Dabo Swinney explains how he keeps locker room unity after bowl loss

It isn’t always easy, but Dabo Swinney has learned how to keep Clemson moving forward after tough losses, especially in high-profile situations.

That’s exactly what the Tigers will do as they look towards 2023 after being defeated 31-14 by Tennessee in the Orange Bowl last week. During his post-game press conference, the Clemson leader elaborated on how he keeps locker room unity after bowl loss.

“You’re honest. We all take ownership. We stay together. You win and you lose together. When you step in a competitive arena, especially one like we compete in, you’re going to win and you’re going to lose. It’s part of it. So you have to just keep — you have to manage the success. You’ve got to manage the failures, we always say,” explained Swinney. “Obviously, we failed tonight. We’ve got to manage that. We’ve got to own that. But you also have to create the right perspective. At the end of the day, we’re teachers. We always have an opportunity to teach. Like always, you watch the tape, you apply the lessons. Now that the season is over, you’re going to study everything about our season.

“We start back over in January. January the 13th. We’ll have our first team meeting. We’ll reset. The 2023 journey will be upon us. We’ll get back in the fight and go back to work. We hit three out of our five goals this year. If we hit five out of five, we win the national championship. So you know, we’ll get back to work and see if we can have a better year next year. See if we can keep getting better. Just try to keep them together, be honest and keep a good perspective.”

Alas, the wise-man that Dabo Swinney is shines through. Clemson will be just fine in 2023, as they have been over his tenure after major losses.

Dabo Swinney responds to idea Clemson is ‘slipping’ from top of college football

Moreover, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney took issue with the suggestion that the Tigers are falling out of college football’s elite after back-to-back disappointing seasons. 

Following his team’s 31-14 loss to Tennessee in the Orange Bowl on Friday, Swinney offered a strong rebuttal to that notion. The coach pointed out that few teams have accomplished what the Tigers have over the past decade, declaring they’ll be back soon.

“I don’t really know what to say,” Swinney said. “We’re 11-3. I sure wish we were undefeated, but we’ve won the league seven out of the last eight years. I think that’s only happened one other time and that was in the 70s by Alabama. We’ve been pretty consistent and we’ll keep trying to do everything we can to be undefeated around here. We’ve won 11-plus games. In 1981, we won 12 and then I think went 31 years before we won 11 games again at Clemson. We did that in 2012 and we’ve done it eight times in the last 11 years. 

“So I think we’ve been incredibly consistent. Disappointing tonight for sure, but nobody out there has higher expectations than what we have. I promise you that. We’ll keep battling. Keep working. There’s a lot of great days ahead. People say what they want to say. Always have, always will. We’re just going to keep doing what we do. I’ve heard all those things before. We’re off to a good start this decade and if you look at the totality of our program, we’ve done a lot of great things.”

As Dabo Swinney mentioned, Clemson has claimed the ACC title in seven of the past eight seasons. Not only that, but the Tigers have won at least 10 games in every season since 2011. They have the second-most College Football Playoff appearances of any school after making six straight from 2015-20. 

However, at the same time, Swinney realizes these past two years the team has fallen short of its goals. He emphasized that no one is more disappointed about that than he and the players, but added they are determined to bounce back in 2023.

“You want to win every single game, and when you’re a competitor, that’s what you strive for,” he said. “But at the end of the day, seasons come and go. Every year is a new journey. We got better this year. We didn’t get where we wanted to go, but we got better. Especially coming off of a very challenging season last year. I’m thankful for the opportunity that we had to get here and a lot of young guys to learn. …We’re all disappointed. My focus is on the young men in that locker room and making sure we learn from this and keep getting better. Keep moving forward.”

On3’s Chandler Vessels contributed to this article.