Clemson set to make history with Gator Bowl appearance
Clemson is set to make history when the No. 22 Tigers meet Kentucky in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl in Jacksonville on Friday at 12 p.m. EST on ESPN.
While the Gator Bowl isn’t exactly what most Clemson fans had hoped for entering the 2023 season, especially coming off an Orange Bowl appearance following a 10-2 regular season and an ACC championship in 2022, the Tigers are no strangers to Jacksonville or the bowl the city is famous for.
In fact, Clemson will set a new record once play begins Friday. The Tigers entered the season tied with the Florida Gators of the SEC for the most appearances by a school in Gator Bowl history, with nine apiece. With its game against Kentucky, Clemson will become the school with the most official appearances in the history of the Gator Bowl, which has been played continuously since 1946.
Clemson enters play 4-5 all-time in the Gator Bowl, with the Tigers’ most recent trip to Jacksonville ending in a closely contested 26-21 loss to Nebraska on New Year’s Day 2009. Friday’s game will also have another touch of history in that it will be Clemson’s 50th bowl game in school history. The school is 26-23 all-time in bowl games.
Clemson first appeared in the Gator Bowl on January 1, 1949, when the school defeated Missouri, 24-23. Through the years, the Tigers have also defeated Stanford (27-21 in 1986) and, most memorably, Ohio State (17-15 in 1978) in the bowl.
The game against Ohio State is famous for Buckeyes coach Woody Hayes’ punch of Clemson player Charlie Bauman, which sparked a benches-clearing brawl between the teams and led to Hayes’ firing the following morning.
To find Clemson’s last victory in the Gator Bowl, you’d have to go back to December 30, 1989, when coach Danny Ford’s team defeated West Virginia, 27-7.
Friday’s game will be the first meeting between the Tigers and Wildcats since December 2009, when Clemson defeated Kentucky, 21-13, in the Music City Bowl in Nashville.
