Dabo Swinney isn’t sugarcoating what Clemson is walking into Saturday night.
With No. 4 Miami headed to Death Valley, the Clemson coach said Tuesday that the Tigers will need to deliver their best performance of the season to have a shot. Anything less, he warned, could get ugly fast.
“We got to play our best game to this point in the season,” Swinney said. “If we show up with our B game or our C game, it’s going to be a long night.”
Swinney spent most of his press conference breaking down what makes Miami such a tough matchup. He pointed to the Hurricanes’ size and physicality up front, their run game, their wide receivers and their quarterback, while also stressing how complete Miami looks on defense. In his view, there’s little the Tigers can count on the opponent giving away.
“There’s really not any weaknesses within their team,” Swinney said. “Not often that you get a top-five team coming into the Valley.”
That reality leaves Clemson with a pretty clear checklist. Swinney said the Tigers cannot afford the kinds of mistakes that swing games against elite teams - blown assignments, pre-snap penalties and turnovers all came up as problems Clemson has to avoid.
“This is a game where you don't have a big margin for error,” Swinney said. “So we've got to do the things that winning requires.”
The ball, unsurprisingly, sits at the center of that plan.
“We've got to win the turnover margin,” Swinney said. “I mean, if you don't win that in a game like this, you ain't winning. It's all about the ball.”
Clemson will also need to hit on explosive plays while keeping Miami from stacking up its own. Swinney said the Hurricanes are going to make some plays; the issue is stopping one mistake from turning into six points and finding enough favorable matchups on the other side of the ball.
“Your dudes have to be dudes,” Swinney said. “We’ve got good players, too, and so we got to win matchups.”
Special teams is part of that equation as well. Swinney said Clemson needs to “make a difference” there somewhere during the night.
He also returned to the penalties, an area where Clemson has improved since he called the Tigers’ showing against Georgia Southern “terrible,” but one that still bothers him because of the kinds of fouls that happen before the snap or after the whistle.
“Those are penalties that get you beat,” Swinney said.
On the defensive side, Swinney had high praise for Miami’s quarterback, describing his accuracy, poise and ability to identify what the defense is trying to do. That puts a premium on Clemson’s communication, because a single breakdown could turn a routine play into a big one.
“If you bust, he's going to make you pay,” Swinney said. “You better have 11 guys all on the same page doing their job.”
The standard, though, isn’t perfection. Swinney said Clemson has to stay in the fight and give itself a chance late.
“You’ve got to hang in there, and you got to give yourself a chance to win the game in the fourth quarter,” Swinney said. “This is a four-quarter game.”
Clemson has spent the first month of the season building toward this kind of test, and now the Tigers get it at home against a top-five opponent.
“We’ve got a good football team, too,” Swinney said. “But every play is the biggest play of the game.”
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