Dabo Swinney can no longer deny it’s not working at Clemson. But is he willing to change?

There have been flashpoint moments in the last three Clemson seasons, where change arrives and there’s no option but to evolve.

Yet Dabo Swinney keeps pushing forward, foraging through the obvious blind spot with a steel tank of coaching capital.

Clemson lost seven games from 2015-2020, won two national titles and played for two others. Clemson has lost 12 games since the beginning of the transfer portal era in 2021, and hasn’t returned to the College Football Playoff.

Every other FBS program uses the transfer portal to supplement its roster. Clemson does not.

It’s not that difficult to figure out.

“We’ve talked about how great it would be to finish 7-1 in our league,” Swinney said earlier this week. “We put ourselves in position. We weren’t in position last year.”

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney reacts after a call by an official during his team’s game against Georgia at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

How’s that for evolving and raising the bar of expectation?

Clemson, once the darling of the College Football Playoff era, is fired up to finish third in the ACC.

Because if the Tigers win at Pittsburgh Saturday – and that’s a big IF – the best that can come of this season is watching two other teams play for the ACC championship.

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One of those teams, Miami, has never won the ACC title. The other, SMU, paid $100 million last year to join the league after playing footsie for decades in various Group of Five conferences.

Meanwhile there is Clemson, trying to recapture the glory of CFP past by grinding against the grain.

The talent on the Clemson roster isn’t what it once was during the early years of the College Football Playoff, when the Tigers were as big and bad as Alabama. It doesn’t matter…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/dabo-swinney-no-longer-deny-161825492.html

Author : USA TODAY Sports

Publish date : 2024-11-15 16:18:25

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