Dabo Swinney on if Clemson can still make the Playoff: "Absolutely"

Past experience tells Dabo Swinney that if his team can keep winning, they have a chance for another Playoff berth.

by TigerNet Staff - Mon Nov 14 21:22:24 GMT-04:00 2022

Clemson (9-1) awaits its new College Football Playoff ranking Tuesday after a No. 10 spot last week and No. 6 Oregon falling over the weekend ahead of them.

Metrics vary on the Tigers' chances to close the gap to a top-4 position over the next three gameweeks, but Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney is a believer.

"Absolutely," Swinney said on his call-in show on if Clemson can still make the Playoff. "Heck, he lost a game in 2016 and ended up winning the national championship. It all works out the way it's supposed to. All I know is we stay focused on our goals.

"That's why winning the national championship isn't on our goal board. Because we don't control that. At all. We could hit every goal and somebody could say, 'No, we don't like you. You don't get a chance to go play for it.' That's why it's never been a goal of ours. It's a byproduct of what can happen when you're committed to the standard that we have and when you achieve the goals that we have. Our goals are set up to allow us to compete at the highest level. And when we've hit all those goals, we've won the national championship."

And those goals are all still reachable.

"The first goal was to win the opener and then it was to win the division. Next up is to win the state championship and then it's to win the league and then it's win the closer," Swinney said. "We just focus on that, and the rest of it you don't control. The reality is, only four teams go to the Playoff, out of 131. It's really hard to do that -- to even get there -- and to win is another thing. We just keep playing the games and continue to keep being a consistent program is all we focus on and all the rest of that stuff you can't worry about all that."

In terms of gaining respect, Swinney and the Tigers are only focused on each week's victory, starting with the 3:30 p.m. game hosting Miami (5-5) this weekend.

"If you just keep winning, all that stuff will take care of itself because if you win and you achieve the goals that we have and get the opportunity we have on the biggest stage -- nobody's been to six final fours in a row. Nobody," Swinney said. "We're the only school, and if it was easy to do, there'd be other people who did it. And then we've beaten the best of the best. You can't beat nobody better than Alabama, and not only have we beaten them, we've won a one-possession game and we've won a blowout. So, that's all you can do is keep winning when you have opportunities on that stage -- you have to win. It's hard.

"We've had some moments where we didn't play as well. We have the second-most wins. Those are really hard games to win. Alabama's got the most. We've got the second-most. Alabama, as good as they've been, they're 2-3 in the last five national championships. These are really hard games. There have been a lot of blowouts. We got our butts kicked against Ohio State a couple years ago, but we're 3-1 against Ohio State.

"We've been them a couple times in that platform. The bottom line is you have to stay consistent, because if you stay consistent, you'll continue to put yourself in those moments and you've got to win your share of games. That's all you can do is focus on that."