Clemson in Unfamiliar Territory Heading to Florida State

Saturday represents unfamiliar territory for Clemson of late: a game following a regular season loss.

Clemson will attempt to rebound from its first regular season loss in more than three calendar years when the Tigers face the Florida State Seminoles on Saturday, Nov. 21. Kickoff at Doak Campbell Stadium is scheduled for noon ET. 

Saturday represents unfamiliar territory for Clemson of late: a game following a regular season loss. Clemson has responded well in those rare instances in recent years though, as the Tigers have not lost back-to-back games since November 2011. A win on Saturday would push Clemson to 26-6 in games following a loss under Dabo Swinney, including season openers following a loss in the previous season finale. 

"Where you are super excited to get back at it this week, just, you know, edit certainly had a much-needed break much needed off date," Swinney said. "And, you know, I think we took good advantage of it from a lot of different aspects. Just extending ourselves getting back to some basics and some fundamentals of some things and obviously, getting a head start on Florida State as well."

This week, Clemson seeks a third straight win at Doak Campbell Stadium for the first time. Clemson will attempt to become only the fifth program ever to win three consecutive road games against Florida State in Tallahassee, joining Florida (six straight from 1966-76, three from 1982-86 and 2004-08), Houston (four from 1966-78), Memphis (three from 1969-75) and Miami (Fla.) (five from 1957-77 and four from 1981-87). 

Even though the Tigers are massive 33-point favorites over the Seminoles, Swinney believes this is a very dangerous Seminole team.

"We're excited about heading down to Tallahassee. And like I said, getting back at it. This is the team that is improving," Swinney said. "I know the record is not what they want it to be. But you know, from my eyes, and as, as I've really watched them and studied them, they are improving greatly from where they worth being in the year to where they are now. I think they figure it out their personnel. You know, again, you're talking about you don't have spring practice, you don't have the summer, many of these things. I think Mike (Norvel) and staff have done an excellent job of kind of, I guess, figuring out who they are. What gives them the best chance to win. And they've done a nice job, man. They really have, they've got a lot of young guys playing that are competing.

"As a coach, that's what you want to see, especially if you want guys to go compete and watch the game the other night obviously came and got away. And something that I really paid attention to was how did they compete fourth quarter, and those kids can continue to lay down like can you compete, even when the game was out of balance. And I think that says a lot about you know, the guys that they've got in there."

Swinney admitted that the Tigers have not been good at containing the quarterback, which could be an issue when facing a mobile quarterback like the one they will face Saturday.

"Look at them offensively, they're doing a lot of challenging things with their personnel this quarterback (Jordan Travis) is he's a problem," Swinney said. "That's the best way I can describe him—he's a problem, we've not done a great job. You know, especially in our last game of containing the quarterback and get them on the ground when we have opportunities. And this guy's probably as good as you can see, as far as make people miss extending plays, create scramble drills, you know, he's a good player, it's a young player, and think he's a guy that they're going to be able to really build around down there."