Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney says there’s no doubt that his team – which sits at 4-5 with three regular season games remaining – is fighting for bowl eligibility.

The Tigers certainly want to continue playing and make it to a bowl game, according to Swinney.

“This team, I guarantee you, these guys, they want to go play another game,” Swinney said during his weekly Tuesday press conference. “Because they care about each other. They really do. These guys love each other. They’re going to be very sad when they can’t share a locker room together.”

It’s about keeping the bowl-eligibility streak alive as well, Swinney says.

Coming into this season, Clemson had been bowl eligible for 26 consecutive seasons dating to 1999 – tied for the third-longest streak in the nation — but both Clemson and South Carolina opted against a bowl appearance in 2004 as a punishment for the brawl that occurred near the end of the game that year.

“We’ve got an incredible, one of the best, longest bowl-eligibility streaks out there,” Swinney said. “… So, there’s a lot of pride in that, too. But hey, you’ve got to go earn it. We’ve got three more games, and we’ve got to find a way to get it done. But they definitely would want to go play again, and it’d be great.”

Swinney and Clemson’s coaching staff would also love for the team, especially the younger players, to get the extra practices and experience that a bowl game would bring.  

“Absolutely,” he said. “There’s no coach that’s gonna say no to [a bowl game]. If they do, they’re probably not a very good coach. Any time you can play football – if you’re a football coach – any time you can go play football, that’s a good thing. That’s what you do. How do you get better at football if you don’t play football?”

“There’s a lot of young talent on this team that could really use some bowl-type prep,” he added. “It’s basically you get another spring practice, is basically what you get.”

Clemson will try to take another step toward bowl eligibility by winning at 20th-ranked Louisville on Friday night. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. on ESPN.