Dabo Swinney reacts to Clemson being called the 'golden standard'

Clemson has been the cream of the crop in the ACC, as well as one of the best teams in the nation, over the past decade or so. With that said, Dabo Swinney doesn’t want to hear that the Tigers are among the best of the best.

Swinney reacted to Duke’s Mike Elko describing the Tigers as the ‘golden standard’ while at the 2023 ACC Football Kickoff this week. He said that that isn’t what Clemson is focused on or needs to be thinking about. Their focus is on one game at a time, specifically their opener, and, from there, their resume will speak for itself.

“Every year we start over. Man, we’re just trying to win the opener, honestly. That’s really — that’s the same mindset,” Swinney said. “If your mindset is any different than that this time of year? You’re probably not in the right head space.”

“You got to take it one at a time. You can’t win two games until you win one. And you certainly can’t win ten until you win nine. It just all builds,” explained Swinney. “We’re not locked in on whatever being a gold standard or what other people say or label us outside of expectations.”

12 straight seasons of double-digit wins put you in a whole different stratosphere in college football. Winning a pair of national titles in that span doesn’t hurt Clemson’s case either.

Still, Swinney isn’t worried about anything but coming out victorious in the areas they can control. If they can do that on a daily basis, the rest will handle itself when it comes to the outside perception of the Tigers.

“We’re just locked in on what we focus on every day, what we control,” said Swinney. “That is just trying to win the day, us having a great camp. And we got a tough opener (so) try to win the opener. Then we’ll go from there.”

Cade Klubnik is confident he’ll win a national championship

Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik made his goals and aspirations clear at ACC Media Days as he enters his sophomore season for the Tigers. He may have only started the final two games of the season last year for Clemson, but feels he’s more than capable to leading his team to the same heights as quarterbacks like Trevor Lawrence and Deshaun Watson.

“The reason I came to Clemson is for two things, for the culture and to win a national championship. And I think I’m going to be able to do that here,” Klubnik said.

The Tigers haven’t made a national championship appearance since the 2019-2020 season when they fell to the unbeaten powerhouse LSU led by Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow.

Even so, Klubnik could be the next Clemson quarterback to lead the Tigers back to the College Football Playoff, starting in the team’s two postseason matchups last year in two games that went two different ways.

Now, Klubnik and the Tigers are keeping their bowl lost in their minds throughout the offseason as they seek to return to the national championship glory that their program achieved not too long ago.

“Obviously, we had a really successful year if you look at the overall picture of it. ACC Champions and 11-3 finish? That’s an amazing year. But to finish with a loss, it’s always gonna leave something a little dirty in your soul. So just going into this offseason it’s been great,” Klubnik said. “I think it’s been helping us and just a little bit more of a grittiness to us than I’ve seen before. It’s gonna be fun.”