During his weekly radio show Monday night, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said last Saturday’s game at Syracuse was “a perfect storm for a disaster.”

Swinney’s team was coming off a heartbreaking 31-24 overtime loss at home against Florida State, which had a significant impact on the Tigers’ season, and they had to get ready to face a 4-0 Syracuse team at its place.

But instead of experiencing a disaster in the JMA Wireless Dome against the Orange, the Tigers bounced back with a dominant 31-14 victory for their first ACC win of the 2023 campaign.

“You saw who we are. You saw the heart, the character, the resiliency of Clemson. Our staff and our players, again, kind of everything against you if you will,” Swinney said. “What I mean in perfect storm, you are coming off as gut-wrenching a loss as you can have, especially with the way we lost, the implications of the season, all of those things, the negativity. All of those things, you have to pick yourself back up and then on top of that, oh by the way, you have to go play a team at their place that is undefeated.

“They have a top 10 defense, a top 10 offense, scoring offense and defense in the country. They have another great quarterback. It is a very tough place to play, and we go in there and we played a heck of a ballgame. We played physical. We set the tone early. Again, you saw the character, heart and culture of Clemson football.”

Up next for Clemson (3-2, 1-2 ACC) is Saturday’s game against Wake Forest (3-1, 0-1) at Death Valley. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. on ACC Network.