By Will Vandervort.
By Will Vandervort
ATLANTA — Clemson head coach Dao Swinney says he isn’t into all the side shows as he gets his 13th-ranked Tigers prepped for the Chick-fil-A Bowl, he is trying to get them ready to win the game and that’s all.
“It’s really about trying to play our best four quarters of football,” said Swinney following Thursday’s practice inside the Georgia Dome. “It’s an opportunity for us to do something that has not been done here in a long time.”
What hasn’t been done in a long time is winning 11 games in a season. That’s something Clemson (10-2) will have a chance to do when it takes on No. 7 LSU at 7:30 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. The last Clemson team to win at least 11 games was the 1981 squad which went onto win a 12th game with a victory over Nebraska in the 1982 Orange Bowl.
The only other years besides 1981 in which a Clemson team won 11 games in a season came in 1948 (11-0) and 1978 (11-1).
“We have not been at this door step many times in our program’s history so it is a great opportunity from that standpoint,” Swinney said. “If you win this game then it is a great accomplishment and you can finish off a really good season and you can set your eyes on taking another step and doing bigger and better things.
“The next step for us is to try and win them all. This is a team that represents the best of the best. LSU is a great team. We are not a great team, not yet. We think we are on our way from a program standpoint. LSU is a great football team. They are a great program because they have earned that from the consistency that they have played with… They represent where we want to go.”
Riding momentum. If one wants to understand why it is so important to win a bowl game, just look at Clemson. Swinney says he remembers how the entire off season was about last year’s 70-33 loss to West Virginia in the Orange Bowl.
“Whether you win the bowl game or lose the bowl game, when we start spring ball or you get into camp, people still want to talk about that last game,” he said. “It doesn’t help you win the next one, but all off-season and summer people wanted to make sure we were reminded play-by-play about the Orange Bowl.
“That’s part of it. That’s just the way it is.”
But Swinney stressed the Orange Bowl did not have anything to with Clemson winning the opener against Auburn in this same building to start the season.
“It was a different team with different personality and different chemistry. Guys were getting better and maturing in the process of becoming better players.”
However, Swinney acknowledges beating LSU (10-2) can do wonders for his returning players confidence and can allow the program to have some momentum until spring practice begins in March.
“The big thing is, it creates energy and momentum,” he said. “You just walk around campus with a little bit better swag in you, sort of speak. But at the end of the day, once mat drills are over and all that and you start spring ball in March, it is a different team.”