Earlier this week, Clemson defensive tackle Peter Woods mentioned how his high school team started his senior season 0-2 and rallied to win a state championship.

In other words, the junior implied how he has been here before. He has been a part of a team that had high expectations, faced early adversity and overcame it.

Though that is a great story and you hope Woods can use his own experience to help his current team, I do not know if that is going to fix what is wrong with Clemson’s football team.

The Tigers head into their first bye week some place the program has not been in 21 years. They are 1-3 after the first month of the season, somewhere none of us expected them to be.

To top it off, they are 0-2 in ACC competition for the first time in 15 years. What makes it even worse is that Clemson is 0-2 in the conference when eight other teams have yet to play even one league game.

How do you overcome that?

This is something Clemson football has not had to handle in a long time. The 2010 squad, after starting the year 2-0, lost to Auburn, Miami and North Carolina in consecutive weeks, which is the last time any Clemson team has been below .500 after five games.

Some are wondering if the Tigers can turn things around. Some want to blow everything up and start over and some do not care what happens the rest of the season.

Personally, I would like to see them turn things around.

Do I think they can?

I am not sure.

This is not the first time, obviously, a Clemson team has struggled out of the gate. Most recently, the 2023 squad was 4-4 and had a choice to make.

They decided to keep fighting and won their last five games to finish the year 9-4.

In 2021, after a 4-3 start, they won their last six games to finish the year 10-3. In 2014, those Tigers started 1-2, but they won nine of their last 10 games, though it was not pretty at times, to finish the year 10-3.

Prior to 2014, the 2008 squad rallied from a 3-3 start and a mid-season coaching change to win four of their last five regular season games and qualify for a bowl game. Their perseverance allowed Dabo Swinney to become the permanent head coach of the program.

Of course, there is the 2004 season. After losing four straight games to start 1-4, games in which they were not even competitive, they rallied to win five of their last six, including a stunning 24-17 win at No. 11 Miami in the old Orange Bowl.

There is “the Finish” in 2003.

After starting 5-4, Clemson rallied to beat No. 3 Florida State for the first time in 14 years, while also smacking rival South Carolina, 63-17. They finished the season 9-4, which concluded with a win over No. 6 Tennessee in the Peach Bowl.

There were others before them, 1995, ’96 and ’97 to name a few. Maybe you can throw in the slow starts of 1982 and 1983 as well.

However, what did all those teams display in the face adversity? Heart.

They had heart.

They fought for the tiger paw on their helmet. They fought for their fans and more importantly they fought for each other.

Can this team fall in line with those teams of the past? Maybe.

We will find out that answer soon enough.