CLEMSON, S.C. — After two seasons of relying on a youth movement, Clemson will open the 2025 campaign with a veteran team for the first time in the Dabo Swinney era. The Tigers will host a fellow group of Tigers from LSU in a highly anticipated Week 1 matchup.
The game is set for 7:30 p.m. EDT on Saturday at Memorial Stadium and will be broadcast on ABC’s Saturday Night Football. It marks the first time since 2019 that Clemson will open its season at home.
Clemson enters the season with a wealth of experience, returning eight primary starters on both offense and defense. This is the first time since 2000 the Tigers have brought back that many starters on both sides of the ball. According to ESPN’s returning production metric, Clemson leads the nation in that category. The Tigers have 36 players with at least one career start at Clemson, combining for 919 career game appearances and 393 career starts.
“We’ve been a young team, I feel like, every year I’ve been here,” said senior quarterback Cade Klubnik. “We’re a veteran team and very experienced. We’ve got a lot of guys that have played a lot of ball. That’s really exciting, but we’ve got to go do it. We’ve got to go do it and take advantage of every opportunity we get.”
The game features two of the winningest programs in FBS history. LSU ranks 12th all-time with 815 wins since 1893, while Clemson is 13th with 808 wins since 1896. This will be just the seventh time Memorial Stadium has hosted a matchup of two AP Top 10 teams. Clemson is 4-2 in such games at home and has won its last three. The Tigers’ last such win came in a 30-20 victory against No. 10 North Carolina State in 2022.
The season opener will also be Clemson’s third against an AP Top 10 opponent in the last five years.
