Clemson Highlights From the Probation Years (1982 & 1983)

[Drewbul1]

@tdj6464 look at South Carolina now. we are clean, and Spurrier has got us to our first ever trip to Atlanta

[KingOfAllToons]

Why were they on Probation?

[BrotherJR76]

True True, but I think that prior to the NC State loss in 1987, the tigers were ranked ahead of Syracuse. It would have been interested to see if Clemson would have finished undefeated then, who would been ranked high, the Syracuse or Clemson, but hindsight is 20/20.

[FlyingTiger64]

The NC State loss in '87 was a real heartbreaker. I was there, in my freshman year at school. What a great comeback in the 2nd half! It all came down to 4th and five, and Rodney couldn't get the first down. If he had, we would have won the game and would have been looking invincible. Hard to believe we lost to Smokin' Joe's coots that year.

[tigerray]

Clemson was so much more superior at almost every position than most teams they played back then.

[BrotherJR76]

Even though Clemson was arguably a national power then, I must confess that the ACC was not an elite conference then. The only real competition during those years (81-83) were UNC and Maryland.

[tigerray]

True. If we hadn't played Georgia in 1981 we'd have both gone undefeated, but we might have been left out of the national championship race ala Syracuse 1987. We had zero respect prior to the 1981 Georgia game.