The 1977 Clemson Tigers football team was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team that represented

Clemson University Clemson University () is a public land-grant research university in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Clemson is the second-largest university in the student population in South Carolina. For the fall 2019 semester, the university enro ...

in the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

(ACC) during the

1977 NCAA Division I football season The 1977 NCAA Division I football season was one in which the top five teams finished with 11–1 records. Notre Dame, which beat top-ranked and undefeated Texas in the Cotton Bowl, became the national champion. The 1977 season was the last ...

. In its first season under head coach

Charley Pell Charles Byron Pell (February 17, 1941 – May 29, 2001) was an American college American football, football player and coach. Pell was an Alabama native and an alumnus of the University of Alabama, where he played college football. He is most ...

, the team compiled an 8–3–1 record (4–1–1 against conference opponents), finished second in the ACC, lost to

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

in the

1977 Gator Bowl The 1977 Gator Bowl was a college football bowl game played between the Pittsburgh Panthers and Clemson Tigers on December 30, 1977. The 10th-ranked Panthers defeated the 11th-ranked Tigers, 34–3. Panthers quarterback Matt Cavanaugh Matthew ...

, was ranked No. 19 in the final

AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...

, and outscored opponents by a total of 228 to 163. The team played its home games at Memorial Stadium in

Clemson, South Carolina Clemson () is a city in Pickens and Anderson counties in the U.S. state of South Carolina. Clemson is home to Clemson University; in 2015, ''the Princeton Review'' cited the town of Clemson as ranking #1 in the United States for " town-and-gown" ...

. Steve Fuller, Steve Godfrey, and Randy Scott were the team captains. The team's statistical leaders included Steve Fuller with 1,497 passing yards, Warren Ratchford with 616 rushing yards,

Jerry Butler Jerry Butler Jr. (born December 8, 1939) is an American soul singer-songwriter, producer, musician, and retired politician. He was the original lead singer of the Rhythm and blues, R&B vocal group the Impressions, inducted into the Rock and Rol ...

with 760 receiving yards, and Lester Brown with 54 points (9 touchdowns).

Schedule

Roster

Season summary

South Carolina

"Fuller's TD Pass Rallies Clemson." Palm Beach Post. 1977 Nov 20.

References

{{Clemson Tigers football navbox Clemson Clemson Tigers football seasons

Clemson Tigers football The Clemson Tigers are the American football team at Clemson University. The Tigers compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Atlantic Division of the Atlantic C ...