Little Things Help the Tigers When It Comes to the Big Things
For Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, there is a reason that his program has been able to maintain their dominance regardless of the opponent--they make a big deal out of the little things.
"Well, I think a couple things. One, we're the same," Swinney said. "There's a winning performance at every position. We're not asking them to be perfect, but there is a winning performance at each position. If you're a wideout, that winning grade for us is 85 percent. If you're a linebacker, it's 80 percent. If you're a D-lineman, it's 75 -- we have a grade. We make a big deal out of that. It's not who we play, it's how we play, and that's what we talk about."
It is that belief that helped the Tigers amass a 15-0 record last season--while capturing their second national title in the last three seasons.
Clemson has a 117-23 record in the decade of the 2010s. That computes to an greater than 82% winning percentage, the best for any decade in school history and the first time Clemson has won more than 80 percent in a single decade.
In the 1980s, Clemson had a 76.7 winning percentage (87-25-4), the nation’s fifth-best winning percentage. Clemson did not have a losing season in any year in the 1980s under head coach Danny Ford, who coached every game in that decade. Dabo Swinney has coached every game in the decade of the 2010s and has eight winning seasons and one losing season (6-7 in 2010).
But it is not just the fact that the Tigers make every game about themselves and not the opponent that helps them amass wins a record-setting pace.
"And then the other thing is, so accountability to that winning performance, number one, and then the other thing is we make every game the biggest game of the year," Swinney said. "People don't like to hear that during the week, but if you don't have that mindset, then that creeps in. Fans have that mindset. They look at the schedule and they go, oh, well, you're playing Eastaboga State this week, well, now we don't have to practice hard.
"Oh, we're playing Alabama this week, okay, let's really meet, let's really practice hard.And if that's your culture, then you're going to be like this all the time. But when you make every game the biggest game of the year, and in college football it is the biggest game of the year. Everybody wants to expand these playoffs. We've had a playoff since September. Every game has been a playoff game to get to this point.
"Every game. If we'd have lost to whoever, we're probably not here. If we had lost to Pitt in the ACC Championship, we're not (in the championship). If we had lost to South Carolina we're not (in the championship). Every game is a playoff game."
Clemson’s 1981 National Championship team was the first ACC team to win 12 games in a season. Florida State accomplished the feat five times between 1993 and 2014, including a streak of three seasons with at least 12 wins from 2012-14. They won a then-record 14 games (14-0) in 2013, a mark tied by Clemson in 2015 and 2016, before it was broke by the 15-0 2018 squad.
Regardless of who the 2020 Tigers beat, or what they look like on offense or defense or what teams they beat, they will have one thing in common with every other Clemson team since 2009--the mindset that Swinney has worked so hard to entrench in the program.
"You just try to play the very best that you can," Swinney said. "And so when you get in these moments, whether it's a huge game late in the season, both teams are undefeated, a lot on the line, whatever, it's just the next big moment, because every week has been a huge moment. So that's a mindset that you have to create, and you've got to get the young people to buy into and the coaches to buy into, and that tone is set from the head coach.
"You're going to get everybody's best every week. So if you don't show up with that mindset, you're inconsistent.I think however we do it, that's what's created the consistency in our programs for sure.
