In Dabo's Own Words: Clemson Doesn't Worry About Style Points

In this episode of "In His Own Words," Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney recalls why after five trips to the College Football Playoff and two national championships, he is not concerned winning games a certain way or pleasing a pollster. Instead, he is focused on accomplishing his goals—none of which are winning a national title.

In this episode of "In His Own Words," Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney recalls why after five trips to the College Football Playoff and two national championships, he is not concerned winning games a certain way or pleasing a pollster. Instead, he is focused on accomplishing his goals—none of which are winning a national title.

"Our goal is not to be in the national championship. That's not on our goal board. Our goals are to win the opener, to win the division, to win our state championship, to win the ACC, and to win the closer. That's our goal. Anything that happens outside of that is out of our control.

"If we do get a chance to go to the playoffs, the national championship, somebody wins some great award, those are all just products of our weekly commitment.

"So those are things you don't control. That's why I've never put on there, We'll go to the national championship. What if you did win all your games and somebody doesn't vote you in there? It's not any different than it was when it was the two teams that were playing.

"Our goals are what I just stated. But in a nutshell, it's just to be the best we can be, the best version each and every week. As I said yesterday, we can win every game 13-12, I'll take it. If that's not good enough to get us to the national championship, so be it. Again, those are all things that are subjective.

"At Clemson, with the schedule that we play, if we win every game 3-0, I think when it's all said and done, we would have that opportunity. Again, we don't control that.

"But the objective is to try to win. It's just like my golf game. When I make a 4, I just write a 4 on the card. It's a 4. It doesn't say that I hit the woods, shanked it off a tree, it landed up miraculously by the green, I chipped up, one-putted. It just says 4.

"That's the bottom line for us. We got 12 games on our schedule. Man, we want to win 'em all. Our philosophy here is you can't win 12 until you win three. If we get 10 along the way, we want to win 11. We want to put everything we got each and every week into that game, trying to find a way to win."