Clemson Tigers’ Dabo Swinney makes bold claim ahead of South Carolina game

Dabo Swinney and the Clemson Tigers will face the South Carolina Gamecocks today. It’s rivalry week and these two teams don’t like each other very much.

At this point in the season, both teams are fighting for their college football playoff hopes.

Coming into today’s game, Clemson is ranked No. 12 in the country. They are right on the edge of being a contender to make the playoffs. As for South Carolina, they are ranked 15th in the nation.

Both of these teams have looked like contenders during the 2024 college football season. They should put on a good show for the fans this afternoon.

Prior to this matchup, Swinney spoke out with a very brave attitude about his Tigers. He truly believes that Clemson can play and compete against any team in the nation.

“I think we have one of the best offenses in the country,” Swinney said. “We have a quarterback who plays at a high level, who is incredibly talented. We have a Butkus finalist on defense. We’re a good football team. We’re not perfect, we make mistakes like everybody else. I mean, everybody has some mistakes, but we’re a team that I think can play with anybody in the country.”

So far this season, there have been two games in which the Tigers were not very competitive.

Of course, those two games were their Week 1 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs by a score of 34-3 and their only other loss of the year to Louisville by a score of 33-21.

Unfortunately, the two losses have put them in a spot where they might not make the playoffs.

Swinney is 100 percent correct that Clemson has a ton of talent on both sides of the football. From a pure talent perspective, they should be able to play with the best teams in the nation. However, they have not shown that in their two toughest games of the year.

Today against South Carolina they have a huge opportunity. If they can come in and completely dominate the Gamecocks, they could send a strong signal to the selection committee as to why they should be in the College Football Playoff.

A narrow victory might not be enough to do it. If they blow out South Carolina and prove they can dominate a ranked opponent, they might have a chance.

All of that being said, everything about their playoff hopes rests on the Tigers’ ability to not just compete, but beat a good competitive opponent.

Hopefully Swinney’s bold statement ends up being correct and Clemson is ready to prove they can win those kinds of games.