Perception is everything, and right now the perception of the Clemson football team is not a good one.
The Tigers are coming off a 41-point loss at LSU, the program’s worst loss on opening night in 30 years. It was also the program’s worst defeat since 2000 and the worst under head coach Dabo Swinney.
To top it off, Swinney was condescending to a local reporter when he asked Swinney if he had any regrets about his offseason roster construction.
“I’ll answer it, we played one game. One game, alight. Did you play football? They give you twelve games and at the end of the year you count them up,” the Clemson coach said. “That is when those types of questions are fair to me. Not after one game to maybe the best team in the country.
“Other people have good teams, good coaches and things like that too. So, I give them credit. We have eleven more games to go battle and then we will count them up. Then you can ask me whatever question you want.”
Those comments and video of Swinney saying them went viral. It was not a good look for Swinney or the Clemson program, as a whole. In other words, it was not a good week for the program.
What can the Tigers do to start changing perception? Simple, start winning football games. Of course, that starts Saturday against Georgia Southern.
“We have to go win games,” Swinney said. “We have to go win games. It is a long season. Narratives, come and go. It is all about what you do. We earned that, we played really poor football and I thought LSU played great football. They did a great job.”
Nothing was great about what Clemson did. The Tigers gave up 645 total yards, including 309 on the ground. It marked the sixth time in the history of LSU football that those Tigers racked up 300 yards rushing and 300 yards passing in the same game.
LSU averaged 6.9 yards per play and was 10-for-14 on third down.
Clemson was 1-for-13 on third down, while totaling just 145 yards. The Tigers ran for 40 yards (1.3 per carry) and averaged just 3.0 yards per play.
LSU also had a record 38 first downs to Clemson’s 8. It was an embarrassing performance on all levels.
“It was a little bit of a perfect storm in some areas and the next thing you know, it gets away,” Swinney said. “And that can happen. Again, it can happen. I have been in several of those games.”
Swinney mentioned one of those games was a 51-14 loss to Florida State in Death Valley back in 2013. He then reminded everyone that Clemson team went 11-2 and finished ranked No. 7 in the country, which included a win over a top 10 Ohio State team in the Orange Bowl.
He also mentioned Clemson’s 44-16 win over Alabama in the CFP National Championship game to end the 2018 season.
“You have to go play the next one, and that is really what you have to do,” Swinney said. “Again, I have been on the other side. We have beaten some good teams. We won in a big playoff (game) 31-0. We were not 31-0 better. But we were that day, circumstances in the game, things happen because the ball does not always bounce the way you want it in football.”
Clemson hopes the ball bounces its way on Saturday against Georgia Southern, because the Tigers could really use a win at the moment.
“We ran into a buzzsaw (last week) and we did not respond,” Swinney said. “You give (LSU) credit.”
–photo courtesy of Clemson Athletics