ACC Football Power Rankings, Week 9: Did Notre Dame convince anyone?

1. Clemson Tigers (6-0, 5-0)

Head coach Dabo Swinney was a bit ornery at the post-game press conference after the Tigers soundly defeated the Syracuse Orange 47-21.

After being asked repeatedly about the team’s energy, Swinney said, “I want to make sure I’m at the right press conference here. We did win the game, I think. Am I in the right spot? You don’t usually score 47 points if you don’t have the right energy. We made some mistakes. It’s not energy when you don’t make a certain play or snap the ball over a head. Just didn’t execute, but at the end of the day, it’s not easy to win.

“There’s a lot of teams out there that would have lost this game with some of the mistakes that we made. We won the game by almost four touchdowns. I’m not getting any questions about ‘Proud of you guys for winning the game.’ It’s a lot of negative questions. You’re not going to get any negative stuff from me.”

There is an unfair expectation for the Tigers to be perfect every time they play. However, put on the tape of the game. The game was never in doubt. Clemson started a bit sluggishly and made some mistakes, but the Tigers were never in danger of losing. Simply put, this was Clemson’s “survive and advance game.”

The Tigers play Boston College on Halloween before the showdown against Notre Dame.