CLEMSON — Clemson is a 10.5-point underdog, according to FanDuel on Monday evening.

One SEC podcast says the Clemson faithful is “walking INTO HELL on Saturday.”

SEC Network and SEC homer Paul Finebaum thinks Christopher Vizzina is “barely serviceable as backup” much less a starter.

Then there is LSU head coach Lane Kiffin, who seems more worried about getting pro players on his roster than getting his current players ready to play Clemson. I guess Kiffin feels he is going to beat the ACC’s Tigers, so he is more worried about how he is going to compete in the SEC, instead.

Regardless, Dabo Swinney must be loving this. All of this.

No one in college football plays up the “woe is me act” better than Swinney. He has made a career of it at Clemson, even when his Tigers were national championship contenders.

Swinney loves to get his players on the R.O.Y. bus (the rest of y’all bus). You know, the walk-on bus. The bus for those who will not play on Saturday.

Being this kind of an underdog is what Swinney lives for. He is not like Kiffin. His career was not handed to him on a silver platter because his dad was a former college coach and later considered one of the best defensive minds in the history of the game.

No Swinney had to truly earn it. First, he worked his way on to the team at Alabama as a walk-on. Later he earned a scholarship and found a way to become a starter on a team that won a national championship.

After coaching for eight years at Alabama as an assistant, he was told he could not coach anymore, though he applied for job after job.

Finally, in 2003 he found his way to Clemson to be Tommy Bowden’s wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator. He was told not take the job. He did not listen. Clemson went onto beat No. 3 Florida State year and No. 7 Tennessee and finished one of the greatest second halves to a season in Clemson history.

Five years later, after Tommy Bowden stepped down, Swinney earned the job to be Clemson’s head coach. Everyone said Clemson was stupid. Everyone said he would fail. ESPN called him a D hire.

I think we all know what happened.

Remember when Clemson played those Nick Saban Alabama teams in the national championship games? No one gave the Tigers a chance in “Hell” to win any of those games.

What happened?

Clemson won two of the three meetings, as Swinney is the only coach in such games to beat Nick Saban multiple times, including a 28-point victory in the 2019 CFP National Championship Game.

It was the worst loss of Saban’s coaching career.

So, go ahead. Write Clemson off. Take shots at Dabo Swinney. Take shots at Clemson. Swinney welcomes it. And though Clemson may not beat LSU Saturday night at Tiger Stadium, I can bet you LSU is the one who is walking into Hell on Saturday.