Can ACC favorite Tigers avoid ‘Clemsoning' during playoff pursuit?

“We play Clemson 12 times.” That Yogi Berra-like quote has served as the Clemson company line heading into the 2015 season. It also hints that the toughest foe the Tigers will face this season may not be on the opposite sideline, but rather their own.

The refrain has been so often echoed by coach Dabo Swinney and his players that it has earned a special distinction: a Daboism. During ACC Media Days last month, the Tigers often invoked the phrase as they addressed an upcoming season with great expectations, given the team’s status as the preseason ACC favorite. And there was no shortage of opportunity, given the Tigers’ recent tendency of climbing to the precipice of greatness before tripping back into the sea of also-rans – a circumstance that has occurred so often, it spawned another term.

“Clemsoning,” is defined by the Urban Dictionary as “the act of delivering an inexplicably disappointing performance, usually within the context of a college football season.” The term bears Clemson’s name because the Tigers have proven to be masters at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Last season, Clemson fell to undefeated Florida State after repeated missed opportunities to lock up the win. Even after losing its seven-point, fourth-quarter lead, Clemson had chances to take down the then-No. 1 team in the country. Instead it fumbled well inside of field goal range with less than two minutes left.

The Tigers have finished the season ranked for four years straight, but when they’ve had opportunities to get a marquee win that would vault them into the national title conversation, they’ve stubbed their toes.

What the Tigers do well is handle the opponents they’re supposed to defeat. The Seminoles were the favored team playing in Tallahassee last season, but Clemson has rarely lost to an underdog in recent seasons and never to an unranked opponent since 2011. Heading into the 2015 season, that fact should have the Tigers feeling pretty good about their status as the ACC favorite. And now with the field to contend widened from two teams to four in the College Football Playoff, is this the year?

“Every year we want to get over that hump,” defensive tackle D.J. Reader said at ACC Media Days. “Every year, we can sit up here and say this is the year we’re going to get over that hump, and until we do it, we’ve got to do it.”

Clemson has often put itself into good position for national championship consideration with a an aggressive slate of opponents. Its non-conference scheduling since 2010 has featured two challenging SEC foes, with in-state rival South Carolina on the schedule as the last game every year and a game against either Auburn or Georgia earlier in the season.

The Tigers lost to both Auburn and Georgia once in the last five years, but with those losses at the start of the season and those teams typically ranked, they’re not the ones that have plagued Clemson. A five-year losing streak to South Carolina in the regular-season finale, which ended with a Tigers win last season, didn’t affect the team’s standing in the ACC, but squashed any national championship hopes, if there were any.

Ranked in the top-10 with only one loss in 2012, Clemson lost to the Gamecocks at home, and the same thing happened in 2013, though the Tigers still got to the Orange Bowl that year and beat Ohio State. Clemson was the seventh-ranked team in 2011, when they lost to North Carolina State, their last loss against an unranked opponent, before losing to South Carolina the next week.

“I don’t see Clemson as Clemsoning,” Reader said. “Other people may, and you know, that’s fine. But we don’t focus on that.”

While the Gamecocks remain as the Tigers’ ultimate regular-season test, they will be the only SEC opponent Clemson faces this season. Clemson also has the advantage of its biggest tests being at home this season, as it hosts Notre Dame, Georgia Tech and Florida State, which it hasn’t defeated since 2011. And while the Seminoles have reigned atop the ACC since 2012, they appear to be in a rebuilding year with a new starting quarterback following Jameis Winston’s departure for the NFL and running back Dalvin Cook indefinitely suspended following battery charges.

Swinney doesn’t shy away from the ACC title being the means to a greater end – the path to “have a legitimate shot at being in the College Football Playoff.”

“That’s ultimately what we’re trying to do,” he said. “As far as expectations, it wouldn’t matter what’s on the roster, people at Clemson, they expect to win.”