“Clemsoning” entered into the popular parlance of college football — on the Internet, anyway — sometime in the late 2000s, as a way of describing Clemson’s seeming penchant for losing games it should have won. When, exactly, that term became a thing is unclear — maybe around the time a Clemson team that eventually played for the ACC title lost to a Maryland team that would go 2-10 in 2009? But it has been part of the program’s reputation on Twitter and message boards for much of its recent history.
Dabo Swinney is furious he has to talk about undefeated Clemson blowing big games
Clemson’s coach disagrees with an Internet meme — and he’s right.
Joshua S. Kelly-USA TODAY Sports
With Dabo Swinney’s Tigers riding high in 2015, and coming off an emotional win against Notre Dame last Saturday and a big victory over Georgia Tech on this Saturday, the fiery Clemson coach wasn’t happy to hear “Clemsoning” get some play on College GameDay on Saturday morning. He made sure to let reporters in attendance know it, after a question about that perception in his post-game press conference.
An answer that begins with “I think it’s ridiculous that you’re even asking me that question, that you even say the word,” includes the phrase “bullcrap” more than once, and involves Swinney saying “people need to get some more adjectives” is destined to be legendary on the Internet, especially given the dollops of anti-media haughtiness and high volume of the exchange.
But Swinney’s definitely right on the merits. Clemson is unbeaten against unranked foes since 2011, and has only lost to Florida State, South Carolina, Georgia, and Georgia Tech in those three years, also nabbing bowl wins over LSU, Ohio State, and Oklahoma in that span. Clemson’s rep as a team that folds has faded with time, but the jokes and narratives haven’t — and that would make any coach mad.
“If we lose this week, it ain’t because of ‘Clemsoning,’” Swinney said, in the most cogent bit of his three-minute response to the offending question. “It’s ‘cause we just got beat.”
All he’s asking for is to have his team judged on its own merits, and not against the ghosts and narratives of the past. Is that so wrong?
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