Dabo Swinney: 'Great Teams Don't Play Best Football at Beginning of Year'

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney is currently looking for his offense to improve from one week to the next, maintaining that the best teams don't play their best football at the beginning of the season.

The Clemson offense hasn't been quite as explosive as many expected.

The Tigers looked very much out of rhythm in the season-opening loss to Georgia, and while there was a marked improvement in the blowout win over S.C. State, the chemistry between starting quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei and the Clemson wideouts is still a work in progress.

While head coach Dabo Swinney readily admits the lackluster performance by the offense in Charlotte to start the season was uncharacteristic, he also doesn't want his team playing at their best just three weeks into the season.

"Great teams get better," Swinney said. "Great teams don't play their best football at the beginning of the year, great teams get better. And that's what we're doing. We're gonna continue to grow through our experience. But this teams getting better, I've seen it in practice."

However, despite some of the outside criticisms, Swinney remains steadfast in his convictions that the Tigers have the weapons in place to be as explosive as they have ever been during his tenure.

"This is as good a group as we've had since I've been here," Swinney said. "There's nothing we don't have the ability to do. You know, we've had one game where we didn't play very well and never got any rhythm, then the game last week that we really did whatever we wanted to do."

While the group is far from a finished product, the improvement that was made from week one to week two is undeniable, despite playing an inferior opponent. And Swinney said at this point in the season that is exactly what he is looking for. 

He wants his offense to improve from one week to the next while developing the consistency that it takes to win at a high level and will be looking for the group to take another step forward this week against Georgia Tech.

"The key is just to keep growing, keep getting better, keep improving," Swinney said. "But there's not anything we lack when it comes to our ability to attack people. Not with this group, that's for sure. You just got to go do it. You got to be consistent."

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