Dabo Swinney, Clemson eager to wipe away scars from disappointing close to promising 2022 season

It's a full circle, deja vu moment for Dabo Swinney and No. 11 Clemson.

Two years ago, as the Tigers entered November, Swinney's team was undefeated at 8-0 with its eyes set on a return to the College Football Playoff. Clemson was coming off a bye week. On the schedule was a trip up to South Bend to take on a 5-3 Notre Dame squad that had already suffered losses to Marshall and Stanford earlier in the season. The Tigers were only favored by 3.5 points, but Swinney's team trailed 28-0 at one point in the fourth quarter.

Clemson eventually lost, 35-14.

"We were coming off a bye week, so I guess we weren't focused, and Notre Dame was kind of having a down year, so we thought we were just gonna go in there and it was going to be an easy win," wide receiver Antonio Williams said on Wednesday. "Heads were boosted and high, and we didn't play well at all. We went in there and got embarrassed."

Three weeks later, the Tigers turned the ball over three times and were outscored 17-7 in the second half, losing on their home field to South Carolina, 31-30.

"Having that pain of regret and seeing what it feels like to be 8-0 and to go up to South Bend and get your butt kicked in front of everybody and then come lose at home to your rival, it's a pretty bad feeling," offensive guard Walker Parks said. "There's a lot of guys that were on that team that are back on this team now, and they know what it felt like."

"We've tried to get it across to the team that we don't want to have that happen again," linebacker Wade Woodaz said.

Fast forward two years later, and Swinney's team is back in a similar spot. Clemson is once again coming off a bye week, and has all of its season goals on the table. Oddly enough, Louisville is a 5-3 team.

"It's weird how fast we've reached that point again," Parks said. "Different story, obviously we're not undefeated this time, but in that season, I think we all kind of expected to win and maybe didn't take opponents as seriously as we needed to, or maybe some guys here and there didn't prepare as well. I think coming into this season, being back in a similar position, it's not going to take anything different, having that experience is good."

Swinney admitted that while both two years ago and last year had good, enjoyable moments, the Tigers will need to perform at a much higher level to reach where they want to reach again.

"We screwed it up," Swinney said on Wednesday evening. "That team was good enough to be there, we won the league, but had one really bad outing. We lost by one point at home with a lead in the fourth quarter, we didn't finish. So that's really what's kept us from being great is finishing. Last year, we finished really well, but we didn't get off to the start that we wanted. But the same thing, we didn't finish those games early in the season — overtime, double overtime, pick six, we had plenty of opportunity at Duke, two fumbles on the 1-yard line, we didn't finish the drive. We finished the season well, we had a good season. But if we're gonna have a great season, you gotta put it all together. And so here we are, right where we were a couple years ago and these guys, they've got an opportunity right in front of them and we'll see if they're committed enough to do what they need to do to finish."

From this point on, Clemson will face tough challenges. And from this point on, the Tigers will need to treat each and every game like a title is on the line. Because essentially, it is.

"I've been trying to tell some of the guys to just keep that intensity, keep that focus, keep that end goal in mind and just prepare with that goal in mind every day," Williams said.

"I would just say treating every game like a championship game," running back Phil Mafah said. "Coach Swinney always talks about how this is the time where teams and players start to get a little down because we're in the middle of the season and guys are getting tired, feeling sorry for themselves. But this is the time where we really gotta lock in and focus on what we want to do, because we've worked so hard these past 10 months to focus on this moment. And the moment's here. We're exactly where we want to be, so this is the time we've got to dial in like we haven't before."