Dabo Swinney says he’s “incredibly disappointed” following No. 12 Clemson’s second loss in three games to start the 2025 season.

Clemson’s longtime head coach took responsibility for the Tigers not making the plays they’ve needed to make – in both the season-opening loss to LSU, and then Saturday’s 24-21 defeat against Georgia Tech at the Yellow Jackets’ Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta.

“Just incredibly disappointed, obviously,” Swinney said during his postgame press conference. “This is Clemson, and we’ve got two tough losses to two good teams. Two games that have come down to the last play, and just hasn’t gone our way. It’s my job to find a way to make those couple of plays. That’s my job, and so I take responsibility for that. So, that’s where we are. That’s our reality.”

Swinney had a message for Clemson fans after another gut-wrenching loss Saturday afternoon.

“Obviously incredibly disappointed for our team. We’ve got great kids. They work their tail off. They care, and I hurt for our fans, too, because they care,” he said.

Saturday’s loss sent Clemson to its first 1-2 start since the 2014 season. Clemson would rebound to finish that season with a 10-3 record, and the Tigers will try to dig themselves out of hole again this year.

“It’s not the start that we wanted, but we’ve got to stay together and we’ve got to fight our way out,” Swinney said. “That’s one play at a time, one game at a time. That’s all we can do. We can’t do anything about what has happened. All we can do is just keep working and try to see if we can find a way to make a couple more plays, continue to do some of the good things that we’re doing… There’s a lot of good, but we’ve got two heartbreaking losses… But just really disappointed.”

Clemson opened the 2025 season ranked No. 4 in the AP Poll but have steadily dropped in the rankings since, and that slide will only continue after Saturday’s outcome.

Swinney knows that plenty of criticism and negativity will surround his team after the rough start, and that it comes with the territory for a proud Clemson program with high standards and expectations.

While this is certainly not the start the Tigers had envisioned when the season kicked off, Swinney says he and his players aren’t going to give up on the season.

“I know there will be a lot of criticism, a lot of negativity, a lot of all that stuff. That all comes with it… We’ve just got to go try to find a way to win a game this week,” Swinney said. “We’ve got a long way to go, and this is competition. There’s no quitters in that locker room. There’s no quit in me, that’s for sure, and let’s see if we can find a way to win a game next week.”

Clemson will head back home to host Syracuse next Saturday at Death Valley (12 p.m.).