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

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

SANTA CLARA, CA - JANUARY 07: Head coach Dabo Swinney of the Clemson Tigers celebrates his teams 44-16 win over the Alabama Crimson Tide with the trophy in the CFP National Championship presented by AT&T at Levi's Stadium on January 7, 2019 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /

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(Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images) /

December 2011

December 2011 was an up and down month for the Clemson Tigers. They started things off on a high note by winning the ACC Championship for the first time in 20 years in a dominant win over the Logan Thomas-led Virginia Tech Hokies. This was one hump that Clemson just couldn’t clear and finally got over despite losing to Georgia Tech and NC State in the month of November.

Virginia Tech entered the game ranked No. 5 overall and could find no weaknesses in Clemson that they could exploit to take home the title.

Unfortunately, a different team from West Virginia found many weaknesses later that month. With the ACC Championship win, Clemson was placed in the Orange Bowl opposite the West Virginia Mountaineers whose offense was led by quarterback Geno Smith and receivers Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey. The Mountaineers exposed Clemson’s defense in the worst possible way with 70 points, 589 yards of offense and Tavon Austin scored four touchdowns with 280 all-purpose yards.

Although Clemson was still a good team, nationally they proved once again that they weren’t a great team and their defense was nowhere near what it needed to be.

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