Clemson Tigers

Clemson Tigers Football: The window is wide open

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Love them or hate them, the Clemson Tigers are going to be relevant for quite some time.

If you’re honest, you’d probably say you had no idea who Dabo Swinney was when he took over as head coach of the Clemson Tigers. That was midway through the 2008 season. As 2016 comes to a close, the Tigers are knocking on the door of another College Football Playoff appearance. If they get around the Virginia Tech Hokies and take care of business in the first round of the playoff, they’ll be back in the game every team wants to play in and every program dreams about winning.

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It almost seems like it came out of nowhere. Clemson had those losses that irritated their fans. They’d lose to someone they had no business losing to. They’d come up short in a big game. Then, the light switch came on. The recruits started rolling in, and you felt like they had to come on eventually.

Well, they’ve come on all right. Clemson started winning those games they used to lose. Now, they’re typically the favorites. Last year, they finished as the number two team in the country. This year, they opened the season as the number two team in the country. The only team that outranked them was the only team to hand them a loss last year, the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Swinney’s endeared himself to the Tiger faithful. It’s his undeniable charm, his tenacity on the recruiting trail and keeping his promises (like throwing a pizza party for 30,000 Clemson fans). The question was, with so many of last year’s starters departing, if the Tigers could go anywhere but down. They’ve been in some battles this season, but they’re right where many of us expected. They’ve built something sustainable, and they should win for a while. Now comes the task of trying to raise the College Football Playoff National Championship Trophy.

First thing’s first though. They need to take care of business against Virginia Tech.

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