Seeing a program rise and then fall happens often in college football. The ones that are able to sustain success decade after decade are the outliers in the sport.What is more common is for a team to have a 5-10 year window where they rise under a head coach, but then go back down to the program they always were before that coach. The question for the Clemson Tigers is if they hit that portion of their era.Dabo Swinney has done a fantastic job since being hired as the full-time head coach before the 2009 season. He had 12 straight seasons of double-digit wins from 2011 to 2022. However, in three straight seasons, he's had his most losses since 2011. That culminated with a disappointing 7-6 season last year, the Tigers' worst since 2008.Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney looks on during the first half. | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn ImagesTo make matters worse, Clemson came into that season with high expectations after going 10-4 and making the College Football Playoff the year before. The Tigers ranked No. 1 in returning production and started the year ranked No. 4. But they lost three of their first four games, and just like that, the season was practically over.Still, there is some hope. David Pollack revealed on "See Ball get Ball with David Pollack" that last season should be seen as an outlier, not as who this program really is or the direction it is headed. "Last year was an anomaly," Pollack said. "Last year was not the norm of what Clemson has been. Last year, if you look at Clemson, they're a team that wins 10 games a year. That's just what Dabo has done. So, not doing that, they took a step back."The reality is it's up to Swinney and Clemson to prove that last year was an outlier. Because. While it was an outlier in the Swinney era, going 7-6 was not an outlier in Clemson's history. Dating back to 1950, the team has won seven or fewer games 36 times.You could argue the outlier is the Swinney years. They had seven double-digit win seasons without Swinney and 13 with him.So maybe Clemson's run as a dominant program is coming to an end, and the Tigers are slipping back to reality. Or maybe last year was, in fact, just a bump on the road, and the best era in Clemson history is still very much alive. Only time will tell.Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow