Paul Finebaum wasn’t interested in hearing Dabo Swinney talk up Clemson’s past.
A day after the Tigers showed up at ACC Kickoff in Charlotte, Finebaum went after Swinney on ESPN’s Get Up Friday morning, blasting the Clemson coach for leaning on old championships and old glory after a 7-6 season last year.
“Somebody should dunk him in that Raising Cane’s sauce, because I am getting so exasperated listening to Dabo tell us how great he used to be,” he said. “They’re not great anymore.”
Swinney’s comments came Thursday as he looked ahead to 2026 and pointed to the résumé Clemson has built during his run. He said the Tigers have still had plenty to stand on despite the recent dip.
“The good news is, hey, man, we've got a lot to stand on. We've been -- we've won this league three times this decade, and we talk about all that we haven't done,” he said on Thursday. “Even with seven wins last year, we're still one of the top-10 winningest programs in college football this decade.”
“We're seventh in wins. I think we're second in championships this decade.”
Finebaum’s response was that none of that matters if the standard has slipped. He argued Swinney should be focused on what comes next instead of revisiting what Clemson already accomplished.
“You don’t hear [Tom] Brady talking about his Super Bowls or LeBron, or anybody,” he said. “Dabo is just stuck on stupid right now, trying to convince us that his program is still legitimate. It’s not.”
Finebaum did leave a sliver of room for Clemson to rebound, but he made clear he doesn’t see the Tigers returning to the level they reached in the late 2010s. He pointed to last season’s six losses and said that kind of year, given the expectations and the Heisman favorite on the roster, was hard to defend.
“It’s slipping and sliding away. It’s good; maybe they’ll win nine games this year, maybe they won’t,” Finebaum said.
“But they lost six games last year with a Heisman favorite. That is downright embarrassing.”
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The bigger picture is even more encouraging for a fan base that has wanted this unit to feel dangerous again. Morris said the goal is to create one-on-one matchups and trust Clemsons recruiting and athlete talent to win from there, a blueprint that hints at a more aggressive, field-stretching identity. If that approach takes hold the way he envisions it, the Tigers may not just look different on offense - they may start looking like a problem again. [Read more 🡒]