The Clemson Tigers have made their way back near the top of the college football mountain, a place that feels like home for veteran head coach Dabo Swinney. With just four games remaining this year, the Tigers have done everything in their power to this point to prove to the nation, and more specifically the College Football Playoff Committee, that they deserve to be among the 12 teams vying for the National Championship this year. With their only loss coming in week one to the Georgia Bulldogs, Clemson has since shown nothing but dominance on both sides of the ball in every matchup the team has had. Still, it may not be enough for the College Football Playoff Committee, unless they win out, including the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship game. "If the Tigers stumble and don't win the ACC," writes Heather Dinich of ESPN, "there will likely be two-loss teams with better résumés ahead of them." Dinich currently has the Tigers projected as one of the "Last Two In" for the College Football Playoffs, with the 11th seed sitting just ahead of the Tennessee Volunteers. These most recent projections have Clemson facing the Ohio State Buckeyes (projected as the sixth seed) in the first round of the College Football Playoffs, with the winner advancing to face the currently projected third seed, the Miami Hurricanes. The Committee has made it clear that they will not reseed to avoid rematches, and should the Tigers win this hypothetical game against the Buckeyes to advance to face the Hurricanes, it could be a rematch of the ACC Championship game. "The reality, though," adds Dinich, "is that if Clemson loses to Miami in the ACC championship game, it might not earn a spot in the playoff as a two-loss ACC runner-up." The strength of schedule this year has continued to haunt Clemson in its quest to get back to the top of the college football mountain, something that is out of their control. While the strength of schedule may be something that the Tigers can not control, they can control their performances on the field against that schedule, and outside of week one, they have been nothing short of fantastic and well deserving of a berth in the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoffs. There is still a lot of season left to play, but Clemson does find itself in a favorable spot and holds its College Football Playoff destiny in its own hands. The first College Football Playoff rankings come next week, and the Tigers have one more opportunity to impress this Saturday, versus Louisville (7:30 p.m./ESPN), to start it strong. CBS Sports' Jerry Palm projected how that initial ranking could look, and he believes the committee would have the Tigers lower than their spots in the traditional polls this week (No. 11 in AP/No. 8 in Coaches). Palm says the committee would have Clemson at No. 14 going into the weekend. "The Tigers are similar to Indiana except they have played Georgia and got their doors blown off. They have not had to break a sweat to win since, however. Perhaps Louisville will give them a test," Palm said. Around Clemson, Palm projects Indiana at No. 13 and the highest-ranked Group of Five leader Boise State afterward (15). By those rankings, the 12-team field would be Oregon (conference automatic bid), Georgia (conference auto bid), Miami (conference auto bid), BYU (conference auto bid), Penn State (at-large), Ohio State (at-large), Alabama (at-large), Texas (at-large), Iowa State (at-large), Notre Dame (at-large), Texas A&M (at-large) and Boise State (fifth conference auto bid). As Palm lists, CFP rankings criteria include head-to-head meetings, strength of schedule, games against common opponents, results versus ranked opponents and conference championships. The difference when it comes to seeding the 12-team group is the Top 4 conference champs occupying the Top 4 seeds and one more conference champ being seeded according to their ranking after that. Palm's assessment of where they are now does differ from his projection, however, which has Georgia on top, then Ohio State, Miami and Iowa State getting byes, followed by the at-large/G5 auto bid spots of 5. Oregon hosting 12. Boise State, 6. Texas hosting 11. Clemson, 7. BYU hosting 10. Alabama and 8. Penn State hosting 9. Texas A&M. If they advanced out of Texas, the Tigers would face Miami in the Peach Bowl in that scenario. The first CFP rankings show is 7 p.m. next Tuesday on ESPN. It will run each Tuesday up to a final CFP rankings to determine the 12-team field after the conference championship games on December 8. Head Coach Dabo Swinney's mantra, "they remember November," highlights Clemson's historical success in the last month of the regular season. With a 49-13 record and 30-4 in the last nine years, Clemson aims to achieve an unprecedented five wins in November this year. Though they had a perfect record in November multiple times, recent attempts to win five games have fallen short, making this season particularly significant. The phrase originally stemmed from former West Virginia Coach Bill Stewart after a 2009 loss, yet Swinney has made it emblematic of the team's final month focus. The upcoming games will determine if Clemson can secure a perfect record this November, aiming to break their historical pattern of losing at least one game in this month. Success could solidify Swinney’s legacy and further enhance the program’s reputation. This November could mark a pivotal moment for Clemson football, as achieving five wins would set a new standard for the program, reflecting both historical success and current aspirations. Other than providing further evidence that columnists don’t make good poets, the bastardization of John Milton’s work about the failed Gunpowder Plot underscores the importance of finishing a campaign strong. For the Clemson Tigers, the 2024 season to this point has been a success. After an opening embarrassment at the hands of Georgia, the Tigers have rediscovered their whomping ways, rattling off six straight wins and averaging 48.5 points per game. The only portal on any Clemson fans’ mind nowadays is the one quarterback Cade Klubnik and offensive coordinator Garrett Riley have manufactured between the line of scrimmage and the opponents’ end zone. Now they enter November in a place familiar to the program but unfamiliar to the players — firmly in the College Football Playoff hunt. From 2015-20, head coach Dabo Swinney and the Tigers were always part of that conversation, and Swinney spoke often of the team entering its “championship phase” when the calendar flipped to the regular season’s final month. In those six seasons, the Tigers lost only twice in November — a mistake-riddled home loss to Pittsburgh in 2016 on a last-second field goal, and a double-overtime loss to No. 4 Notre Dame in 2020 with star quarterback Trevor Lawrence sidelined due to a positive COVID test the week before. In each instance, the team was able to rebound, go onto win the ACC championship and earn a spot in the four-team playoff. Since the departure of Lawrence, Clemson has not returned to the CFP and has won only one ACC championship. The good news is that November has twice been a month where a struggling Tiger team has righted the ship. In 2021, the Tigers won their final six games — including a win over No. 10 Wake Forest — after starting 4-3, and last year they won their final five — including wins over No. 15 Notre Dame and No. 20 North Carolina — after starting 4-4. But it’s the 2022 season that provides the biggest warning sign for the current Tigers. Thanks to a resurgent D.J. Uiagalelei after his 2021 struggles, those Tigers were 8-0 and ranked No. 4 in the initial CFP rankings. All that stood in their way were four unranked teams. It all came crumbling down. Notre Dame punched Clemson in the mouth from the opening kickoff en route to a 35-14 win where Uiagalelei was briefly benched in favor of Klubnik. The newfound confidence Uiagalelei had harnessed earlier in the season but had started to waver entering November was all but shattered. He showed signs of promise in home wins over Louisville and Miami, but then was major failed cog in an all-around disastrous 31-30 loss to rival South Carolina that firmly killed any lingering hope of a playoff bid. For Clemson fans, it should be relieving to hear wide receiver Antonio Williams — who was a key piece of the offense as a freshman in that 2022 season and is the Tigers’ leading receiver as a junior this year — speak about making sure the young players maintain their intensity and focus so they don’t lose sight of the team’s goals. Unlike the 2022 campaign, the road home for the 2024 Tigers isn’t a smooth one. Arguably the four toughest games since facing then-No. 1 Georgia are all still play, starting with a visit from a Louisville team tonight that has a high-powered offense led by veteran quarterback Tyler Shough. Then comes back-to-back road trips to Virginia Tech and Pitt before the season ends with visits from the Citadel and South Carolina. A defense that has been susceptible to big plays, mostly with the game out of reach, will be less likely to have quite the same cushion to play with. Star defensive lineman Peter Woods looks healthier than he has since the early season, giving the Tigers a big boost in the middle, but they’ll need to see improvement from the rest of the secondary outside of sophomore cornerback Avieon Terrell. If the defense starts to yield, it puts more pressure on Klubnik and the offense to keep the fireworks going. After being near flawless in September, Klubnik has started to misplace a few passes in big situations, so the hope would be these are indeed blips that don’t increase and start to impact his confidence, as the margin of error starts to decrease, and the pressure ramps up. Clemson got its season back on track during September and October, but as we saw two years ago, the Tigers have to find a way to navigate November. Or it’ll all be for naught.