All month, we’ll be checking in on the nation’s top teams as they prepare for the 2019 season. We’ll be visiting Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma and Ohio State. But up first? Dabo Swinney and the defending champion Clemson Tigers, where the expectations are higher than ever.
Stop one: Clemson
CLEMSON, S.C. — Dabo Swinney is well aware that Clemson has won two of the past three national championships, beating Alabama both times in the title game. But don’t dare tell him that the stakes have somehow risen in college football’s newest version of Titletown, USA.
“To me, it’s business as usual. We’re always on the attack around here, attacking Clemson and the standard of Clemson,” Swinney told ESPN. “We hold everybody accountable. There’s a winning performance at every position and that’s what we talk about. We don’t get caught up in this team really wants to beat us or that we won the national championship or lost the last game, any of that.
“We’re always attacking.”
And always pushing, even the Tigers’ most talented players.
As the Tigers opened preseason camp, Swinney was quick to note that sophomore quarterback Trevor Lawrence was one of the last players off of the practice field each of the first few days. Lawrence was out there getting in extra reps, extra stretching — anything to take it to another level.
As good as Lawrence was last season as a true freshman, good luck in finding anybody in Clemson’s program who won’t tell you that he will be that much better this season. He’s up to 221 pounds after reporting at just under 200 a year ago, much faster than he has ever been and putting the kind of zip on passes that we last saw in January when he was carving apart Alabama’s defense.
“You gotta be about it, not talk about it,” said Lawrence, as he walked off the practice field carrying his gear. “We talk a lot around here about being servant leaders, and that’s something we take seriously.”
No detail is too small for Lawrence, either. Before he sat down for our interview following practice, he scurried around looking for a shirt to sit on or something so that he wouldn’t get the office chair of Clemson sports information director Ross Taylor too sweaty.
“He’s like all the great ones, incredibly focused, hungry, driven, never satisfied … and humble,” Swinney said of Lawrence. “All of the great ones, that’s how they carry themselves. Trevor’s a grinder and a natural leader.”
Lawrence said he also wanted to branch out and use his legs to make more plays this season and not just be a pocket guy.
“He can fly, I mean flat-out fly,” Swinney said. “He’s a great athlete and would be great at anything he wanted to do.”
The body transformation award on offense this preseason at Clemson goes to sophomore Jackson Carman, who came in at 375 pounds and is now down to 335 and is penciled in as the Tigers’ left tackle. “He’s finally gotten serious about being a great player,” Swinney said.
Carman will be joined by four seniors in the offensive line, and another guy to watch is redshirt freshman tackle Jordan McFadden. Swinney said he has a chance to be a “superstar.”
Speaking of superstars, Clemson has a receiving corps — Justyn Ross, Tee Higgins and Amari Rodgers — that offers a little bit of everything. Even better news is that Rodgers is way ahead of schedule, according to Swinney, in his recovery from an ACL tear. Rodgers was running confidently on the side during practice, and Swinney says he thinks there’s a chance the Tigers could get him back as early as late September. And judging from the early practices, it won’t take long for true freshmen receivers Frank Ladson Jr. (6-4, 190) of Miami and Joe Ngata (6-4, 215) of Folsom, California to get some playing time. Both are big rangy targets who are good at going after the football.
Running back Travis Etienne, who rushed for 1,658 yards and 24 touchdowns last season, looks noticeably bigger and has added even more upper-body strength. Swinney said it’s the “best version” of Etienne that he has seen since Etienne arrived on campus. Etienne had 12 rushing plays of 30 yards or longer last season but said he hasn’t lost any speed.
Defensively, Swinney said this might be the best back-seven he has had at Clemson since taking over as head coach. Losing so many defensive linemen to the NFL wasn’t ideal, but “we’re talented up front. We just gotta grow them up,” Swinney said.
Freshman defensive tackle Tyler Davis has already shown signs of being next up in Clemson’s long line of great defensive linemen.
“A lot of the young guys have been leaders,” Swinney said. “Tyler Davis … you ain’t gotta lead him. If you’re looking to lead him, you’re left behind because he’s way out front. That’s just his mindset. A lot of that leadership, you recruit.”
Throughout Clemson’s Reeves Football Complex this preseason, there are several “Carpe Diem” signs.
“That was my challenge to them this year, seize the day, the old Robin Williams and ‘Dead Poets Society’ line,” Swinney said. “This is the 150th year of college football. It’s unbelievable to have the privilege to be a part of that, and this is our 124th team at Clemson. My message was, ‘What’s going to be different about y’all? What’s your chapter? Is it going to matter? Are people going to open up the book and can’t wait to get to that 124th chapter, or do they just skim over that part?’
“People want to know how we stay focused (after winning two of the past three national titles). It’s being great today.”