Clemson’s start to the 2021 season has been unexpected. The Tigers have already suffered 2 losses, which matches the most they’ve had in a year since going 10-3 in 2014.

Not only that, but Clemson has lost to an ACC rival (27-21 in double overtime to NC State this past Saturday) and nearly got beat by another (a 14-8 win over Georgia Tech the week before). So things aren’t going the way they normally do for the Tigers at the start of the season, when they’ve typically been dominant during the Dabo Swinney era.

On Tuesday, Swinney spoke to the media (including Anna Hickey of 247Sports.com) and was asked whether he had reached out to any of his mentors amid this difficult start. He then took that opportunity to make it clear that his team is going to be OK moving forward.

“I talk to lots of people,” Swinney told reporters. “Fortunately, I get lots of people that reach out to me. I give plenty of advice. No man listen, it ain’t no funeral around here. We’ll be all right. We’ll be just fine. I know what the problems are. I don’t need to call anybody to tell me what the issue is. I know what the issue is.”

What exactly is that issue? Well, Swinney believes it’s “very simple.”

“Sometimes to make progress, you have to go backwards,” Swinney said. “We are not going to make progress if we aren’t better fundamentally. We aren’t going to make progress if we don’t have more discipline … penalties, ball security, the basics. We have to be better at the basics if we are going to be better at anything else.”

Swinney added that the Tigers are only “2 or 3 less mistakes from being 4-0.” And it is true that both their losses have been close games. They fell, 10-3, to Georgia to open the season, and they didn’t lose to NC State until a second OT period.

Over Clemson’s final 8 games, it plays only 1 ranked opponent (No. 24 Wake Forest on Nov. 20). So maybe it can still turn it around. But if the Tigers take another loss, they’ll likely be dropping out of the AP Top 25 poll.

Clemson will look to bounce back this Saturday when it hosts Boston College at 7:30 p.m. ET on ACC Network.