CLEMSON, S.C. --- Coastal Carolina's David Bennett didn't need his 25 years of coaching experience to assess his team's chances at Clemson's Death Valley this weekend.

"You're not comparing apples to apples. You're not comparing oranges to oranges. You're comparing oranges to grapes," Bennett said. "We're the grapes."

The Tigers (4-3) have stomped on much bigger teams this month than the Chanticleers (3-4) of the Football Championship Subdivision. Clemson beat Wake Forest, then leading the ACC's Atlantic Division, 38-3 at home two weeks ago. Last Saturday, they outlasted then-No. 8 Miami 40-37 in overtime to break an eight-game losing streak to ranked foes.

Clemson puts its Atlantic Coast Conference title chase on hold to face Coastal Carolina for the first time.

"Coastal Carolina. It's the most important game of the year. Simple as that," Tiger coach Dabo Swinney said. "We have a good opportunity to continue to get better."

Swinney, Clemson's receivers coach until elevated the top job last October, knows too well his team's reputation to follow major success with unexpected failure. In 2004, the last time the Tigers opened eyes with a win at Miami, they collapsed a week later in a loss to Duke, which had been winless in the ACC until that game.

It would be front-page news if Clemson fell to the Big South Conference school that didn't kick off its program until 2003.

Still, no less than Tiger star C.J. Spiller, who's run his way into the Heisman Trophy race the past two weeks, wants his teammates to continue playing focused, inspired football against all opposition. "It's all about what we're trying to accomplish as a team," he said. "The win and loss column is what's most important to me."

Bennett marveled at a TV graphic in the Miami game that clocked Spiller going 28 mph during his 90-yard kickoff return touchdown. Bennett talked with the school's chief of police about it. "He's got some souped-up golf carts and there ain't no golf cart on campus that goes 28 mph," said Bennett, who was a graduate assistant for Clemson coach Danny Ford in 1985-86.