Dabo Swinney 'listening to Footloose', not negativity amid 1-3 start

Clemson‘s disastrous start to the 2025 season continued on Sept. 20 when it suffered a 34-21 defeat at the hands of Syracuse, which entered the game as 17-point underdogs. It marked the Orange’s first win over the Tigers since 2017.

This disappointing loss came just one week after Clemson fell to Georgia Tech 24-21, which snapped the Yellow Jacket’s nine-game losing streak to the Tigers. College football has changed in a major way, which has led to teams snapping six-plus game losing streaks to Clemson in back-to-back weeks. This stretch of weeks has marked a big shift in how the program is perceived.

The perception of the program wasn’t helped by the fact that Georgia Tech nearly fell at Wake Forest this weekend, while Syracuse was ran off the field 38-3 at home by a now 3-2 Duke program. Those losses don’t look quality at all anymore.

Coming off a bye week, the 1-3 Tigers will look to get back on track against a struggling North Carolina program. Ahead of Saturday’s matchup, head coach Dabo Swinney revealed that he is tuning out distractions within the media. He also hilariously revealed that he listened to the 1984 hit ‘Footloose‘ in the car on the way to the facility.

“It’s just been too much,” Swinney said. “I think part of it is the guys start pressing. All they read is negative. All they hear is bad. That’s all they get. You have a choice. I drove in listening to ‘Footloose’ this morning. I don’t listen to nothing but what I want to listen to. When it’s bad, I don’t read anything or listen to anything. I don’t have to, but these players it’s hard for them to get away from that stuff.”

Clemson’s success has dropped off in last four seasons

From 2012-2022, Clemson was among the top-three programs in the sport of college football. From 2014 (the first year of the College Football Playoff) to 2020, the Tigers were present in six of the seven events with National Championship wins in 2016 and 2018. Over the past four Playoffs, however, Clemson has made just one appearance with a First Round loss to Texas in 2024.

Clemson never finished lower than No. 3 in the season’s final College Football Playoff rankings from 2015-2020, but hasn’t finished higher than No. 7 in the last four seasons. This includes a No. 19 ranking in 2021, a No. 7 ranking in 2022, a No. 22 ranking in 2023 and a No. 16 ranking last season. Now, they’re trending in the direction of not even finishing ranked this season.

Good news could be on the horizon for the Tigers, however, as they have four consecutive games against non-ranked teams ahead on their schedule (North Carolina, Boston College, SMU and Duke). There is still time for them to turn their season around with a potential four-game winning streak, which would put them at 5-3 ahead of their clash with No. 18 Florida State on Nov. 8.