Earlier this season, after a crushing 46-45 loss to Duke dropped the Clemson football team to 3-5, Dabo Swinney admitted he had “sucked” this year and vowed to be better. The Tigers’ head coach framed the slide as a failure in situational football and promised that cleaner details, toughness, and late-game poise would eventually show up on the field.

Friday night at Louisville felt like the kind of performance he had in mind. After a tense road win pushed Clemson back to 5-5, Swinney raved about his team’s resilience and effort, per On3.

He told his players they have already helped build the foundation for Clemson’s “next championship,” calling this victory a piece of the process toward the next great season. Swinney singled out his seniors and the way the locker room still cares deeply about the program and each other, something he said is rare in today’s college football.

That statement lands differently given where Clemson has been. Under Swinney, national titles became the standard, with two crowns in the four-team Playoff era. But in the NIL and transfer portal age, the Tigers have slipped, opening this season 1-3 and spending weeks just trying to claw back to .500.

Even if they win out to finish 7-5, it would still be their worst record since a 6-7 mark in 2010, Swinney’s second year in charge.

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The path forward, though, is clearer after Louisville. With back-to-back wins over Florida State and the Cardinals, Clemson is now firmly back in bowl range.

As On3 noted, the Tigers need only one victory over Furman or South Carolina to earn a 21st consecutive bowl berth, the fourth-longest active streak in the nation. It has been a frustrating year, complete with public officiating complaints that drew an ACC fine, but the season remains salvageable.

Swinney insists that if you watched Clemson practice, you would think the Tigers were undefeated, citing their work in spring, summer, and weekly preparation. That is why the early losses cut so deep and why he is clinging to the idea that adversity has only hardened this group.

His “next championship” line is a bold bet that 2025’s scars will someday be retold as the turning point, provided Clemson closes strong and starts stacking complete games instead of close calls.