Dabo Swinney readily admits that his Clemson football team needs to be better than what it’s been over the first three games of the season.

After losing to Georgia Tech on a 55-yard field goal as time expired, Swinney’s Tigers have dropped to 1-2. The last time Clemson began a season by losing two of its first three games was way way back in 2014.

Over that decade plus, Swinney’s teams have experienced a lot of success, including two national titles, and seven appearances in the College Football Playoff. However, in the past five years, Clemson has advanced to the playoff just once. That came last year, when the Tigers were bounced in the opening round at Texas.

Swinney’s teams have dropped a minimum of three games in each of the past four seasons, including dropping four in 2023. In Swinney’s eyes, he’s been here before, and he believes he knows what it takes to get things turned around.

“Be a better head coach. I am the leader of the program,” Swinney said. “It all falls on me. Everything.”

Both of the losses have come by one score to teams currently ranked inside the Top 20, and Swinney insists that is evidence of just how close his team is.

“I got to get them confident they can make that one play,” he said. “That is literally what it is. Been here many times.”

“It’s not like we are getting run off the field, it is not like we are losing to crap teams, we are just coming up short in what we are working for. We got to all find a way to improve, every single one of us.”

Despite the close losses, there are a lot of questions surrounding this Clemson team. The offense has been wildly inconcistent, and even erratic at times. Quarterback Cade Klubnik lost a fumble and threw a pick inside of the Yellow Jackets’ 10-yard line in loss on Saturday. He now has four turnovers on the season after throwing just six interceptions all of last year.

The defense, although improved over last season, has been up and down and has struggled to get off the field. Opposing offenses are converting 44% of their third down opportunities. For those reasons, the two sides just have yet to complement one another very well.

However, despite the early season struggles, Swinney refuses to panic, even if those inside of his own fan base are already doing so.

“I know there is a lot of panic and that kind of stuff, but there ain’t no panic here,” Swinney added. We’ve had a lot of adversity over the years. A lot. Many, many, many times,” Swinney said. “But we have always hung in there, gone about our business, and that is what we’ll do here. But we all got to be better. We all got to be just a little bit better. We are just a little bit short.”

Photo by Bart Boatwright