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Published Jan 21, 2019
New territory
Larry Williams  •  TigerIllustrated
Senior Writer
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@LarryWilliamsTI

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One of the more common takeaways from what happened 14 days ago is that Dabo Swinney can no longer play the underdog card.

It does seem preposterous now, Swinney's team having placed everyone's 2018 vehicles in the Rest of Y'all Junkyard.

But haven't we already been there, done that when it comes to saying Swinney's teams will no longer be able to derive motivation out of slights real and imagined? They won a national title two years ago. Even before they made Nick Saban's team quit in Santa Clara, the Tigers weren't exactly known as the little ol' Clemson engine that could.

Yet there is an aspect of this that most observers aren't thinking about. As much as Swinney's program has towered over just about everyone in college football, it's not as though the coach has had to invent everything that goes on the bulletin board.

There was the almost universal belief that Clemson couldn't protect Trevor Lawrence against Alabama's marauding defensive line. There was almost universal skepticism that Clemson's safeties could cover Alabama's inside receivers.

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