Clemson must hurdle FSU to ensure return to glory days
As rivalries go, this one is a comparatively petulant child.
Florida State may argue with the characterization as a rivalry, having won nearly two-thirds of the 28 games against Clemson since the first in 1970, yet the stakes always seem to be high with the results underscored by an iconic gimmick play, irrepressible personalities or a historic pitting of father against son.
If rain couldn’t dilute the energy for the Notre Dame game, then take the points Saturday and bet against Mother Nature because, other than the state feud with the team in Columbia, there’s not a more critical game remaining on top-ranked Clemson’s schedule.
These two programs are the best in the Atlantic Coast Conference with grand stages and generous fan bases capable of shaking the ground.
“It’s a great atmosphere. It’s a great environment,” said Florida State Jimbo Fisher. “Everybody says it’s a tough place to play. The toughest place to play is the ones that have real good players. They’ve got real good players, too.
After its national championship in 1981, Clemson set the bar in the ACC for a decade until Florida State entered the league and won nine straight conference championships. The mandate at Clemson then was to level the playing field. Not until the fourth head coach since Danny Ford was fired after the 1989 season has the program fully turned the corner.
Two years removed from its third national championship and one since the invitation to the first College Football Playoff, Florida State returns to Clemson as a 10 1/2-point underdog. Swinney has a 2-5 record against FSU, beating Bobby Bowden’s last team in 2009 then Fisher’s in 2011. Otherwise, it’s been rough.
In 2010 FSU won on the last play of the game, a career-long 55-yard field goal by Dustin Hopkins. The last two games in Tallahassee were in Clemson’s grasp, but in 2012 the Tigers lost by 12 points after leading by 14 in the third quarter. In 2013, a game billed as the biggest in ACC history, was over before it started with Clemson committing four turnovers. And last year Clemson beat itself with the Seminoles pushing the game into overtime and winning.
Though this will be the 11th time both teams were ranked in The Associated Press poll, Clemson has a 2-8 record in those games. Each of the previous six winners of the game also won the ACC Atlantic Division and the last four won the conference championships.
Clemson is No. 1 in the first CFP ranking, Florida State No. 16, but on a level playing field they’re probably closer than the oddsmakers and the polls tell us.
“As you go through the season and climb that mountain higher and higher the margin for error gets smaller, the margin for error gets thinner,” Swinney said.
“Am I pumped about 8-0? Yeah. Heck yeah. I’m glad we’re 8-0 and not 4-4, but if we were 4-4 I’d be just as excited about playing this week,” he said.
Only four previous Clemson teams opened the season by winning its first eight games, the last in 2011. Clemson lost four of its last six games that season.
“I just think we’re built differently,” Swinney said. “We didn’t handle the success that year.”
The team was young that season, his second full season.
“In 2011, we were just kind of getting it going,” he said. “We didn’t handle the success well that season, and then we didn’t handle the adversity well either.”
Most of the players on the team were in middle school in 2011, and hardly any of them have a clue about puntrooskie, Prime Time and the Bowden Bowls.
“When I got this job, everybody used to talk about the good old days. Back in the day,” Swinney said. “I tell our guys, this is the good old days. This is the best of times.
“We haven’t scratched the surface. We’re just getting going,” he said. “We’re in the midst of what I hope will be the best decade in the history of this program.”
This story was originally published November 7, 2015 at 12:34 AM with the headline "Clemson must hurdle FSU to ensure return to glory days."