Clemson's Swinney wants a dominant win over Charleston Southern coming out of the bye

Clemson is halfway through a season that hasn't looked like vintage Clemson. Coach Dabo Swinney says Saturday's game against FCS Charleston Southern is the chance to start changing that.

The Tigers are 3-2 overall and 2-1 in the ACC, and both losses came against ranked teams, LSU and Miami. The wins haven't been comfortable either. The Aiken Standard reports that Clemson ranks 118th nationally in average points per game and 131st in its wins alone. Still, the Tigers come out of their open week tied for the third-best record in the conference, and Swinney said the next stretch can keep them in the race into November, something they couldn't do last year.

First comes Charleston Southern (3-3, 0-2 Ohio Valley) at Memorial Stadium on Saturday at noon on ACC Network. Swinney made clear that winning isn't enough. "We got to go dominate a game and try to get to 4-2 next week," he told the Aiken Standard.

It's an unusual draw for Clemson. Swinney's teams are 18-6 in games right after a bye since he took over as interim coach during the 2008 season, and his first win as head coach was a 27-21 win over Boston College after an open date that November. Until now, though, Clemson had never played an FCS opponent coming out of a bye in his tenure. Swinney called that a good thing. He said his team has had little margin for error so far and hasn't been able to play many of its reserves.

That makes Saturday a chance to look at depth. According to the report, Clemson used the bye to get healthy and to work on the self-inflicted mistakes that have kept games close. Swinney had kind words for Charleston Southern, but he also said plainly that his team is the better side and needs to play like it. Clemson won the last meeting 66-17 in 2023. ESPN Analytics gives the Tigers a 99 percent chance to win.

The bigger stakes come after this week. Five straight ACC opponents and the annual rivalry game with South Carolina make up the back half of the schedule, and Clemson's offense needs to find some rhythm before then. If the Tigers win comfortably and get their younger players meaningful snaps, they'll start that stretch in better shape than their record suggests.

One of the teams that beat Clemson is still rolling. No. 3 Miami is 5-0 and hosts Florida State (3-3) Saturday night at 7 p.m. on ESPN. The Hurricanes are favored at -1233 on Novig, one of the venues listing the game, and -1500 at Fanatics. The spread is Miami -21.5 and the total is 55.5. Full prices are on the game page.

Clemson is two games back of the unbeaten Hurricanes in the loss column. Over the next several weeks, Clemson will learn whether it can play its way back into the top of the conference race or will need help from others.