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CLEMSON -– Dan Radakovich’s first football season at Clemson ended in a familiar city, and against a familiar team.

The Tigers played in the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta, where he spent six years as Georgia Tech’s athletics director. They played against LSU, where he served as senior associate athletics director from 2001 to 2006.

Back then, a frantic drive to beat an SEC powerhouse in the postseason seemed totally new and unexpected. Four years later, Clemson would do the same thing against Alabama to bring home the school’s first national title in 35 years.

As giddy as fans were at the time of that 25-24 victory over LSU on New Year’s Eve, no one would have predicted that Clemson’s forthcoming postseason victims over the next four years would be Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma, Ohio State and then Alabama.

The Tigers have reached new heights as a football program during Radakovich’s tenure, and the same could be said of an athletics department that he was charged with transforming and modernizing after he took over for Terry Don Phillips.

Clemson’s athletics facilities now sparkle almost across the board, starting with the brand new football operations facility but certainly not limited to it. Radakovich has been a key player in this rejuvenation of the infrastructure, including the rebuilt Littlejohn Coliseum and a new facility at the baseball stadium – not to mention a much-needed revitalization of the suites and club seats at Memorial Stadium.