CLEMSON — Clemson coach Dabo Swinney won’t shy away from playing top-tier programs like LSU in openers.

He also won’t undersell the challenge.

“You play games like this, you get beat,” Swinney said. “But we don't shy away from that. We don't fear losing a ball game. We don't fear that. I don't think the other team should ever fear that. I'm more excited about the chance to win.”

Swinney won’t shrink from his long-held strategy of playing big-boy competition , even if No. 4 Clemson has lost three out of its last four openers, including a pair to SEC power Georgia.

He’s not fretting the potential of an early-season loss on Aug. 30, not in this era of an expanded playoff where one nonconference defeat doesn’t destroy a team’s chances of making a 12-team field .

That isn’t to say co

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