Dabo Swinney discusses adversity of 2023, momentum entering 2024

Last season, especially early on, was another one that didn’t fully meet the expectations at Clemson. However, the Tigers did enough late to have the right direction going into their spring, summer, and now the fall for this next year.

Dabo Swinney discussed the lows and highs of the past season during a press conference last week. That began with a .500 mark through eight games that led to a lot of discourse by the end of October.

“I mean we were in a tight spot, you know?” said Swinney. “It’s been a long time since we lost four games around here.”

It all started with a 28-7 loss at Duke to open it up for Clemson in ’23. They then lost another 31-24 outcome a few weekends later in overtime to Florida State. The Tigers answered with two wins but then dropped a pair of others, a 28-20 double overtime loss at Miami and a 24-17 defeat at NC State, to then be sitting at 4-4 by the start of November.

Still, with four games to go, Clemson managed to turn things around to end the year on a high note. That run kicked off with a 31-23 win over a ranked team in Notre Dame. They’d then win the final four from there over Georgia Tech, another rated foe in North Carolina, South Carolina, and finally Kentucky in the Gator Bowl.

“Now you look up and you’ve got to play Notre Dame. You know, a team that kicked you in the teeth the year before. And oh, by the way, you’re going to start a true freshman, you’re going to start a guy that has never started a game. Then, boom, here they went,” recalled Swinney. “That confidence was just kind of what they needed. And, man, the finish, winning five, who we beat, the quarterbacks that we beat down the stretch there was impressive.”

“Then to go beat another SEC team in a bowl game and how we had to win it was really painful,” Swinney added. “It was just painful to have to go through those type of games. Was there like, I don’t know, 60 points scored in seven minutes or something? It was crazy.”

Again, less than double-digit wins hasn’t been the recent standard for Clemson. That’s certainly so after having not won less than 10 since 2010 or had four or more losses since 2011.

Even so, the Tigers did enough by season’s end to salvage what they could from 2023. In fact, they actually recovered enough to be back on track to some extent heading into 2024.

“You start over. You don’t get to carry any, you know, big plays or touchdowns over. But, certainly, the momentum I think put some good wind in their sails as they went into the offseason and then started to evaluate themselves from last year and what they’ve all got to do to get better,” said Swinney.