Clemson football: What ever happened to ‘best is the standard?’

If you take a trip inside the state-of-the-art Clemson football facilities just in the shadow of Death Valley, it won’t take long for you to see the phrase ‘Best Is The Standard‘ plastered on the wall.

Dabo Swinney coined the phrase for his program several years and since that point, it has served as a reminder to his players that no matter the opponent or situation, they are to give their very best.

From summer workouts to grueling practices to the classroom to top-5 matchups watched by millions to games against lesser opponents that result in blowouts, the team has been urged to play to ‘the standard,’ not comparing themselves with others or settling for ‘good enough.’

That, unfortunately, hasn’t been the case for this current 2021 Clemson football team.

What ever happened to ‘Best Is The Standard’ for Clemson football?

An abysmal 14-8 win over a bad Georgia Tech team would be much easier to swallow if the Clemson coaching staff would’ve just come out and admitted fault. If they would’ve just said that they didn’t play good football and need to improve.

Instead, we got more of the same coach speak and talk about how ‘they got the win and that’s the important thing.’

Tony Elliott– someone who gets paid millions of dollars– was asked about going under center in that final offensive play that resulted in a safety and his response was simply that the Tigers “don’t do that.”

And then Swinney had this comment, as well:

There is still a contingent of the Clemson football fanbase who are upset that any Tiger fans are questioning anything. They say ‘a win is a win’ and that fans need to move on and stop being ungrateful.

If that’s your stance, I just want to ask one question: What happened to ‘best is the standard?’ 

In his post game press conference, Dabo Swinney said the ‘goal is to win,’ but really– if we’re still living by that motto– the goal should be to play to the standard. Settling for mediocre offense in the name of ‘well, we at least got the win’ isn’t good enough. I can guarantee you that Nick Saban– and the standard that he holds his program to– wouldn’t have just been happy squeaking out a win over a mediocre team.

Can we really say that the offense played to that standard on Saturday? Can we really say that the coaching staff prepared to that standard leading up to the game or that they coached to that standard during the matchup? Can we say that the standard was met? If so and that’s the best this team has, that’s one thing. But, if you look at the talent they possess and think this wasn’t their best, it’s okay to question it.

I don’t blame the players here, either. The shoulder of this blame has to go on the coaching staff. Complacency is a real thing and I’m just beginning to wonder if we’re starting to see some of that here, particularly on the offensive side of the ball.

I’m hopeful that this game might serve as a legitimate wake-up call for the Tigers and that we’ll see them begin to take major strides the rest of this season, but at some point, we’ve got to decide if ‘best’ really still is the standard around here or not.