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What Dabo Swinney said about Alabama, Tennessee upsets and Clemson's 'windshield mentality'
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- What Dabo Swinney said about Alabama, Tennessee upsets and Clemson's 'windshield mentality'
CLEMSON — Seven ranked college football teams were upset in Week 6 , including No. 2 Alabama , No. 4 Tennessee , No. 9 Missouri and No. 10 Michigan .
Now No. 11 Clemson football (4-1, 3-0 ACC) avoided a loss Saturday, defeating Florida State 29-13 on the road to win its fourth straight game. Still, the shocking upsets across the country reminded Clemson and coach Dabo Swinney that wins are never guaranteed.
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"I couldn't believe it. I didn't know anything about any of that, until I got into the locker room," Swinney said Tuesday. "College football did us a favor because this is a week where if you pay attention to what people say on the outside, they're gonna be saying, 'Hey, we're supposed to go win.'
"This ain't a game of supposed to. This is a game of what you do. It's a game of performance, and that's why I think we've been really consistent. We've created that windshield mentality for years."
Those upsets lifted Clemson in both polls and into the College Football Playoff in various projections . The Tigers look to avoid being upset at Wake Forest (2-3, 1-1) on Saturday (noon ET, ESPN) .
Clemson is 37-8 in true road games since 2015, having the fourth-best winning percentage in the nation and tied for the most wins in that span. The Tigers have played well on the road, but Saturday's ranked upsets were a reminder for Swinney's team to never overlook an opponent.
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"You've got to show up and play every single week, and that's why we talk about playing to a standard. You don't play to an opponent, to a record. Like last week, ( Florida State ) was 1-4, and you get caught up in that, you're getting beat. …
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"It's really hard to win when you're supposed to win because you got other teams that pay attention to all these things too. Everybody's got good coaches. There's a lot of parity in college football."
Clemson has only one ranked opponent left on its regular season schedule — No. 24 Pittsburgh on Nov. 16.
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Derrian Carter covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at dcarter@gannett.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DerrianCarter00
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Clemson football: Dabo Swinney on Alabama, Tennessee upset losses
