Cade Klubnik describes the conversation he had with Dabo Swinney about not getting used to losing

The Clemson Tigers are having a tough go in their 2023 campaign after dropping their second game in a row to ACC rival NC State by a score of 24-17. Losing is something that head Dabo Swinney and starting quarterback Cade Klubnik are none too familiar with.

Following the fourth loss of the season, the two came together to discuss the team’s struggles, with Swinney providing an inspirational message to his quarterback.

“Yeah, what he’s done for a long time now is win. And for a long time, that’s kind of all I’ve done is win,” said Klubnik. “And we kinda spoke on that and on we’re not used to losing. He said, ‘We’re never gonna get used to it; we’re never gonna get used to that.’

“I think that the people who love to win will never get used to losing because they hate losing. So every time a loss happens, they don’t. They don’t grow numb to it, but it is as much as it did the first time. That’s something I’ll never let become numb to me because I feel the same way in this one that I did in the first one.”

The College Football Playoff are out of the picture this season for Clemson, and it is likely that a New Year’s Six Bowl bid is as well. Still, Klubnik, Swinney, and the entire Tigers’ roster must find a way to refocus themselves and bounce back in order to recapture the spark that this program once had. And that starts this weekend as Clemson hosts a tough out-of-conference foe in the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Notre Dame vs. Clemson odds: Early point spread

The calendar is about to flip to November, which means big games get even bigger. For Clemson, it’s about staying in the hunt in the ACC as the Tigers take a non-conference break against Notre Dame in Week 10.

The Las Vegas oddsmakers have weighed in, and Notre Dame is a 3-point favorite in the matchup, according to FanDuel. The over-under is 49.5.

Notre Dame got off to a red-hot start to the season before splitting a four-game stretch of prime time games. The Fighting Irish came out of the bye week with a resounding 58-7 victory over Pitt in Week 9 to start what Marcus Freeman called a “two-week sprint” to start the final four games. Because Notre Dame played in Week 0, it has two bye weeks on the schedule, and they happen to come two weeks apart.

As a result, Freeman is taking a unique approach with his message to his team.

“It’s a two-week sprint,” Freeman said on Coach K on Basketball. “You’ve just come off a bye week, everybody’s fresh. We have to sprint. Not just run, jog. We’ve got to sprint for two weeks. Everything we have for these next two weeks, and then you get another bye week. Then we’ll come back and we’ll finish it the right way. Two weeks, we need to go everything we can.”

For Clemson, it’s been an interesting year to say the least. The Tigers started the season ranked No. 9 in the preseason AP Top 25, but lost to Duke in the opener. They entered Week 9 with a 4-3 record and headed to NC State, and the struggles continued in the early going. Clemson trailed 10-7 heading into halftime and saw running back Will Shipley leave the game with an injury.