Swinney, Tigers Move Past LSU Loss

For the first time in 30 games, there was no dancing in the locker room.

There was no trophy ceremony for the team in orange.

There was no parade, no great speeches or championship gear to sell.

Clemson lost the national championship game to LSU 42-25 on Jan. 13 in New Orleans, handing head coach Dabo Swinney’s program its first loss since the 2017 Sugar Bowl.

“It was a gut punch,” Swinney said. “We were down for a couple of days and with our profession, and with what these kids are doing, we all come up short sometimes. We all have disappointment."

It was a pain this group wasn’t used to feeling.

Several players on the team, including star quarterback Trevor Lawrence, had never lost a college football game before that night.

Yet, there they were, watching the opponent celebrate a title they defended until the final game.

“It's a tough thing to lose,” Swinney said during last week’s National Signing Day press conference. “I was at the Super Bowl (Feb. 2). I was really excited for the Chiefs and our (former Clemson players), but I was really, really down for the other team because I've been on both sides, and it's tough. You put so much into it and the season has to end. I'd rather have to deal with that feeling than to never get there.”

And that’s why nearly a month later, the Tigers aren’t sulking.

Swinney has been pleased with the leadership of his players since the loss. He said Lawrence went around the locker room and talked to every teammate.

“I never experienced a loss with him, but he was amazing,” Swinney said. “How he handled it, how the team responded, and you know, back to work.”

Swinney believes his team will be back, and the track record backs that up.

Clemson has been in the last five College Football Playoffs and four national title games since 2015. Lawrence, running back Travis Etienne and receiver Justyn Ross are among many returning Tigers who made significant impacts in 2019.

“If we can continually be a team that has a shot then we will have those years where we will finish it,” Swinney said. “It just takes so much to get there so our guys have done a great job.”

The Tigers just landed a top-3 recruiting class nationally for 2020.

Plus, they accomplished a great deal during that 29-game winning streak that led to the second national title in the Swinney era in 2018.

“I like the fact that we were an ACC Champion team, Fiesta Bowl champion team, a playoff win, and a few plays away,” Swinney said. “We got beat by a great team. When you play in games like that you're going to play great teams. We are 6-3 in the playoff era in those games and they're hard.”

What Clemson ran into was a buzzsaw that ripped through the second 15-0 season in college football history, tying Swinney’s squad from the previous year.

LSU put on a dominant offensive performance and shut Clemson down in the second half in the Superdome.

“As a competitor, I have a great respect for the team that won because they won it,” Swinney said. “You shake their hand and tip your hat and you dust yourself off and get back up and get back in the fight. That's what we are going to do. It's over, it's a new year, a new decade, and a new journey.”

That fresh beginning really takes off Wednesday, when the coaches return from a weeklong hiatus and the players began “All-in" drills.

Attention turns to preparing for spring practice, which begins Feb. 26. Swinney puts together a ulta-detailed plan that breaks the calendar year into various phases.

Over the the course of the next couple weeks, the coaching staff will assess everything they did during the 2019 season, establish their strengths and weaknesses and look at what other teams did.

Then they’ll put together goals for the spring and plan on what they want to accomplish.

“We are back on the field (Feb. 26) and we start the process of building this 2020 team and getting ready for six and a half months,” Swinney said. “Our schedule is out so I can visualize that and most of our guys are here so we can start molding the team and see what we can do next year.”