When Dabo Swinney was a football student-athlete at Alabama between 1989-92, the Crimson Tide arrived on Bryant Drive at Bryant-Denny Stadium, and thousands of Alabama fans were there to greet the team. It was an emotional moment for Swinney and his teammates every time they arrived on gameday.
In 45 years of covering Clemson football, the 2003 victory over Florida State in Memorial Stadium is the most unlikely of results. The week prior to the game, Florida State defeated Notre Dame in South Bend by a score of 37-0, the second-worst margin of defeat at home in Fighting Irish history. The victory elevated the Seminoles to No. 3 in the AP poll.
Note: The following appears in the Miami football gameday program.I don’t often write a story about Clemson’s opponent in “The Last Word” article in the gameday program, but this weekend, I am making an exception.Dan Radakovich came to Tigertown during the 2012-13 academic year and is a key reason Clemson has had its unprecedented success on the gridiron for over a decade. Today, he is a resident in the visiting athletic director’s booth on the south side of the stadium as the Miami (Fla.) director of athletics, a position he began this past summer.I have written a few “The Last Word” articles about the importance of infrastructure during successful eras of Clemson athletics in all sports.That history dates to the 1930s, when IPTAY was founded (1934). Five years later, Clemson had a 9-1 record on the gridiron, its first top-15 finish in the AP poll and its first bowl victory over Boston College in the Cotton Bowl.Clemson opened Memorial Stadium in 1942, and six years late