How many wins will it take?

How many victories before the Georgia Dome debacle fades into Clemson’s rear view mirror?

More than one, apparently.

Sure, the Tigers whipped The Citadel — badly — to the tune of a 45-17 rout before 76,000 mostly interested fans Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

But it will take more than a rout of an overmatched Football Championship Series team to make Clemson fans forget about Alabama applying a 34-10 beatdown before a national TV audience.

And Tommy Bowden knows it.

“We’ve got to win more games,” Clemson’s 10th-year coach said Sunday. “Winning the next one is what we’ve got to do, and (our reputation) will take care of itself over the course of time. People remember your last game. The further you get away, the less people will remember about it.”

That’s probably a good thing.

Alabama applied a national-stage whipping which resonated in the minds of influential college football voters. Even with Saturday’s victory, the Tigers dropped one spot — from No. 22 to No. 23 — in the USA Today top 25 coaches’ poll and remained unranked in the Associated Press top 25.

A 45-17 win over The Citadel accomplished little, other than national pundits saying, “Hmm, same old Clemson. What will happen when they play a real opponent?”

And maybe they’re right. The Tigers’ last three national-stage appearances have unfolded like this: a 20-17 loss to Boston College, a 23-20 Chick-fil-A Bowl overtime loss to Auburn and the Alabama defeat.

Why wouldn’t national writers be jumpy at this point, given Clemson’s past history?

And the next month won’t do much to change that reputation.

Up ahead are three straight home games against N.C. State (which followed a shutout loss to South Carolina with a ho-hum win over FCS foe William and Mary), FCS team South Carolina State and Maryland (owner of a 14-7 win over FCS team Delaware and an embarrassing 24-14 loss at Sun Belt stud Middle Tennessee State).

Clemson could and should win all three games, but few will take notice until Oct. 9’s ESPN-televised Thursday night showdown at Wake Forest, the only ACC team which has met expectations thus far.

Take down the Demon Deacons in Groves Stadium — Bowden’s personal house of horrors — and some of the noise will subside.

Bowden, of course, isn’t worried about the Deacs right now. He simply wants to get better.

“If we continue to improve, people will forget about (Alabama),” he said. “Like Virginia Tech forgot about (losing to) LSU (last year) and Southern Cal forgot about Stanford. The most important thing is to win and get better. We’re a long ways from where we want to be right now.”

Indeed. Clemson’s offense piled up 525 yards Saturday but questions remain — compounded by left tackle Chris Hairston’s involvement in a weekend motorscooter accident — and Bowden wants more pressure from the defensive line, which has one sack in two games.

In other words, Saturday was a step forward, but plenty remain before national respect is regained.