Danny Ford's sixth Tiger team ventured up to Raleigh to do battle against Tom Reed's penultimate Wolfpack squad and nearly gave up the ghost in a 35-34 Halloween thriller, the highest scoring one-point game in Clemson football history until 2016.
The Tigers entered the near-death match unranked at 4-2, while State also came in unranked at 3-4. Led on offense by QB Mike Eppley, RBs Stacy Driver and Kenny Flowers, and WR Terrance Roulhac, and on defense by the Perry Brothers, William "The Refrigerator" and Michael Dean at DT, LB Henry Walls, Bandit End Terrance Mack, and DB Reggie Pleasant, the Tigers found a way to prevail in a frighteningly close contest. Clemson would finish the season unranked at just 7-5 (5-2 ACC) and home for the holidays for one of only four times in Danny Ford's eleven year stint at the Tigers' helm.
NC State would limp to a second consecutive 3-8 finish to end the year unranked, a feat they would repeat yet again the following year to bury Tom Reed's brief career as the head man in Raleigh and usher in the #### Sheridan era in 1986.