Clemson’s latest stumble has pushed the conversation beyond the scoreboard and into the future of the program itself.
After last weekend’s loss to Virginia Tech, the Tigers dropped to 2-8 in their last home games against Power Four opponents. They’re now 4-3, and the road ahead looks thin: longshot chances at the ACC Championship or the College Football Playoff, with a bowl game now the realistic target the rest of the way.
That’s the backdrop for the debate around Dabo Swinney, and college football analyst Josh Pate addressed it on his podcast, Josh Pate’s College Football Show. Pate was asked whether Swinney could be fired after the season, and he made clear that he does not expect that to happen.
“No, I don’t think he’ll be fired,” he said on Tuesday. “Not classically fired, not the, ‘Dabo, please sit down. We’re going to have to let you go and you are owed $60 million and we’re going to pay that because, contractually, we’re obligated to do that.’”
Pate’s bigger point was about how much the program has slipped since around the 2020 season, when Clemson lost to Ohio State in the College Football Playoff semifinal. That ended up being Trevor Lawrence’s final game as a Tiger. Since then, Clemson has reached the playoff only once and has won two of the five possible ACC Championships.
The Virginia Tech loss, in Pate’s view, was another sign of how far the standard has moved.
“Can you imagine going back 10 years and Clemson loses a home game in primetime?” Pate said.
“It’s just not a big deal anymore, and there are no indications that suggest that he has any regrets about how he’s handled things. If he does harbor those regrets, he’s not verbalizing them.”
Pate said Swinney has made plenty of changes in an effort to get Clemson back to the level it reached late in the 2010s, but the results keep pointing in the wrong direction.
“Now, this is his 18th season. It is going nowhere fast,” he said.
“It continues to trend in the wrong direction. He is the variable.”
Even with that, Pate noted the financial reality: Swinney’s buyout sits at $57 million, down $3 million from last season. That makes a clean split difficult to imagine. If there is another path, Pate suggested it could involve Swinney choosing to walk away himself.
“There is a possibility, maybe remote, but there’s a possibility that at the end of the year, Dabo looks in the mirror and just acknowledges, ‘It’s time,’” he said.
For now, Clemson still has five games left and a bowl game remains available as a way to build momentum for next season. Pate also suggested that if Swinney goes all in on the portal, particularly on offense, the energy in Tigertown could shift again.
Until then, Pate’s view is simple: Swinney’s biggest problem may be the standard he built for himself.
“He’s just set in his ways. He is now the victim of his own standard in an era where the old way of doing things can’t meet that standard anymore,” he said.
In Other News...
Dabo Swinney Just Put A Clemson Starter On Notice
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The issues have already shown up in Davidsons playing time, and two sacks allowed on his watch only added to the concern around his work in pass protection and situational awareness. Swinney still believes Davidson is committed and has the ability to clean it up, but with competition growing in the backfield, the margin for error is getting thinner. [Read more 🡒]
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Brown-Shuler stayed connected to the program throughout his treatment, and the support around him never really let up. From the locker room to the wider Clemson community, the response reflected just how much he means to the team beyond his role as a defensive tackle, and it left one more important chapter still ahead as he moves past the hardest part of the fight. [Read more 🡒]