List of Clemson Tigers head football coaches

The Clemson Tigers football program is a college football team that represents Clemson University in the Atlantic Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The Tigers compete as part of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. The team has had 25 head coaches since it began play in the 1896 season.^[1] Since October 2008, Dabo Swinney has served as Clemson's head coach.^[2]

The team has played in over 1,300 games over 129 seasons.^[3]^[4] In that time, eight coaches have led Clemson to postseason bowl games: Jess Neely, Frank Howard, Charley Pell, Danny Ford, Ken Hatfield, Tommy West, Tommy Bowden, and Swinney.^[1] Five coaches have won conference championships with the Tigers: John Heisman won two as a member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association; Howard won two as a member of the Southern Conference; and Howard, Pell, Ford, Hatfield, and Swinney won a combined 14 as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference.^[4] In 1981, Ford led the Tigers to the national championship.^[5] Swinney has guided the Tigers to six ACC championships and four national title appearances, winning the 2016 and 2018 championships, while losing the 2015 and 2019 championships.

Howard is the all-time leader in games coached (295), seasons coached (30), and second in total wins (165).^[1] Heisman has the highest winning percentage, with .833 in his four years at Clemson.^[1] Of coaches with more than one season, Hootie Ingram has the lowest winning percentage (.364 in 3 seasons).^[1] Of the 25 head coaches who have led the Tigers, Heisman,^[6] Jess Neely,^[7] Ford, and Howard^[8] have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as coaches; Josh Cody was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a player.^[9]

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General		Overall		Conference		Postseason^{[A 1]}
No.	Order of coaches^{[A 2]}	GC	Games coached	CW	Conference wins	PW	Postseason wins
DC	Division championships	OW	Overall wins	CL	Conference losses	PL	Postseason losses
CC	Conference championships	OL	Overall losses	CT	Conference ties	PT	Postseason ties
NC	National championships	OT	Overall ties^{[A 3]}	C%	Conference winning percentage
†	Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame	O%	Overall winning percentage^{[A 4]}

No.	Name	Term(s)	GC	OW	OL	OT	O%	CW	CL	CT	C%	PW	PL	DCs	CCs	NCs	Awards
1	Walter Riggs	1896 1899	9	6	3	0	0.667	3	2	0	0.600	—	—	—	0	0	—
2	William M. Williams	1897	4	2	2	0	0.500	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	—
3	John Penton	1898	4	3	1	0	0.750	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	—
4	John Heisman^†	1900–1903	24	19	3	2	0.833	16	0	2	0.944	—	—	—	3	0	—
5	Shack Shealy	1904	7	3	3	1	0.500	3	3	1	0.500	—	—	—	0	0	—
6	Eddie Cochems	1905	6	3	2	1	0.583	3	2	1	0.583	—	—	—	0	0	—
7	Bob Williams	1906 1909 1913–1915 1926^{[A 6]}	46	21	19	6	0.522	10	10	5	0.500	0	0	—	0	0	—
8	Frank Shaughnessy	1907	8	4	4	0	0.500	1	3	0	0.250	—	—	—	0	0	—
9	John N. Stone	1908	7	1	6	0	0.143	0	4	0	.000	—	—	—	0	0	—
10	Frank Dobson	1910–1912	24	11	12	1	0.479	7	12	1	0.375	—	—	—	0	0	—
11	Wayne Hart	1916	9	3	6	0	0.333	2	4	0	0.333	0	0	—	0	0	—
12	Edward Donahue	1917–1920	36	21	12	3	0.625	13	10	2	0.560	0	0	—	0	0	—
13	E. J. Stewart	1921–1922	18	6	10	2	0.389	2	9	2	0.231	0	0	—	0	0	—
14	Bud Saunders	1923–1926	28	10	17	1	0.375	2	9	1	0.208	0	0	—	0	0	—
15	Josh Cody^†^{[A 7]}	1927–1930	41	29	11	1	0.720	12	9	0	0.571	0	0	—	0	0	—
16	Jess Neely^†	1931–1939	85	43	35	7	0.547	18	13	2	0.576	1	0	—	0	0	—
17	Frank Howard^†	1940–1969	295	165	118	12	0.580	100	48	5	0.670^{[A 8]}	3	3	—	8	0	ACC Coach of the Year (1958)^[13] ACC Coach of the Year (1966)^[13]
18	Hootie Ingram	1970–1972	33	12	21	0	0.364	8	10	0	0.444	0	0	—	0	0	—
19	Red Parker	1973–1976	44	17	25	2	0.409	10	11	1	0.477	0	0	—	0	0	ACC Coach of the Year (1974)^[13]
20	Charley Pell	1977–1978	23	18	4	1	0.804	10	1	1	0.875	0	1	—	1	0	ACC Coach of the Year (1977)^[13] ACC Coach of the Year (1978)^[13]
21	Danny Ford^†	1978–1989^{[A 9]}	129	96	29	4	0.760	56	16	1	0.774	6	2	—	5	1 – 1981	ACC Coach of the Year (1981)^[13] FWAA Coach of the Year (1981)^[14] Woody Hayes Trophy (1981)^[15] AFCA Coach of the Year (1981)^[16]
22	Ken Hatfield	1990–1993	46	32	13	1	0.707	19	10	1	0.650	1	1	—	1	0	—
23	Tommy West	1993–1998^{[A 10]}	59	31	28	0	0.525	21	19	0	0.525	1	3	—	0	0	—
24	Tommy Bowden	1999–2008	117	72	45	—	0.615	43	32	—	0.573	3	5	0	0	0	ACC Coach of the Year (1999)^[13] ACC Coach of the Year (2003)^[13]
25	Dabo Swinney	2008–present^{[A 11]}	240	187	53	—	0.779	113	29	—	0.796	12	10	10	9	2 — (2016) (2018)	Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year (2011)^[17] AP Coach of the Year (2015)^[18] Walter Camp Coach of the Year (2015) ACC Coach of the Year (2015)

v t e Clemson Tigers football
Venues	Bowman Field (1900–1913) Riggs Field (1915–1941) Memorial Stadium (1942–present)
Bowls & rivalries	Bowl games Alabama Auburn Boston College: O'Rourke–McFadden Trophy Florida State Georgia Georgia Tech NC State: Textile Bowl South Carolina
Culture & lore	History The Tiger "Tiger Rag" Marching band Clemson–South Carolina football brawl Safety The Fridge
People	Head coaches NFL draftees Statistical leaders
Seasons	1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026
National championship seasons in bold

List of Clemson Tigers head football coaches

Coaches

Notes

References

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