By Will Vandervort.

When Dabo Swinney was a football player, he loved to go on the road. The former Alabama wide receiver, now head coach at Clemson, has joked before about some of his experiences when playing road games at LSU, at Tennessee or at Auburn.

“I loved it. I was one of them that always loved to go on the road,” Swinney said smiling. “I have always loved that.”

Even when he played high school basketball, Swinney loved road games and the way the home crowds would treat him and his teammates.

“It adds a little more intensity when they are not so nice to you,” he said.

There will be plenty of intensity for Swinney and his Tigers when they open up the college football season in a few weeks. Two of Clemson’s first three games are on the road and they are not just at any road venue.

The Tigers kickoff the season “Between the Hedges” in Athens on Aug. 30 against No. 12 Georgia and then face No. 1 Florida State on Sept. 20 in Tallahassee, Fla. Clemson has won just twice in Athens since 1914 and is 3-11 all-time in Tallahassee.

“I just think that is a mentality,” Swinney said about not letting the crowd or the atmosphere play against his team. “Fortunately, for us, we have a bunch of guys that have been there and have been in those environments and understand.”

But how have the Tigers done in those hostile environments the last couple of years? Clemson had a fourth-quarter meltdown in Columbia last November and turned the football over four times in the fourth quarter, which led to a 31-17 loss to South Carolina.

Two years ago, a special teams breakdown in the third quarter cost them a possible victory at Florida State. In tough environments, like the ones the Tigers will see at Georgia and at Florida State, they have not fared as well as one might think, especially considering Clemson’s 32-8 record over the last three seasons.

The Tigers are just 2-6 in the Swinney era against nationally ranked teams in true road games and 1-3 the last three seasons. The Georgia and Florida State games appear to be even a harder task this year considering Clemson will start a new quarterback and will have to replace six other starters on offense.

“It will be exciting. That will be a new experience for some guys, but again we have a lot of veterans, too,” Swinney said. “If we were like we were in 2011 and had 42 freshmen and were opening up in Athens, then it might be a little bit more of a question because you have so many new guys.

“But we will not be relying on a bunch of freshmen. We will have a few that will be filling some spots, but we are a veteran-led team and they have been there before.”

Swinney says it does matter where a team plays whether it is at home, on the road or at a neutral site. In the end, when it matters most, the game is decided between the lines and the team that executes and plays the best will usually win.

“We will have a few guys – those few freshmen that will be in the mix – it will be a little different for them, but that is where the experience of your team should come in,” he said. “At the end of the day, you play a little bit and the next thing – it is football. It is just football. You have to create the right type of mentality and the right type of focus.”

Overall, Clemson’s focus has been good on the road, especially lately. The Tigers are 14-13 in true road games under Swinney and have won seven of their last eight.

“If you are sitting there worried about what is going on in the stands than you are not obviously dialed in and focused on what you need to be doing and you are not playing with the type of intensity that you need to have,” the Clemson head coach said. “I have been in games where I don’t have a clue – I can’t remember things because I’m so dialed in on what is going on with the game.”