Clemson’s Swinney gives honest assessment of loss to Louisville

The Clemson Tigers came into this past weekend’s game against Louisville feeling like they had everything going for them. They were 6-1 and on a six-game win streak.

Not only that, but they were ranked No. 11 in the country and seemed to be well on their way toward competing for a spot in the new 12-team College Football Playoff.

Everything was coming up aces for head coach Dabo Swinney and Clemson, but their home game against Louisville ended in disaster. The Tigers found themselves on the wrong end of a 33-21 loss in a game that was 26-7 at the end of the third quarter. It was a good old-fashioned beating by Louisville, with the final score not indicating the severity of the loss — especially considering the fact that it happened at home.

After the loss, Swinney had nothing to offer besides the truth.

“I don’t make no excuses. There’s no excuses. There’s none,” Swinney said in the postgame (h/t On3). “No excuses. That ain’t got nothing to do with it”

There was a lot of blame to go around for Clemson, but the head coach put it squarely on his shoulders.

“Just flat-out got my butt out-coached tonight,” he said.

Clemson outgained Louisville 450 yards to 366 on offense and the Tigers didn’t turn it over once. They also controlled the clock by a large margin (37:52 to 22:08) and even went 5-of-6 on fourth downs.

All the numbers would suggest that Clemson should have won this one, but they lost. As such, Swinney is right to put the blame on himself and his coaching staff.

Now the Tigers are ranked No. 19 and with two losses to their name, they’ll have to be perfect against Virginia Tech, No. 23 Pitt, The Citadel and South Carolina to even have a chance at the CFP.

“It hurts. It’s a missed opportunity, huge missed opportunity,” said Swinney. “We didn’t deserve to win. You know, they absolutely deserved to win and we did not so you’ve got to give them all the credit.”