No, Swinney’s Clemson Tigers dynasty has not died

The Clemson Tigers have just wrapped up another season, and it is worthy of being added to their dynasty—which is still alive and well.

The Clemson Tigers have been one of college football’s most dominant superpowers in recent memory, having obtained several CFP appearances, several ACC titles, two national titles, and even a rare 15-0 season since 2014. In other words, they have had quite the dynasty in this current era of the game.

That word “dynasty” is actually going to play a very important role in today’s topic, and that is because of the debate that has surrounded Clemson’s as of late.

Despite the program’s national relevance appearing to remain relatively consistent on paper, many believe that its dynasty has “died.” This is mainly due to the Tigers failing to even make a national championship game since the 2019-20 season—an appearance that will soon be turning three years old.

Since said appearance, they have gotten blown out in the 2020-21 CFP Semifinals and finished with three losses twice. So without a doubt, it is safe to say that there has been a clear decline in Clemson’s overall competitiveness. But, is that really enough to declare that its entire dynasty is done for? Absolutely not, and the reasons why are quite simple.

For starters, the two largest pieces of the dynasty puzzle are the same for every team—dominance and consistency, two concepts that I have already referenced when describing the Tigers in this article.

Now, imagine that someone asked you whether or not the Clemson Tigers football team has been consistently dominant. To those who would answer “no,” I have a small follow-up question: How has it not?

I would estimate that around 99% of the naysayers’ responses would mention the aforementioned championship drought and nothing more. However, if national title runs were the only valid measurement of consistency or dominance, then virtually no one would meet such standards.

Yes, the Tigers are certainly past their peak (and with a season like the one they saw in 2018, how could they not be?), but that is solely in regard to their history with national championships. Outside of that, Clemson has seemingly gone nowhere.

What about Clemson’s league play, or its place in the polls?

Think about this for a minute: What other ways could we measure a program’s consistency and/or dominance, and how have the Tigers held up in those regards? One way that comes to mind is taking a look at their current status within the ACC.

While the CFP has left Clemson behind (at least for now), the same cannot be said about the Atlantic Coast. In the three seasons since the team’s last national championship appearance, the Tigers have won the ACC twice—with both titles being obtained in convincing fashion.

Even when the 2021 installment of the game (the only one Clemson has failed to appear in/win since 2014) saw Wake Forest serve as the Atlantic division’s representative instead, Clemson was still clearly the best in it, as the Tigers had downed the Demon Deacons by three touchdowns just weeks prior.

All of that sounds consistently dominant to me.

But, with that said, has the promising league play been enough to keep the Tigers high in the rankings? That would be another way to gauge their place in the college football spotlight. Well, luckily for them, it has.

Entering Friday night’s Orange Bowl against Tennessee, the Clemson Tigers were sitting at 7th in the latest CFP rankings. Some noteworthy teams who were behind them include Utah, Kansas State, USC, and Penn State (as of Dec. 31). Their elite placement was on the back of a strong 11-2 record, with this season being their 12th straight to see them hit a double-digit win count. Again, would that not count as performing at a consistently dominant level?

As a parting point, I would like to bring attention to another powerful ACC football program: the Florida State Seminoles.

When remembering the late Bobby Bowden’s tenure with the Seminoles, he is admired for a particular stretch of success that spanned from the late 1980s all the way to the early 2000s. However, only two seasons in those 15 or so saw national titles, and they were six years apart from one another (1993-94, 1999-00).

In comparison, Clemson has seen its own pair of titles, but they were only two years apart (2016-17, 2018-19). And, while Bowden’s Seminoles made five national championship appearances in total, Dabo Swinney’s Tigers have made four—despite Swinney having noticeably less time in his position than Bowden had in his.

So, by the anti-Clemson logic, does that mean that FSU was never a true dynasty in the 1990s? To think that way would be ridiculous, as we still appreciate how long the ACC ran through Tallahassee, along with how often the Seminoles finished high in the rankings; the titles were merely the highlights.

Dabo Swinney’s Clemson Tigers have been on a path that is almost identical to that one, and they have proven that they are still on it. Anyone who says otherwise is merely a victim of the moment.