A New Journey

Head Coach Dabo Swinney has long preached a “windshield mentality” for his football program, imploring his team to look through the windshield at what is ahead rather than in the rearview at what lies behind. Human nature would seem to warrant a nostalgic look back to major college football’s first 15-0 season since 1897, perhaps with a lingering glance at a 28-point victory against the nation’s top-ranked team to secure Clemson’s second National Championship the last three years. It might suggest one more glimpse at new championship rings or banners bearing the distinction “Best Ever.”

But Clemson’s collective eyes are fixed ahead at the challenges to come in 2019, as “Best Ever” gives way to Swinney’s mantra: “The best is yet to come.” With that guidance in mind, as Clemson looks forward and not backward, it views 2019 as a new opportunity rather than a continuation of the accomplishments of the 2018 squad.

“It’s about starting over and not just reinstalling your offense and defense and kicking game, but it’s also reinstalling your program,” Swinney said during the spring. “Reinstalling the core values of your program and kind of resetting – if you will – in every sense of that word.”

Clemson knows it will compete in 2019 with a target squarely affixed to its iconic Tiger Paw each week. The Tigers can expect to get every team’s best shot and there will be no easing into the upcoming season.

The eyes of the nation will be on the returning National Champions on Aug. 29, when the team will open the season on a Thursday night for the first time in Memorial Stadium history when it welcomes Georgia Tech under the guidance of new Head Coach, Geoff Collins.

The day and evening will be a grand spectacle not just for Clemson, but for the entire Atlantic Coast Conference, as the contest will serve as the first live game broadcast on the ACC Network and will capture Clemson’s gameday atmosphere from pregame through the final whistle. The network stands to be a gamechanger for Clemson and other ACC institutions, serving to highlight a conference that has collected more football national titles than any other conference since 2013 (three of the last six) and more men’s basketball National Championships than any other league since 2015 (three of the last five).

The following week, Clemson will play host to an eagerly awaited rematch, welcoming the 2019 iteration of a Texas A&M squad that fell to Clemson by only a two-point margin in 2018, Clemson’s smallest margin of victory during its 15-0 campaign. Like a season ago in College Station, Texas, when the teams played in front of 104,794 people (the largest crowd ever to witness a Clemson football game in person), Clemson officials and fans anticipate an electric atmosphere at Death Valley for a 3:30 p.m. contest between the Tigers and the Aggies.

The third of Clemson’s opening trio of games features the Tigers’ road debut in prime time when the team travels to face Syracuse at the site of Clemson’s last regular season loss in 2017. The game will be Syracuse’s second time hosting ABC’s Saturday Night Football, and Syracuse officials have made a concerted effort to boost the game’s atmosphere, publicly soliciting ESPN’s College GameDay and moving the school’s annual homecoming up two weeks to coincide with the game.

Clemson’s journey in those three games and beyond will be shepherded in part by a cast of familiar faces, particularly on offense, where only three starters from 2018 were lost to graduation. In addition to a veteran offensive line that features four seniors, the Tigers return 2018 Freshman All- America quarterback Trevor Lawrence, 2018 All-America running back Travis Etienne, 2018 All-ACC wide receiver Tee Higgins and 2018 Freshman All-America wide receiver Justyn Ross.

In fact, between Lawrence, Etienne and Ross, Clemson was one of only three FBS programs to produce a 3,000-yard passer, 1,500-yard rusher and 1,000-yard receiver in 2018 and one of only 20 teams to accomplish the feat this decade. Clemson is the first Power Five team this decade to return such a trio the following season.

Lawrence spent the offseason as the subject of acclaim following his superlative performance in the College Football Playoff. But despite becoming the first freshman starting quarterback to win a National Championship since 1985 and helping Clemson win 13 of its 15 games by 20 points or more, Lawrence knows the team’s accomplishments in 2018 have no bearing on its pursuits in 2019.

“I think this whole spring was kind of, ‘That’s great we won last year, but we’re moved on from that now.’ This is a new team,” Lawrence said. “We’ve got to start over. We don’t get to carry any of that over.”

While Lawrence has arguably become the face – and the hair – of college football in 2019, his backfield mate has also staked a claim as one of the sport’s premier figures. While Lawrence was relegated to second-team All-ACC status in 2018, Etienne secured ACC Player of the Year honors and was a finalist for the Doak Walker Award.

In big moments in 2018, Swinney would draw upon the team’s recent history of success and tell his players to simply “be who you are.” While still pursuing avenues to improve, it’s the same approach that Etienne has applied to his own game for 2019.