Clemson, time for you and Dabo to Talk
Dabo Swinney has been at the helm for the Clemson University football program on a fulltime basis since 2009. He guided them to championships in 2016 and 2018 and has been the best team in the conference nine times. And naturally, the seven college football playoff appearances is the second most since it began in 2014. Since the era of NIL and the transfer portal began, Clemson has been really struggling compared to what they did before. Dabo is and has been a damn good football coach, recruiter, and developer. Nobody will dispute that. But is stubbornness to change his ways on how the program operates is inching him closer to downfall. You never thought this would be said, but it may be time to start discussing his contract buyout.
What’s Gone Wrong?
Well, how much time you got? This is really getting ridiculous. Folks, you know how much I HATE that NIL and the portal are taking over the sport. I was never a fan of NIL but it did take me a little time to come around on the portal. The fact that players are basically free agents at the end of every year and are forcing schools to pony up millions of dollars of booster and endorsement money, or now even holding out as they threaten to transfer unless demands are met is lunacy. Clemson only used the portal for the first time last offseason and go figure, Will Heldt who came over from Purdue has been the best player on defense.
While Clemson has dedicated NIL program like other schools to talk and negotiate with players/player reps, there is very little news about what Clemson is doing with NIL regarding trying to encourage talented players to join their team. Dabo had said publicly in the past that they had no intention on using either methods. They felt they could continue to recruit and develop the old fashion way. While the recruiting trial is still a part of the sport and developing is also an important part of the process, you cannot solely rely on that anymore. Clemson only has three players as of right now with NIL deals and it seems there has been little to no effort to use NIL to entice high school players or those in the portal.
Clemson clearly has a talent deficiency and that has been on display during their 1-3 start to the season. That’s the worst start under Dabo, and the first time this has even happened since 2004. You can understand the loss to a very good LSU team in the opener. Then it gets dicey. Clemson was down big to Troy in their second game which was their home opener, and it required a herculean effort to come back to win the game. I’m sorry, but what they hell are we doing? Then Clemson goes on the road and does not play very good at all against Georgia Tech who beat them on a game winning field goal. Now, we are here - still talking about an absolute butt kicking at home against Syracuse where they got booed off the field multiple times. Are you kidding me with this, Syracuse?! This is flat out unacceptable. Clemson gets a week off before playing Bill Belichick led North Carolina which still feels so bizarre to say.
Coaching
There has also been major problems lately with the coaches not putting the players in position to be successful. The offensive woes have especially been extremely problematic. There have been some changes in the play callers but it usually comes too late. Right now Garret Riley is running the offense and to say it has been a disaster would be an understatement. Quarterback Cade Klubnik looks like he has gotten significantly worse in this system and just worse in general. I don’t understand why there has not been a change made. This is where the stubborn part of Dabo comes into play. He sees a problem, but doesn’t make the change needed to help fix it.
On the defensive side there are some real struggles too but it’s hard to tell if that is more of a product of the lack of offensive production, or something else. There have been a lot of penalties to start the season and it has come from the secondary in some pretty big moments. 19 total team penalties to be exact in the first four games. I get it’s a small sample size but that is still not great. The front seven for the most part has looked very good still.
Clemson used to be considered a “WRU” meaning a school that produces some of the best receivers in the country. That has not been the case for a few years now. There is nothing special about them. They have good speed but other than that, nothing really jumps out at you. Look at what Ohio State has produced at the position in comparison recently. Garret Wilson, Chris Olave, Jamesion Williams even though he finished at Alabama, Jaxon Smith- Njigba, Marvin Harrison Jr, Emeka Egmuka, and now Jerimiah Smith. Those are all first round draft picks and Smith will join that club. The first three guys were taken back to back to back of each other. JSN was an undisputed first rounder. Harrison was taken 4th overall two years ago, and Egmuka was just taken in the top 20 in the last draft. Smith is already being talked about as a possible future first overall pick. The last Clemson WRs that got to the league recently were Cornell Powell and Justyn Ross. Both landed with Kansas City, both did not last long and Ross recently retired. Mike Williams didn’t pan out as a first round pick from a few years back and he just retired too.
The Buyout
Dabo’s buyout is currently 60 million and will drop to 57 million next year. The deal is set to expire after the 2031 season. It’s a big one, that is for sure. But if this keeps up you have to make a change. Dabo is trying to say that the sky isn’t falling but in reality it absolutely is. He also said last year that nobody would have more NIL than Clemson and that has also proven not to be true. People are starting to panic and get frustrated and you can understand why. This program needs to get their you know what together and fast. They made it into the playoff by a slim margin by pulling off a win in the ACC title game only to get blown out by Texas in the first round. Clemson almost let SMU come back and steal the win from them which should have already been the indicator that they had no shot against Texas whatsoever.
Look, this is all 100% fixable. You may not like the current climate but if you don’t adapt and make it all work for you then you’ve already lost. The administration needs to tell Dabo to invest harder and if he pushes back, then there is going to be a very uncomfortable conversation to be had. Tigers can’t change their stripes, but Clemson needs to change the process to avoid becoming more of a laughing stalk than they already are right now. Clemson the worst team in the ACC perhaps? Never thought I’d live to see the day.