Overreactions about Dabo Swinney, Clemson were misguided

Week 1 tends to produce a lot of overreactions. 

Overreactions about players. Overreactions about coaches. Overreactions about teams. 

Perhaps the biggest one revolved around Clemson. 

That ugly loss to Georgia led me to dismiss the Tigers. Hammer Dabo Swinney for bypassing the transfer portal. Discount them as a contender in the pedestrian-at-best ACC.

Perhaps some of it was recency bias after Clemson failed to win double-digit games last year for the first time since 2010. 

Six weeks later, it’s time to revisit Clemson. Swinney’s team hasn’t lost since, blowing out its next five opponents by a cumulative 174-41.

In the least, it looks like a contender in the ACC. 

Quarterback Cade Klubnik has begun to live up to his lofty high school ranking as a junior, throwing 17 touchdowns passes and just one interception in those five games. The defense has been stifling and the offense is potent, fifth nationally in points per game (45.0). Running back Phil Mafah has been dynamic, notching four 100-yard rushing games. 

After waxing Wake Forest on Saturday, 49-14, Clemson is atop the ACC at 4-0 in league play. It has looked like the old Clemson, hammering overwhelmed foes and leaving no doubt. 

It should be noted that the five wins have come against teams with a combined record of 10-21. All five opponents have losing records. The schedule will get tougher. Clemson still has a trip to undefeated Pittsburgh on Nov. 16, a showdown that could have ACC championship game ramifications.

The only other undefeated teams in the conference are SMU and Miami. Clemson doesn’t have either on its schedule. 

I’m not necessarily ready to anoint the Tigers a championship contender yet. We need to see more against better competition. In the same vein, this is clearly a team that we buried too early.

It wasn’t ready to face an opponent quite like Georgia in Week 1. Most teams wouldn’t have been, either. 

Just as so many of us overreacted to USC’s impressive Week 1 win over LSU, believing the Trojans were ready to turn a corner this year – clearly they are not, having gone 2-3 since that win – too much was made of one poor result from Clemson. Particularly in this new era of an expanded 12-team playoff when one defeat doesn’t ruin your season. 

The last six weeks have shown us that. Clemson is a legitimate contender in the ACC. It may be a factor in the national championship picture, too. 

Speaking of USC … that’s now eight losses in 13 games for Lincoln Riley and the Trojans after blowing a 14-point halftime lead to Penn State at home on Saturday. It has three losses this year by a combined 13 points – USC led in the fourth quarter in all of them – and has basically played its way out of the playoff picture. 

Riley’s clock management was a mess in this one. USC had the ball at the Penn State 49-yard line with 1:27 left in a tie game. Somehow, it ran just three plays before a Miller Moss interception with five seconds left forced overtime.

Riley had three timeouts and chose not to use them. It was similar to how he handled the clock in a loss to Michigan on Sept. 21 in Ann Arbor.

With a three-point lead and a chance to milk the clock with roughly five minutes remaining in the game, Riley instead called for passing plays on second and third down, both of which fell incomplete. It gave Michigan more than enough time to drive down the field for the game-winning touchdown. 

Right now, Riley is giving me Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M vibes, a successful coach who was supposed to bring back a big brand, but has mostly flopped instead.

A second consecutive single-digit win season seems likely. They would be the first two of Riley’s career discounting the 2020 COVID-19-shortened campaign.  

A major storyline entering the season was how title contender Texas would deal with the rugged SEC. But so far the undefeated Longhorns have looked the part. It’s the rest of the conference that hasn’t. 

Alabama lost to Vanderbilt last Saturday and was extremely fortunate to survive 21.5-point underdog South Carolina at home this week. Tennessee followed up an ugly loss to Arkansas by barely getting past .500 Florida.

Georgia was far from impressive in knocking off one-win Mississippi State on Saturday. Preseason contender Ole Miss is 1-2 in league play. This supposed super-conference has looked very ordinary in recent weeks.