Clemson is staring at a fresh round of questions after last Saturday’s 51-10 loss to LSU, but Dabo Swinney isn’t interested in treating one ugly night like a season-long verdict.
Speaking Tuesday, Swinney made it clear he understands the noise around his program after the Tigers stumbled badly in a primetime opener. He also pointed to a familiar example: Clemson took a 38-3 beating from Georgia in Week 1 of 2024, then turned around and won six straight before claiming an ACC Championship. In his view, this group has the same opportunity to flip the story.
“Just got to go win games, man. Just got to go win games; it’s a long season,” Swinney said. “Narratives come and go, and it’s all about what you do.”
He also pushed back on the idea that the reaction would look the same if Clemson had opened against a lesser opponent. Swinney said LSU deserves plenty of credit and suggested that the Tigers may have run into a team that could wind up as “the best team in the country” anyway.
“If we’d have gone and played somebody else, and maybe just had a little warm-up game, y’all giving me different questions right now,” he said, “and they’re probably not true either.”
That loss has clearly fueled frustration outside the program, including from some former Clemson players who took to social media to vent about what they saw. Swinney said he hasn’t looked at those posts, but he knows the response inside the building has to come through Saturday’s game against Georgia Southern.
“I’m just focused on winning this week,” he said. “You play like that, you ought to be criticized. That was a poor performance by us.”
Swinney also stressed that he doesn’t want one result to define a team that hasn’t even begun ACC play yet. Clemson still has a long path ahead if it wants to get back to the College Football Playoff under his watch, and he said the proper response is to keep working rather than let one loss flatten the entire season.
“These guys work all year, and I think it’s just the mindset of you lose a ball game and your whole year is over,” he said. “That’s not how these guys think, and it’s opening day every week, and the same enthusiasm that we had for last week.”
For now, Clemson has played just a sliver of its schedule, and Swinney believes there’s still plenty of time to prove itself. Home games against top-ranked Miami, Virginia Tech and South Carolina could all shape how the season is viewed down the line.
Until then, Swinney wants the focus where he says it belongs: the next game.
“Other people have good teams and coaches and things like that, too. So, I give them credit,” he said. “We got 11 more games to go battle, then we’ll count them up, then you can ask me whatever question you want.”
In Other News...
Clemson Gets A Needed D-Line Boost Before Its First ACC Test
Clemsons defensive front got a much-needed lift this week with the reinstatement of tackle Vic Burley after a suspension tied to a public disorderly conduct arrest. Burley still will miss the upcoming game against Georgia Southern, but his return is lined up for a far more important moment, with the Tigers expecting to have him back for their ACC opener against North Carolina.
That matters because Clemson is also bracing for the likely loss of defensive tackle Markus Strong, who is expected to be out for the season after suffering a lower-leg injury in a recent game. Between Burleys return and Strongs injury, the Tigers interior line picture has shifted quickly, and the next few weeks will tell just how much depth they can piece together before conference play starts to sharpen the stakes. [Read more 🡒]
Clemsons Ugly Opener Put Dabo Swinney Under An Unwanted Spotlight
Clemsons season-opening loss to LSU did more than drop the Tigers into an early hole. It also put a sharp light on the parts of the roster that did hold up, especially in the secondary, where cornerback Ashton Hampton and safety Corey Myrick drew the kind of attention that can matter as the schedule tightens. For a team that came in expecting a cleaner start, there was at least some proof that a few individual pieces can still compete at a high level even when the overall performance falls short.
The bigger issue, though, is what the opener said about where Clemson stands around its head coach. Dabo Swinney is used to having the benefit of the doubt, but this one invited more questions than answers, from the way the game was handled to how much work remains before the Tigers look like a finished product. The next few weeks will say plenty about whether the loss was just a bad night or the first sign that Clemson has more fixing to do than anyone wanted to admit. [Read more 🡒]
Clemsons Home Opener Comes With A Price Fans Will Notice
Clemsons home opener comes with a familiar kind of college-football cost, and this one is a hefty one. According to a contract obtained through public records, the Tigers will pay Georgia Southern for Saturday nights game at Memorial Stadium, a matchup set for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff on the ACC Network.
The deal also spells out the usual logistics that come with bringing a road team to town, including ticket allotments and access for Georgia Southerns team and staff. It is the sort of behind-the-scenes bookkeeping that rarely gets much attention on game day, even though it helps shape the business side of a September Saturday in Death Valley. [Read more 🡒]