Since January, Clemson has let it be known that the 2018 Tigers were the best team ever.
They were the first in the modern era of college football to go 15-0. They beat the team everyone in the media called the best team ever by 28 points in the national championship game. They even put “Best Ever” on their championship rings.
However, is last year’s national championship team’s “Best Ever” status in jeopardy? Dabo Swinney thinks it is.
“The team last year was the best ever and you just look at that team versus this team and there is not much difference,” he said during his teleconference with the local media on Sunday evening. “In fact, we’re ahead in a lot of areas and can be much further ahead if we left some of these guys in there to play some of these fourth quarters where we had control of the games.”
Since nearly being upset on Sept. 28 at North Carolina, Clemson has resembled last year’s team. The Tigers continue to get better each week and over the last three games have averaged 49.7 points and 592.3 yards per game in blowout victories over Florida State, Louisville and Boston College.
Clemson (8-0, 6-0 ACC) currently rank 4th nationally in total offense and total defense, the only team in the country who can make that claim.
“But that is not what it is about for us. It is about getting better each week, learning, developing moral, developing depth, working on the chemistry of your team. All of those things take time. You don’t just hit the ground (running) in Week 1,” Swinney said. “How many teams come out of the gate and everybody is talking about how great they are? Then they don’t get any better or whatever. So, we just don’t get too high and don’t get too low. We just work each week. We coach, teach, correct and challenge and then make the right decisions and adjustments whether it be personnel, game planning or whatever it is from week to week.
“We give our guys a chance to win every week. When you do that with good leadership and your guys respond to the coaching, then you should get better and that is certainly the case for us.”
The Tigers are far from a finished product in 2019, but as they head into what Swinney calls their “Championship Phase” of the season, they are right where they want to be.
Saturday’s win over Boston College was the best game they have played all year. Clemson scored the first six times it touched the football and never looked back in route to a 59-7 victory.
The offense tallied a season high in points and yards (674), while the defense held BC’s strong running game to a season low 97 yards and 2.2 yards per carry. As a whole the Eagles managed just 177 yards and 2.9 per play.
In the last three weeks overall, the Tigers have outscored their opponents by a combined score of 149-31.
“The last three weeks we have played really well. We have been really close to having a game like we had Saturday night where I think we just clicked on all cylinders,” Swinney said. “So, every week is a season of its own, it really is. Nothing carries over, nothing. Nothing carries over good and nothing carries over bad. You have to earn it every week and this team is growing into what we want them to be, this was a very young team with 80 freshmen and sophomores. This is a very young team. But I am super proud of our staff and the leadership on this team with where we are right now after eight games.
“I’m excited about November coming up and hope to have the kind of finish we want to have. We are in control of our division and we got about 20 days left to the division finish line, so every day is critical. We have to make the most of it.”
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