Thursday Night Games Have Not Been Kind To Tigers |
The move of the NC State game to Thursday night is not
good news for Clemson fans if you look at recent history. To win the Tigers will have to overcome three negative trends lately. To date, Clemson has played in four ESPN Thursday night package games and lost them all. 1998 Georgia Tech at Clemson 24-21 L 1999 Clemson at Virginia Tech 31-11 L 2002 Clemson at Florida State 48-31 L 2002 NC State at Clemson 38-6 L The Tigers have averaged giving up twice as many points (35) as they have scored (17) in these four contests. You have to go back to 1963 to find the last time Clemson won a game on a Thursday. Then Clemson defeated South Carolina on Thanksgiving Day, a contest that was moved to that day due to the death of President John Kennedy. Sportscenter Lowlights Just playing on ESPN lately has been unlucky for the Tigers. The Tigers were 2-6 in the 8 games on the sports cable network last season including a 55-15 rout to Texas Tech in the Tangerine Bowl. All time the Tigers are just 15-27 (35.7%) in live broadcasts on ESPN. Clemson has played 24 games on a tape delayed basis on ESPN, all between 1979 and 1984. Clemson was 15-8-1 in those games. Thus, Clemson's all-time record on ESPN is 30-35-1 lifetime. Fun in the Sun Clemson has had almost no success playing night games as opposed to day games under head coach Tommy Bowden. Since he became head coach in 1999, Clemson is 26-8 in day games and 3-12 in night games. Since 1995 Clemson has won just five night games, but three of the five wins are over rival South Carolina. Those are the 1997 (47-21 in Columbia), 1998 (28-19 in Clemson), and 2003 (27-20 in Clemson) contests. Can the Tigers overcome the triple play of bad luck - Thursday game on ESPN at night? We will leave you with one more statistic: All-time Clemson leads NC State 44-26-1 (63.5%).
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