Sunday Notebook:Tigers Saved Their Best for FSU

For Swinney, the joy following beating Florida State for a fifth straight season came because his Tigers did exactly what he wanted them to do—put the game away early

CLEMSON—Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney was all smiles as he recalled the Tigers' best performance of the season.

For Swinney, the joy following beating Florida State for a fifth straight season came because his Tigers did exactly what he wanted them to do—put the game away early

"Okay, really just proud of our team. What a great, great job with our team," Swinney said. "Huge, huge step in the right direction. You know, that was really talented football team that we just beat. A very talented team, and one of those teams that you get off to a slow start and you let them hang around because they can run with us, but I tell you, we were ... the formula kind of went the way we needed it to go today. 

"As far as getting the fast start, made some big plays, or play makers really played probably their best game. It was our best game for sure to this point and just a huge win. Good to see us look like a really confident team today. It was really good.

Etienne returns to form: Running back Travis Etienne had two weeks to stew over his performance in the Tigers one-point win at North Carolina. His performance at North Carolina included missing key blocks and not doing the little things right.

But all of that was corrected in Saturday's 45-14 win over Florida State.

"I mean his fundamentals were terrible at North Carolina," Swinney said. "Looked like he had never played before, you know? The good news is we have lots pf great film capturing him doing everything right, you know, but he just had a bad day. His fundamentals were terrible, his technique was terrible, he's playing on the edges, he's playing with his shoulder and he really hurt us in pass protection, but he cares. He just had a bad day, and we all have bad days, but how you respond, and man he came back and we had that touchdown, and he picked it up. 

"He did an awesome job and just really proud of him, and I knew he'd play well. I knew he would. I knew that ... I told him (Friday) night, 'We're going to play our best game.' Just how they prepared, the focus that they had and the energy that they had and I'm just thankful that they took it to the field."

Tigers in the polls: The Tigers held at No. 2 in the coaches poll, as LSU surged from No. 5 to No. 3 after their win over then No. 7 Florida. However, the most surprising poll was the AP, which dropped the Tigers from No. 2 to No. 3 after their dominant 45-14 win over FSU Saturday. 

LSU took over the No. 2 spot in the AP Poll.

Injury Update: "So, came through the game really well," Swinney said. "We pulled Tee (Higgins) out. Tee kind of strained his hamstring and we pulled him out. Just really didn't ... I think it was 42-0 or something, and you know, he came over, said he just kind of felt it tighten up a little bit, so we just held him out, but he set the tone. Had the first big play of the game and did a nice job there, but other than that I think we're in pretty good shape."