By Will Vandervort.

By Will Vandervort

CLEMSON — Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said the Chick-fil-A Bowl matchup with No.7 LSU is a one-game season.

During the press conference Friday in which Chick-fil-A Bowl officials formerly invited Clemson to represent the Atlantic Coast Conference in the New Year’s Eve game, Swinney said playing a team the caliber of LSU gives his program the opportunity to beat a national championship program with the whole country watching.

“Our next goal is to win the bowl game,” he said. “If you step back from the regular season and get away from the emotions of it and the grind of what you have just been through and evaluate what you have gotten done, this team has nothing to hang its head about.

“This is a 10-2 football team. It lost two games to two top 12 opponents. I wish we were 12-0, but I look back at what our objectives were coming into the season and things we need to do as a program. We certainly excelled in a lot of those areas.”

Swinney broke down the fact that Clemson improved most importantly in the red zone on both offense and defense. The Tigers led the nation in red zone offense and on defense it was one of the best in the ACC.

Though Swinney looks at the matchup with LSU as an opportunity for Clemson to grow and continue to get better, the players see it a little differently. Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd said he smiled when he learned LSU was going to be their opponent.

“This is a big-time program that Coach Les Miles has consistently been able to coach up to be a top five program,” the All-American said. “This is a great opportunity for us.”

Like his teammates were saying earlier this week, the Chick-fil-A Bowl is a chance for redemption against a top 10 Southeastern Conference team that has one of the best defenses in the country. The last time out against such a talented defense, Boyd and the Clemson offense was humbled.

South Carolina limited the ACC Player of the Year to 183 passing yards on 11 of 26 passing and two interceptions. The Clemson offense as a whole had 328 yards and the 17 points were a season-low.

“This is a chance for us as a program to redeem ourselves,” Boyd said. “This is a chance for us to go out there and prove that we can compete and that we belong. This is a chance to go out there and play one of our best games.

“We didn’t win the game (against South Carolina). They were a good team and they were better than us that day, but we did not come out with our best foot forward either. We didn’t help ourselves out. I think this is another opportunity and another stage for us to go out there and compete and show everyone how good of a team we are.”

And like Swinney said, it’s a way to show the nation that the program is still improving and moving in the right direction.

“We are certainly not where we need to be or where we are going to be, but we definitely improved,” Swinney said. “We not only improved from last year, we improved throughout the season. We played a lot of freshmen and sophomores in key areas because of injuries and things like that.

“I’m proud of this bunch. I’m proud of the season we had. I don’t look at it as redemption, but instead as an opportunity to go win a bowl game and create some positive momentum.”