Respect for undefeateds?
Clemson and Ohio State find themselves matched up after falling short of LSU’s perfection.
Even as his team was selected for its fifth consecutive College Football Playoff on Dec. 8, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney found a way to play the disrespect card.
“It’s the first time since 1966 that a team started the season No. 1, went undefeated through the regular season and finished third,” Swinney said. “OK. So that is history – the first time that has happened, so congratulations on that.”
With no small degree of sarcasm, Swinney continues to offer rhetoric designed to feed his team’s chip-on-the-shoulder mentality on a regular basis.
Clemson, which is the defending national champion, began the season ranked No. 1 and maintained that lofty status until a 21-20 victory at North Carolina on Sept. 28. Despite remaining undefeated, the Tigers fell to as low as No. 4 in both major polls and were No. 5 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings on Nov. 5.
The Tigers since moved up to No. 3, which is where they landed when the final CFP rankings were released Dec. 8.
When ESPN’s Rece Davis asked Swinney how he has been able to continually play the disrespect card despite his team owning the nation’s longest winning streak among FBS teams at 28 games, Swinney offered a quick response:
“Y’all make it easy for me,” he said.
Despite going undefeated for a second consecutive regular season and winning each of its last eight games by 30 points or more, the Tigers were unable to overtake fellow unbeatens LSU and Ohio State, who finished No. 1 and No. 2, respectively.
Clemson (13-0) will play Ohio
State (13-0) in the Fiesta Bowl semifinal at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on Dec. 28.
“We’re just excited to be in it, glad to have an opportunity to go back out to Arizona and play a great opponent in Ohio State,” Swinney said. “What an unbelievable season they’ve had. Congratulations to LSU and Oklahoma as well. We’re just glad to be in it.”
Once again, Swinney is using perceived slights against his team to provide fuel for his team entering the postseason.
“Everybody loves a challenge, or at least we love one here,” Swinney said. “You’re always looking for little things along the way … free fuel, man. When you’re going across country, man, free fuel is good. Gas costs a lot of money. So when you can get free fuel, it’s always good.”
Clemson, which has won two of the last three national championships and wrapped up its fifth consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference title with a 62-17 victory against Virginia last weekend, is the only team to have been selected for each of the last five College Football Playoffs.