Two games, two goals

CLEMSON — The ultimate goal of the 2008 season didn't last as long as the first quarter against Alabama. Clemson's national championship hopes faded before anyone in orange broke a sweat.

Stunningly, the next pair of major goals — an Atlantic Coast Conference championship and a BCS bowl berth — didn't officially expire until Florida State recovered a late onside kick less than two weeks ago in the darkness of a late afternoon in Tallahassee.

The Tigers' story of the decade: So close to January joy, yet so far away.

Which brings us to Thomas Jefferson, the university he designed, some well-rested South Carolina Gamecocks and Dabo Swinney's legacy, all wrapped up in a neat eight-day package.

Clemson (5-5 overall and 3-4 in the ACC) has two games remaining and two major goals left unperturbed outside the rubble of a long, odd season.

Get to a bowl game.

Beat arch-rival South Carolina.

The two goals require two wins, at Virginia on Saturday and Nov. 29 against the Gamecocks, who, like Virginia, get two weeks to prepare for Dabo and Co.

'Special days'

Swinney in a 31-7 victory over Duke last week got exactly the "best game of the year" dominance he wanted following sloppy play on both sides of the ball in the 41-27 loss at Florida State.

He wasn't surprised.

"When you know these guys and you're around them every day, you know what the makeup is," the interim head coach said Tuesday. "And we have good kids on this team. We have guys who want to win. They go out and they work hard every day."

Swinney, 2-2 since taking over for Tommy Bowden, has implored the Tigers to "cherish the moment."

You can almost see the animated Swinney doing his best 10,000 Maniacs' "These Are Days" karaoke routine.

"This team has two weeks," he said. "These are special days. I tell these guys that five years from now, two months from now, 20 years from now, they are going to miss this. Everybody does. Everybody who has ever played, they miss the grind and they miss the work. The

structure. The camaraderie. Your teammates. The time they had together.

"When you're in the moment, you just kind of go about your business, but when you move on into the real world and get into life and sit there and start thinking, you miss that."

Turnover trend

In a crazy but improving ACC — the league is rated solidly above the SEC and just behind the Big 12 in the USA Today computer ranking of conferences — Miami and Maryland are atop the divisions.

Virginia lost 31-3 at Duke one week and clobbered Maryland, 31-0, the next.

But Swinney knows some things still make sense, such as Clemson's improvement in turnover differential. From minus-4 against Georgia Tech, to minus-2 at Boston College, to even at FSU, to plus-2 against Duke.

Clemson can worry about the plays that got away against Maryland (a penalty here, failure to get a first down there), at Wake Forest (the Deacons passing out of their own end zone converted a third-and-24 in the fourth quarter of a 12-7 victory and suddenly Tommy Bowden was $3.5 million richer), Georgia Tech (transition confusion) and Florida State (somehow Cullen Harper survived).

Or the Tigers can win their way to a bowl game played in Charlotte, Washington, D.C., San Francisco or Boise.

At this point, with two games and two goals left, they don't seem too particular.

Reach Gene Sapakoff at gsapakoff@postandcourier.com or 937-5593.

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