Dabo Swinney has Clemson on verge of rare 11-win season but won't yet say team is great

ATLANTA – Dabo Swinney again has Clemson on the verge of 11 wins, a milestone reached by only three teams in school history.

Reaching 11 wins might convince Swinney to call his No. 14 Tigers great. It's a title he's willing to place on No. 9 LSU, which will face Clemson in Monday night's Chick-fil-A Bowl.

Clemson (10-2) is coming off a 27-17 loss to in-state rival South Carolina. It finished the 2011 season at 10-4, when a lopsided 70-33 loss to West Virginia in the Orange Bowl kept the Tigers from 11 wins.

Swinney says LSU (10-2) deserves to be called great because the Tigers won a recent national championship (2007) and played for the title last year.

Speaking of his team, Swinney says "We're not great, not yet."