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<p>CLEMSON, S.C. &#8212; Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott believes the third-ranked Tigers are on the right track to get back to playing aggressive, dominant football &#8212; something the team had to be reminded of the past couple of weeks.</p><p>Elliott said Monday the Tigers (6-0, 4-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) had slipped into a funk after the season&#8217;s first month and needed reminding how they had won two of the past three national championships. Clemson&#8217;s players got the message, pounding Florida State 45-14 on Saturday.</p><p>&#8220;Overall, we wanted to let these guys know who we are, what&#8217;s made us successful,&#8221; said Elliott, who shares coordinator duties with receivers coach Jeff Scott.</p><p>Still, Clemson dropped in the national rankings again after a victory. The Tigers, who started the year at No. 1, fell to No. 2 behind Alabama after their close call in a 21-20 win at North Carolina on Sept. 28. Clemson was passed by LSU this week, despite rolling over the Seminoles.</p><p>Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said his focus is on Louisville, not the Top 25 poll.</p><p>Swinney said the win against Florida State was his team&#8217;s best overall showing of the year and that it&#8217;s essential to carry the dominant play against the Seminoles into its matchup at Louisville (4-2, 2-1) on Saturday. He said the Tigers aren&#8217;t worried about their poll position, only about being in the right spot at the end of the year when the College Football Playoff participants are picked.</p><p>Right now, the Tigers simply need to &#8220;continue to have the edge that it takes,&#8221; Swinney said.</p><p>Clemson got strong showings from its best players, which Swinney said is a sign his team is on the winning path.</p><p>Trevor Lawrence threw three touchdown passes and Travis Etienne ran for 127 yards and caught a scoring pass.</p><p>A mid-season slump is natural, senior right tackle Tremayne Anchrum said, after nearly two months of grinding away at practice and school &#8212; particularly for a team that has won a program record 21 straight games.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s usually after the monotony of the day-by-day (routine), it can really take a toll on you,&#8221; Anchrum said.</p><p>He credited coaches with laying a solid foundation of focusing solely on the next opponent, not on what Clemson&#8217;s already accomplished or the challenges down the road.</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s when they emphasize, &#8216;Hey, you&#8217;ve got to find your motivation today. You&#8217;ve got to find your edge today. What&#8217;s going to make you be great,&#8217;&#8221; he said.</p><p>Clemson expects a different Louisville than it saw last year in the Tigers&#8217; 77-16 blowout. Elliott said there was a sense when the teams met in 2018 that &#8220;you could tell something was going on with the coaching staff. Now, they&#8217;re playing hard.&#8221;</p><p>The Cardinals fired Bobby Petrino eight days after the Clemson debacle last November and brought in Scott Satterfield when the season ended. Louisville held on to defeat then-19th-ranked Wake Forest 62-59 this past Saturday, its first win over a ranked opponent since 2016.</p><p>&#8220;The one thing we wanted to do was play hard this year,&#8221; Satterfield said. &#8220;We&#8217;ve been able to do that.&#8221;</p><p>Elliott, also Clemson&#8217;s running backs coach, understands how complacency can set in, especially for a team that hadn&#8217;t lost since the 2017 playoffs.</p><p>&#8220;When you&#8217;ve had success, it&#8217;s easy to say sometimes, &#8216;OK, it&#8217;s just going to happen,&#8217;&#8221; he said. &#8220;That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s a good reminder.&#8221;</p><p>Anchrum thinks the Florida State win will propel Clemson forward the rest of the season. There was a feeling at Thursday&#8217;s practice that any problems from the North Carolina win were in the past. &#8220;Once we hit that new week, we were refreshed, we were ready to go, we had a new edge and everybody was just ready to get back on the field, regardless of what happened,&#8221; he said.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, center, discusses a call with an official during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Florida State Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019, in Clemson, S.C. (AP Photo/Richard Shiro)</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/web1_123767899-d18706fd032b4d42a16997e9904e0ed9.jpg</photo0><caption0>Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, center, discusses a call with an official during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Florida State Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019, in Clemson, S.C. (AP Photo/Richard Shiro)</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/web1_123767899-d38a7ea33b074d0f864c39b67796929c.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence reacts after scoring a touchdown during the first half of an NCAA football game against Florida State on Saturday in Clemson, S.C. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/web1_123767899-d38a7ea33b074d0f864c39b67796929c.jpg</photo1><caption1>Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence reacts after scoring a touchdown during the first half of an NCAA football game against Florida State on Saturday in Clemson, S.C. </caption1><photoCredit1>AP photo </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/web1_123767899-2f67389d687d4396b5fc676863f8d26f.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Louisville coach Scott Satterfield and his wife, Beth, leave the field after Louisville defeated Wake Forest 62-59 in an NCAA college football game in Winston-Salem, N.C., Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/web1_123767899-2f67389d687d4396b5fc676863f8d26f.jpg</photo2><caption2>Louisville coach Scott Satterfield and his wife, Beth, leave the field after Louisville defeated Wake Forest 62-59 in an NCAA college football game in Winston-Salem, N.C., Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)</caption2><photoCredit2>AP photo </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Pete Iacobelli</p><p>AP Sports Writer</p></bylineMeta></div>

Clemson’s Elliott says No. 3 Tigers back on right track