Taking on Florida State in Tallahassee, Fla., on Saturday, No. 4 Clemson is expecting a hard-fought battle, but more than anything, the Tigers don’t want a repeat performance of the 2021 matchup between the two teams.
Clemson ultimately came away with a 30-20 win in the October game last season, but the performance was far from what head coach Dabo Swinney wanted.
In the 10-point victory, Clemson had three turnovers, 189 passing yards and won in a similar fashion to the rest of the wins from the 2021 season: ugly.
The double-digit winning margin was also deceptive, as the Tigers gave the Seminoles a game-winning scoring opportunity before a fumble recovery touchdown made the final score more presentable. 
Clemson is far better so far in 2022, but there is no better proof in the pudding of higher expectations this time around than head coach Dabo Swinney’s comments on Monday.
“I wanted to vomit watching the Florida State game last year,” Swinney said. “It was so painful to watch it. We were so bad. We won, which was a miracle, but we were so bad.”
“Grading our tape this year from last year is night and day in every area. You watch our game from last year, and you’re just going, ‘holy cow, we on this game?’” 
Sitting at 6-0 on the season, Clemson is two games ahead of Florida State (4-2) in the Atlantic Division. 
On offense, Clemson is scoring 39.3 points per game, 13.0 more points than last year’s 2021 team scored. 
The Tigers’ defense has had its fair share of struggles, but the unit seems to be coming into its own after only giving up three points to Boston College last week. 
Although Clemson has won the past six matchups against Florida State, Swinney knows the critical nature of these conference games.
“This game, many times, has kind of decided who won the league or who won the division to go play for the league,” Swinney said.
The Seminoles will be hungry for a win, having come off back-to-back losses after starting 4-0.
Like every other opponent Clemson faces, Swinney is expecting nothing short of a tough, competitive game.
“We’re at a point where everybody circles us,” Swinney said. “We’re that team that everybody’s going to practice against year-round, and they’re going to pay attention to every week.”
Kickoff between the Tigers and the Seminoles is set for 7:30 p.m. EDT.