With as many losses as it’s had in a season in seven years, Clemson won’t be making a seventh straight trip to the College Football Playoff. Yet one of Dabo Swinney’s peers in the profession believes the Tigers’ coach has done as good a job as ever this season.
Clemson (7-3, 5-2 ACC) is understandably on Dave Clawson’s mind a lot this week. Clawson is in his eighth season as the head coach at Wake Forest (9-1, 6-0), which will make the trip to Memorial Stadium on Saturday as the 10th-ranked team in the country, according to the latest College Football Playoff rankings.
Clawson’s team can clinch the ACC’s Atlantic Division title outright with a win over Clemson, but normally it’s Clawson and the rest of the division’s coaches looking up at Swinney and his team in the standings this time of year. The Tigers have won six straight ACC titles en route to all of those CFP appearances, but without an upset over Wake Forest and some help next week, too, Clemson will be sitting at home the first weekend in December in what’s been the most challenging season Swinney said he’s ever been a part of as a coach given the struggles and attrition the Tigers have dealt with throughout.
That’s why Clawson would put this season up there with any of them that Swinney has coached at Clemson, which includes two national titles in the last five years.
“I really think this has been one of his best coaching jobs,” Clawson told reporters this week. “Sometimes when everything goes your way, things run themselves. This has not been a year where everything bounced their way. And you can tell he’s never lost his team.
“They’ve won three in a row, so the longest winning streak in the ACC right now. They’ve won five of their last six. They’re still in the hunt for the ACC Atlantic championship, and so, in my mind, this is another championship game.”
With a game against in-state rival South Carolina looming next week followed by a bowl game, Swinney said he wants to wait until the season’s over before giving himself a grade on it. But he said he’s proud of his players and coaches for sticking with it even with the offense taking a bigger step back than expected to begin the post-Trevor Lawrence era and a list of significant injuries that’s lengthened by the week.
“We’ve battled,” Swinney said. “That’s the only thing I can say. We’ve battled. We’ve found a way to win five out of the last six games and three in a row now. The biggest thing is going back to the basics and the foundation of his program.”
Running backs Will Shipley and Kobe Pace along with offensive lineman Will Putnam are expected to return for Saturday’s game after being held out last week against Connecticut, but Justyn Ross’ foot injury that will likely cost the Tigers’ star wideout the rest of the season is the latest hit to an offense that still ranks in the triple digits nationally in yards and points.
That will leave Clemson without its top three receivers against Wake Forest with Joseph Ngata (foot) and Frank Ladson Jr. (groin) already out, and both D.J. Uiagalelei (knee sprain) and his backup, Taisun Phommachanh (shoulder), are nursing injuries, too. Constant attrition has also kept the door revolving along the offensive line, where injuries and transfers have contributed to Clemson going with six different starting combinations this season.
The defense hasn’t been immune either. Starters Bryan Bresee (ACL tear), Tyler Davis (bicep) and Andrew Booth (hamstring, stinger) have all missed multiple games because of various injuries. The same goes for defensive end Justin Foster (back). Tre Williams (shoulder, other injuries) is still part of the rotation at defensive tackle but will have to have surgery once the season is over.
Yet Clemson still finds itself in contention in the Atlantic Division heading into its final conference game, which may also be the Tigers’ biggest challenge yet in league play. Clawson’s team will bring the nation’s No. 2 scoring offense into Memorial Stadium.
“We’ve got our hands full Saturday. That’s for sure,” Swinney said. “We’re going to have to play well, and we need the crowd to really get behind this group and support them no matter what. But one thing I can promise you, these Tigers are going to battle. We want to finish this season in as strong a way as possible and be the very best that we can possibly be.”
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