Restoring the Roar: Dabo Swinney’s Mission to Reclaim Death Valley’s Edge

Dabo Swinney inherited a .500 team in October 2008, lost his first home game to Georgia Tech, and then turned Memorial Stadium into one of college football’s toughest addresses.

By 2009, Clemson dropped just one game at home (a 14–10 defeat to TCU). Two more slips followed in 2010 (Miami, South Carolina). By 2011, the Tigers were perfect in Death Valley, and just two years later, their only home loss came against eventual national champion Florida State. Clemson wouldn’t lose another home game until a 43–42 defeat to Pitt in 2016—a season that still ended with Swinney’s program hoisting its first national championship trophy in 35 years.

From there came the fortress years. Clemson went undefeated at home in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021—running the home winning streak to 40 straight, the longest in ACC history and tied for the eighth-longest in FBS history. During a dominant stretch after falling to the Seminoles in 2013, Swinney’s teams went an astounding 59–1 at home through 2022.

But that aura has faded. The streak broke in 2022 against South Carolina, and since then, Death Valley has seen unfamiliar cracks.

Clemson fell at home to Florida State (in overtime) in 2023, then to Louisville and again to South Carolina in 2024. This fall, losses to LSU and Syracuse extended the skid against Power Four opponents to four straight—a stunning figure for a place that once felt impenetrable.

With unbeaten SMU visiting this weekend, the Tigers face the prospect of a fifth consecutive Power Four home defeat. It’s unthinkable.

Rhett Lashlee’s Mustangs aren’t a soft draw, either. SMU has never lost a regular-season ACC game, their lone defeat against a conference foe coming last December—against Clemson in the ACC Championship Game.

“You’ve Got to Earn the Right to Win”

Swinney’s tone this week reflected a man who’s seen both sides of Death Valley—the juggernaut and the slump—and wants to reconnect the program to the habits that built its dominance.

“They’ve played a lot of complementary football the last two games,” he said of Clemson’s road wins at North Carolina and Boston College. “We’ve been really getting off to fast starts offensively. We’ve had 10 straight drives to score in the past two games to open up.”

That’s the Death Valley version of Clemson football—start fast, keep the pressure on, and let the building do the rest. But the crowd energy hasn’t matched that rhythm lately. Since Louisville bullied Swinney’s bunch under the lights last November, an uneasy tension has lingered over the stands.

The last home win against a Power Four opponent came almost a year ago—to the day—against Tony Elliott’s Virginia Cavaliers on October 19, 2024. Saturday marks 364 days since Clemson last beat a Power Four team at home. Nearly one year without a major home win in Death Valley? Stunning.

Defense, Swagger, and Stakes

Swinney also praised the defensive backbone he hopes to rebuild around this weekend.

“We stopped the run, we took the ball away, we got stops on downs, we sacked them… those guys were disruptive up front, and we did a much better job in coverage,” he said. “We got off the field—4-for-16 on third and fourth down.”

That’s the formula that once made afternoons in Death Valley feel inevitable. It’s not just about physical play, either—it’s about tone.

“I just love their heart—the fight, their will to win,” Swinney added. “It’s a team that’s grown stronger, and you’re starting to see a team that’s playing with a little bit of swagger. We’re going to need it this week. I mean, they’re a good football team that’s coming in here.”

He didn’t mince words about the stakes: “It’s a playoff-football-type game for both teams for sure.”

“We’ve Been Great—But Lately, We’ve Stunk”

Asked about the broader arc of Clemson’s home-field identity, Swinney spoke candidly.

“That was a big goal of mine when I got this job, because we weren’t a great home winning team,” he said. “We were good, but not great. In my 17 years, we’ve been great. We’ve been great at home. You know, great, not good. We’ve been great.”

Then came the gut punch of honesty.

“But as of late, we’ve stunk, and we’ve got to get that turned around. So how do you do that? Well, you do what winning requires. It’s the same stuff. Nothing changes. You’ve got to play well, you’ve got to earn the right to win.”

That theme—earning it—has echoed throughout this week’s preparation.

“It’s hard to win every single week, and especially when you don’t play well,” Swinney said. “It’s good for them [the team] to just be able to see it these last couple of weeks—collectively as a group. Hopefully that momentum will carry over in this game, but it ain’t gonna get any easier. I mean, every game, every game, we play good people with some really good teams, and we got to play well.”

His message to his players was simple but old-school.

“If we play well, then it shouldn’t matter where we play,” Swinney said. “I’ve said that since the day I got this job—if you’re only gonna win at home, you’re not gonna be very good.”

Reclaiming Death Valley

If Clemson is going to halt this four-game Power Four home skid and protect Death Valley’s mystique, the blueprint sits in Swinney’s own words.

Start fast, win the money downs, play with swagger, and most of all, “Earn the right to win.”

Do that, and the place that once authored 40 straight can start to feel imposing again.