Clemson is headed to Baton Rouge on Sept. 5, but Dabo Swinney won’t be walking into Tiger Stadium blind.
For most coaches, a first trip to LSU would come with a little mystery. Not for Swinney. He has spent years carrying memories from that building, and one of them still feels like a movie scene that never quite left his head.
That’s the one from 1998, when Alabama looked finished, LSU led 16-7 late, and the Crimson Tide somehow flipped the whole night in the final 2:24. Andrew Zow hit Shaun Alexander for a 21-yard touchdown.
Jason McAddley recovered the onside kick at the LSU 40. Then Zow rolled and let go of a pass on third-and-9 that Quincy Jackson hauled in for the go-ahead score with 38 seconds left.
Alabama added the 2-point conversion and escaped 22-16.
“That was one of the craziest games I’ve ever been a part of in my life,” Swinney said. “You just don’t win games like that.”
He said it again in a different way later, still sounding stunned by the whole thing: “And we win the game,” Swinney said, still sounding a little astonished. “It was crazy. It was crazy.”
That game sat at the end of a remarkable stretch for Alabama in Baton Rouge. Swinney was part of seven trips there as a player or coach, and the Tide went 6-1 in those visits, winning in 1989, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996 and 1998 before losing in 2000.
The run had a life of its own inside the program. Swinney heard the shorthand version constantly.
“The Tide don’t lose in Baton Rouge.”
He was a freshman when Alabama beat LSU 32-16 in 1989, then watched the Tide win 20-17 in 1991 and 31-11 in 1992, the year Alabama won the national championship. After he moved into coaching, he was part of victories of 35-17 in 1994 and 26-0 in 1996.
What made it feel bigger than a streak, Swinney said, was the way the place seemed to travel with Alabama.
“We had some tough games, but we just kept finding a way to win down there,” Swinney said. “It was this longstanding thing. It just went forever.”
By 1998, it looked like LSU might finally snap it. Swinney remembered Alabama fans heading out while the Tigers were ahead late.
“I think all the Bama fans had left,” he said. “It was bad.
Bama people, they’re ticked. They’re gone.”
The ones who stayed got the comeback.
Two years later, LSU finally ended Alabama’s hold on the place with a 30-28 win in 2000, giving Swinney his only loss in seven appearances there as an Alabama player or coach.
Now he returns wearing Clemson colors, and the setting is loaded: a Sept. 5 night game at 7:30 p.m. EDT on ABC, Clemson’s first visit to Tiger Stadium, ESPN’s “College GameDay” and the LSU debut of head coach Lane Kiffin.
Swinney knows what kind of night it can be.
“They’re on you from the time you land at the airport,” he said. “And then a night game on top of it.
There’s a little juice in that lemonade. They’re waiting on you.”
He also knows that the venue itself is part of the challenge, and part of the appeal.
“Man, I’ve got so much respect for that place,” Swinney said. “It’s one of the great places in college football to play a football game.”
And he’s not expecting nostalgia to help Clemson once the ball is kicked off. Swinney said Kiffin has done a strong job reshaping LSU’s roster, and he sees talent all over the field.
“Lane’s done an unbelievable job,” Swinney said. “They’ve got dudes for dudes for dudes. They’re all over the place.”
So Clemson will walk into a stadium that has already lived a few of Swinney’s most vivid college football memories. He has seen the crowd, the noise and the chaos. He has watched the improbable happen there.
Now he gets to bring Clemson into it for the first time.
“It’ll be a fun way to kick it off,” Swinney said.
In Other News...
Dabo Swinneys First Clemson Scrimmage Brought One Early Concern
Clemsons first fall camp scrimmage was supposed to offer the usual August read on where the Tigers stand, and in some ways it did, with Dabo Swinney coming away able to point to both encouraging moments and places that still need work. He also gave updates on a few injured players, keeping the early part of camp in the usual mix of optimism and caution as the staff starts sorting out depth and emerging roles.
The bigger concern, though, arrived with the news that true freshman defensive back Polo Anderson was lost to a knee injury in Fridays practice, a setback that changes the outlook for a young player trying to carve out a place in the secondary. For a team still trying to settle in after its first scrimmage, the injury adds another layer to a camp that is already about finding answers, and it leaves Clemson with one less option as the competition tightens over the next few weeks. [Read more 🡒]
Dabo Thinks Clemson Is Ready For Its Toughest Early Test
Clemsons trip to LSU is shaping up as the kind of early-season measuring stick that can tell a lot about a team before conference play even settles in. Dabo Swinney said the Tigers have spent the offseason with this sort of challenge in mind, pointing to summer workouts and fall camp as part of the preparation for a game that figures to be played in a hot, loud and demanding environment.
Swinneys confidence is rooted less in the matchup itself than in what Clemson has already put itself through to get ready for it. The setting will be difficult and the atmosphere should be intense, but he believes the Tigers are built to handle it and compete, which is exactly the kind of conviction a team wants going into one of its toughest early tests. [Read more 🡒]