CLEMSON – After a three-month summer and fall span that was described as “really tough” by Clemson players, it’s about time for the Tigers to change their focus.

With college classes starting this week on campus and the two-week fall camp wrapping up on Friday, Clemson is now moving into a new phase.

Summer conditioning is over. Offense installation and long camp hours are over. Now, with their season just two weeks away, head coach Dabo Swinney and his staff will start looking ahead to the Tigers’ first opponent – No. 11 LSU.

“Now you get to this point, now it starts to be okay, who’s the opponent?” he said. 

“You start pairing down and you put your game plan together, you know, based on what you’ve installed,” he continued. “So again, you’ve installed your stuff for the season. Now you get ready to play a game.”

For several months after Clemson’s disappointing season last year, the Tigers’ sole focus was reestablishing an identity, not even remotely looking at any other future opponents. Swinney started that campaign with a familiar face, re-hiring offensive coordinator Chad Morris, a veteran coach who held the same position from 2011-14 and led Clemson to an ACC Championship in his first season. 

By going “back to the future,” Swinney hired Morris based on his trust and a sturdy track record of leading offenses, hoping to bring back a familiar system that not only worked at Clemson, but ushered in an era of two national championships in the 2010s..

On the other side, defensive coordinator Tom Allen preached the need for decreased entitlement among Tiger players this offseason, especially after most of the 2025 defensive starters will not return this year. For Allen, it was all about earning everything.

Clemson players understood the need for culture changes as well.

“I think last year our team might not have been as connected as we are this year,” sophomore offensive lineman Brayden Jacobs said. “I feel like this year like quarterbacks, running backs, O-line, wide receivers, we’re all connected… But I think it’s just more of a commitment. Like this team’s more committed than last year. We’re hungry.”

After nearly half a year of focusing solely on Clemson, the team and staff will now use all that they have learned post-2025 to hone in on another team of Tigers — a purple and gold variety of Bengal Tigers from Baton Rouge, La.

At Clemson’s Thursday scrimmage, the Tigers blasted classic songs that LSU’s band will most definitely play during their matchup at maximum volume. The makeshift DJ also played crowd noise to simulate the 100,000 fans that will be cheering against Clemson in Baton Rouge in a couple weeks.

But the LSU prep did not stop there.

Similarly, Swinney could be heard calling out situations that Clemson could find itself in during that game to see how his players would react. Though he was not pleased with the level of situational awareness in that scrimmage, calling it “the worst practice of camp,” the Tigers now have two full weeks to hone in on those little mental errors.

“You’d like to have everything in, really by next weekend,” Swinney said. “And that way, you kind of take game week and and you’re just, really details and and polishing and and really honing in on the execution of the plan. You really don’t want to be, shouldn’t be, burning midnight oil up here on game week this time of year for the first game. You ought to be plan ready and let’s have some fun and let’s really dial in on the execution of it.”

Before Clemson can prepare fully for LSU, however, the Tigers need to rest after a grueling camp. With several players “banged up,” Clemson’s athletes and coaches will take the weekend off before returning fully to prepare for an actual opponent on Monday.

When they return, though, Clemson will be 12 days away from opening its season against the “other” Tigers, a contest that is set to be sold out at LSU’s Tiger Stadium on Sept. 5. It will be the first time Clemson has ever played in the venue.