Since the start of the 2021 college football season, Clemson has lost eight games -- and won 25 times.
Included in that timeframe, the Tigers captured an Atlantic Coast Conference title and also won a bowl game.
But after last season's ACC championship, Dabo Swinney's Clemson squad was pulped by Tennessee in the Orange Bowl and already had notched two losses this season before September ended.
So, Swinney posited Monday. night on his weekly Clemson head coach's radio show that the Tigers's fan base had revealed itself to be spoiled and that perhaps Clemson needed to lose -- not win -- more frequently.
Swinney clearly had a targeted point in mind with his comments.
"We're at a point in our time, and I hate that," Swinney said, "where people, if you don't go undefeated, (say) 'You're losers. You're terrible.' And it's just such a terrible mindset.
"And, honestly, maybe we need to lose a few games and lighten up the bandwagon. Sometimes the bandwagon can get a little too full."
Clemson fell out of the national top-25 rankings after its second loss last month, a narrow home defeat to top-five Florida State, and opened its season with a double-digit defeat at Duke.
Swinney and the Tigers have positioned themselves as victims of their own success.
Those eight losses in the team's past 25 games, just two-and-a-half seasons? Clemson lost only eight times total in a six-season span from 2015-2020.
The Tigers also pivoted into the second half of their season this week with a schedule positioned to perhaps yield more losses.
In addition to this week's game against the Hurricanes, who like Clemson opened the season to much buzz but plummeted out of the rankings in Mario Cristobal's second season at the helm, the Tigers have scheduled tilts against ranked foes Notre Dame and North Carolina, as well as ACC contests with North Carolina State and Georgia Tech along with their annual Palmetto State rivalry at South Carolina -- which compounded Clemson's agony a year ago with its win.
As Swinney touted the benefit of this rough stretch as something that's revealed who truly is and is not with the program, Clemson's two-time national champion coach predicted his team could win every game that remained on its slate.
Or, he said, the Tigers could lose every contest.
"As far as our program, hey, we may win every one of these games out," Swinney said on air. "We could lose every one of them.
"We're a really good team that could beat anybody, and we're a team that could lose to anybody."
Swinney then doubled-down on Clemson's residency as a program constructed to endure
"Our program is built to last," Swinney said. "We're going to be around for a long time."