Why Does Clemson Dance? Because Alabama Almost Lost Two Games

If anyone is looking for the reason for the Tigers' post game celebrations that have become viral on social media, they can look no further than the two games in the fall of 1992

CLEMSON — Over the last 30 games, there has been a lot of wins—29 to be exact—for the Clemson Tigers. 

While many on the outside looking in at the Clemson program may or may not be thrilled with the way the Tigers "looked" in all of their wins, at least one person is not going to apologize for any victory no matter how ugly it is — head coach Dabo Swinney.

The reason the Tigers dance after each victory is because Swinney understands how precious each one is.

“You've got to tough games like that to have a special season," Swinney said. 

The head coach understands what it takes to win a national championship because he has been a part of winning one as a player for Alabama in 1992. But there is one thing that he remembers more than the 34-13 Sugar Bowl victory over Miami in the national championship game: It wasn’t always pretty.

“I told them (the team) when we won the national championship my senior year at Alabama -- everybody knows we went 13-0 and we killed Miami in the national championship game, but what people don’t talk about is we’re down,” Swinney said. “I think it was 7-6 late in the game against (Louisiana) Tech. I’m on punt return team and the next thing I know, here comes David Palmer who takes a punt to the house and that’s how we won the game 13-7 against La. Tech.”

That is right, the mighty Alabama Crimson Tide were down to Louisiana Tech and mustered a meager 167 total yards of offense against the Bulldogs.

If that were the only time during that magical season that the Crimson Tide struggled against a clearly inferior opponent, one might dismiss it as coincidence, but six weeks later the Tide needed another miracle. This time at Mississippi State.

“I also remember later on in the year,” Swinney said. “We had never been behind in the fourth quarter all year and we’re at Mississippi State and we’re down and it ain’t looking good and we’re backed up and have to punt the ball and just hope that we can use our timeouts and get the ball back. We punt the ball away and ol’ Steve Busky, a tight end, goes down there and knocks the ball loose and Willis Bevelle comes up with the ball, and that’s how we won the game … You’ve gotta win games like that to have a special season.”

If anyone is looking for the reason for the Tigers' post game celebrations that have become viral on social media, they can look no further than the two games in the fall of 1992.