Clemson?
I think Clemson may be the most interesting PROGRAM in the country. I capitalized that to denote it from a team which I see as a one-year thing. The program is a multi-year thing.
Clemson's pre-Dabo history isn't awful but it isn't very impressive either. They usually weren't terrible but more of a middling team that would usually do a little better than .500 and occasionally jump up a few games over that.
They won 10 games in Dabo's third full season there (2011), that was the first time they'd seen double-digit wins since 1990. In the 20 years from 1991-2010 Clemson:
- 3-8 once
- 5-6 twice
- 6-7 once
- 6-6 once
- 7-6 twice
- 6-5 once
- 7-5 thrice
- 8-5 once
- 9-5 once
- 8-4 twice
- 9-4 twice
- 9-3 twice
- 9-2-1 once
That is a whole lot of "decent", not much bad and no great. Then Dabo got rolling . . .
- They won 10 games in 2011 with an ACC title
- They went 11-2 in 2012 with a bowl win over LSU
- They went 11-2 in 2013 with a bowl win over tOSU
- They had a fourth consecutive season of double-digit wins in 2014
- They went 14-1 in 2015 with an ACC Championship, and a CFP Semi-Final win
- They went 14-1 in 2016 with ACC and National Championships
- They went 12-2 in 2017 with an ACC Championship and a CFP appearance
- They went 15-0 in 2018 with ACC and National Championships
- They went 14-1 in 2019 with an ACC Championship and a CFP Semi-Final win
- They went 10-2 in 2020 with an ACC Championship and a CFP appearance
- They went 10-3 in 2021
- They went 11-3 with an ACC Championship in 2022
- They went 9-4 in 2023
The thing that makes them interesting to me is that their 2021-2023 run isn't bad by pre-Dabo standards. Actually, outside of their phenomenal 2012-2020 run, their 2021-2023 run would be one of the best three-year runs in Clemson's entire program history.
Perspective matters. Prior to the 2012-2020 run, the current 2021-2023 run would have been celebrated. Now it feels like a let-down.
What is the new normal for the Clemson program?