For Clemson, there’s one bigger goal that rivals winning a national championship
For as much as Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney enjoyed winning national championships in 2016 and 2018, sustainability is the bigger goal.
LSU, for example, won the 2020 national title with a 15-0 record after beating Clemson in the College Football Playoff national championship game, but they struggled over the following two seasons. The program won a total of 11 games in 2019 and 2020 with head coach Ed Orgeron “stepping aside” this year.
Clemson (10-3), however, has managed to win at least 10 games over the past 11 seasons — hitting that mark this year with a 20-13 Cheez-It Bowl win Wednesday over Iowa State — a feat accomplished by only two other programs in Alabama (2008-present) and Florida State (1987-2000).
While the Seminoles’ program isn’t what it used to be, the Crimson Tide continues to be the model of continuity as arguably the most successful program in the history of college football. Alabama (12-1), which is playing in the College Football Playoff for a sixth time this year, now has a string of 14 straight double-digit win seasons with the Tigers hoping to catch up.
“That’s what we set out to do back in 2009 was to become a consistent winning program,” Swinney said. “Not going to win the national championship every year. We’re not going to win the league every year, and we are not going to the playoff every year, but if we can be a consistent program on and off the field, then we’ll have those special moments.”
While the end result has been 10 or more wins every season, each year has been different. Following Swinney’s only losing season (6-7) in 2010, Clemson began the 2011 campaign 8-0, won an ACC championship but fell to West Virginia in the Orange Bowl 70-33 for a 10-4 record. The Tigers won 32 games over the next three seasons, then put together back-to-back 14-win campaigns, beginning the string of six ACC titles and CFP appearances in 2015.
Despite Clemson not achieving either feat this year, Swinney said he’s just as proud of this year’s 10-3 squad as he is the 15-0 national title-winning Tigers from three years ago.
“That team stayed healthy. We didn’t have anywhere near the challenges that this team had,” Swinney said. “It’s incredible what they had to deal with this year.”
By the time Clemson got on the field Wednesday to play Iowa State in the Cheez-It Bowl, the group was down 28 scholarship players: nine Tigers entered the transfer portal over the course of the season and 19 were out with injury, which included three in COVID-19 protocol. They lost two more veteran players — defenders James Skalski and Andrew Booth — during the game to injuries.
Offensive struggles in 2021 brought about heaping loads of scrutiny as sophomore quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei and the Tigers’ receivers played through growing pains. Ugly wins became the new normal. The Tigers got the job done anyway and reaped the rewards of another 10-win season.
Win No. 10 came in the form of a Cheez-It Bowl victory with two new coordinators in QBs coach Brandon Streeter and former defensive analyst Wes Goodwin after former offensive coordinator Tony Elliott (Virginia) and former defensive leader Brent Venables (Oklahoma) left for head coaching jobs at the beginning of the month.
“This team is right there with any team I’ve had,” Swinney said, calling the 2021 and 2014 squads two of his favorite groups. “And yeah, wish we’d have won them all. We didn’t. Sometimes you are not quite good enough. That’s OK. But they have laid it on the line every single week, and I’m just really, really proud of them. There’s not many programs out there that could have done what this group did this year.”
Clemson’s 2021 season is officially a wrap. The Tigers will head into the offseason looking toward 2022 and keeping the continuity going. Should they reach at least 10 wins over the next three seasons, Swinney will tie the late Bobby Bowden and the Seminoles for the second-most double-digit win seasons in NCAA FBS history behind Alabama’s active streak.
Whether those wins come by 30 points or a goal-line stand has yet to be determined. Over the last 11 years, though, Swinney has shown the ability to coach both kinds of games as the Tigers work toward not just national titles, but sustaining overall success.
“I look at every team like one of your children, and if … you have any kids, they have different personalities and different journeys and different challenges,” Swinney said. “I love that about starting over every year, because you truly start over. Because it is — it’s new leadership, new challenges, new struggles, new journey.
“Just because you don’t win the championship doesn’t mean this team was any less committed than our 2018 team that won it all. This team was just as committed, just as passionate, unbelievable group.”
This story was originally published December 30, 2021 at 7:06 AM.
