‘Clemsoning’ a dirty word to Dabo Swinney

There usually isn’t much a coach can gain with a press conference blowup. Rants quickly go viral, and whoever loses their cool ends up a punchline for a few days. A recent example: Now-former Maryland coach Randy Edsall punctuating his tenure with a walk-off presser on Saturday.

Sometimes, though, the coach is fully justified to provide a scalding reply. Enter Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, who finally got tired of hearing about “Clemsoning” after his Tigers ripped Georgia Tech on Saturday to earn their 33^rd consecutive victory over an unranked team.

“I think it’s ridiculous that you’re even asking me the question, that you even say the word,” Swinney said during his postgame press conference after Clemson improved to 5-0. “I’m serious. I’m sick of it. I don’t even know why we bring up the dadgum word. How about some of these other teams out there that lose to unranked opponents all the time?”

Here’s the thing: He’s right.

Only one other FBS team has a longer winning streak against unranked foes: Alabama, which has won 57 in a row against unranked teams dating back to 2007. Only two more teams (Florida State with 30 and Michigan State with 25) have streaks of longer than 20 consecutive triumphs against unranked opponents.

(Those figures help illustrate the massive gap between Clemson and Florida State and the rest of the ACC over the last few years, but that’s a conversation for another day).

There was a time when the Tigers spit out silly losses like clockwork. A top-25 Clemson team lost seven home games to unranked teams between 2000 and 2008, a laughable number of letdowns. Little wonder there was a pot by the side of the road just outside of town that read “Tommy Bowden’s buyout fund” after Clemson fell to an unranked Maryland team in 2008. A few days later, Bowden was gone.

In short, the Tigers earned their ridicule for a long time. But nearly four years have gone by since Clemson’s last real befuddling clunker, a 37-13 loss at N.C. State in 2011. Trying to tag Clemson as anything other than one of the top dozen or so programs in the country over the last 4 ½ years is simply looking for an excuse to pick on the Tigers.

“It’s not doing your homework and paying attention to what reality is,” Swinney said. “I should not be asked that question.”

In 2015, at least, he shouldn’t be.

Trivia

Wake Forest has won a game in back-to-back seasons without scoring seven points (6-3 over Virginia Tech last year, 3-0 at Boston College on Saturday). Who was the last ACC team to do that?

Eagles left punchless

If the first half of this season has illustrated anything, it’s that Boston College’s ability to land Tyler Murphy last year as a graduate transfer was one of the most valuable additions to any ACC team in the last few seasons.

Murphy was a veteran quarterback familiar with Eagles coach Steve Addazio, and he helped mask some of Boston College’s offensive shortcomings. But after the effective use of Murphy as a stopgap ran its course, Addazio didn’t have any more waiver wire sorcery up his sleeve and Boston College turned to Darius Wade. The sophomore, who was used sparingly last year, suffered a broken ankle in the third game of the season.

Now, the Eagles have a raw true freshman (Jeff Smith) and a redshirt freshman who also isn’t ready (Troy Flutie). Also, they have seven points in three conference games – and actually had hope of winning two of those contests well into the fourth quarter thanks to a stout defense.

Boston College (3-3, 0-3 ACC) isn’t doomed to a losing season yet, but an offense on pace to score 19 points in conference play can’t be fixed easily. That would be the lowest season-long scoring output for an ACC team in league play since Virginia scored 14 points over two games in 1954.

Answer

Prior to Wake Forest in 2014 and 2015, the last ACC team to score less than seven points in a victory in back-to-back seasons was Duke, which defeated Georgia Tech in 1960 (6-0) and North Carolina in 1961 (6-3). Additionally, no ACC team had ever scored less than seven points in league victories in back-to-back seasons prior to Wake’s unusual accomplishment (Georgia Tech was not in the ACC in 1960).

This story was originally published October 13, 2015 at 12:15 PM with the headline "‘Clemsoning’ a dirty word to Dabo Swinney."