Clemson is ready to defend its title

If beating Alabama 44-16 in last year’s National Championship game was pinnacle for the Clemson Tigers, then you’re mistaken. These Tigers are just now hitting their stride. How unfortunate for the ACC and anyone else in their way. If Clemson wins their next two games, that would make them go 30-0 in the past two seasons.

These truly are the best days of this football program, even better when coach Danny Ford was on the sidelines. If that’s blasphemy to the folks in the upstate, then please allow a moment of clemency because that is just the gosh darn truth, folks. If you don’t believe me, then let me give you a history lesson. First of all Clemson always gets good football players. That is not a news flash. The issue in the past was that Clemson always looked the part, but somehow, someway would find a way to pull defeat from the jaws of victory, which in term gave us the term- “Clemsoning“. Yes, that word. It would come to haunt the football program for decades. Example A, back in 2000, Clemson was the # 3 team in the nation, fighting for a chance to play for the national title. Georgia Tech comes to town and wins with mere seconds by a late touchdown. Example B, back in 2008, the Tigers had the #1 recruiting class in the nation and expectations are high, only to get humbled in front of God and everybody by Alabama in the first game of the season. But then came Dabo.

Dabo Swinney took over the program in the middle of the 2008 season and has made Clemson a powerhouse. Swinney has been able to consistently recruit some of the best players in the country, year in and out and it’s paying huge dividends. Now, eleven years later, he and Clemson have two National Championships, six ACC Championships, and he has pretty much beat all the blue-blood programs: LSU, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Alabama, and Ohio. St. Throw some SEC schools too- Georgia, South Carolina,  and Texas a&m. So you see, Dabo has totally changed the culture at Clemson. He has made them a winner.

Once again, Clemson is in a familiar spot. They’re in the four-team playoff and will play the Ohio St Buckeyes this Saturday in the Fiesta Bowl.

Here are the keys to the game for Clemson:

1. Give Travis Etienne the rock. He has 1500 yards rushing for a reason-he’s a playmaker.
2. Give Trevor Lawrence enough time to find his three-headed monster in Tee Higgins, Justin Ross, and Amari Rogers.
3. Coach V needs to send the house after Dobbins and Fields. Tigers can’t afford to play passively on defense.
4. Special teams. I see it playing a big part in this game.

So there you have it. Clemson will not be intimated in this game. They have heard all year what a weak schedule they play and don’t even deserve to be in the playoff. They will use that motivation this Saturday against the Buckeyes.

The Fiesta Bowl is this Saturday at 8PM on ESPN.