'If They're Tired of Winning, They Can Send Me On My Way': Dabo Swinney Seems To Be on the Verge of a Major Crashout After a 1-2 Start

Things seem like they might be reaching a breaking point at Clemson. The Tigers are 1-2 — the lone win was a double-digit comeback against Troy — on the heels of back-to-back four-loss seasons and what was supposed to be a team competing for a national championship seems much more likely to enjoy everything Orlando has to offer at Christmas ahead of the Pop-Tarts Bowl.

Since the start of last season, Clemson has far more in common with Vanderbilt than any team in the national title hunt right now.

And as the natives may be growing a bit restless of a program that was elite in the not-so-distant past struggling to adapt to a new age of college football, Dabo Swinney seemingly feels he should be immune from any criticism because of his previous results. And in terms of accomplishments, there are unquestionably no more than a handful of other active coaches with a trophy case that rivals that of Swinney's. But he said four or five times in that clip Clemson can get rid of him if it's "tired of winning."

What, exactly, is Clemson winning right now?

Sure, the Tigers snuck into the ACC Championship Game last year and barely beat SMU to force itself into the College Football Playoff as a conference champion. But with just a couple more losses this year, the Tigers will lose four games in three consecutive seasons, something that hasn't happened at Clemson since Swinney's first three years from 2009-2011. Doing things your way is great until you're the fifth-best team in the ACC and all the teams above you have awesome quarterbacks that were plucked out of the transfer portal.

I understand Swinney's frustration. He turned a program that was consistently mocked for its inability to get over the hump into one that rivaled Alabama at Nick Saban's peak and took down the Crimson Tide twice to win national titles. Nobody disputes what Swinney was able to do from 2015-2019 was incredible.

But it's 2025, brother. And if you gave me a list of Dan Lanning, James Franklin, Ryan Day, Steve Sarkisian, Lane Kiffin, Josh Heupel, etc. and told me to stop when I found a guy that I wouldn't take right now over Swinney, we're gonna be here for a while. The game has changed.

In all honesty, I'd actually love to see Dabo go somewhere else and try to build something like Clemson again. If he can go to Virginia Tech or UCLA and turn either of those programs into a consistent national title contender, I will take back every negative word I've ever said about the guy.

But I have a feeling that would not be the result.