On Saturday night, Clemson beat then No. 6 Notre Dame. On Sunday it became the No. 6 team in the country as the Tigers moved up five spots in the Amway Coaches Poll and six in the Associated Press Top 25.

But as Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney likes to say, so what. The Tigers improved to 4-0 with its 24-22 victory over the Irish, but that is all they did. Right now, says Swinney, none of that other stuff matters because there are still eight games left in the regular season, and the biggest game is the next game. Of course that game happens to be Georgia Tech, which kicks off in Death Valley next Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

“That’s the thing about this stuff, especially with some of the media, the TV people … everybody sort of just wants to end the season after three game or four games,” Swinney said during his Sunday teleconference. “It is so funny for me to see some of this rhetoric like, ‘Okay, these teams are in.’ You just forget that you have to go play the games.

“Every weekend is a season of its own. It really is. Just look around college football. I don’t know who was sixth last week, but where are they now. I don’t know who was (No.) two last week or five, but where are they now. You just have to go play the games and that stuff is just irrelevant.”

Swinney admits that it is great to know his team is in the mix when people talk about the College Football Playoffs, and this is where they wanted to be in October.

Clemson has been here before under Swinney, and in each instance ultimately dropped out of the conversation. In 2011, the Tigers opened the season with eight straight wins and peaked at No. 6 in the nation before being humbled by Georgia Tech in late October.

In 2013, the Tigers started 6-0 and were ranked No. 3 nationally when Jameis Winston and fifth-ranked Florida State showed up for a top 10 showdown, but again, they were embarrassed on national television and fell out of the national championship discussion.

“We’ve played four games. We have not played even a half of our season yet so we have to keep our head down, keep chopping, grinding away and keep finding ways to win the game,” Swinney said. “If we can do that … because the goal for us is to win our division, try to get to the championship game and have the best season we can possibly have.

“That really has to be our focus, and I will be very surprised if it wasn’t.”

Disappointing fourth quarter. Swinney said the biggest disappointment from Saturday’s win over Notre Dame was the fourth quarter.

“We were up 21-3 and gave up over 200 yards. We let them back in the game,” he said. “We played three great quarters and made some critical errors in the fourth, but they are all correctable. The biggest thing is we made the last play. That was all we needed to win the game.”

Swinney was asked if the defensive play in the fourth quarter was caused by the guys being worn out.

“No, they were simple mistakes. Brent (Venables) is not a happy camper today and he will get it corrected. Nothing shocked us or is a difficult fix,” he said.

Injury updates. Swinney said the team came out in good shape. The only guy banged up was defensive end Austin Bryant, but he thinks he will be okay. They will know more on Monday.

Clemson should get defensive ends Chris Register and Dane Rogers back in practice this week.

Swinney reported last Wednesday that starting center Ryan Norton will not play against Georgia Tech as he still recovers from a knee injury.