MEMORIAL STADIUM (Clemson, S.C.) — The bodies crammed inside the Esso Club were packed tight, almost shoulder-to-shoulder as a line spilled from the bar, swerving toward the door and out into the courtyard.
It was four hours before Dabo Swinney’s Tigers squad kicked off against the No. 4 Miami Hurricanes, and the beer was fully flowing inside “Clemson’s Original Sports Bar.” A quartet of Tigers orange-clad patrons created a pyramid of camouflage Busch light cans in the center of their high top, each marveling at their feat of pale ale-infused engineering.
En route to Clemson’s favorite watering hole, a pair of Tigers faithful revealed themselves to a trio of Miami fans as Palm Beach residents.
“When you get up 20, just back off a little bit,” one chided.
“I guess you guys owe us for that 58-0 thing at your house,” the other conceded, a brief reminder of Hurricanes’ pre-Mario Cristobal follies.
Whatever gas last week’s win over Cal pumped into Swinney’s players, Clemson’s carburetors were flooded on Saturday as the Tigers were meticulously mauled, 41-13, by a Miami team that looks every bit as ferocious as its 2025 version, which came one score short of a national title.
Exiting the field following the loss, Clemson’s squad was surrounded by a sea of Miami fans that made the trip north. They mobbed Cristobal. They flung iPhones skyward in hopes of capturing a selfie with bruising tailback Mark Fletcher Jr.
They chanted, as the clock ticked down, “Fire Dabo! Fire Dabo!”
Welcome to the life of a program stuck in neutral.
“WINNING HEALS EVERYTHING,” ex-Clemson standout Eric Mac Lain told me pregame along the Tigers’ sidelines. “… But it’s just one of those things where it’s a double-edged sword because, for years, what did [Swinney] preach? Best is the standard — and obviously Clemson hasn’t been at their best.”
Saturday was supposed to be a washout. Forecasts projected heavy rain that might send the Tigers toward their third weather delay of the season. The rain held off. The fans showed up.
Death Valley rocked and swayed as the Tigers ripped past Howard’s Rock and onto the playing surface at Memorial Stadium ahead of kickoff. It came to a lull when Clemson actually had to run its offense.
The Tigers burned a timeout before calling an offensive snap on the first play of the game. A bobbled third-down snap saw freshman quarterback Tait Reynolds get flattened by Hurricanes linebacker Chase Smith.
A long night for Tait Reynolds and the Clemson Tigers. (Photo by John Byrum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
A preview of coming attractions.
Twice the Tigers committed penalties inside the Miami 10-yard line. Twice the Tigers turned the ball over to Miami’s zero. Twice — once to end the half and once to open the third quarter — the Tigers failed to score red-zone touchdowns.
“We’ve gotta close that gap,” Swinney said in his post-game press conference. “… Those are game-changing opportunities that you have to cash in on to give yourself a chance to win games like that. And we did not.
“… We’re a work in progress, but the season ain’t over. We’ve got a long way to go. It’s a [long] season. This one stinks. We played a really good team, and they were better than us today. We’ve got to see if we get better next time we play, and then at the end of the season, we’ll hopefully be a football team that nobody wants to play. We’ve got work to do.”
Dabo Swinney looks on as Clemson fell to the Miami Hurricanes. (Photo by Eston Parker/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images)
Saturday was not so much a reckoning as it was a reminder. Clemson of old, this is not — a truth that makes the present and future in the South Carolina Upstate increasingly uncomfortable.
Clemson is the poster child of schools aspiring for more.
It’s only two years since the Tigers brass pressed lawsuits against their own league challenging the grant of rights and, effectively, creating a smoother ACC exit strategy with fewer stiff financial penalties.
Those future aspirations — whether it be in the ACC or elsewhere — are perhaps less clear now as Congress continues to entertain the Protect College Sports Act and the strict anti-expansion clauses included in the bill’s verbiage.
Winning football games, though, would help those desires.
“That’s frustrating for all these people that were used to winning 12-plus games a year,” Mac Lain said. “They’re frustrated, and they have the right to, because they build us and they vaporize.
Does it suck? Yeah, but at the end of the day, just win and you’ll be OK.”
AND WHAT OF Miami in all this?
Hate if you will, but Cristobal’s $40-plus million roster looks worth every dime.
The Hurricanes have been the most aggressive school this side of Texas Tech in college football’s new world order. Boosters are, shall we say, woven into the fabric of South Florida’s preeminent college football program. That they might contribute directly to the Canes’ success has proven as lucrative as one might imagine.
Sweet slingin’ quarterback Darian Mensah — whose contract dispute with Duke over the offseason created its own cavalcade of enemies across the ecosystem — has justified in spades the headaches, billable hours and animosity that will undoubtedly be directed his way the rest of the season.
Darian Mensah once again had a big night for the ‘Canes. (Photo by David Jensen/Getty Images)
Mensah entered Saturday’s contest with more touchdowns (14) than incomplete passes (12). He was similarly efficient amid the rowdy rows of orange and white that littered the stands in Death Valley, connecting on a pedestrian — at least by his otherworldly standards — 67% of his 27 passes for 227 yards and one score.
Lest you not forget all-world receiver Malachi Toney, or his running mate Cooper Barkate, or pass-catcher Daylyn Upshaw, or Fletcher, or … OK, you get the point.
They’re flashy. They’re physical. The ‘Canes might just be the national title favorite. They looked it Saturday night.
“Four years ago, we came here when we had just got to Miami with a roster that wasn’t what it was supposed to be. And we got our faces kicked in,” Cristobal quipped post-game of the 2022 shellacking the ‘Canes endured in Clemson. “It was good to come out today and play good football, and to give ourselves a chance to control our own destiny.”
Mario Cristobal has the ‘Canes on track toward another CFP appearance. (Photo by David Jensen/Getty Images)
To be clear, there is no reckoning coming tomorrow for Swinney. Clemson is not a place that operates on the emotion of a single result against a national title contender.
Tigers athletics director Graham Neff is analytical and tempered. Competitive? You bet. But he’s far from a shoot from the hip, ask for forgiveness later-type.
Still, there’s an almost malaise and longing for days past around the grounds outside Death Valley. There was little angst about Swinney or the Tigers in pregame talk. Speak with enough people, and you’ll hear an appreciation for what has been accomplished under his watch, even if that history has begun to fade.
“We love Dabo. He gave us two national championships,” 2016 Clemson grad Ryan Hall told me. “But he gets paid $12 million per year. We expect a little bit more. At Clemson, we’ll always show up. We just want to see our boys compete on the national level.”
There will one day, perhaps soon, be a statue of Swinney in front of Tiger Stadium. No man has meant more to this program in its 130-year history, and a Week 5 loss to a talented Miami team won’t define his legacy.
But Saturday was a reminder that the statue may represent accomplishments achieved long before Clemson’s most recent loss to the nation’s elite.
That’s indictment enough.
