ATTENTION SUBSCRIBERS: It's here! Our NETWORK-WIDE, all-access (to premium message boards) pass! Read every premium message board in the Rivals.com network as part of a bundled add-on to your subscription!

Subscribers can add the All-Access Pass or a 3-Site Bundle in your account profile, under the Subscriptions tab: HERE

----------------------------------------------

CLEMSON -- On occasion late last season, Dabo Swinney said he hoped that the pronounced dip in 2021 would produce a more pronounced appreciation for the tremendous success enjoyed previously.

Let's face it: You probably weren't as overjoyed to win the ACC and reach the playoff in 2019 as you were in, say, 2015 when it was all new and fresh and wonderful.

When they got there for the first time, you were determined to find any way possible to go because you figured it could be a while before they got back.

When they got there a sixth straight time, in 2020, some of the luster had worn off. The disappointment was so thick from an unexpected semifinal upending that you forgot it was kind of special to be there at all.

Whether the Tigers get back this January, the next January or the one after that, you're probably going to fully savor it in a way you didn't late in that remarkable run.

And while we're on the topic of even-handed perspective on Clemson's place in the college football world, perhaps we're in too much of a rush to compare the Tigers to the dynasty in Tuscaloosa, the emerging force in Athens, or the mainstay in Ohio.

Yes, Clemson should always measure itself against the best. As Swinney has always said, this program shouldn't take a back set to anyone.

But big-picture, it's probably useful to measure Clemson against some other teams out there that have reached the elite level but haven't remained there.

You know, to reinforce not just how hard it is to get to the top but to stay there.