CLEMSON, S.C. — Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney didn’t need to be reminded that upsets happen and the team with the more decorated roster does not always come out on top against a team with a smaller number of the marquee athletes.
During the Tigers’ open date, Swinney was a typical college football fan, watching a host of games throughout the day and watching some ranked teams struggle reminded him of a lesson learned a long time ago when he was a walk-on receiver at Alabama under the legendary Gene Stallings.
“Coach Stallings, he’d say, ‘Hey brother, the game ain’t played on paper. If it was played on paper I’d walk out there with my team, my plan, my roster and the other coach would walk out there with his team, his plan and his roster and the referee would look at it and the crowd would go ooh and ahh and the ref would go ‘Winner!’
But that’s not real life. If you compare rosters with some of these teams that win and lose, it’s different. It’s not played on paper, thank God. If it was played on paper, we ain’t got two national championships in the last few years and all that stuff. We weren’t supposed to beat LSU or Ohio State or Oklahoma, Alabama – we weren’t supposed to beat a lot of these people – Notre Dame. Thankfully, the game is not played on paper. It’s played by people. And we’ve got a bunch of good people here.”
Clemson is 8-0 and ranked fourth in the first CFP Playoff ranking which came out this week.