There are many who believed that Clemson’s championship window has closed.

We’ve seen it before. Greatness can only be sustained in college football for so long. The dominant Miami teams of the 1980s eventually faded in the 1990s. The dominant Florida State teams of the 1990s eventually faded in the 2000s. Southern California in the 2000s eventually fell in the 2010s.

And now we have Clemson. The Tigers have won 10 or more games for 11 consecutive seasons. They have won 2 College Football Playoff national championships, went 15-0 once and 14-1 on 3 occasions.

Last season, however felt different. Clemson was 10-3, finishing the season with 6 straight victories. But it was a grind. The Tigers had to grind out some ugly wins against Syracuse, Florida State and Iowa State — teams they should have rolled over. The 2021 season felt more like a swan song than a transitional year.

But coach Dabo Swinney isn’t buying it. He knows his team has more in the tank and maybe the 2022 Clemson Tigers have what it takes to get to a championship level.

What give Swinney that confidence is knowing he has a team that can respond to adversity.

“This team has a great perspective,” Swinney said at his weekly press conference. “They know what it’s like to be 4-3 at Clemson … and that ain’t real good. But it’s a healthy perspective for them.”

Swinney often is criticized for being a little hokey, a little corny. The pizza parties. Having the crowd rush the field after every win. He’s not stoic like Alabama coach Nick Saban.

Instead Swinney is emotional. He gets excited. Swinney celebrates every win like its his first. He appreciates what it takes to win and he understands what happens when thing don’t always go as expected. Success becomes expected and no longer appreciated.

“We won 29 in a row here at one point and it was like if you didn’t win by 14 points or more it was terrible,” Swinney said. “We celebrate every win here. Whether it’s 59-58 or 14-12, we celebrate all of them.

“Even when you win 63-0 there’s something that could be better. We can always be better. The main thing is the appreciation of when you win.”

Clemson enters the season on a 6-game win streak. When the Tigers enter the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Labor Day to play Georgia Tech, Clemson is expected to extend it to 7 games.

As a matter of fact, the schedule shakes well for Clemson. The Tigers should be 3-0 when they travel to Wake Forest and likely will not have to deal with quarterback Sam Hartman, who is expected to miss at least half the season.

Clemson then will get N.C. State at home on Oct. 1 in a revenge game before a stretch of games against Boston College, Florida State and Syracuse. The Tigers will be favored in all of those games and could be 8-0 when they travel to Notre Dame on Nov. 5.

Swinney understands that when programs start to trend downward it’s hard to recover, but he’s optimistic about this team. He likes the chemistry and the fact that the players already have had a taste of the struggles.

“They have a great appreciation for each other, for team meetings, practice, just being together,” Swinney said. “I just think they have a respect for what it takes.

“Six straight playoffs. Six straight championship game. I know we didn’t go to 7 and the world has come to an end,” Swinney continued. “Especially for young people that really haven’t experienced much adversity. I think these guys have a perspective that no team that I’ve had in a long time has. It’s kind of all just been great.”