Clemson schedule thoughts: November once again features critical five-game stretch

Clemson hosts Florida State ahead of a road Friday game at Louisville in November.

David Hood - Senior Writer - Tuesday, January 28 2025

November will once again tell the tale.

Clemson’s 2025 football schedule was finally released by the Atlantic Coast Conference Monday night, and there was one huge surprise: The Tigers will once again play on Friday night this season, traveling to Louisville (where you can bet it will be raining) to take on the Cardinals on a night usually reserved for high school football.

Clemson last played at Louisville in 2021 and is 4-0 there, but the Cardinals are coming off their first win in the series last fall, 33-21.

Clemson is 32-25-5 all-time in games played on Friday. Friday games were a far more common occurrence in the early decades of Clemson football, as the Tigers played 48 of their 61 all-time Friday games to date in their first 60 years of existence. The last time the Tigers played on Friday night was against Syracuse in 2021, a 17-14 Clemson victory. Counting that game, only three of Clemson’s 14 most recent Friday games have come in regular season play.

Clemson won at Boston College in 2016 and suffered an upset loss at Syracuse in 2017. Clemson is 26-20-5 in regular season Friday games and 6-5 in postseason Friday games, including the 1982 Orange Bowl to conclude Clemson’s 1981 national championship season.

Clemson 2025 schedule

April 5 Spring game
Aug 30 LSU
Sept 6 Troy
Sept 13 @ Georgia Tech
Sept 20 Syracuse
Sept 27 BYE
Oct 4 @ UNC
Oct 11 @ Boston College
Oct 18 SMU
Oct 25 BYE
Nov 1 Duke
Nov 8 Florida State
Nov 14 @ Louisville (Friday)
Nov 22 Furman
Nov 29 @ South Carolina

That Louisville clash is a part of a five-game stretch in November. The first time Clemson played five games in a month was all the way back in 1911 – the Tigers won the first two but lost the last three. Clemson played five games in November last season and went 3-2. The losses were to Louisville and South Carolina – both in Death Valley – and the Tigers play both of those teams in November again, but this time on the road.

*Prior to last season, the last time the Tigers played five games in the month of November was back in 2008 when the Tigers won four of their final five games to help some guy named Dabo Swinney remove his interim head coach tag and win the permanent job. Clemson beat Boston College 27-21 on Nov. 1, lost to Florida State a week later (27-21), defeated Duke 31-7 on Nov. 15, defeated Virginia 13-3 on Nov. 22, and defeated South Carolina 31-14 on Nov. 29.

The Tigers open the season with LSU is interesting in that is sits as a “must win” of sorts. Why? Because the Tigers, simply for appearance's sake, don’t want to lose four in a row to the SEC.

It’s also interesting that there are two open dates – in less than a month. The Tigers open the season with four games, have an open date, play three more games, and then another open date. The two open dates occur 28 days apart. Clemson also plays just one home game in the month of October. Clemson played just one home game in October a year ago – road dates at FSU and Wake Forest prefaced a home date against Virginia.

The game at UNC is also interesting – head coach Dabo Swinney will go up against former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.

SMU comes calling in late October – a rematch of last season’s ACC Championship Game – and marks the first time the Mustangs play in Death Valley (it’s also only the second meeting ever between the two programs).

This schedule is a mirror image of last season in many ways: It starts in August against an SEC team, followed by a home game against a Sun Belt team. There is just one home game in October, two open dates, and a five-game stretch in November.

ACC team schedules