This will be the sixth Clemson appearance on ESPN's Thursday Night College Football package. The Tigers are 0-5 in their previous appearances, including 0-4 under Tommy Bowden. Clemson lost to Georgia Tech in the 1998 season under Tommy West, then lost at Virginia Tech in a Thursday in Blacksburg Tommy Bowden's first year (1999). Clemson lost a pair of Thursday night games in 2002, at Florida State and at home against NC State. Clemson lost by just two against ACC MVP Phillip Rivers and NC State in Raleigh, 17-15.

It should be pointed out that Clemson has been the underdog in all five Thursday evening games and four of the five losses have been to teams that have been ranked in the top 25 of the AP poll. The 1998 Georgia Tech team finished with a 10-2 record and was ranked ninth in the final poll. The 1999 Virginia Tech team finished 11-1 and was ranked second. Florida State was ranked 11th entering the Thursday evening game in Tallahassee in 2002 and NC State was ranked ninth that same year entering the game. That 2002 NC State team finished with a school record 11 wins. Last year's NC State team was not ranked, but finished 8-5.

Playing on Thursday is not new for Clemson historically. Clemson and South Carolina used to play on "Big Thursday" each year between 1909 and 1959. The game was played the Thursday of State Fair week in Columbia. Clemson has not won a game played on a Thursday since 1963 when Clemson defeated South Carolina on Thanksgiving Day. That game was moved from the previous Saturday due to the death of President John Kennedy.
Clemson has played 121 games on Thursday in its history and the Tigers are 52-59-10 overall on that day. Clemson is 500-321-30 on Saturdays in history, a 60.6 percent winning mark.

Tommy Bowden is 39-27 in his career at Clemson. That breaks down to 37-20 on Saturdays (65 percent) and 2-7 on the other six days of the week (22 percent). The two non-Saturday wins under Bowden were in bowl games, including last year's Peach Bowl win over Tennessee, which was played on a Friday.
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