Despite Clemson’s 41-13 blowout home loss to No. 4 Miami this past Saturday, head coach Dabo Swinney remains unwavering in his confidence in the Tigers and their chances of contending for an ACC Championship in 2026.

Swinney responded with a resolute “absolutely” when asked if he feels his squad can still compete for an ACC title this season.

“Absolutely. Absolutely,” Swinney said. “We were 3-1 coming in. We’ve lost to two really good teams. But we’re still progressing, and we’re just going to keep battling. We’ve got a lot of opportunity ahead.”

Swinney pointed out that despite dropping to 3-2 overall, Clemson is 2-1 in ACC play.

Clemson’s head man acknowledged that while the Tigers had hoped to be undefeated at this point — or a one-loss team “at worst” — they have a long way to go in the season.

Swinney believes the team is still growing with a talented squad led by freshman quarterback Tait Reynolds.

“So hey, we’re 3-2. We hoped we’d be 5-0 right now, or 4-1, at worst,” Swinney said. “But we’re 3-2, and we’re 2-1 in the ACC. We’re right here. We’re right there. We’ve just got to dig in, man. Gotta go play. There’s a lot of opportunity for this team, so let’s just keep working, let’s keep improving, and let’s go get better.

“I think we’ve got good players, and we’ve got a young quarterback that’s just going to keep growing.”

Swinney noted that the team will use their upcoming open date “wisely” to rest, get healthy, reset and improve for the back half of the campaign.

“Again, thankful for an open date. We’re going to use it wisely,” he said. “We need some rest. We’ve been going since, I don’t know, August 1 or whenever it was. So, we’ve been wide open. We’ve had some weird games and late starts and a little bit of everything.”

After the open date this weekend, Swinney’s team returns to action on Saturday, Oct. 17, when the Tigers host Charleston Southern at Memorial Stadium. Kickoff is set for 12 p.m. on ACC Network.

With its win over Clemson, Miami claimed sole possession of first place in the ACC standings.

Heading into Week 6, Miami (5-0, 3-0 ACC), Pitt (5-0, 2-0) and Duke (4-0, 1-0) are the only three teams that are unbeaten in ACC play.

Clemson is one of 10 teams with one loss in the conference right now and one of three with a 2-1 conference record, joining SMU and Wake Forest, both of whom are 4-1 overall.

The Tigers have won nine ACC titles under Swinney, including six straight from 2015-20. Clemson’s most recent ACC Championship came in 2024, when Clemson defeated SMU en route to the Tigers’ most recent College Football Playoff appearance.