How this season has unfolded for Clemson (4-4, 2-4 ACC) has made Dabo Swinney as frustrated as he’s been in quite some time.

The Tigers have lost four games in a season for the first time since 2011 and have four ACC losses for the first time since 2010. With consecutive losses to Miami and NC State, Clemson has lost back-to-back games for the first time since 2011, and the Tigers’ 2-4 start in the ACC is their worst since going 1-7 in conference play in 1998.

Swinney believes his team has the talent to be undefeated at this point, and that’s a big reason why he is so frustrated. In fact, he admitted during his radio show Monday night that this is the most frustrated he’s been since 2010 – his second season as Clemson’s full-time head coach, when the Tigers went 6-7 (4-4 ACC). It’s the only losing season of Swinney’s career to this point.

At the same time, though, Swinney said he’s also as “optimistic” as he’s ever been about what the future holds for his program.

“In totality, this is one of those years where, I mean, it doesn’t matter who you are – if you’re me, if you’re freakin’ Knute Rockne, if you’re Bill Belichick, if you’re Bear Bryant, if you’re Nick Saban – it doesn’t matter who you are, if you coach this game long enough, you’re going to have a year where it’s just kind of crazy, and that’s where we are,” Swinney said.

“I’ve got a lot of years left. I figure I’ve got at least about 15 left. And we’ll look back on this down the road and be like, ‘Yeah, that sucked.’ But we’ve got a lot of good days ahead, I do know that, and I know God never says ‘oops’ and I know God uses all the challenges and problems and disappointments and failures to teach us and grow us and develop us. I’m definitely the most frustrated I’ve been since 2010. But I’m also as optimistic as I’ve ever been… But that’s just the way I feel. And again, we’ve got a lot of great days ahead, and we’ve got to find a way to finish the season, develop some guys, create a little bit of momentum, and we’ll get better. We’re close. I know it may seem like we’re far, but we’re really not. So, hang in there. Let’s keep battling.”

Swinney called it “a weird and quirky” year, saying the Tigers have beaten themselves in the losses to Duke, Florida State, Miami and NC State.

“We’re 4-4 — and it’s no disrespect to any opponent that we’ve played – but we’ve lost to Clemson four times, and it’s just so frustrating,” Swinney said. “We’re averaging two turnovers, and that’s back-to-back games with multiple turnovers again. And double-overtime, overtime – you’re right there. So, the guys are competing, but it’s just really disappointing, and it’s a lot of little things. And then confidence and momentum is a huge part of it. It’s just kind of that season of what could have been, if you will. I think our defense is good enough to be a national champion defense, and I think this team was good enough to be 8-0 right now. That’s the frustrating thing about it.”

Following the 2010 season, Clemson went on a run of 12 consecutive 10-plus-win seasons from 2011-22 – joining Florida State and Alabama as the only programs ever to reach 10 wins in a dozen straight seasons – and Swinney is fully confident that the Tigers will bounce back from this season as well.

“Again, the disappointing thing is this is a team that very, very easily could be 8-0 right now, and we’re not, and that’s the most frustrating thing,” Swinney said. “But we’ve got to put that behind us and we’ve got to focus on what we can do, and that is this opportunity right here (against Notre Dame on Saturday), and then we’ve got to grow from it. That’s the biggest thing.

“These guys are learning, I think, a ton of valuable lessons that are going to lead to a bunch of wins and many more championships in the future. I’ve said it many times, I’m living 2010 all over again. We went on the second- or third-best run in the history of college football after that, and I don’t have any doubt that this team’s going to respond.”

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