Richard Shiro / AP
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney embraces fans after Clemson defeated Georgia Tech 55-31 in an NCAA college football game Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013, at Memorial Stadium in Clemson, S.C.
Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2018 | 11:39 a.m.
RALEIGH, N.C. — Clemson coach Dabo Swinney isn't changing how the Tigers approach each season — and there's no reason he should.
The repetition is working. His program is the unquestioned Atlantic Coast Conference favorite again and has become a perennial national power.
Everyone else in the ACC is looking up at the three-time reigning champions and trying to figure out a way to loosen their grip on the league.
"We start over every year, reinstall the program, reinstall the core values, the philosophy that we believe in, the why," Swinney said, "and I just don't vary from that."
The Tigers are the overwhelming favorite to win the ACC for a fourth straight season, which would make Clemson the first ACC team to win four straight since Florida State's dominating romp through the 1990s. That would also make Clemson only the second power-conference team to win four straight league championship games.
Over the past three years, the Tigers are 25-2 against league teams, with 18 wins by double-digit margins and the losses coming by a combined four points.
They are returning seven offensive starters and eight on defense, including first-team all-ACC performers in offensive tackle Mitch Hyatt, defensive ends Clelin Ferrell and Christian Wilkins, and defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence. The biggest question around Clemson is whether quarterback Kelly Bryant keeps his job after guiding the Tigers to the College Football Playoff or if Swinney will switch to freshman Trevor Lawrence at some point during the year.
As for the rest of the league, there continues to be an imbalance of power that has the Clemson-led Atlantic Division looking significantly stronger than the Coastal. But the Atlantic has plenty of change with Florida State bringing in new coach Willie Taggart, Louisville replacing former Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson and North Carolina State overhauling its defense.
They all have the same goal.
"You have to beat Clemson," Louisville coach Bobby Petrino said. "There's no question about that."
