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Rex Brown

Clemson's Da'Quan Bowers celebrates following a defensive stop during the Tigers' loss at Maryland earlier this month in College Park, Md.

CLEMSON — Talk around town might lead one to believe Clemson should cease fielding a team and give up on the sport of football altogether.

The reality, however, is that with a win today against Wake Forest, the Tigers could very well be a first-place team later this evening.

A victory over the Deacs (4-2, 2-1 ACC), whom Clemson was favored to beat by a full touchdown and extra point as of Friday, coupled with an N.C. State win at Boston College and a Virginia win at Maryland, would leave the Tigers tied for first in the Atlantic Division and owning the tiebreaker over Wake.

And the Tigers (2-3, 1-2) are well aware they haven’t lost anything, save the margin for error, just yet.

“Every game is a playoff game,” senior bandit end Ricky Sapp said this week. “The biggest thing is we can’t panic. We’ve just got to stay focused and take each week at a time and go out and play on Saturday.”

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, whose tenure began when Tommy Bowden resigned the Monday after a Thursday night loss at Wake last season, agreed the team needed a playoff mentality moving forward.

“I’d say that in our division, probably every week’s kind of that playoff mentality because anything can happen,” Swinney said. “But it’s very important that we take advantage of these opportunities. You’ve got to hold serve at home. Wake’s right there in the middle of it too, just like we are.”

But while “that playoff mentality” would seem to suggest a must-win approach, Swinney said that kind of thinking was counterproductive.

“Must focus on execution. Must focus on preparing to win,” he said. “That’s what our focus needs to be on. … Not sitting around saying, ‘Must win, must win.’ Well heck, we need to focus on what it takes to win.”

And against Wake, that means figuring out a way to slow down Riley Skinner, the winningest quarterback in school history.

Skinner, who has 37 career starts under his belt, appears en route to his best season yet, having already thrown 15 touchdown passes — three times Clemson’s total — and coming off a 360-yard, four-touchdown effort against Maryland.

“He’s kind of like you used to see with Matt Ryan in this conference,” Swinney said. “Matt was always scrambling around, and he’d just find an open guy. And that’s what Riley has really mastered when you watch his game. He just knows where everybody is.”

On paper, Clemson’s defense seems well suited to slow Skinner, as it ranks second in the conference and eighth nationally against the pass while junior safety DeAndre McDaniel leads the ACC in interceptions.

“They might be one of the best defenses that we face all year,” Skinner told reporters this week. “They’re an athletic, explosive defense and they’re hard-hitting. They have two very talented cornerbacks and a safety that flies around and is athletic and can cover in space.”

But stopping Skinner and the Wake offense is just part of the equation. The Tiger offense, which ranks 11th in the league in scoring offense at just 24.0 points per game, needs to find its way into the end zone as well.

To that effect, Swinney has encouraged redshirt freshman signal-caller Kyle Parker to tuck the ball and run more frequently when plays break down.

“I love his mentality and his aggressiveness, but that just comes from that maturity of saying, ‘Hey, it’s a first down. Let’s move the chains. Let’s make this play right here,’ without taking his aggressiveness out of him — that’s one of the things that makes him a good player — but no question he’s got to run with a little bit more awareness in certain spots,” Swinney said.

Perhaps Clemson’s biggest edge, at least historically, is that the game will be played on its home turf, where it is 33-7 all-time against the Deacs. The Tigers haven’t lost at home to Wake since 1998, and all told, just twice in the last 40 years.

And while Swinney agreed that capitalizing on that home-field advantage is important, he says the confidence the team would glean from winning would matter even more.

“We’re going to get there,” he said. “We’re going to be very successful here. I’m in it for the long haul here. Some people may not like that, but I’m just telling you — I’m in it for the long haul, and we’re building this program the right way. I don’t have any doubts about that at all.”