Danny Ford Danny Lee Ford ( born December 19 , 1947 ) is a former American football player and coach . He played college football at the University of Alabama from 1967 to 1969 . He served as the head football coach at Clemson University in South Carolina from 1978 to 1989 and at the University of Arkansas from 1993 to 1997 , compiling a career record of 122 – 59 – 5 . During his 12 seasons as head coach of the Clemson Tigers , he captured five Atlantic Coast Conference titles and won six bowl game s . Ford ' s 1981 Clemson team completed a 12 – 0 season with a win in the Orange Bowl and was named the consensus national champion . Early career . After graduating from Gadsden High School in Gadsden , Alabama in 1966 , Ford was an All - SEC selection under Paul " Bear " Bryant at the University of Alabama , where he played in three bowl games . He received a bachelor ' s degree in industrial arts in 1970 and a master ' s degree in special education in 1971 from Alabama . Ford coached as an assistant at Alabama and Virginia Tech before joining Charley Pell ' s staff at Clemson . Clemson . Pell left for the University of Florida after the end of the 1978 season , and Ford was named his successor . He led the Tigers in the 1978 Gator Bowl , defeating Ohio State , 17 – 15 . That game is more remembered , however , for an incident in which Buckeye coach Woody Hayes punched Clemson nose guard Charlie Bauman . Hayes was fired the next day . In 1981 , Ford led Clemson to a 12 – 0 record and the national championship — the first national title in the school ' s 98 - year history . They won the title by defeating Nebraska in the 1982 Orange Bowl . Nebraska was the third top - 10 team upended by the Tigers that year , the others being defending national champion Georgia and North Carolina . As of the 2010 season , Ford is still the youngest coach to win a national championship . He had turned 34 two months before the Orange Bowl . Just days after the 1982 season ended , however , the Tigers were found guilty of massive recruiting violations . While most of them occurred under Pell , the NCAA found they had continued under Ford . The Tigers were barred from bowl games in 1982 and 1983 , and kicked off live television in 1983 and 1984 . Ford didn ' t take long to recover from the probation , and won three straight ACC titles from 1986 and 1988 . In 1989 , Clemson registered a 10 – 2 season and top - 12 national ranking for the fourth straight season . Ford closed his career with a 27 – 7 win over West Virginia ( and their All - America quarterback Major Harris ) in the Gator Bowl . In the decade of the 1980s , Clemson had the nation ' s fifth - highest winning percentage . While at Clemson , Ford defeated a number of coaches later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame , including Joe Paterno , Tom Osborne , Barry Switzer , Bobby Bowden , Vince Dooley , and Woody Hayes . Ford resigned on January 18 , 1990 , after a falling out with Clemson administration . He was subsequently cleared in an NCAA investigation that also was announced around that time . Ford compiled a 96 – 29 – 4 ( . 760 ) record at Clemson , including a 6 – 2 bowl record . He is second on the school ' s wins list , behind only Frank Howard . He was the third winningest coach in the country on a percentage basis after the 1989 season . Ford also coached 21 All - Americans and 41 players who went on to play in the NFL , during his 11 seasons at Clemson . Arkansas . Joe Kines brought Ford to the University of Arkansas in 1992 to help with the clean - up following Frank Broyles ' firing of Jack Crowe ( Ford ' s former offensive coordinator at Clemson ) after a loss to the Citadel . This immediately led to speculation that Ford would be named head coach on a permanent basis . The speculation bore fruit after the season , when Ford was named head coach . He led Arkansas to an SEC West championship in 1995 on the legs of Madre Hill and the defensive genius of Joe Lee Dunn , after emerging from two years under Crowe . However , this was one of only two winning seasons the Razorbacks notched in Ford ' s tenure . Broyles fired Ford following back - to - back 4 – 7 campaigns . Ford finished 26 – 30 – 1 in five seasons with the Razorbacks . Family . Ford and his wife , Deborah , have four children , Jennifer , Ashleigh , Elizabeth , and Lee . They currently reside in the Clemson , South Carolina area .