Clemson HC Dabo Swinney toots his program's own horn regarding consistency

Clemson made the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff this season thanks to a thrilling 34-31 win over SMU in the ACC Championship game.

Dabo Swinney's Tigers got beat in the first round by Texas, 38-24, so there was a little bit of a bad taste left in the mouth of Clemson fans at the end of this 2024 season.

That loss perhaps prompted Swinney to fire defensive coordinator Wes Goodwin, who saw his unit give up 292 yards on the ground against the Longhorns.

Swinney now has a great veteran replacement in Tom Allen, a former head coach who was a great defensive coordinator for Penn State this past season, and in all, Clemson's head coach feels good about where his program is at.

It didn't end the way the Tigers wanted it to, but Swinney thinks it's important to look at the entirety of his time with the program.

“You know, I think it’s important to step back from emotional things. And, you know, keep a good perspective on the good, the bad, but evaluate you always set your eyes forward on what you got to do to get better. We’ve been to seven CFPs in the past 10 years, six Final Fours, four final twos, and two national championships," Swinney said in Allen's introductory news conference (h/t On3).

“And I’ve won this league eight out of the last 10 years. So we’ve done a lot of great things, and we’ve created, you know, a high standard and high expectations," Swinney continued. "And so again, there’s not a program out there that’s been more consistent than us, and we’re really proud of that.”

Swinney is right in saying that Clemson has been a consistent top dog in college football under his watch. He has a 180-47 record since 2008 with a 12-9 bowl record.

As he mentioned, that bowl record includes national championship wins in 2016-17 and 2018-19. Outside of Alabama and Georgia, it doesn't get much better than what Swinney has built at Clemson.