CLEMSON — In all of his years as a head coach, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney suddenly finds himself in a spot he’s never been in.

After the 34-21 loss at home to Syracuse on Saturday, Swinney’s Tigers now sit at 1-3. It’s the program’s first time losing three of four to start a season since 2004, several years before Swinney ever took over as head coach. Clemson has also begun ACC play 0-2 for the first time since 2010, Swinney’s second full-time season in the role.

What makes the start even tougher to swallow is the fact that the Tigers began the campaign ranked inside the Top 5, with many predicting this to be Swinney’s best team since Trevor Lawrence headed off to the NFL.

Now that the team’s postseason goals are basically out of reach, just four games into the season, Swinney faces one of his toughest jobs to date. That is keeping his team bought in, knowing that about the only thing left to play for is pride.

“We’ll find out,” Swinney said when asked about the challenge of keeping the team bought in. “I don’t know.”

While there wasn’t much good to take away from Saturday’s loss, Swinney was pleased with how his defense responded late. After allowing 407 yards through the first three quarters, the Tigers gave up just 26 in the final one.

The Orange ran 19 plays over the final 15 minutes and averaged just 1.4 yards per play. However, starting quarterback Steve Angeli had already left with an injury, and the Orange were nursing a double-digit lead by that point.

“If that fourth quarter was any indication, I would say no,” Swinney said. “Because they competed every second. Defensively, they battled. Offensively, they competed. Just got in too big a hole and we just can’t seem to put it all together when we need it.”

However, at the end of the day, no one will know exactly how the Tigers will respond for a couple of weeks. Clemson has its first bye of the season next weekend, before travelling to Chapel Hill to play North Carolina.

One thing Swinney does believe in is the culture he’s created inside his program, and he’s hopeful it’s strong enough to carry his team throughout the rest of what has already been a challenging season.

“Those guys love Clemson, I know that,” Swinney said. “We got to flush it, process it and get back to work on Monday. The open date is coming at a good time for us for obvious reasons. We just got to put our arms around each other, stay together and get back to work. That is all we can do.”

Photo by Bart Boatwright