Clemson football needed a mental reset.
As the 2026 season opener against LSU on September 5 fast approaches, the Tigers have been bolstered by a new confidence and cohesion that those on the inside see as a precursor to a great season ahead.
Following its most disappointing campaign since 2010 a year ago, in which the Tigers finished with a 7-6 record, Clemson football and head coach Dabo Swinney have preached staying the course. The players, it seems, have bought into that philosophy and are determined not to allow a repeat of 2025.
Defensive back Brandon Strozier discussed the tough approach Clemson’s coaches have implemented this offseason and how it has galvanized the team.
“It’s been great,” said Strozier. “It’s definitely been one of the toughest summers I had in my whole life, but it’s been great. (Strength and Conditioning coach Dennis Love) has definitely challenged us mentally, and I think that’s something I can take from him. It’s never gonna be something harder than what we did this summer.”
Brandon Strozier
Love had the Tigers running the dikes, an 80-foot uphill climb through debris, heat, and humidity. In a sense, it was a metaphorical representation of the obstacles Clemson football has endured in recent years. Those climbs and runs, said Swinney, served a unique purpose. To make everyone stronger not just physically, but mentally, too.
“It’s one of the reasons we ran those hills,” explained Swinney. “And it was awesome to watch them because they weren’t very good at the beginning of the summer. Fatigue will coward you, right? But by the end of the summer, man, and it didn’t get easier. And they were in great shape in the beginning of the summer. It didn’t get easier. They just learned how to handle the hard better.”
Dabo Swinney
What Swinney saw in his players was a determination that grew with each grueling trip up. For a program used to running downhill, having to fight their way back to the top was a measure of willpower and pride. Dabo has seen his players rise to the occasion before, and he saw it this summer.
“It’s the same thing in life, you know, you’ve got to kind of go through some things,” he added. “Life doesn’t get easier either. But we grow stronger from struggle. If you don’t quit, if you keep going, you just learn how to handle hard things better that come at you in life. Football is no different. And I’ve seen that in them. Now we’ve got to go take it to the field.”
Dabo Swinney
Strozier knows, as a member of the Tigers’ maligned secondary, that a reset was needed. Clemson football sported one of the country’s most porous pass defenses in 2025. But experience brings with it perspective. Running the dikes this summer, and with memories of last year’s shortcomings still fresh in the minds of all, the turning of a physical and mental page hopes to bring with it an eventual happy ending to the story of the 2026 Clemson football team.
“More experience. I would definitely say that,” Strozier said. “More experience and definitely more confident than we were last year at this point. We got a good room of people who have played a lot. We have that in-game experience and confidence that comes with it.”
And that goes for the Tigers’ entire roster. This season is a redemption arc that Clemson is just beginning to write.
