After a disastrous 1-3 start, the Clemson Tigers rallied to secure their fifteenth straight winning season, leaving the head coach praising his roster's resilience despite a frustrating finish.
Clemson entered Week 1 of the 2025 campaign ranked No. 4 before taking on LSU at Memorial Stadium.
By the end of September, the Tigers were 1-3, having lost to LSU, Georgia Tech, and Syracuse. The Orange defeated Clemson 34-21.
It was a disastrous start, but the Tigers pulled it together enough to somewhat salvage the season, avoid a losing season, and make a bowl game (that they'd lose to Penn State 22-10 in the Pinstripe Bowl).
During an interview with Brett McMurphy of On3, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said more focus should be on his players winning seven games, not losing six.
He's "proud" of the Tigers’ four-game winning streak at the end of the regular season, which included victories over Florida State, Louisville, Furman, and South Carolina.
“As we’ve made it all about the playoffs, and we were out of the playoffs early at 1-2 – the 55-yard field goal (in a loss) at Georgia Tech– just kind of knocked the wind out of us, and it took us a little bit," Swinney said. "But, but again, everybody focuses on what we didn’t do, but then I’m proud of what they did do.
“And they got up and they stayed together and they didn’t quit. I mean, these kids won four in a row to secure a winning season for the 15th year in a row. And again, that’s not our goal, but it’s 15 winning seasons in a row. And it was a tough year."
Swinney noted that bad seasons happen to all coaches.
“A frustrating year, but just a year," Swinney said. "It’s not a bad decade, you know? I don’t push back on the criticism from last year, right? We stunk, I stunk. We didn’t coach to our potential and we didn’t play to our potential, and that’s my job as a head coach.
“And it didn’t work last year. And if you do this long enough, you can have a year where it just doesn’t work. I don’t care if you’re Roy Williams or Coach K, or Dabo Swinney. It doesn’t matter. It’s what you do moving forward."
The Tigers will need to see major improvement this season to stay in the CFP conversation with Miami building a conference dynasty. Based on the roster, it's fair to wonder if Clemson can compete with Miami, or if new expectations will be the norm going forward.