A new top cat: Clemson to play first regular-season game as AP No. 1

Clemson has never played a regular season game as the No. 1-ranked team in the AP poll. The Tigers will for the first time Saturday afternoon at Syracuse.

After being ranked No. 1 by the College Football Playoff Committee last week, Clemson was named the top team in the nation by the Associated Press Poll on Sunday. Ohio State, Alabama, Baylor and Oklahoma State round out the top five.

Clemson moved up two spots to secure the top ranking, and while Dabo Swinney said the Tigers still have lots of work to do, he admitted it is nice to be recognized.

“It’s fun to see Clemson so highly thought of. We certainly prefer that over being undefeated and 20^th in the country,” he said Sunday. “We’re going to go to Syracuse this week and see if we can keep the momentum going with our season.”

Clemson’s 23-13 win over Florida State on Saturday not only improved the Tigers to 9-0 for only the third time in school history, but also clinched the ACC Atlantic title for the Tigers.

Clemson has won the division four times since 2009, but had never clinched the title with a win over Florida State.

“It’s good to win that the division. That was the goal that was set out at the beginning of the year to achieve, and to be able to do it Nov. 7 is a great credit to our team,” Swinney said. “We’ve clinched the division at other times, but we’ve never actually clinched it playing Florida State. That was a good way to punch our ticket to Charlotte.”

Clemson has now accomplished two of five goals it set out at the beginning of the year. Swinney said every season the goals are to win the opener, the state championship, the division, the conference championship and the bowl game. The Tigers are still trying to accomplish all five of those goals for the first time under Swinney.

“If we could hit all five in the same year, we’re set up to have some kind of year,” he said. “One of our goals is not to get to a bowl game, it’s to win the bowl game. We expect certain things around here, so that’s how we set our goals up.”

Clemson still has four more games before a potential bowl, but its next three contests are against teams with nine combined wins. Still, Swinney said nothing will change over the next several weeks preparation-wise. He pointed to 3-6 Nebraska beating 8-0 Michigan State as proof that anything can happen in college football.

“You’ve got to respect the game, respect the opponent and respect the preparation process – and we do,” he said. “We’ll work our tails off, coaches and players, just like we do every week. We have a very systematic plan of preparation that we are very committed to, and it just doesn’t matter who we play.”

Clemson had two major contributors injured against FSU, and while it sounds like they will miss some time, the injuries are not as serious as feared.

Starting right guard Tyrone Crowder has turf toe and backup wide receiver Ray-Ray McCloud has a sprained MCL. Neither injury will require surgery.

“We’ll rehab both of those guys and get them back going as soon as possible,” Swinney said. “Hopefully, Crowder’s not going to be out too long. We’ll evaluate that daily.”

Maverick Morris played most of the game at right guard, and Swinney said he settled down after a few plays and played well. The Tigers have four other receivers with at least 15 catches.

This story was originally published November 8, 2015 at 8:46 PM with the headline "A new top cat: Clemson to play first regular-season game as AP No. 1."