When he was an inspiring coach at Virginia Tech in the early to mid-1970s, Terry Don Phillips made his first trip to Clemson as a graduate assistant coach. He was assigned to come to Clemson to scout both the Tigers and Virginia, two opponents on the Hokies’ schedule.
At the time Clemson was not what we know Clemson to be today. The Tigers had not been relevant nationally on the football field in quite some time. The program had not been to a bowl game since 1959 and after winning its last ACC Championship in 1967, it struggled to compete as Clemson recorded eight losing seasons in nine years.