Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney joined the Packer and Durham show Tuesday on ACC Network and gave his thoughts on the Tigers’ 2022 schedule, which was released Monday during The Huddle: 2022 Football Schedule Reveal on ACCN.
Clemson, which finished the 2021 season 10-3 (6-2 ACC), will open its 2022 slate on Labor Day evening — Monday, Sept. 5 — when the Tigers face Georgia Tech at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
It will mark the fifth time in the last seven years that Georgia Tech will be Clemson’s first ACC opponent of the season (2016, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022). Clemson holds an 11-2 mark against Georgia Tech in ACC openers since the ACC’s first season in 1953.
The Tigers will then return to Memorial Stadium for their home opener against Furman on Saturday, Sept. 10, before playing Louisiana Tech at Death Valley on Saturday, Sept. 17.
“It’s really cool to start out obviously in an incredible venue, Labor Day night there in Atlanta playing Georgia Tech,” Swinney said. “That’s going to be a great opener for both teams and college football. We get to come home for a couple weeks, and then we’ve got to play five straight division games.”
Those five consecutive ACC Atlantic division contests will see Clemson play at Wake Forest (Saturday, Sept. 24), vs. NC State (Saturday, Oct. 1), at Boston College (Saturday, Oct. 8), at Florida State (Saturday, Oct. 15) and vs. Syracuse (Saturday, Oct. 22).
Clemson will play four of its first five ACC games on the road. It marks only the fifth time since the ACC’s first season in 1953 that Clemson will play four of its first five conference games on the road, joining the 1956, 1986, 1988 and 1990 seasons. Clemson posted a combined record of 11-4-1 in the four road games in the first five conference games of a season in those four years.
Overall, the Tigers will play eight straight games to open the season prior to their bye week on Oct. 29.
“First of all, we’re going to play eight straight before we have an open date,” Swinney said. “But five straight division games. At Wake, who’s had a heck of a run under Coach (Dave) Clawson. Obviously we got beat by NC State. They’ve got a lot of guys back. Man, at BC — we haven’t been to BC in a while (since 2018), but man, that’s always a tough place to play. My man Haf’s (Jeff Hafley) got those guys rolling. I mean, it’s going to be a challenging schedule. Back-to-back on the road, going to Florida State. Coming back at home versus Syracuse, and then we will get an open date. So, September and October, we’ve got a lot of football to play.”
Following the open date, Clemson will travel to South Bend, Ind., for a marquee road matchup at Notre Dame on Saturday, Nov. 5, before concluding the 2022 regular season with three home contests against Louisville (Saturday, Nov. 12), Miami (Saturday, Nov. 19) and, of course, the annual rivalry game against South Carolina (Saturday, Nov. 26).
Clemson’s three-game homestand to end the regular season marks its first time ending a regular season with three consecutive home games since 2012, when Clemson hosted Maryland, NC State and South Carolina to end the regular season.
“Eight straight, and then we come back and November, we’ve got three games at home to finish up there,” Swinney said. “With Louisville, we know who they are, and that quarterback they’ve got (Malik Cunningham) is special. Miami, I think is going to be really good under Coach (Mario) Cristobal. I think he’s going to do a great job there. And then how about the job (Shane) Beamer did this year down at South Carolina. Seven wins and going to the bowl game. I think he exceeded what a lot of people thought they were going to do. He’s done a great job, so you know that’s going to be a tough battle.
“So, it’s going to be a fun season, a challenging season, and we’re excited about it. It’s always fun when it comes out and you can kind of start mapping out what you’ve got to do to get your team ready.”
Clemson enters the season with an active winning streak against 10 of the 12 teams on its schedule. Clemson has active winning streaks against Furman (31), Wake Forest (13), Boston College (11), Georgia Tech (seven), Louisville (seven), South Carolina (seven), Florida State (six), Syracuse (four), Louisiana Tech (three), Miami (three) and Notre Dame (one). NC State won its most recent meeting with Clemson in 2021.
–Clemson Athletic Communications contributed to this story
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