Dabo Swinney believes media 'narratives' unfair to ACC

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney doesn’t believe the ACC has gotten the credit it deserves so far in the 2022 season.

Swinney said on his call-in show earlier this week that there’s a narrative that exists that is unfair to the league.

“Anybody can beat anybody,” Swinney said of the ACC. “It’s no different than any other league. I know there’s a lot of media driven jargon, narratives out there, which is ridiculous.”

Swinney added that teams in the ACC are punished differently at times than teams in some other conferences.

For instance, LSU has two losses, including one to Florida State. However, LSU is currently ranked No. 7 in the College Football Playoff rankings.

There’s also Oregon, which is ranked No. 6, despite opening the season with a 49-3 loss to Georgia.

Clemson is currently 8-1 (6-0), with its only loss coming this past weekend at Notre Dame. Swinney added that it’s hard to beat the teams the Tigers have in the ACC.

“Nobody’s going to be excited to go play Wake Forest. This Louisville team can play with anybody. Florida State – people are talking about LSU is as good as anybody out there. Florida State beat ‘em,” Swinney said. “We forget that. We beat Florida State at their place.”

Swinney acknowledged that there are some teams in the ACC who are underperforming and not having the seasons they were hoping to.

However, he said that teams underperforming and having down years is not exclusive to the ACC.

“You can look at the SEC and there’s some really bad teams in that league. Bad. But there’s also some really good ones,” Swinney said. “I think that’s the same with a lot of leagues. We’ve got some teams on the bottom end that aren’t doing very well. They’re probably disappointed and underperformed or whatever. Then you’ve got some teams that are really good that you’re not going to be happy to play.”

The new College Football Playoff rankings that came out Tuesday night have Clemson at No. 10.

It remains to be seen if the Tigers can get back in the CFP picture or not, but right now all Swinney is worried about is winning.

“The team that just beat us, Notre Dame, they lost their first two games. There’s probably a lot of criticism, a lot of disappointment. But they went back to work and you respond and you get better. Now they’ve won six out of seven and they’ve still got three losses,” Swinney said.

“Oregon lost by 46 points. Now they’re talking about being in the playoff. Well, they responded. So that’s what good teams do. That’s what good coaches do. LSU, they lost to Florida State. We beat Florida State – at their place. That happened. They got blown out at home by Tennessee, but now they’re one of the better teams in the country. LSU, right? I think that’s what good teams do. I think that’s what good staffs do. They respond.”