When Dabo Swinney became Clemson’s head coach 10 years ago, his program and the Atlantic Coast Conference as well, was in a flux.
Clemson’s football program and had not won anything in almost two decades at the time and was still leaning on the glory days of when Danny Ford and Frank Howard brought Clemson national prominence. The ACC was in a slump from a national perspective. The conference had not won a national championship since Florida State’s 1999 title and was 1-9 at the time in BCS Bowl games.
The conference, including Clemson, struggled to beat teams from other Power 5 Conferences in non-conference regular season games.