Chip On The Shoulder For The Tigers Is Justified

The lack of respect from the national media for this Clemson football team has been obvious. The fact that it has firmly entrenched a chip on the shoulder of these players and coaches should surprise no one.

How do you motivate a team that has won 29 consecutive games, including a 44-16 demolition of Alabama in last years national title game? How do you keep that team from becoming a victim of complacency? 

You find a way to give that team an edge. If you can't find one, create one.

"I think every coach in the country looks for an angle," ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit said. "Urban Meyer in '06, he just used to make stuff up, just throw it out on their hotel meeting rooms and somebody would say something and they would just say, oh, just put it on Herbstreit or ESPN or whoever, and they would just put it-it would be a fake quote just to get his team mad."

Throughout the 2019 season, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney hasn't had to look very far for motivation, and he certainly hasn't had to create any. All he had to do was cut on the television, radio, or open a newspaper. At some point or another, almost every major media outlet in the country took some kind of shot at his program. 

It started out by criticizing the play of quarterback Trevor Lawrence, then moved to questioning the teams they played. 

All season long this Clemson team has had their worthiness questioned, and that makes for easy motivation. It also keeps that complacency from creeping inside the locker room. 

"I think if you put yourself in his shoes," Herbstreit said. "Here he is the defending champ, they have a close call-they didn't lose, but a close call against North Carolina. After that they beat everybody by an average of like 42 points, and everybody is kind of trying to poke holes at their team. I think his whole thing was look, it's not just this year, we're like 18-2 against ranked teams over the last five years; we're doing OK."

When Clemson takes the field against LSU in the College Football Playoff National Championship, not only will they be playing for their second consecutive national title, they'll be playing for respect — and that's a travesty. 

If it were Alabama, Ohio State, or any other blue blood program, there would be no shortage of praise and the accolades would be rolling in.

Outside of linebacker Isaiah Simmons, Clemson had no players win any season-ending individual awards, and very few were even nominated. On the other side of the field, LSU had multiple players bring home hardware, with QB Joe Burrow leading the way by winning the Heisman. 

Of these two teams, Clemson has been by far the more dominant program over the last five seasons. This is their fifth straight playoff appearance, a run matched only by Alabama. 

Ironically it was a win over LSU in the 2012 Chick-fil-A Bowl that kick-started this dominant run Clemson is on. 

LSU is making just its first College Football Playoff appearance. They haven't even seriously contended for one before this season, and yet it would appear they are still held in a higher regard than Clemson is.  

When it comes to playing the disrespect card, there is no one in the business better at it than Dabo Swinney. The media has made it easy for him to keep his team motivated all season. When his team takes the field on Monday night, they will do so with a chip firmly entrenched on their shoulders, and rightfully so.