Dabo Swinney has been here before. Nearly a decade after hoisting the College Football Playoff trophy at the end of the 2016 season, the Clemson coach sees parallels between that championship team and this 2025 squad — which has failed to meet expectations thus far with a sluggish offense and 1-1 start. But instead of basking in preseason hype like Deshaun Watson’s group once did, the 2025 Tigers are dealing with something far less flattering.
“This group ain’t had the rat poison,” Swinney said Tuesday, referencing former Alabama coach Nick Saban’s term for media-driven hype. “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.”
The Tigers entered the year ranked No. 4 in the preseason AP Top 25 poll and were pegged by many as the favorite to repeat as ACC champions and return to the College Football Playoff. Quarterback Cade Klubnik, coming off a breakout junior campaign, was even viewed as a Heisman Trophy contender, surrounded by three returning starting receivers and a veteran offensive line.
Instead, Clemson opened with a humbling 17-10 loss to LSU and struggled through the first half against Troy before rallying to 27-16 win. For Swinney, the déjà vu is impossible to ignore.
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“I feel like I’m living 2016 all over again,” Swinney said. “I went back and looked at my notes from after that Troy game, and it was like I could’ve just erased the names and used the same comments. Different reasons, but same comments.”
The comparisons extend beyond shaky early performances. Clemson’s 2016 team began the season ranked No. 2 after falling to Alabama in the title game the year before. Watson was the Heisman favorite. The Tigers stumbled out of the gate — edging Auburn 19-13 and then narrowly escaping Troy — before finding their rhythm and eventually claiming the program’s first national championship since 1981.
That group, Swinney recalled, had trouble handling the weight of its own expectations. Clemson returned most of its starters from the 2015 team, including Watson, and players felt as if another trip to the national championship was inevitable. Swinney reminded them repeatedly that football doesn’t work that way.
“You don’t just hit fast forward,” Swinney said. “This ain’t a video game or a TV where on the screen you just hit 10 seconds forward, that ain’t how this works. It’s one step at a time, one play at a time. You’ve got to play every game, you’re getting everybody’s best shot.”
This year’s team faces a different reality: questions about whether it belongs among the nation’s elite, having already dropped to No. 12 in the AP Top 25. Clemson’s offense has been the focus of much of the scrutiny.
Through Week 2, the Tigers rank 99th nationally in offensive success rate (42.5%) and 63rd in explosive play rate (12.4%), according to TruMedia. Those figures are a far cry from preseason projections that cast Clemson as one of the nation’s most balanced offenses, built around Klubnik’s arm and a veteran receiving corps.
“Our execution is just not where it needs to be,” Swinney said. “The precision and the details, it’s just not. I’ve got great players. I’ve got guys that are going to play on Sunday, but everybody’s got a job to do.”
Clemson opens ACC play Saturday at Georgia Tech — just as it did in 2016. Back then, the Tigers rolled to a 26-7 victory in Atlanta and found their footing for the stretch run. Swinney hopes for a similar turning point this weekend.
“We continue like this, we ain’t going to win many games,” Swinney said. “We got to get in a rhythm on offense.”
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