Dabo: Clemson managing 'rat poison' after preseason hype

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney is questioning whether his team has digested too many positive press clippings following their first two games.

"That was the first time that they got all the rat poison. That's kind of this group," Swinney said. "This group ain't had the rat poison. They've just had the 'you suck' poison. And this is the first time this group really had to manage that. And I don't think some of them have managed it well, obviously. Just being real."

The term "rat poison" was often used by former Alabama coach Nick Saban, which refers to news that's too positive or looks too far ahead into the season.

The Tigers improved to 1-1 this past week, defeating Troy after sustaining a bitter 17-10 loss at home to LSU in their season opener. Clemson's offense has struggled to produce at times, averaging 288.5 total yards (120th in the nation) and 18.5 points per game. Swinney stated that he'd like to see less unnecessary scrambling from quarterback Cade Klubnik going forward.

On the plus side, Swinney pointed to the resilience his players showed last week after falling behind 16-3 against Troy at halftime. The Tigers staged a second-half rally to earn a 27-16 victory.

Swinney is adamant that the Tigers can get back on track ahead of their ACC opener against Georgia Tech on Saturday, but can't continue to keep up their bad habits from their first two outings of the season.

"If we continue like this, we won't win very many games," he said. "We've got to get in rhythm on offense. We got plenty of dudes. We gotta do a better job as coaches."

Swinney sees parallels between his current roster and the 2016 club, when Deshaun Watson & Co. stumbled to begin the season after narrowly beating Auburn and coincidentally defeating Troy by a narrow margin the following week.

Clemson's sideline boss believes that the 2016 Tigers became too infatuated with their preseason press clippings after winning the ACC title and playing Alabama in the CFP National Championship Game.