The Dabo Era vs. Georgia Tech

[CuseJacket]

Inspired by the news that we are 34 point underdogs as well as the "who do you most want to beat" thread, I wanted to gauge our record vs. Dabo's Clemson teams in the context of their performance against all other P5 teams.

I'm defining the Dabo Era as 2009 and forward i.e., starting from his first full season, given that he was a mid-year hire in 2008.

As a disclaimer, I didn't find a database that aggregated his record vs. opponents, so I hand keyed the W's and L's by game back to 2009. In other words, I may have fat fingered a game or two, but my initial eyeball validation seems to hold.

Conference Opponents, sorted by Dabo's win %

Non-conference Opponents, sorted by Dabo's win %

A note
Timing matters. Clemson has been a different animal in recent years.

How does impact our place in the pecking? Probably easiest to simply point out all of their losses in those 4 years:

1. 2015 - Alabama
2. 2016 - Pittsburgh
3. 2017 - Syracuse, Alabama
4. 2018 - No one

In other words, a lot of really good teams lost and some were destroyed by Clemson.

My 2 cents
Compared to Clemson's other annual opponents, I'd say we've done pretty well for ourselves.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

With the money Clemson has spent on facilities and recruiting, they're basically an NFL team. So I no longer worry about what happens in that game, similar to Georgia, with regards to if it will make or break our season. We need to focus on regularly beating Virginia, Virginia Tech, Duke, North Carolina, Miami, and Pittsburgh. Typically only 1 or 2 of those teams maximum are pretty good. We can win 10 games every year while still losing to Clemson and Georgia. (Yogi Berra may have said that if he were alive today.)

2 of the last 4 years against Clemson have also been in pouring rain monsoons, which didn't help our cause.

If we can generally be competitive with Clemson, we'll likely know that we can win a bunch of games this year. If we're not, it may still not tell us anything, as the last couple years we could barely eek out 100 yards of offense with a highly tenured head coach and system.

 

[TheSilasSonRising]

With the money Clemson has spent on facilities and recruiting, they're basically an NFL team. So I no longer worry about what happens in that game, similar to Georgia, with regards to if it will make or break our season. We need to focus on regularly beating Virginia, Virginia Tech, Duke, North Carolina, Miami, and Pittsburgh. Typically only 1 or 2 of those teams maximum are pretty good. We can win 10 games every year while still losing to Clemson and Georgia. (Yogi Berra may have said that if he were alive today.)

2 of the last 4 years against Clemson have also been in pouring rain monsoons, which didn't help our cause.

If we can generally be competitive with Clemson, we'll likely know that we can win a bunch of games this year. If we're not, it may still not tell us anything, as the last couple years we could barely eek out 100 yards of offense with a highly tenured head coach and system.

Won't sell any more tickets regularly beating va. schools or n.c. schools in football.

We can win 10 - 11 per year if we add army, navy, Tulane, ksu, mercer, uab and others like them.

Winning those ACC games and other nobodies would be a huge yawn to people we need to add to the ticket base. A joke.

This is the old Homer Rice philosophy of dumbing down the schedule and thinking you are fooling people.

Beating ugag & cu will build the program and sell tickets.

 

[stech81]

Using an intelligent passing game and running game will help us more in the Clemson game and the uga game. Both knew the last few year they only had to stop the QB, B back and A back. We may not get the blowouts against weaker opponents but still should win them. IMO

 

[ncjacket79]

Won't sell any more tickets regularly beating va. schools or n.c. schools in football.

We can win 10 - 11 per year if we add army, navy, Tulane, ksu, mercer, uab and others like them.

Winning those ACC games and other nobodies would be a huge yawn to people we need to add to the ticket base. A joke.

This is the old Homer Rice philosophy of dumbing down the schedule and thinking you are fooling people.

Beating ugag & cu will build the program and sell tickets.

Captain obvious? Sure beating CU and Ugag would be a big deal but right now they are 2 of the top 3 programs in the country so not a likely scenario in the short term. But winning 10 will create more energy help recruiting and sell tickets. That’s what can eventually lead to beating CU and Ugag.

 

[BurdellJacket]

NM

 

[Deleted member 2897]

Won't sell any more tickets regularly beating va. schools or n.c. schools in football.

We can win 10 - 11 per year if we add army, navy, Tulane, ksu, mercer, uab and others like them.

Winning those ACC games and other nobodies would be a huge yawn to people we need to add to the ticket base. A joke.

This is the old Homer Rice philosophy of dumbing down the schedule and thinking you are fooling people.

Beating ugag & cu will build the program and sell tickets.

Tell that to every other team in the country!

If you have $50 million then we might be able to get there in the next few years.

 

[jacketup]

Won't sell any more tickets regularly beating va. schools or n.c. schools in football.

This is the old Homer Rice philosophy of dumbing down the schedule and thinking you are fooling people.

Beating ugag & cu will build the program and sell tickets.

This is the old Vince Dooley philosophy of dumbing down the schedule and thinking you are fooling people. They played Vandy, UK, MSU and Ole Miss every year and never played Alabama or LSU and rarely Tennessee. It worked pretty well for them in advancing fan interest.

We need to consistently be 6-2 or 7-1 in conference before we start adding tougher OOC teams--who will want home and home. I agree that home and home games with the Temples and USFs is not the way to go. Losing to a USF is far worse than losing to a Tennessee even when they are down.

The TO probably didn't help scheduling.

Beating ga and cu? That ship may have sailed for awhile. We had our chance 10 years or so ago, but poor GTAA leadership lost that opportunity. Our best hope is a serious probation for one or both. It's hard to believe cu isn't there already, but it's the ncaa after all.

 

[YJMD]

South Carolina is in the ACC?

I think point differential vs. average point differential for the season might be a more accurate comparitor.

 

[takethepoints]

With the money Clemson has spent on facilities and recruiting, they're basically an NFL team. So I no longer worry about what happens in that game, similar to Georgia, with regards to if it will make or break our season. We need to focus on regularly beating Virginia, Virginia Tech, Duke, North Carolina, Miami, and Pittsburgh. Typically only 1 or 2 of those teams maximum are pretty good. We can win 10 games every year while still losing to Clemson and Georgia. (Yogi Berra may have said that if he were alive today.)

2 of the last 4 years against Clemson have also been in pouring rain monsoons, which didn't help our cause.

If we can generally be competitive with Clemson, we'll likely know that we can win a bunch of games this year. If we're not, it may still not tell us anything, as the last couple years we could barely eek out 100 yards of offense with a highly tenured head coach and system.

In general, I agree. The games that should count for us are the Coastal Division games. If we win the division, we go to the ACC championship game and usually with the wind at our backs. I really like to whip Clemson and Ugag, but when you get right down to it, they don't count. If we win the Coastal, we have a good record and a chance to win the conference. We win the conference and we go to a major bowl. We don't and we still do pretty well. (Who knows? We might even go to the Belk!)

Of course, if we did beat either of the two pro programs, I'd be real happy, but we need to keep our eyes on the prize here.

 

[ncjacket79]

In general, I agree. The games that should count for us are the Coastal Division games. If we win the division, we go to the ACC championship game and usually with the wind at our backs. I really like to whip Clemson and Ugag, but when you get right down to it, they don't count. If we win the Coastal, we have a good record and a chance to win the conference. We win the conference and we go to a major bowl. We don't and we still do pretty well. (Who knows? We might even go to the Belk!)

Of course, if we did beat either of the two pro programs, I'd be real happy, but we need to keep our eyes on the prize here.

Of course the Clemson game has a bearing on winning the Coastal.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

Of course the Clemson game has a bearing on winning the Coastal.

Correct, but if you sweep your Coastal opponents, its all but impossible to not win the Coastal. The worst you could possibly do in the ACC is 6-2, and the best anybody else could possibly do is 7-1 and we would own the tiebreaker.

 

[CuseJacket]

South Carolina is in the ACC?

I think point differential vs. average point differential for the season might be a more accurate comparitor.

Whoops, good catch. I originally lumped all P5 together before manually splitting it out. Missed that one.

The point differential would be interesting and certainly has some advantages. At the end of the day it's about W and L, and that was tedious enough for me.

 

[TheSilasSonRising]

Captain obvious? Sure beating CU and Ugag would be a big deal but right now they are 2 of the top 3 programs in the country so not a likely scenario in the short term. But winning 10 will create more energy help recruiting and sell tickets. That’s what can eventually lead to beating CU and Ugag.

No sir.

Since joining the ACC in 1980 (?), the idea and actually winning 10 games in a season without beating ugag has not excited the locals.

Beating va, puke, wake, cuse and the rest
without beating ugag has not done a thing to enhance our brand, rep, ticket sales.

Unless we approach winning at cu levels the ACC won't mean crap in Ga.

Of course it won't happen over night. And contrary to the few and far years between such, it does not mean we have arrived when it happens one year.

Too many good fans won't accept the reality or the challenge.

Thank God CGC does.

 

[TheSilasSonRising]

Tell that to every other team in the country!

If you have $50 million then we might be able to get there in the next few years.

Tell what to every other team in the country?

That besting their rival is not the most important thing?

That playing a candy schedule will sell more Tix?

 

[TheSilasSonRising]

This is the old Vince Dooley philosophy of dumbing down the schedule and thinking you are fooling people. They played Vandy, UK, MSU and Ole Miss every year and never played Alabama or LSU and rarely Tennessee. It worked pretty well for them in advancing fan interest.

We need to consistently be 6-2 or 7-1 in conference before we start adding tougher OOC teams--who will want home and home. I agree that home and home games with the Temples and USFs is not the way to go. Losing to a USF is far worse than losing to a Tennessee even when they are down.

The TO probably didn't help scheduling.

Beating ga and cu? That ship may have sailed for awhile. We had our chance 10 years or so ago, but poor GTAA leadership lost that opportunity. Our best hope is a serious probation for one or both. It's hard to believe cu isn't there already, but it's the ncaa after all.

Thank you, but you didn't mention that he had beating GT as the number 1 goal for his program.

And then he went out and beat Dodd in every which way possible (with a lot of that due to Dodd / Harrison ignorance )

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Inspired by the news that we are 34 point underdogs as well as the "who do you most want to beat" thread, I wanted to gauge our record vs. Dabo's Clemson teams in the context of their performance against all other P5 teams.

I'm defining the Dabo Era as 2009 and forward i.e., starting from his first full season, given that he was a mid-year hire in 2008.

As a disclaimer, I didn't find a database that aggregated his record vs. opponents, so I hand keyed the W's and L's by game back to 2009. In other words, I may have fat fingered a game or two, but my initial eyeball validation seems to hold.

Conference Opponents, sorted by Dabo's win %
View attachment 5888


Non-conference Opponents, sorted by Dabo's win %
View attachment 5890


A note
Timing matters. Clemson has been a different animal in recent years.

How does impact our place in the pecking? Probably easiest to simply point out all of their losses in those 4 years:

1. 2015 - Alabama
2. 2016 - Pittsburgh
3. 2017 - Syracuse, Alabama
4. 2018 - No one

In other words, a lot of really good teams lost and some were destroyed by Clemson.

My 2 cents
Compared to Clemson's other annual opponents, I'd say we've done pretty well for ourselves.

Nobody plays Clemson more than we do in the Dabo era. Another reason why our record isn't that bad compared to most teams.

Unfortunately they have passed into the stratosphere now in terms of building a dynasty. I doubt they lose more than two games over the next three years and we are probably not going to be the team that beats them.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Thank you, but you didn't mention that he had beating GT as the number 1 goal for his program.

And then he went out and beat Dodd in every which way possible (with a lot of that due to Dodd / Harrison ignorance )

Dooley only played Dodd once I thought.

 

[ATL1]

One step at a time. Aim for Jawja & Clemson but beat the Pitts, UVA’s, & got damn Dukes of the world first consistently.

 

[coldbeer]

In general, I agree. The games that should count for us are the Coastal Division games. If we win the division, we go to the ACC championship game and usually with the wind at our backs. I really like to whip Clemson and Ugag, but when you get right down to it, they don't count. If we win the Coastal, we have a good record and a chance to win the conference. We win the conference and we go to a major bowl. We don't and we still do pretty well. (Who knows? We might even go to the Belk!)

Of course, if we did beat either of the two pro programs, I'd be real happy, but we need to keep our eyes on the prize here.

We aren't going to the Belk unless we beat the Pups.

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