Reading too many headlines. Buying too much preseason hype. Ingesting what legendary Alabama coach Nick Saban called “rat poison.”
Are these to blame for No. 12 Clemson’s sluggish 1-1 start to the 2025 season? Dabo Swinney seems to think so. During his Tuesday media address, the Tigers’ head coach was brutally honest about a team that was preseason top five and one of the most talked about national championship contenders.
Through two games, they’ve looked like anything but that. The offense failed to score a touchdown in the second half against LSU in the opener and again in the first half against Troy last Saturday. It took a second-half rally and a spark from the run game to overcome a 16-point deficit to beat the Trojans 27-16.
The defense has only given up three touchdowns all year, but there have been some mental lapses that have led to big plays. Is a team that overachieved to an extent last year simply not dealing with preseason hype this year?
“This group hasn’t had the rat poison,” Swinney said. “They’ve just had the ‘you suck poison.’ This is the first time this group has really had to manage that. And I don’t think some of them have managed it well, obviously. Just being real.”
Swinney very well could be right. Something is definitely off about the Tigers. Aside from the opener against Georgia in 2024, the offense was super productive a year ago. This season, they rank 120th in total offense and 110th in scoring offense through the first two weeks.
Swinney compared this group to 2016’s, a team that started slow but ended up winning Clemson’s second national championship. That squad also dealt with “rat poison” coming off a year in which the Tigers made it to the final game in 2015.
“You don’t just hit fast forward. It doesn’t work that way,” Swinney said he told the 2016 team. “It’s one step at a time. It’s one play at a time. You’re getting everybody’s best shot. I don’t think they handled that well out of the gate.”
He finds himself saying the same things to this year’s team, which made the CFP last year. Swinney even looked back at his notes after a Week 2 win over the same Troy program, and the messages were very similar.
The root causes for a lackadaisical start, however, are vastly different. Swinney said the 2025 Tigers simply aren’t doing what they’re supposed to do.
“Our execution is just not what it needs to be,” Swinney said. “The precision and the attention to detail, it’s just not. I got great players. I’ve got guys that are going to play on Sunday, but everybody’s got a job to do.”
“Accountability” is a word Swinney is falling back on. He said if he felt like the players weren’t in position to make plays, it would be a different story. But a week after blasting offensive coordinator Garrett Riley for not giving the Tigers more scoring opportunities in the opener, Swinney was asking more out of his players, especially quarterback Cade Klubnik, who’s gotten off to an uncomfortable start.
“If Cade throws the touchdown to Tyler Brown (against LSU) and we win in overtime, I’m still pissed on Monday,” Swinney said. “Ain’t nothing changed. It’s how you play. I’ve won a lot of games where we played like crap. I’ve lost some games where we played really good. Sometimes the (opponent) is just better.”
That wasn’t the case in Week 2, which is why Swinney is still beating the execution drum. Are the Tigers, especially on offense, better than what they’ve shown so far? Honestly, there might not be an answer yet.
It is, however, very plausible that this team bought into the hype, felt too good about itself, saw all the NFL draft predictions and the CFP prognostications with them in it, and just thought this was going to be easy.
Still, Swinney found some solace last week and was complimentary of his team’s refusal to lose against Troy, which was a 30.5-point underdog.
“It’s special when you see a group of guys fight and stay together when everything is against you,” he said. “That was awesome.”
Maybe that continues. Maybe this week is the one where Clemson wakes up, starts the game with increased urgency, and executes better. If the Tigers don’t, they’re staring down a losing record before Week 4. Georgia Tech (2-0), Saturday’s opponent at noon, is more than capable of beating this ACC favorite.
“We'd better be on point this Saturday,” Swinney said. “It’s going to be a battle.”