Clemson fans are getting another late one this weekend, but they won’t be setting a program record for bedtime.
The Tigers’ ACC matchup with California is set for a 10:30 p.m. ET kickoff in Berkeley, a start time that will test the patience of anyone watching from the East Coast.
Clemson enters at 2-1 overall and 1-0 in the ACC, while the Golden Bears are also 2-1 and 1-0. ESPN will carry the game.
It’s a late window, no doubt. But Clemson has been here before - and later.
The latest kickoff in Tigers history came back in 1982, when Clemson played Wake Forest in Tokyo at 11 p.m. ET on Nov.
- That game was part of the Mirage Bowl, though it counted as a regular-season matchup against the Demon Deacons.
Clemson had won the national title in 1981 and was navigating an NCAA investigation into recruiting violations, which led to a self-imposed bowl ban that season. The Tigers eventually accepted the Tokyo trip after initially turning down the invitation.
Clemson made the most of the long flight and the strange setting, beating Wake Forest 21-17. Kevin Mack scored on a 1-yard run, Homer Jordan hit K.D. Dunn for a 22-yard touchdown, and Clemson also added two field goals and a safety with less than two minutes to play.
There have been other late nights in Clemson football history, including another trip to Japan nine years later. In 1991, the Tigers faced Duke in the Coca-Cola Classic and won 33-21 in a game that started at 9:30 p.m.
ET. Clemson had already clinched the ACC title by then.
That season also included Clemson’s only other game against Cal, a 37-13 loss in the 1992 Citrus Bowl.
And while the upcoming trip to the West Coast is unusual, Clemson fans have already had to adjust their sleep schedules twice this season because of weather delays. The opener against LSU, originally scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 5, didn’t begin until 9:40 p.m. The home opener against Georgia Southern on Sept. 12 was pushed back from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
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