Dabo Swinney Doesn't Think Clemson Tigers Handled Preseason Expectations Correctly

With outside noise like social media into the mix of the college football landscape, it’s often difficult for coaches to keep the noise out of the players' heads, including the Clemson Tigers.

On Monday night’s weekly Tiger Calls on The ROAR radio network, head coach Dabo Swinney receives text message questions from anonymous fans regarding his team and what is to come from the upcoming week, previewing the Duke Blue Devils that come to play this weekend.

When Swinney received a question about how the NIL and preseason hype played a role in how Clemson ended up in an early 1-3 slump. The Tigers’ head coach didn’t mince words about what happened.

“I don’t think this team handled the expectations well,” Swinney said. “I think everybody can be affected, and this team in particular, you know, was.”

The Tigers entered the year as the No. 4 team in the country, being on top of the world and hosted No. 9 LSU to open the season. Win the game, and you are considered a national championship contender.

Three weeks later, Clemson was fighting for its life. With it being the first time that many of these players had these expectations, Swinney saw it have its effects.

“You try to do everything you can to guard against that stuff, but really kind of the first time that this team and some of these guys had to deal with some of that coming in,” he said, “and, all of a sudden, maybe you don’t play as well in a couple of areas early and then you have a disappointing loss, close game, but, you just don’t get it done.

Then, you go on the road and you turn it over twice and you get a walk off field goal and, next thing you know, you are sick from the poison, you know?” Swinney continued. “I mean, I don’t think there’s any question. It affected us a little bit.”

What echoes throughout the Clemson football facility is how different things in football can translate to lessons learned in life, and that’s what Swinney told his team, saying “that’s life.”

“You got to learn from it and those that’ll be back on this team next year, they’ll hopefully do a little better of handling expectations as they come along throughout their career because there’ll be more, but it’s just part of it.” he said.

The Tigers had one of the best retention rates in the country last season, and with how Swinney gets his players bought into the culture and program, he knows that expectations will be high once again next season.

But sometimes, that’s just the way the game ends up, which he understands and is focused on changing what is in front of him.

“That’s football,” Swinney said. “I mean, other teams have good players and good coaches and it’s a very, very fine line, like I said, it’s a very fine line. It’s never as good as it seems, and it’s never as bad as it seems, but we are where we are right now.”

Clemson is back in action this weekend against Duke at noon from Memorial Stadium, where Swinney and the Tigers will look to get back on track.