CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ The Clemson coronation.
That's what the ACC football championship for the past four years has been. And that number will likely reach No. 5 Saturday night in Charlotte when Clemson and Virginia face off in Bank of America Stadium at 7:30 p.m for the conference title.
The Tigers, winners of their past 27 games and a sure thing to make the College Football Playoff with a victory, are favored by a whopping 28 points.
Virginia, in the midst of a dream year of its own, is the seventh team to win the ACC Coastal Division over the past seven seasons and boasts the ACC's total yardage leader in quarterback Bryce Perkins.
This game doesn't have the sheer drawing power of a Garth Brooks concert _ the country star sold all 74,000 tickets for his May 2020 stadium show in Charlotte just 90 minutes after tickets went on sale Friday.
But it will be a respectable crowd. An estimated 60,000 fans _ about 10,000 short of a sellout _ will crowd into the stadium Saturday night in varying shades of orange.
"I was telling our guys this morning just how much fun it is to be a part of championship football," Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said Friday in Charlotte. "I don't care if it is the 95-pound peewee league."
Bronco Mendenhall's first Virginia team went 2-10 in 2016, but since then the Cavaliers have steadily improved as they pointed toward a day like this. In December 2018, they came to Charlotte's Belk Bowl as slight underdogs but pasted the Gamecocks, 28-0.
Asked whether winning a game on the same field a year ago mattered, Mendenhall said Friday: "I think it does matter, because it is a long-term memory that's facilitated by a number of things. One of them is a significant emotional experience. I just walked out on the field and I felt good because it was associated with our win over South Carolina, and that's a positive thing."
Swinney and Clemson, of course, have a whole lot of "significant emotional experience" at the Panthers' home stadium in Charlotte. Swinney is so familiar with this routine by now that he pointed out that he always gets to Charlotte on Friday early enough for the ACC pregame press conference and, on the way in from the parking lot, likes to look to see what sorts of fancy cars the Panthers' players are driving these days.
Ever since its one-point escape against North Carolina on Sept. 28, Clemson has been unstoppable. The Tigers (12-0) have won all seven of their games since then by at least 31 points.
Virginia's only real chance Saturday night is if Perkins has a magnificent game and Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence doesn't. Lawrence, of course, led Clemson to the national championship in 2018.
"And he's so much better as a quarterback this year than he was last year," Swinney said. "It is not even really close. I think that a lot of people have missed a beautiful season from this guy."
Perkins is both Virginia's leading passer (245.8 yards per game) and rusher (57.2). When asked who Perkins reminded him of Friday, Swinney brought up former Louisville and current Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson.
"Lamar throws the ball a little bit better, but they both create," Swinney said. "And this guy can run the football. ... Lamar (is) a first-round draft pick thrower _ there is a little difference there. But how inspirational (Perkins) is to the team, his toughness when he runs _ he's a handful."
Said Mendenhall: "We're not here without Bryce Perkins in this time frame. ... We knew we had to have a quarterback that was dynamic, that could run and throw to make up for a talent deficit elsewhere."
Mendenhall isn't kidding about the talent disparity. Virginia has been struggling to get out of a football rut for a long time, but has finally succeeded over the past two seasons. Swinney pointed out that the Cavaliers administration was patient to stick with Mendenhall, whose Virginia teams only won a total of eight games in their first two years.
"Now they'll fire you after two years," Swinney said, speaking of college coaches in general, "and some people don't even get a year and a half. You can take over a dumpster fire and you're supposed to wave the (magic wand)."
Virginia would need a serious dose of magic to stick with Clemson on Saturday night. But either way, it should be fun.
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