Dabo Swinney's Clemson Teams vs SEC

 

There is talk that an ACC team, either North Carolina, FSU, or Clemson, may join the SEC at sometime in the near future which makes the opening LSU vs Clemson game, "The battle for the real Death Valley", even slightly more interesting. If there is any college football fan at this point not totally focused on this game.

ESPN's Chris Low posted an article this morning titled “College football schedule superlatives for 2025 season” . In this article Chris Low rated Clemson as having the “toughest Power 4 nonconference schedule” because of LSU, South Carolina and having to play Troy the week after the Clemson-LSU game. Troy went 4-8 last season. Is it noteworthy that LSU faces Louisiana Tech immediately after the Clemson game? La Tech went 5-7 last season. That's better than 4-8, right?

I had to take a shot at Low's inflation of Clemson's schedule. Low slights neither Clemson nor a slight at the SEC or LSU. That was the minor point of interest to LSU vs Clemson fans. The more interesting paragraph in Low's article was this:

Dabo and the SEC

“Clemson's Dabo Swinney gets another shot at the SEC to open the season in the Battle of Death Valleys on Aug. 30 against LSU. Clemson is 18-12 vs. the SEC since the start of the 2012 season, but the Tigers have lost seven of their past 10 games to SEC opponents, beginning with a 42-25 loss to LSU in the 2019 national championship game.”

 

I am not sure why Low chose game since the start of the 2012 season or Clemson's past 10 games versus the SEC. This uncertainty prompted me to do a little research on Dabo Swinney's Clemson record versus the SEC.

For those that do not follow Clemson Football or who just do not know the history:

Dabo Swinney took over as Interim Head coach of Clemson October 13, 2008 after the sixth game of the season. Previous head coach Tommy Bowden was fired after the 6th game of the season with a record of 3-3 for the season.  Swinney’s first full season as head coach of Clemson was 2009.  This is the record  versus the SEC each year:

2009 1-1
@South Carolina 34-17 L 
Post Season Music City Bowl vs Kentucky 21-13 W

2010 0-2
@Auburn 27-24OT L
vs South Carolina 29-7 L

2011 1-1
vs Auburn 38-24 W
@South Carolina 34-13 L

2012 2-1
vs Auburn 26-19 W
vs South Carolina 27-17 L
Post Season Chick-Fil-A Bowl vs #8LSU 25-24 W

2013 1-1
vs #5Georgia 38-35 W
@#10South Carolina 31-17 L

2014 1-1
@#12Georgia 45-21 L
vs South Carolina 35-17 W
 
2015 1-1
@SouthCarolina 37-32 W
Post Season National Championship vs #2Alabama 45-40 L

2016 3-0
@Auburn 19-13 W
vs South Carolina 56-7 W
Post Season National Championship vs #1Alabama 35-31 W

2017 2-1
vs Auburn 14-6 W
@South Carolina 34-10 W
Post Season Semifinal vs #4 Alabama 24-6 L

2018 3-0
@Texas A&M 28-26 W
vs South Carolina 56-35 W
Post Season National Championship vs #1 Alabama 44-16 W

2019 2-1
vs Texas A&M 24-10 W
@South Carolina 38-3 W
Post Season National Championship vs #1 LSU 42-25 L

2020 0-0
Did Not Play an SEC team

2021 1-1
vs Georgia 10-3 L
@ South Carolina 30-0 W

2022  0-2
vs South Carolina 31-30 L
Post Season Orange Bowl vs #6 Tennessee 31-14 L

2023 2-0
@ South Carolina 16-7 W
Post Season Gator Bowl vs Kentucky 38-35 W

2024 0-3
vs Georgia 34-3 L
vs South Carolina 17-14 L
Post Season CFB Playoffs Round 1 vs #5 Texas 38-24

All statistics were gathered by looking at the ESPN Clemson schedules for each year. Teams, like Oklahoma, were only include as an SEC team if they were a part of the SEC when they played Clemson.