When ESPN’s Rece Davis placed Clemson at No. 1 in his preseason AP Top 25 ballot, he believed Dabo Swinney’s program had the pieces to make a title run. Four games later, with the Tigers sitting at 1-3 for the first time since 2004, Davis sees something deeper than just X’s and O’s holding Clemson back.
On the College GameDay Podcast, Davis admitted the Tigers look like a team without unity.
“I want to preface this by saying, I don’t believe this is the case,” Davis said. “But how they play on the field is they play like a team that doesn’t really like each other. Not like they dislike each other, but that they’re sort of ambivalent about each other. There’s not the stinger, the spirit, the hunger — that’s what’s missing.”
Losing the Edge at the Mountaintop
Davis invoked a quote from Georgia Tech’s Brent Key, borrowing from Nick Saban: “A lot more guys have died trying to come back down Mount Everest than they did going up Mount Everest.” The message: once you reach the mountaintop, it’s harder to maintain the same fire.
“That applies to Clemson,” Davis said, suggesting the Tigers have lost the edge that once defined Swinney’s best teams.
Can Dabo Fix It?
Despite the criticism, Davis hasn’t given up on Swinney’s ability to turn things around. “I think Dabo can fix it. Maybe this is just a bad mix of ingredients or not a championship mix,” Davis said.
Still, he doesn’t see a path to the ACC title game and predicts more struggles ahead.
“They have two ACC losses. It seems impossible that they would make the ACC Championship,” Davis said. “I think there are more losses in front of Clemson, based on what I’ve seen. I don’t think they are done losing, but you never know.”