Dabo Swinney Reveals Key to Clemson Tigers' Success in 2025

The Clemson Tigers began fall camp on Thursday, and head coach Dabo Swinney is going back to the basics with the team mentality - practicing hard.

The head coach spoke to the media on Thursday ahead of the afternoon practice, speaking about vast topics from the weight changes to his players to his plan throughout these fall sessions, which are very fundamental.

When asked about his goals for the fall camp, Swinney described “our practice habits” as the points of emphasis.

“You don’t create game habits on game day,” Swinney said. “What you do on game day is a reflection of how you practice, so creating game habits on practice. So that’s just setting the tone for that, how you practice, how we prepare, how we meet, also how they recover, how they take care of their bodies. All of those things.”

Most of the team, especially the transfers and freshmen, aren’t used to the transitions of being closer as a team throughout the fall season. With the unit now being close together throughout all hours of the day, it’s a process to adjust and create that comradery, something Swinney acknowledges.

“Obviously, build a team, that’s a big part of camp,” he said. “Now, you’re getting ready to be together all day every day from morning until 10 o’ clock at night. We are together everyday, all day, for the next two and a half weeks there is no school, there’s nothing. It’s just football. So, the team aspect of it, making sure we come out of this thing together.”

With those younger players, Swinney and his coaching staff then hope to mold his players into certain manners. This comes with practice, which doesn’t have any discrimination against practice time, it’s only reps.

“This is the first time we’ve been on the field with a lot of these guys and so we rep everybody,” Swinney said. “There’s no clock. . .we get everybody reps. So, there’s just a lot that you’re trying to get done in a short amount of time.”

As for the older group, which the team retained 80% of its roster from a season ago, the head coach still goes back to the basics, with simple mistakes sometimes being the difference between a win or a loss.

“You have a bunch of guys that can do more Day 1, but you’re only as good as your weakest link, so we start over every year,” Swinney said. "You’ve got to fall in love with the basics; it’s just that simple. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been here four years or whatever, it starts with the basics, and that’s what you have to be fanatical about.”

It creates an installation phase, which is important especially for the defense, who sees a new defensive coordinator in Tom Allen. However, all units go through this process, creating a universal message on whatever side you play on.

“Obviously, you got the football stuff where you’re going to get your installation in,” Swinney said. “You’ve got to install your offense, install your defense, your kicking game. You really want to spend a lot of time, because you have a lot of time on the fundamentals, the techniques.”

Clemson kicks off at home against LSU in exactly 30 days, meaning a strong fall camp is needed if the Tigers are to start the season with a win. For Swinney, throughout all the important decisions he has to make, it’s simply back to the basics.

“We’ve got a lot of decisions to make over the next couple of weeks,” he said, “but again, it just starts with the basics: how to practice.”