5 inexcusable losses Dabo Swinney cannot afford to suffer this season leading Clemson

You win some, you lose some. That being said, Dabo Swinney has lost far too many games of late. He may be a future hall of fame head coach, but his Clemson Tigers have lost a little bit of their luster in recent seasons. Clemson went from making the College Football Playoff annually, to only reaching the playoffs once in the last five years. Swinney has to make sure his team does not lose bad games.

To hopefully prevent that, here is every team that Clemson will be playing during the regular season.

Clemson may only have eight games in ACC play this year, but the Tigers do draw two noteworthy SEC teams to book-end their season. They must open up in Baton Rouge in the second half of their home-and-home with the LSU Tigers. And of course, Clemson will host arch rival South Carolina in the Palmetto Bowl to wrap up November. Wins there are key, but are there any other ones to be had?

Here are five games Clemson fans will have every reason to be mad at Swinney should he lose them.

5. Virginia Tech Hokies (Oct. 24: Clemson, SC)

The Virginia Tech Hokies crack this list for three reasons. One, Clemson will effectively have had a double-bye heading into this ACC contest. After the home game vs. the Miami Hurricanes on Oct. 3, Clemson will be on its annual bye before hosting FCS Charleston Southern on Oct. 17 ahead of the Virginia Tech date. The second reason is that this game shall be at home, and not up in Blacksburg.

As far as the third reason is concerned, it has everything to do with it being a transitional year for the Hokies. James Franklin comes in with a ton of promise, but keep in mind that he got fired mid-season last year at Penn State. This came less than 12 months after the Nittany Lions were College Football Playoff semifinalists. Virginia Tech may bounce back in a hurry, so Clemson needs to take advantage.

A Virginia Tech home loss to a first-year head coach with two full weeks to prepare is unacceptable.

4. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (Nov. 14: Clemson, SC)

The Georgia Tech game is an interesting one to consider. It may be against a rival in the middle part of November, but there is a non-zero chance the Yellow Jackets might already be out of it by the time Nov. 14 rolls around. Brent Key is an excellent head coach, but he appears to have suffered major roster and coaching attrition. This team might be fighting for bowl eligibility around mid-November.

While Clemson could conceivably have two manageable road dates at Florida State, followed by at Syracuse, the Tigers must protect their house vs. a team that embarrassed them on The Flats a year ago. Clemson's early-season loss to the Ramblin' Wreck drove an early nail into their coffin for 2025 long before we even got to Halloween. For pride reasons, this cannot be a game that Swinney drops.

Furthermore, a Tech loss could exacerbate things with a quick turnaround at Duke only six days later.

3. Florida State Seminoles (Oct. 31, Tallahassee, FL)

There is no way around it. Florida State is a desperate football program. Mike Norvell might already be cooked. Frankly, he could be out of his job long before Halloween even rolls around. Regardless, the Seminoles had been a big rival of the Tigers not that long ago. These two schools used to dominate the upper echelon of the ACC in their so-called Bowden Bowl. A loss to Florida State would be pitiful.

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The game may be in Tallahassee, but Clemson would not have left home in over a month. Prior to heading to the Florida state capital on Oct. 31, the most recent time Clemson would have left South Carolina would be for the cross-country trip to Cal on Sept. 25. Clemson may face Miami and Virginia Tech before then, but those games shall be at home. Losing to Florida State would be so disastrous.

Until Florida State returns to its 2023 form, a defeat at the hands of the Seminoles is such a bad look.

2. South Carolina Gamecocks (Nov. 28: Clemson, SC)

Losing to South Carolina is never excusable. However, this year's edition of Palmetto offers a few interesting wrinkles. The first is that both teams were down last year after being top-16 teams two seasons ago. While there are no guarantees of what this year may bring, odds are, one of them will at least be compelling. There is also a head coach and quarterback situation at hand during this rivalry.

Swinney might be almost untouchable at Clemson, but Shane Beamer sits atop the hottest seat of any head coach in the SEC. While this game may be at home for the Tigers, Beamer's Gamecocks do have three physical freaks on their team in quarterback LaNorris Sellers, edge rusher Dylan Stewart, and wide receiver Nyck Harbor. If they are all studs, but Christopher Vizzina is not, that is problematic.

Clemson fans will not want to see Beamer peacocking all up and down Death Valley after a road win.

1. North Carolina Tar Heels (Sept. 19: Clemson, SC)

While the four other games are all variations of inexcusable if Clemson were to stumble, dropping an early-season home game to North Carolina would be a borderline fireable offense. Bill Belichick may be the greatest head coach in NFL history, but his Tar Heels were beyond dreadful a season ago. UNC definitely jumped the shark in hiring Belichick to replace another 70-something coach in Mack Brown.

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To be quite frank, this is only ACC game on Clemson's schedule where a loss would not be justifiable. It is a mid-September game at home after the Georgia Southern date to commence league play for the Tigers. A loss here would signify the end of all that has been so amazing about the Swinney era of Clemson football. Falling to North Carolina might be bad enough to potentially set in motion changes.

As painful as it sounds, an early-season home loss to UNC would bring into question bowl eligibility.

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