10 Reasons to Hate Clemson

10. The Graveyard

Any win over a ranked team on the road or in a bowl game is commemorated by a gravestone in Clemson's graveyard.

The gravestones are engraved with the name of the opponent, its ranking, the score and the bowl game, if applicable. Coming into the 2020 season, the Tigers' graveyard featured 90 gravestones, with victories dating back to 1948.

There are three gravestones in this haunted and terrible place featuring Ohio State's name. There's Clemson's Orange Bowl win over in January 2014, then there's the pair of playoff Fiesta Bowl victories from 2016 and 2019.

LOOK: #Clemson adds Ohio State and Virginia tombstones to graveyard: https://t.co/ve9HDHaKig pic.twitter.com/5jtmgSY9Rw

— TigerNet.com (@ClemsonTigerNet) April 5, 2020

It's not necessarily the Ohio State gravestones I'm calling out here (we'll get to that later). It's rather how petty the whole thing is. It's fine for fans to act that way, and in a smaller way, there's some leeway for players and coaches as well. But to have a level of pettiness that university administrators allow this? Ugh.

9. A Former Clemson Graduate Student Killed Apollo Creed

Just about every institution of higher learning has former students they're not entirely proud of, but for a time, Clemson was home to one of the greatest villains America has ever seen — Dolph Lundgren.

In Rocky IV, American favorite Apollo Creed was intrigued by an upcoming Russian boxer named Ivan Drago (played by Lundgren). Creed orchestrated everything needed to set up an exhibition match with Drago despite the concerns raised by his wife and best friend, Rocky Balboa.

Those concerns proved to be valid. The match went devastatingly wrong for Creed, who didn't survive the fight.

No. 8: The Postseason Losses

We have to get this out of the way in order to address certain instances within these games.

Clemson hadn't been thought of well in Buckeye circles at the turn of the century based solely on the one time they met the Tigers on the field. The 1978 Gator Bowl ultimately ended Woody Hayes' legendary career after he punched a Clemson player at the end of the Tigers' 17-15 victory.

Of course, none of that was Clemson's fault. However, the three postseason losses the Tigers have handed the Buckeyes since 2014 have been some of the post painful in recent memory.

The first came in the Orange Bowl at the end of the 2013 season, which served as the second consecutive loss for Urban Meyer after a record 24-consecutive victories to start his Buckeye tenure.

But the ensuing two Fiesta Bowl losses that ended Ohio State's chance at a national title were brutal in different ways. The 31-0 demolition in 2016 set the program back a few years when it came to national perception, then the 2019 game ended with the best Buckeye team my eyes have ever seen losing due to a botched call and a route mishap.

7. Clemson's Bizarre Ball-Grabbing Habit

The 2016 Fiesta Bowl is something my brain has largely blocked out as a healing form of dissociation, but there are flashes I vividly remember. And one of the strongest memories is Clemson's Christian Wilkins' very strange ball-hunting antics.

I know football is a violent sport, but this is unacceptable.

6. The 31-0 Band Stunt

The Buckeyes were haunted by that Fiesta Bowl shutout for a long time, but the Tigers did their part to turn the screws. In the season opener of the following season, Clemson's school band orchestrated this travesty.

Not only was the insult painful, but considering the pride Ohio State puts into its marching band, the pedestrian effort here was additionally jarring.

5. Sign Stealing

There are likely rumors of varying levels of sign stealing at every level in college football, but one school seems to stand above the rest on a year-to-year basis, and of course, that school is Clemson. 

Earlier this week when speaking to the media, Ryan Day strongly suggested playing Clemson was so difficult because they seem to "always know exactly what the other team is doing in terms of the plays that they're running, each play.

Here's to betting Day is really good at charades because he's good at describing something without actually saying the exact words.

4. The No-Respect Schtick 

From a personal/devastation standpoint, the loss to Clemson in last year's Fiesta Bowl rivals only the demolition Florida inflicted on Ohio State in the 2007 BCS National Championship Game.

I remember turning off my television and immediately trying to enable the numbness I needed to get through the night. I tried to avoid Twitter, but couldn't due to editorial duties for this wonderful website you're visiting right now.

That's how I saw this nonsense.

The song Respect by Aretha Franklin blared through the Clemson locker room.

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) December 29, 2019

Dabo routinely plays the, "little ole' Clemson," card, but that sentiment ended the moment the Tigers won a national championship. Clemson and Alabama have taken turns dominating college football in the playoff era, with only Ohio State and LSU disrupting that.

Also, Clemson was favored to win last year's football game. You were getting all the respect in the world.

3. That No One Was Charged With a Felony for This Crime against Humanity

This play. This. Friggin'. Play. 

I still have no words — only hate that has turned my heart into a black lump of coal

2. The Half-Assed Attitude Toward COVID-19 

2020 has been a terrible year for many reasons, but the COVID-19 pandemic is right at the top of the list. A virus that has infected over 20 million Americans and killed nearly 350,000 has to be treated seriously.

That hasn't been the case for Dabo Swinney. The Clemson head coach made no secret of his intentions to continue vacationing while much of the country mandated stay-at-home orders.

His carelessness had repercussions. His team was ravaged by Covid during the offseason as nearly 40 players tested positive for the virus. It took nearly five months for star defensive end Xavier Thomas to feel like himself after testing positive in late March.

His negligence extended to the season when he put a symptomatic player on the plane for Clemson's matchup with Florida State. To compound his ignorance, he later complained when Florida State decided to show the appropriate amount of concern needed to keep its student athletes safe and cancel the game.

And that brings us to No. 1.

1. Dabo

This man suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks.

Here's a list of reasons why:

• Despite holding a contract that will pay him nearly 100 million dollars over a 10-year span, he complained about the notion of compensating college football players, and threatened to quit coaching if it happened.
• His views on concussions in football prove he doesn't care about the welfare of his players.
• Wearing a shirt that read, "Football Matters," diminishing the message of the Black Lives Matter movement.
• That time he said, "It's so easy to say we have a race problem, but we got a sin problem."
• Him believing any of his religious views somehow benefit his football program.
• He ranked Ohio State 11th in his coaches poll simply because Ohio State hadn't played enough games to rank inside the top 10.
• Him doubling down on said thought and saying the Buckeyes shouldn't qualify for this year's College Football Playoff.

Here's to hoping Ohio State hands a big ole' L tonight.