Dabo Swinney on Clemson: 'The wins are gonna come'

Coming off a season-opening 34-3 loss to No. 1 Georgia, Clemson is looking to pick up the pieces and reorient itself around all the team’s long-term goals.

And in some ways, coach Dabo Swinney thinks his team needs to get back to the basics.

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“Yeah, just foundational principles of what this program’s built on: effort, belief, physicality, toughness, how you play,” Swinney said. “How you play. It’s not where you play, when you play, who you play, what time you play. It’s how you play. And if you play the right way then good things will happen.”

Clemson just didn’t seem to have it against Georgia, never really making it a competitive contest against one of college football’s most talented teams.

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Swinney knows that his team won’t always be facing the top team in the country, though. And with a new College Football Playoff format, there’s still everything to play for.

“This is a team that’s, I think has a chance to really come together and have a heck of a year,” Swinney said. “I really love this team, man. Having a lot of fun coaching them, having a lot of fun teaching them. It’s a close team, it’s a close staff. And it’s fun. It’s fun to come to work. I mean it’s funner when you’re coming off a win, that’s for sure, but I think the wins are gonna come. Because you play with the right foundational things, the rest of it will come into play.”

Clemson’s schedule is challenging, but if the Tigers are truly a playoff-caliber team they’ll manage. Next up is a tricky one against a very good Appalachian State team. Then comes a ranked NC State squad.

The Tigers have to get going in a hurry. But to Swinney, the approach is basic.

“That’s what I’m talking about,” he said. “The attitude, the leadership, just foundational things that we built this program on. That’s the thing I’m probably most encouraged about that I saw in that game the other day.”

In other words, it’s certainly not time to panic at Clemson. There are a whole lot of reasons the team can still click things into place.

Outside of maybe a position group or two, the overall talent level at Clemson is still pretty close to elite. That gives you the chance to win some games.

Again, so long as you’re doing those foundational things Swinney mentioned.

“I just think you just not necessarily got away from that, I just think you have a lot of young players,” Swiinney said. “We played the most freshman in the country last year. You’re teaching. You’re always teaching.

“And every team is different and you have different opportunities, but I just think you’ve got, and it’s not just for this year, it’s for next year. You look at our roster, I mean we don’t lose a lot of guys. I mean we don’t lose many people. So we’ve got a chance I think to really, if we can just have the how right, the way it needs to be, then the rest of it’s going to fall into place for this football team.”