Following Saturday’s 22-10 loss to Penn State in the Pinstripe Bowl, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney was asked was there anything he might change, as the Tigers head into the off-season.

“Yeah, I’m not going to get into any of that,” Swinney said. “There’s plenty of things, but I’ll keep those to myself.”

The Tigers, who just finished the second worst season under Swinney’s guidance, were manhandled by Penn State in the second half at Yankee Stadium in New York, N.Y. The Nittany Lions outgained Clemson 269 to 102 in the second half, were 6-for-8 on third down and controlled the lines of scrimmage on both sides of the football.

In the third quarter alone, despite not scoring, Penn State had the ball for 10:28 and had 111 yards. The Tigers, on the other hand, had 18 yards in the third quarter.

“We just did not execute and get off to the start that we needed to have, so incredibly disappointing with the result,” Swinney said. “Big picture of the game, again, offensively there was drops, took a couple sacks we shouldn’t have taken, but for whatever reason couldn’t hang on to the ball.

“Critical, critical drops at critical times and that kills drives. It’s first downs that you don’t get. It’s more field position that you don’t get. It’s more opportunity to go score that you don’t get. So really disappointed with that.”

Things were not much better on defense. The Nittany Lions were 11 of 19 on third down, the most third down conversions the defense allowed in a game all season.

The Tigers (7-6) ranked eighth nationally in third down defense coming into the Pinstripe Bowl.

“It’s 6-3 in the fourth quarter and you got every opportunity. Kind of an ugly game, but got every
opportunity to go win the game and defensively just really poor,” Swinney said. “We played really good the first 29 minutes of the game, and from one minute in the first half through the end of the game, really poor.

“Just poor critical awareness from some situational stuff. One minute to go and they’ve got no time-outs and we’re just giving up the outside throw. I mean, just giving it up. No time-outs. Just poor awareness of what we need to do in that situation and they get a field goal. That’s a critical field goal in that moment. So that was a really disappointing thing.”

After Ryan Baker’s 48-yard field goal to end the first half, Penn State (7-6) dominated the game in every phase from that point on.

“Plenty of opportunities to win the game, but the third downs, the big plays in critical situations, and then offensively just the drops. I quit counting at seven. I know there was at least seven, maybe eight. Just too many missed opportunities, and it’s hard to win those games.”

After a disappointing end to what has been a disappointing season, what changes will Swinney make to get the Tigers back on track?