By Will Vandervort.
Clemson has beaten the defending national champions before. A Clemson coached Dabo Swinney team has beaten the defending national champions before.
In 2011, Swinney’s Tigers knocked off defending national champion Auburn in Death Valley, snapping the nation’s longest winning streak at the time, which was 17 games.
But no Clemson team has knocked off a No. 1 ranked team in the country. No Clemson team has beaten a defending national champion on the road and no Clemson team has ever ended an 18-game winning streak.
Those are some of the obstacles the 23rd-ranked Tigers face on Sept. 20 in Tallahassee, Fla., when they face top-ranked Florida State at Doak Campbell Stadium. On Monday, the ACC announced the game will be televised in primetime by ABC at 8 p.m.
“I think it is a great opportunity for us,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said. “We are going to have to play very well and we are going to have to have great preparation, but it is exciting to have the opportunity to go on the road in a great environment against the best team in the country with the longest winning streak in the country.”
Florida State has won 18 straight games dating back to November of 2012. Last season, the Seminoles won their 14 games by an average of 39.5 points per game, including a 51-14 victory at Death Valley, when the Tigers were the No. 3 ranked team in the country.
“They have earned the right to be number one and it is fun to have a chance to play in a ball game like this,” Swinney said.
This will be the second big-game atmosphere Clemson has played in this year. The Tigers opened up the season at No. 6 Georgia and were down just three points with 10 minutes to go in the game. Of course the game did not end as well as Swinney and the Tigers would have liked as the Bulldogs scored three fourth-quarter touchdowns to put the game away.
“Our first three weeks, and we’ve played Georgia and now Florida State. I think we will be a very battled-tested team,” Swinney said. “There are few teams out there that are as battled test as Clemson after these first three ballgames.”
To get ready for the Seminoles, Clemson’s coaching staff watched last year’s contest together.
“When everybody looks at it together you see some things,” Swinney said.
The coaches have also watched FSU’s first two games, wins over Oklahoma State and The Citadel. The Tigers plan to use most of this off week focusing on the Seminoles and learning as much as they can about their personnel, if anything has changed from a philosophy standpoint and those kinds of things.
“This week is a real mixture. We will definitely get started on Florida State. All of our meeting time will be one hundred percent Florida State and game planning,” Swinney said. “We will study their personnel and what they do with the people that they have.
“Practice wise it will be a mixture of honing in on our technique and fundamental stuff that after two games we have film on that we need to improve upon.”
The Tigers improved a lot in their 73-7 win over S.C. State last Saturday as the offense’s effort looked sharp as did the defense’s ability to not allow an offensive score by the Bulldogs. The Tigers allowed only 44 total yards and scored one defensive touchdown, while the offense put up 735 yards and scored eight touchdowns.
But let’s not be foolish, S.C. State isn’t even close to being a Georgia or Florida State, and Swinney understands his team has to play better in order to knock off the Seminoles at their place.
“We got better, but we have to continue to develop our depth and continue to sharpen up,” he said. “Our next goal is to try and win our division. We are getting into conference play now, and obviously it does not get any easier.
“You are playing the No. 1 team in all of the land.”