Even in a “down” season for Clemson in 2021 — relatively speaking for a program that won six straight ACC Championships and made six straight College Football Playoff appearances from 2015-20 — Dabo Swinney still managed to guide the Tigers to at least 10 wins for a school-record 11th consecutive season.
On The Huddle on ACC Network following No. 19 Clemson’s 20-13 win over Iowa State in the Cheez-It Bowl on Wednesday, ACCN analysts Jordan Cornette, E.J. Manuel, Mark Richt and Eric Mac Lain weighed in on whether this season represents the best coaching job of Swinney’s career, considering the offensive struggles, injuries/other attrition that the Tigers endured, the coaching changes and the fact they still reached the 10-win mark in spite of all that.
Cornette: “I think about a group that’s won eight of their last nine games. The sky was falling with Clemson, and here they are with a dream season for many at 10-3. How do you assess what this year has been? I would maybe argue it’s been Dabo’s best coaching job yet to date at Death Valley.”
Manuel: “I think it’s been an excellent year. Let’s not consider it what we normally see from a Clemson football team, which is pretty much them terrorizing everybody, especially in the conference. But this year, I think, they found ways to win games instead of losing them. I just feel like at the end of the day, if they can get that thing figured out with D.J. (Uiagalelei) or whether it’s another quarterback, that’s where I think we’ll start to see the success. You talk about D.J. really not having a good year, but they still found a way to win (10) games. That’s still impressive for whatever team you are.”
Richt: “They had to manage a lot more things than they had to before. Before, they were winning games easily, your biggest decision as a head coach is when do I take my starters out of the game? That’s what it was probably 80, 90 percent of these seasons for the last 10 years or whatever it was. Now every single game came down to the wire, and they won the majority of them. So, I think it was one hell of a year, and the fact that kids weren’t opting out, you stay within the house… Dabo held that team together and had the same enthusiasm as if they were undefeated.”
Mac Lain: “I think it was because you saw him have to adjust midseason. I mean, they completely changed offensively, what they tried to do. If you look back at that Georgia game vs. where they are (in the Cheez-It Bowl) — running the football, offensive line moving guys forward, and just understanding the strengths of your team.”
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