Head coach Tommy Bowden has the Tigers back on the road to success after an exciting 2000 campaign that saw the Tigers record nine regular season wins for the first time since 1991. The team began the season with eight consecutive victories and a #3 national ranking, Clemson's highest ranking in 16 years. Clemson finished the season ranked 15th in the final USA Today Coaches Poll, Clemson's first final top 25 ranking since 1993, it's first final top 15 finish in 11 seasons. In the two seasons Bowden has served as Clemson's head coach the Tigers have improved by three wins each season, something only one other coach in the nation (John Robinson at UNLV) can also claim. He is just the third coach in Clemson history to show a three game victory improvement in consecutive seasons. The Tigers set 41 school records in 2000, a season that produced a Heisman Trophy contender in quarterback Woodrow Dantzler, who personally set 10 of the 31 individual bests recorded by Clemson athletes. The 10 team records included total offense per game in a season (416). Clemson was one of the most balanced teams in the nation. Clemson ranked in the top 15 in the nation in scoring offense, total offense, and rushing offense. Clemson had a top 25 ranking in passing efficiency offense. For the first time ever, Clemson had a two 1000-yard rushers and a 1000-yard reciever on the same team. Defensively, Chad Carson and Keith Adams both ranked in the top 10 in the nation in tackles per game and four Tigers were named first-team All-ACC. His second Clemson team was one of the most decorated in history. Six different Clemson players were finalists or semifinalists for national position awards, including linebacker Keith Adams, who was one of the final three candidates for the Butkus Award. Center Kyle Young was one of the top three candidates for the Dave Rimington Award. Four players were named All-Americans and eight players were first or second-team all-conference selections. Young and Chad Carson were both named first-team Academic All-Americans, making Clemson the only Division I-A school in the nation to have a pair of first-team selections. For the second straight semester the football team had its highest team GPA on record. When Bowden came to Clemson he approached his first season, he had one simple goal for his first Clemson team - improvement. Bowden warmed Clemson supporters that the Tigers were unlikely to be bowl participants in 1999, but his main focus was to improve. Bowden's goal of improvement was reached and he was happy to be wrong about his preseason prediction, as the Tigers were invited to the 1999 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. In 1999, Bowden accomplished a personal milestone that no Clemson coach had attained since 1981, the year the Tigers won the National Championship. Bowden became the first Clemson coach since Danny Ford to be named ACC Coach of the Year. |