Dabo Swinney does not have the luxury to let history repeat itself in a bad way this year. The Clemson Tigers' once-promising season totally unraveled on them after suffering back-to-back, early-season losses to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and the Syracuse Orange. Swinney said on Monday that Georgia Tech "beat us twice", causing the Tigers to not put their best foot forward against Syracuse.
"They absolutely kicked our teeth in last year," Swinney said of the Syracuse defeat at last season. "I was embarrassed by how we played in the first half of that game last year. It was an embarrassment. They scored [on] four possessions in a row." Clemson went on to go a miserable 7-6 last season. This was due in large part to the early losses the Tigers sustained from LSU, Georgia Tech, and Syracuse.
Fortunately, Clemson has found some momentum after the road victory over Florida State. The Tigers could have wallowed in their sorrows after the Virginia Tech defeat, but maturely chose not to. Given that Clemson plays Syracuse and Georgia Tech back-to-back, Swinney and his team will have a major opportunity to right two of last year's wrongs. They will have a third when playing Duke later on.
Dabo says Georgia Tech "beat us twice" and he didn't have his team ready to play vs. Syracuse last year (after Tigers lost on walk-off FG at GT the previous week). Praises Fran Brown's team for playing physical and said he expects the same thing from them on Saturday https://t.co/SzxgWQgyVB
— Chapel Fowler (@chapelfowler) November 3, 2026
Dabo Swinney has a much more mature Clemson team this year than last
While last year's Clemson team may have been more talented, this group seems to be much more mature, or at least battle-tested in some ways. In short, the 2026 Tigers have been dealt so much adversity and have handled better than expected. It is why they are one win away from being bowl eligible for the 28th consecutive season. Only Georgia, Ohio State, and Oklahoma have done that.
Although losses to a .500 Syracuse team or a Georgia Tech group that has to win out to achieve bowl eligibility would be bad for Clemson, last week's response to the Virginia Tech failure was resounding. Tait Reynolds played the best game of his young Clemson career. The defense was opportunistic, the special teams were great again, and the offense did more than enough for once. It was a sight to see!
Even if this team still really only has one way to win, it has answered the bell more often than not when the first sign of adversity hits it. Yes, there are some games where the Tigers are simply out-matched by a superior opponent, as was clearly the case at LSU and home against Miami. However, it does not seem to be a team that will lose the way it did to Georgia Tech, and then let it snowball into Syracuse.
Of course, the order of the games have been flipped, as have the locations. Clemson gets to take on Syracuse in its dome on Saturday afternoon, with a home date against Georgia Tech a week later. While Syracuse was not any bit good a season ago, Clemson still let the Georgia Tech loss beat them twice. Admittedly, Georgia Tech was a strong team a year ago, but it is the worst team in the ACC now.
If Clemson is the team it says it is, then it should have no problem winning both of these ACC games.
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