Tigers Have Played Somebody Now

For years now, one of the factors used to determine how good a team really is has been strength of schedule. For teams that play in the ACC, or even the Pac 12, more often than not the narrative centers around the lack of quality wins more so than it does about who they actually have beaten, or how bad they are beating the teams they do play.

"Well, I don't know, just started early in the season," Dabo Swinney said. "Early in the season we – I don't know what else we can do. We beat everybody we played. But we dominated Georgia Tech, we dominated Texas A&M, we dominated Syracuse, we dominated Charlotte it seemed like."

Since the start of the playoff era, you will be hard pressed to find a team who was penalized more than the 2019 Clemson team was for its schedule. It got so bad at times, a one-point win on the road over UNC was treated by the national media as a loss. There were multiple instances of it actually be referred to as a loss.

"And then we had one close game on the road, a tough North Carolina team that played great that day, and we didn't play very well," Swinney said. "But we won the game, and it was just – that was kind of the tipping point probably where all of a sudden we drop, and then it just seemed like it didn't matter what we did, at that point – well, they only do that because we don't play anybody."

There's no getting around the fact that the ACC was down this season. The argument can be made that it was as down as its been in a decade.

However, with four teams having new head coaches this season, and another being in just his second season, the fact that it was down shouldn't have been all that surprising.

Texas A&M not coming anywhere close to living up to its top fifteen preseason ranking, and South Carolina stumbling to a 4-win season made perceptions even worse.

Unlike most seasons, Clemson didn't even have that one out of conference game they could point to as a quality win. They didn't have the luxury of a big road win, the likes of which they got in College Station, Texas, last season.

With the Tigers 29-23 win over Ohio State now in the books, that is no longer the case. This Clemson team went toe to toe with one of the best three teams in the country, in one of the most physical games of the season, and came back to win after an early 16-point deficit.

"But anyway, we've played somebody now," Swinney said. "I think Ohio State was pretty good, a pretty good team. Our guys still found a way to win. So hopefully all that stuff can be put to rest and these guys can be recognized for just an incredible run. I mean, to win 29 games in a row is – it's historic. I mean, it's just unbelievable how hard that is to do in today's world."

He's right. Winning 29 straight in today's sport is extremely difficult, regardless of which conference you play in. When you're dealing with 18-22 year old kids, keeping them all focused on the task at hand is extremely difficult. Doing it over that long of a period of time is even more remarkable, and this program hasn't gotten the credit it deserves.

Ironically, this Clemson team now possesses the nation's best win of the season, and no narrative can change that. Something that only seems fitting after a season full of doubt, based solely on a schedule.