Clemson football’s incredible journey to becoming Alabama’s equal

Clemson football shocked the world with a 44-16 demolition of the Alabama Crimson Tide. Let’s look back at where the rise all began.

What an unexpected outcome.

Not many could’ve guessed that Clemson would’ve entered into Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California and did what they did to what was presumed to be one of the best Alabama teams ever assembled but here we are days later living this reality. It’s hard to believe that a team that used to have a verb to describe their losses has come such a long way over the past decade and became the equalizer for one of the greatest dynasties in college football.

It’s not often that we’ve seen a run of championships in college football. The Miami Hurricanes ran the NCAA from 1985 to 1992, Nebraska took over in 1991 and held power until 1997 and USC and Ohio State had plenty of success in the 2000s.

It’s even less often that we see two teams that recruit and play with this level of success in the same time period like we’ve had with Clemson and Alabama over the past four seasons. The two teams together average a seventh-ranked recruiting class since 2015 and the winner of the College Football Playoff has been one or the other since 2015.

Although Clemson fans are rejoicing in their second national championship victory in four seasons, it wasn’t long ago that they couldn’t come close to contending with a team like Alabama. In fact, ten seasons ago the two opened the season up in the Georgia Dome on August 30, 2008.

It’s here that I will begin Clemson’s story for this very game was the game that sparked the direction change for Clemson’s football program.