach Dabo Swinney is 10-1 in his career in season opening games with the only loss coming at Georgia to open the 2014 season. Swinney’s 10 seasonopening wins are second-most in school history, one ahead of Danny Ford (9) and 15 shy of Frank Howard’s school record (25).

Clemson has played eight openers against top 25 teams in the last 20 years after having played just five Top 25 teams in opening games between 1936 (the first year of the AP Poll) and 1999.

Clemson was no stranger to exciting season openers in the first few years after the turn of the century.  In 2004, against Wake Forest, Clemson won a 37-30 overtime thriller on ABC. Clemson won at home in 2005, a 25-24 win over No. 17 Texas A&M on a 42-yard field goal by Jad Dean with two seconds left.  Clemson also beat No. 19 Florida State in the 2007
season opener.

The Tigers are 93-23-8 (.782), regardless of site, in their first game in their previous 124 seasons.

COMIN’ TO YOUR CITY

While the ambiance will be different for the esteemed college football previous show, ESPN will broadcast College GameDay from Winston-Salem on Saturday in advance of Clemson’s prime-time contest against the
Demon Deacons.

The game will mark Clemson’s 24th appearance in ESPN College GameDay’s featured game. The Tigers enter the contest with a 15-8 record in the presence of College GameDay, including victories in 11 of their last
12 appearances. Prior to Clemson’s loss in the College Football Playoff National Championship, Clemson had won 11 straight games when featured on College GameDay, which had been the nation’s longest streak.

TCI Predictions 

Robert – Clemson 62, Wake Forest 13

Will – Clemson 52, Wake Forest 3

Gavine — Clemson 59, Wake Forest 7