Dabo Swinney and Clemson nearly suffered a major upset loss to Troy in Week 2 of college football. Are the Tigers out of the playoff hunt?

The Clemson Tigers leaned on the third phase of the game to stage the third-largest comeback in Death Valley history against Troy.

For Dabo Swinney, the pressure is no less urgent. Clemson was once a disruptor of the Alabama dynasty, a beacon for how a program outside the SEC could rise and rule. To fall behind now, in the expanded College Football Playoff era, would be to concede the very ground Swinney once conquered.