By Will Vandervort.
Since becoming the head coach at Clemson in 2009, Dabo Swinney has recorded five wins against Associated Press Top 10 teams. In the previous 18 seasons before he took over, Clemson had only five victories over top 10 teams.
Of course a Swinney-led Clemson team has never faced the No. 1 team in the country, but that will change Saturday in Tallahassee, Fla., when the 22nd-ranked Tigers visit Doak Campbell Stadium for an 8 p.m. date with top-ranked Florida State.
“Obviously, it is a huge challenge for us,” Swinney said. “But it’s also a great opportunity for our guys, a great opportunity for them to compete with the best team in the country.”
Clemson is 0-4 all-time against an AP No.1 team, including a 0-3 mark against the Seminoles when they have been in that position. There are not many people around the country that think the Tigers will get that coveted first win this Saturday, either.
Despite quarterback Jameis Winston being suspended for the first half due to profanity he yelled in a public arena on Tuesday, Clemson is a three-score underdog heading into the ACC Atlantic Division Showdown.
“Good Lord, if you pay attention to that stuff, we’d all be going crazy around here,” Swinney said. “I mean, we’ve won seven top eleven games since I’ve been the head coach and I bet you we were the underdog in all of them. I don’t think we were favored in any of them.”
That’s including the Tigers’ 38-10 victory over a No. 3 Virginia Tech team in the 2011 ACC Championship game. Clemson was a touchdown underdog heading into that game despite its 23-3 victory at Virginia Tech earlier in that season.
“We were we the underdog!? We were the underdog in that game to a team we beat earlier in the season by twenty points,” Swinney said. “We got lucky, I guess. The stars aligned. Everything was perfect. We got lucky if it was all about (betting lines). If that was the case, college football wouldn’t be any fun, would it?”
Do draw on his points and the Tigers’ chances of winning at Florida State, Swinney only needed to go to last weekend to prove his point even more. Virginia Tech, a week after knocking off a top 10 Ohio State team in Columbus, Ohio, was upset at home by East Carolina. A top 20 Louisville team went on the road and was beat by Virginia and No. 9 Southern Cal was beat up by Boston College.
“Why do we watch college football? Because you see Boston College smash Southern Cal,” Swinney said. “Did any of you all think that? I mean, that’s what makes college football great.
“We won the National Championship in ’92 (at Alabama). I think we were the largest underdog ever in the National Championship Game at that time. I think we were thirteen or fourteen‑point underdogs. They had the Heisman Trophy winner, by the way – Gino Torretta. They had the fun-and-gun (offense), all that fancy stuff going on, and we beat them, 34‑13. But here’s the deal – we didn’t think of ourselves as underdogs, and this (Clemson) team doesn’t see themselves as underdogs. Now y’all see us as underdogs. Why are we the underdog?”
The Tigers are the underdog because FSU is the defending national champions, has an ACC record 18-game winning streak and it beat them by 37 points in Death Valley last year.
“That’s outside stuff,” defensive tackle Grady Jarrett said. “Every game we face, we feel like we can win. So that’s our mindset. We are just going into another game where the plan is to win the game. I’m sure no one outside of Clemson believes that we can win this game, but it is all about what we believe and what we plan to do.”
But beating the No. 1 ranked team in the country is not what Saturday’s contest is all about. The Tigers, like Florida State, know a victory will give them the upper hand in the Atlantic Division race considering the winner of this game has advanced to the ACC Championship Game every year since 2008.
“Considering what has happened in the past, the winner of this game usually goes on and wins the ACC Championship. It’s a big game and we know that,” Jarrett said. “Going down there is going to be a task for us, but we are looking forward to it.”
And believing they can win, even as a huge underdog is one hurdle the Tigers have seemed to have already cleared.
“That’s all fun stuff to talk about. But that’s what makes college football a blast. You see things all the time. Just when you think you figured it out, here comes East Carolina who beats Virginia Tech,” Swinney said. “College football is the best thing going out there. It’s a blast to be part of it.
“It’s difficult. It’s a challenge because you’re dealing with young people, and young people can be influenced by the smallest little things, and we live in a world and coach in a world now that it isn’t like it used to be where it’s the coffee shop and the barber and the grocery store. It’s a different world. So it’s a challenge when you’re dealing with young people week‑in and week‑out. But, man, it’s fun. I’m glad to have the opportunity to be in a place like Clemson and to be able to be a part of games like Clemson‑Florida State. It’s awesome.”