One of the many pictures Dabo Swinney has in his on-campus office is that of Sofi Stadium, the Los Angeles home of the NFL’s Rams and Chargers that will also play host to this season’s College Football Playoff championship game.
A day removed from watching his team suffer its second loss of the season at the hands of in-state rival South Carolina, Clemson’s coach knows the Tigers no longer have to worry about making the cross-country trip to the venue come January.
“I guess I won’t need the directions to it,” Swinney quipped Sunday.
Yet Swinney said his team doesn’t have to readjust its goals after a loss that erased any doubt as to whether or not Clemson will miss out on the CFP for the second straight season.
“We didn’t achieve the goal we had (Saturday), but we still have got two goals left,” Swinney said. “That is to win the ACC and to win the closer, so we don’t have to adjust anything.”
Swinney went on to further explain his reasoning for that statement.
“Our goal is to win the opener, win the (Atlantic) division (in the ACC), win the state (championship against South Carolina), win the ACC and win the closer,” Swinney said. “When we’ve done that, we’ve won the national championship. Our goals are set up to allow us to compete at the highest level, but the reason it doesn’t say win the national championship on there is because we don’t control that. We could win all of our games, and somebody could say, no, you don’t qualify, right? So we set our goals up to allow us to compete at the highest level, and that’s worked out for us a lot this year.
“When we’ve won the league, it’s always led to bigger things. and not winning the state championship a couple of times along the way in our past has kept us out of some bigger opportunities. We’ve not won our state championship and then won the league and been in the Orange Bowl, et cetera. But when we’ve hit all five, we’ve won it all a couple of times. That’s why they are what they are, but we don’t have to adjust anything. We’ve got two goals left. Win the ACC and win the closer, and if we hit those two goals, we will have had a heck of a year here at Clemson.”
Clemson, which went unbeaten in ACC play during the regular season, will go for its eighth conference title of the Swinney era and its seventh in the last eight years when the Tigers face North Carolina on Saturday in Charlotte.
Don’t miss Cyber Week Deals at Dear Old Clemson’s online store. Deals will run through midnight Monday.
- Footballs signed by the Clemson 2022 class discounted by 30%.
- Free Avengers unsigned poster with the purchase of a signed Avengers football
- Free signed Myles Murphy 8 by 10 picture with the purchase of Myles Murphy signed card
- Free 2022 class unsigned poster with purchase of signed Avengers poster
- Free #Team 4 unsigned poster with purchase of any signed softball
- Free unsigned Valerie Cagle card with purchase of any signed softball poster
- Free unsigned Bakich to Omaha poster with purchase of any signed baseball
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