Syracuse (4-4, 2-2 Atlantic Coast) will travel down to South Carolina for a matchup against No. 3 Clemson (8-0, 5-0) at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. The Orange is coming off its bye week, with a two-game winning streak before that. Clemson is coming off a 37-34 road victory over then-No. 12 Florida State.

Here are three things Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney said on the ACC coaches teleconference Wednesday.

SU can’t be overlooked, especially after its upset win over Virginia Tech

Coming off such a big win against the Seminoles, it’d be easy for the Tigers to overlook Syracuse as an inferior opponent.

Then-No. 17 Virginia Tech seemingly did that, losing to the Orange 31-17 a week after it had dominated North Carolina. Swinney said that after both wins SU is playing with even more confidence than before and stressed that he’ll make sure his team is ready for the Orange.

“They handled that defense (VT) pretty good … and then they come back and beat Boston College,” Swinney said. “They’re really playing with a lot of confidence.

“This is a team that is on the rise, there’s no doubt about it.”

There’s not much Clemson can take away from last year’s game.

Last season, No. 1 Clemson beat Syracuse in the Carrier Dome 37-27 in a mid-November matchup. Swinney said SU played very well against his team last year.

But the game featured a completely different coaching staff. Also, arguably SU’s two best offensive players this year — Eric Dungey and Amba Etta-Tawo — didn’t play in last year’s game, as Dungey was out with an injury and Etta-Tawo was still at Maryland.

“Just a totally different deal. New philosophy,” Swinney said. “You can just see that these guys have really bought in to what they’re trying to do.”

There’s still some worry about the quarterback running

One thing Swinney said hurt his team in last year’s game against SU were rushes by the quarterback. Zack Mahoney, who filled in for Dungey, carried the ball for 76 yards on 10 attempts. Five of those attempts were for 10 or more yards, including two touchdowns.

“They got into some quarterback run stuff on us last year that really hurt us, that I think that there are some carry over opportunities for them,” Swinney said.

Dungey is a more capable runner than Mahoney is — through eight games the sophomore leads the team in rushing attempts, with 121. Over the past two games, he’s gained 160 yards with his legs.

Published on November 2, 2016 at 11:42 am

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