Dabo Swinney makes Clemson's case to be in College Football Playoff

With Clemson still just outside of the playoff, Dabo Swinney justified why his team should be in.

Swinney argued for the Tigers to be in the College Football Playoff following their 24-20 win this weekend at Pittsburgh. He started with their overall resumé as one of the top teams in their conference with two losses, including only one in league play, against teams that are currently in the Top-20 of the latest rankings from last week

“Well, I mean, we’re 8-2, you know,” Swinney said postgame. “It’s hard to win.”

‘We’re undefeated on the road for the 10th time in 129 years. It’s not like that happens every year. It’s hard to do, hard to get. We’ve beat everybody who beat us last year. We obviously didn’t get to play Duke,” continued Swinney. “It’s a 17-team league, you know, and we’ve got one loss to a good team. You know, we didn’t have a great day that day. They were better than us and, you know, we’ve got one loss. We lost a tough opener, a game that we really just had a bad third quarter.”

Swinney also spoke highly of their team in general. He thinks it’s a roster that’s worthy both based on who’s on it and what they’ve had to do in order to have the current record that they do to even be in contention.

“You know, we’ve got a great quarterback who, if you look at our quarterback? He’s right there with Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence statistically. He takes care of the ball, he makes big plays,” Swinney said. “We’ve got dudes who are getting better every week at our skill positions. We’ve got some young guys that are just blossoming. Our defense is playing as well as its played all year. We’ve got a kicker that’s made a 51-yarder, you know.”

“You know, I think we’ve got a team that’s really kind of just finding their way right now. We’ve overcome a ton…You’ve just kids just stepping up all over the place,” said Swinney. “These kids have got a lot of heart, they’ve got a lot of toughness, you know. We’re a team that believes. You know, I think they can play with anybody on any given day.”

Clemson is at No. 20 overall as far as the most recent rankings for the CFP. That close road win along with other results around the country could have them move up three or so spots this upcoming week. However, that’s still six slots shy of where they’d need to be in order to be an at-large with them also in need of outcomes that could lead to them potentially getting a bye.

Simply, Clemson can win out, finish at 10-2, and still miss the College Football Playoff. That’s why Swinney wants them to focus on themselves and let everything else eventually happen as its meant to.

“You know, hey, again, we don’t worry about it. You know, we don’t control what other people say and do and all that stuff. All we can do is just go try to keep playing,” said Swinney. “A lot can happen. I don’t know what’s happened today but a lot can happen in college football on any given weekend. So we’ve just got to keep battling and, you know, we’ll see what happens.”

“You know, I believe, what God’s got for you, he’s got for you. So, you know, we’ve just got to stay locked in on what we’re doing and we’ll see how it all plays out,” Swinney said.

Clemson will have to have some things happen in their favor before the selection of the field in three weeks. If they happen, though, Swinney sees no reason why his team, assuming they too do what they need to do, couldn’t deserve to be in the CFP.

“Why not? Why not? I mean, it’s hard to win. It’s hard to win. We’re 8-2. We’ve got one freakin’ loss in this league. We don’t play the other team that’s undefeated,” Swinney said. “I mean, listen. We’re in the fight. That’s all you can ask for. I mean, we’re in the fight. You know, we had the chance to control our destiny. We need a little bit of help. All we can do is just take care of our business. We’ve got a chance to finish 10-2, you know.”

“You know, why not? We’ve proven that we can play on that stage,” said Swinney. “This team in particular? If they want to have a shot at that, they’ve got to finish and they’ll have an opportunity to do that.