Dabo Swinney reacts to preseason hype, expectations on Clemson

Following four consecutive seasons without a trip to the College Football Playoff for Clemson (longest in CFP era), the Tigers downed SMU 34-31 in the 2024 ACC Championship Game. That punched their ticket back to college football’s biggest stage.

Although Clemson fell in the First Round of the Playoff to Texas (38-24), Dabo Swinney‘s team put the college football world on notice that his Tigers were back in the national limelight. This is certainly the case this season, as Clemson has been heralded as one of the preseason favorites to win the 2025 College Football Playoff.

At a media opportunity this week, Swinney discussed how important winning is at Clemson and staked his claim that the Tigers are going to earn headlines that matter this season.

“We’ve been a target around here for a long time,” Swinney said. “Whether they’re talking good about you or talking bad about you. It doesn’t matter. Expectations are high here and they always have been and they’re all big. If you don’t believe that, just lose one (game). You’ll find out how big they are at Clemson. They’re all big. Everybody’s gonna talk about that LSU game. Lose to Troy? You’ll find out how Troy is.

“They’re all big. So expectations are high every single year. It’s just a part of being at Clemson. Some years they talk good about you, some years they talk bad about you. But that doesn’t have anything to do with expectations. They’re still gonna be high at Clemson. So, it’s just a part of it and we embrace that.”

Along with returning one of the best quarterbacks in the country in two-time ACC Championship Game MVP Cade Klubnik, Clemson returns its three leading receivers (Antonio Williams, Bryant Wesco Jr. and TJ Moore) and five of its seven leading tacklers from last season. Swinney’s team is one of the most experienced in the country and will surely make a push for back-to-back ACC titles and a second consecutive trip to the College Football Playoff.

“As I always tell these guys, headlines this time of year are always based on opinions and potential,” Swinney continued. “The headlines that matter are the ones that are written on performance. And those are the ones that ultimately matter in the end. It’s fun to talk about… lots of good stuff. It’s what makes college football so cool because there’s so much passion and interest and narratives and storylines and predictions and all that’s a part of it and it’s fun. But in the end for us, what does our performance say? What do we earn? We’re gonna earn the headlines that matter.”

Clemson opens its highly anticipated 2025 campaign at home (for the first time since 2019) against LSU on August 30. Kick-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on ABC.