Rece Davis on Clemson issues: ‘They play like a team that doesn’t really like each other’

After entering the 2025 campaign as the No. 4 team, Clemson is 1-3 and far from a Top 25 team. On the College GameDay Podcast, ESPN analyst Rece Davis attempted to explain why Clemson has had such a sluggish start to this season.

“I don’t believe this is the case. I don’t believe that there are the proverbial internal issues at Clemson. I’m not saying that. But, how they play on the field is they play like a team that doesn’t really like each other,” Davis said. “Not like they dislike each other, but that they’re sort of ambivalent about each other.

“There’s not that the stinger, the spirit, the hunger — that’s what’s missing. Brent Key from Georgia Tech had a quote, that he said [Nick] Saban used to use in their staff meetings all the time, that applies to Clemson: ‘A lot more guys have died trying to come back down Mount Everest than they did going up Mount Everest,’ because maybe you lose a little bit of that will once you hit the mountain top, which Clemson has.”

Most recently, Clemson suffered a 34-21 loss to Syracuse. In the loss, Clemson’s defense struggled to find stops, allowing 435 total yards of offense. Clemson lacked discipline, committing eight penalties for a total loss of 75 yards, along with two turnovers.

Clemson’s woes have perplexed college football fans. After all, the team returned 16 starters from last season’s team that won the ACC Championship. While Rece Davis knows he doesn’t have to answers to Clemson’s problems, he believes head coach Dabo Swinney might.

“Dabo can fix it,” Davis said. “Maybe this is just a bad mix of ingredients, or a not a championship mix. Now, the math, the realism in you, compels you to say this: They have two ACC losses. It seems impossible that they would make the ACC Championship game. And it, for sure, is highly unlikely.

“They get Florida State at their place. They don’t play Miami. If there is chaos below them, they could hold at least one tie breaker. So, I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think there are more losses in front of Clemson, based on what I’ve seen. I don’t think they are done losing, but you never know.”

Along with Florida State, Clemson still has SMU, Louisville and South Carolina ahead on its schedule. It won’t be easy for the Tigers to turn their season around, but they’ll have no choice but to try. Dabo Swinney and Co. will use their bye this week to attempt to mend their glaring issues.