The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Clemson, Swinney pursue that one special season
Tigers hoping to build on success and break through to higher level.
At first, Pretty Danged Good is hard to argue with.
In earning that distinctly Southern honorific, a college football program starts stringing together double-digit winning seasons. It discovers ways to finally beat its vilest rival. It carves out a regular spot somewhere in the body of the Top 25 and does a better than adequate job in placing its alums in the NFL.
Eventually, though, Pretty Danged Good wears pretty danged thin and the yowling mob wants something more.
So, here comes Clemson, the preseason pick of the ACC media to win the conference in 2015, making noise like it is time for a promotion.
“I think it’s time for Clemson to take that next step,” senior guard Eric Mac Lain said. “I think the stars are aligning with the athletes we have coming back and the changing of the coordinators. Wherever they’ll take us, we’re ready to take that step.”
Or, to put a bit more oomph into the imagery: “I think this is the year we try to take the next step and kick the door down,” Mac Lain said.
What comprises that next step, that vandalism to the unsuspecting door to a special season? Avoiding those one or two ugly zits that pop up on game day every year. Supplanting Florida State as the class of the conference. Getting into that new-fangled college football playoff.
Dabo Swinney begins his seventh season coaching the Tigers on a big upswing. For the first time in his reign, they beat South Carolina last season. Then dismantled Oklahoma in the bowl game.
And his schedule sets up as complimentary as possible this season. The three preseason-ranked teams on the docket — Notre Dame, Georgia Tech and Florida State — all must pass through Clemson. (The Tigers open Saturday at home vs. Wofford).
The Tao of Dabo — in which consistency in all things is paramount — rings loud these days.
“We’re at a point now where our guys feel like we’re one of the better programs in the country and we want to stay there,” Swinney said. “If we can, maybe we put that special year together when we get a break or two and get it done.”
Swinney, whose victories in the last three years have included some prized nonconference pelts like the Sooners, Ohio State, LSU and Auburn, believes the Clemson brand is a legitimately national one. Yeah, they have been pretty danged good. To be better will mean avoiding the high-profile losses, as well (like last season, to Georgia, FSU and Georgia Tech).
“We’ve won some big games against some big nonconference opponents,” Swinney said. “It has helped us develop the mentality that you have to have in your program. Guys have to learn how to compete, learn how to win. They have to be exposed to the best.
“We’ve been able to do that with our guys over the last six years. When you win those games, it builds a confidence within your culture, then slowly it creates a different perception for your brand nationally, and for your conference.”
His challenges include rebuilding a defense that contributed much grist to the NFL draft — including two of the first five players taken by the Falcons. And getting set with new co-offensive coordinators Jeff Scott and Tommy Elliott. And establishing a respectable running game, which used to be a Clemson given.
Last season, the Tigers defense ranked first in the nation in 11 defensive categories, including fewest points allowed. Think of what they could have been had they been able to keep dynamic quarterback Deshaun Watson upright.
So many Clemson aspirations rest upon Watson’s fragile frame. In just eight games last year — missing five oth- ers due to knee and hand injuries — Watson (6-foot-2, 210 pounds) made such an impression that the 19-year-old sophomore was installed as the ACC’s preseason player of the year by the omniscient media. Throwing for 1,466 yards and 14 touchdowns and rushing for a couple hundred more yards in that brief sample will turn some heads.
The kid beat Carolina with a torn knee, so, yeah, he’s kind of important.
Watson, Swinney said, has “done a tremendous job with his rehab process,” but the coach would just as soon he not become expert in that field.
The verbally agile Swinney is not one to short-sell such a talent as this. So, we’ll let him have his head a little more on the subject of his young quarterback:
“It’s a privilege and a blessing to have a guy like that on your team. We’re very fortunate to have a bunch of good players but especially one like Deshaun. He’s fun to be around, he’s consistent, always the same day to day. He’s a great preparer, he loves the process of being a good quarterback. He has a work ethic that’s contagious.
“When your best player is also one of your best workers and best leaders, that’s a good combination.”
It has been a good start to the season for the Tigers. They have been sprinkled with all kinds of preseason pixie dust (ranked 12th preseason). The clown who chipped a piece off Frank Howard’s rock in 2013 finally was sentenced to a small fine and 25 days of community service. Good vibes all around.
Now, the difficult work: Hanging a little substance onto that tenuous framework.
Pretty Danged Good is but the baseline. So reads the Tao of Dabo. “We’re not trying to be Ohio State,” the coach said. “We’re trying to be Clemson, and the best Clemson that we can be.
“I want to compete at the highest level and I don’t have any doubt that at Clemson we can do just that.”