Hill Watch...29 days!!!

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29 years ago, 1993: The Pentium microprocessor is introduced

Aug 7, 2022, 8:18 AM

by Intel. Islamic Fundamentalists bomb the World Trade Center, but cause no catastrophic damage. Federal Agents raid the Branch Davidian religious cult compound in Waco Texas, with disastrous results. Brush Fires destroy world's second largest national park, Royal National Park in Australia. A devastating tsunami, caused by an earthquake off Hokkaido, Japan kills 202 on the small island of Okushiri. The ever popular Beanie Babies are launched .

The ACC Champion for 1993 is again Florida State. This time, they are also National Champions, with a 8-0-0, 12-1-0 record, having defeated No. 2 Nebraska 18-16 in the Orange Bowl. The Noles during this time had a prolific, fast paced offense, and obliterated most of their opponents. Their sole defeat was a 31-24 road loss to then No. 2 Notre Dame. But, they later took out No. 7 Florida in their last regular season game, while Notre Dame was upset 41-39 by Boston College, and FSU regained the top spot in the rankings going into bowl season.

Clemson would finish 3rd in the ACC, with a 5-3-0, 9-3-0 record, and a season ending No. 23 ranking. Second in the ACC were the No. 19 North Carolina Tar Heels of Coach Mack Brown, with a fine 10-3 record, although they were beaten 24-10 by No. 18 Alabama in the Gator Bowl to end the season.

No. 22 Clemson opened the season at home with a 24-14 win over UNLV. But, remember what I said about FSU having a prolific offense? They prolificed all over us the next week, smoking us 57-0 in Doak Campbell. That 1989 easy Clemson win in Tallahassee seemed an eternity ago to any Clemson fan making the sad return trip from Florida in 1993.

Our next four games would all be decided by a touchdown or less. We beat GT 16-13 in the Valley, and followed suit with another close home win, 20-14 over No. 24 NC State. On the road at Duke, we won another tight one, 13-10. But, the following week in the Valley, the lack of offense finally caught up to us, as Wake Forest prevailed in yet another close game, 20-16.

Two more home wins followed, 27-0 over East Tennessee State, and 29-0 over Maryland. But then, facing some quality competition in Chapel Hill, the Tar Heels shut us out, 24-0. But then, we followed that with a home 23-14 victory over a 16th ranked Virginia squad. If you are getting the feeling that Clemson was like Forest Gump's box of chocolates in 1993, you would be right. It seemed, you didn't know what you would get from week to week.

The Tigers crept back into the rankings at No. 24 for the trip to Williams-Brice to face the Capons, and continued the trend of close games, winning a squeaker, 16-13. Clemson now leads the series 54-33-4.

This garnered us an invite to the Peach Bowl. We had an ex-linebacker named Patrick Sapp playing QB, and the Peach Bowl was no different than all the other close games we had in 1993. Kentucky was clinging to a 13-7 lead late, when, with less than one minute on the clock, Sapp threw an interception to Kentucky linebacker Marty Moore to ice the game for Kentucky. IF only Moore had just taken a knee. But Moore, instead of downing the ball so that the Wildcats could run out the clock, attempted a return, and fumbled the ball away, with Clemson recovering! Given the ultimate Do-Over, Patrick Sapp then threw a 21-yard touchdown pass to Terry Smith and the PAT gave Clemson a 14–13 lead, and eventually, the win.

Now, I purposely did not mention the coaching drama that played out before this game, until now. After this good bounce back regular season, Ken Hatfield went into a meeting after the regular season ended, thinking he was going to get a contract extension. When it suddenly became clear this was NOT going to happen, he became angered at what he perceived to be a lack of support, and resigned prior to the bowl game.

There WAS a complete lack of support for Hatfield among Clemson Nation. A popular saying of the time was “Howard built it, Ford filled it, and Hatfield killed it.” Hatfield's sudden resignation resulted in Assistant Coach Tommy West being elevated to Interim Head Coach for the bowl game. How ironic, that after running Danny Ford off because the Administration thought the program needed “cleaning up”, they tried to catch lightning in a bottle a second time by repeating the exact process that made him Head Coach to begin with, and replaced Hatfield with a Ford “disciple”. After the Peach Bowl win, Tommy West would be named Clemson Head Coach starting in 1994. All 1993 results below:

UNLV No. 22 W 24–14
At No. 1 Florida State No. 22 L 0–57
Georgia Tech W 16–13
No. 24 NC State W 20–14
At Duke W 13–10
Wake Forest L 16–20
East Tennessee State W 27–0
Maryland W 29–0
At No. 16 North Carolina L 0–24
No. 18 Virginia W 23–14
At South Carolina No. 24 W 16–13 (Clemson leads series 54-33-4.)

December 31
No. 23 Clemson vs. Kentucky
(Peach Bowl)
W 14–13