David HaleOct 3, 2025, 07:30 AM ET
Shut
Faculty soccer reporter.
Joined ESPN in 2012.
Graduate of the College of Delaware.
CLEMSON, S.C. — Dabo Swinney has a knack for locating a silver lining. It has been his defining trait over the previous 5 seasons, as Clemson has hovered close to the highest of the ACC, however frustratingly removed from the run of dominance it loved within the 2010s. In a loss, Swinney discovered classes. Even after a blowout, he noticed hope. Even within the midst of fan revolt, he discovered all of the proof he wanted of an inevitable turnaround inside his personal locker room.
Maybe that’s what’s most jarring about Clemson’s most up-to-date bout with mediocrity. It’s not simply that the Tigers, the prohibitive favourite within the ACC to open the season, are 1-3 heading into Saturday’s showdown with equally disappointing and 2-2 North Carolina (midday ET, ESPN), however that Swinney’s common optimism has been tinged together with his personal frustration.
“It’s just an absolute coaching failure,” Swinney mentioned. “I don’t know another way to say it. And I’m not pointing the finger, I’m pointing the thumb. It starts with me, because I hired everybody, and I empower everybody and equip everybody.”
Report apart, Clemson has been right here earlier than — after sluggish begins in 2021, 2022, 2023 and final 12 months’s blowout by the hands of Georgia to open the season. And but, at every of these turns, Swinney remained his program’s largest salesman.
Now, after the Tigers’ worst begin since 2004, not even Swinney is proof against the truth. The questions are larger, the stakes are greater and the options are extra ephemeral.
Within the aftermath of an emphatic loss to Syracuse in Demise Valley two weeks in the past, ESPN social posted the historic upset in daring kind. The response from former Clemson defensive finish Xavier Thomas echoed the frustration so many contained in the Tigers’ as soon as impenetrable internal sanctum are feeling.
“At this point,” Thomas replied, “it’s not even an upset anymore.”
Two months stay of a seemingly misplaced season. There’s a path for Clemson to rebound, because it has earlier than, and end with a decent, albeit disappointing, file. However there may be one other highway, too — one hardly imagined by anybody inside this system simply weeks in the past. A highway that results in the top of a dynasty.
“He’s definitely bought himself some time to be able to have some hiccups along the way,” former Clemson receiver Hunter Renfrow mentioned. “He’s an unbelievable coach and leader, and he’ll get it figured out.”
Cade Klubnik has struggled to open the 2025 season. Wealthy von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire
FORMER CLEMSON RUNNING again and now podcaster Darien Rencher banked a cache of interviews with star gamers throughout fall camp that he deliberate to launch because the season progressed. Most have been evergreen. On the time he talked with Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik, that one did, too. Trying again, it feels extra like a time capsule, one that may’t be unearthed with out a full post-mortem of what has unfolded since.
“A month and a half ago, we’re talking about him being a front-runner for the Heisman, a top-five draft pick,” Rencher mentioned. “I mean — my gosh.”
Any unspooling of what has gone incorrect at Clemson should begin with the quarterback.
Klubnik’s profession adopted a reasonably straight development — a rocky rookie season primarily because the backup to a sophomore marketing campaign stuffed with rising pains to a coming-out get together final season that ended with 336 passing yards and three touchdowns in a playoff loss to Texas. The plain subsequent step was into the echelon of elite QBs — not simply nationally, however inside the pantheon of Clemson’s finest, alongside Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence.
As a substitute, Klubnik has regarded misplaced.
“It can’t be physical unless he’s got the yips, which maybe he does,” former Clemson offensive lineman and present ACC Community analyst Eric Mac Lain mentioned. “It’s bad sometimes. You’ve got guys screaming wide-open, and he’s looking at them, and the ball’s just not coming out. That’s the unexplainable thing.”
By means of 4 video games, Klubnik has practically as many passing touchdowns (six) as he does interceptions (4).
There are, nevertheless, various people across the program who consider they’ll clarify the struggles — for Klubnik and different stars who underwhelmed in September.
“We don’t got no dogs at Clemson,” former All-America defensive finish Shaq Lawson posted in early September. “NIL has changed everything.”
It’s telling that even Swinney additionally has been vocal in his critique of Klubnik.
“It’s routine stuff. Basic, not complicated, like just simple reads, simple progression,” Swinney mentioned of Klubnik’s play in Week 1, a efficiency that has been mirrored in subsequent video games. “Holding the ball and running out of the pocket. Just didn’t play well, and so I didn’t have to talk to him. He already knew. He knows the game.”
It is a completely different period of faculty soccer, and whereas Swinney usually sought a measure of endurance together with his gamers earlier than, Klubnik is, by most studies, the second-highest-paid individual contained in the soccer constructing after Swinney, so the expectations have modified.
“If [Klubnik] ain’t a dude, we ain’t winning,” Swinney mentioned after the loss to LSU in Week 1. “Dudes got to be dudes. This is big boy football.”
That huge NIL paydays and equally immense hype would possibly underpin Klubnik’s struggles shouldn’t be with out anecdotal proof. Look across the nation and there are many others — Florida‘s DJ Lagway, Texas‘ Arch Manning, UCLA‘s Nico Iamaleava, South Carolina‘s LaNorris Sellers and LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier — who’ve endured tough begins to seasons that have been alleged to be star turns.
And but, for Klubnik, this seems like a hole excuse. He’s, in keeping with quite a few coaches and teammates, unflinchingly aggressive and gifted. If something, the knock on Klubnik the previous few years has been his eagerness to play the function of hero, to do an excessive amount of.
Maybe the larger influence of NIL on Klubnik’s efficiency is available in how far he has been from incomes the paycheck. The tens of millions may very well be an excuse to loosen up or a burden to stay as much as, and Klubnik’s tape via 4 video games reveals a QB scrambling to look the half quite than merely taking part in the sport as he all the time has.
“It’s a tough sport and a team sport. There’s no perfect quarterback,” Klubnik mentioned. “For me, I’m not paying attention to how other quarterbacks are playing, but I’m competitive whether we’re good or not, and I’m going to fight to the very end. I feel like the tape shows that, but you ask anybody in this facility about who I am and who this team is, we’re going to fight and we’re not going anywhere.”
Clemson completed September with a 1-3 file. Ken Ruinard/GREENVILLE NEWS-USA TODAY Community through Imagn Pictures
SWINNEY HAS OFTEN bristled at outright criticism of his personal efficiency, like his tirade in response to at least one apoplectic Clemson fan — Tyler from Spartanburg — who referred to as into Swinney’s radio present after a 4-4 begin to the 2023 season demanding change. Swinney’s rant was largely credited as inspiring a five-game profitable streak to finish the 12 months, an emphatic rebuke to these prepared to put in writing his epitaph.
“He’s done it his way,” Renfrow mentioned of Swinney. “And he’s built a really good roster. Three months ago, everyone was crowning us as the best team to play this year.”
The narrative has rapidly modified, and Swinney isn’t arguing.
“Everybody can start throwing mud now,” Swinney mentioned even earlier than this newest spherical of mudslinging started in earnest. “Bring it on, say we suck again. Tell everybody we suck. Coaches suck, Cade stinks. Start writing that again.”
Throughout Clemson’s previous 4 seasons — years of 10, 10, 9 and 10 wins — the underlying narrative was that the Tigers remained good, however they have been slowly falling behind the competitors because of Swinney’s cussed insistence on remaining old-school. He was tagged as reluctant to embrace the NIL period because of feedback he made in 2014, seven years earlier than NIL started (although Clemson was closely invested in its gamers through its collective on the time), and for a number of seasons, he refused to deal within the portal, retaining the overwhelming majority of his recruited expertise however including nothing within the portal till this offseason.
And but, Swinney has advanced — even when a bit extra steadily than most coaches.
“One of the lazy takes on Swinney is he hasn’t changed,” Rencher mentioned. “He did what he needed to do to give them a chance. He went and got the best offensive coordinator [Garrett Riley] in the country to come to Clemson. He got one of the most renowned defensive coordinators [Tom Allen] in the country who was just in the playoffs to come to Clemson. He went in the portal and got a stud D-end [in Will Heldt]. He paid his guys, retained his roster. These guys got paid.”
Even amid the hefty criticism coming from former gamers, little has been directed at Swinney. They performed for him, they know him, and so they’re satisfied he’s not the supply of Clemson’s struggles.
The brand new coordinators — Riley was employed in 2023, and Allen was employed this offseason — and present gamers, nevertheless, are a special story.
“They want to win more than we do,” former edge rusher KJ Henry posted amid Clemson’s beautiful loss towards Syracuse.
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The outpouring of frustration from former gamers — many, resembling Henry, who endured a share of setbacks throughout Clemson’s extra rocky stretch within the 2020s — has been notable.
Heldt mentioned he has not paid a lot consideration to outdoors criticism, however he understands it.
“They’ve earned the right,” Heldt mentioned. “They put in the time and have earned the right to say how they feel, but I don’t put too much thought into that.”
If the commentary hasn’t seeped into the locker room, the message nonetheless appears clear.
Swinney’s scathing evaluation of the teaching workers — himself included — this week was proof that the entire tradition is off. Swinney was lambasted for years for an insular method to constructing a workers, hiring largely former Clemson gamers and selling from inside, however these hires no less than maintained a tradition that had pushed championships. However now, the disjointed play and lack of any apparent identification on each side of the ball has made Riley and Allen really feel extra like mercenaries than saviors, and the result’s a sum that’s lower than its particular person components.
Riley’s playcalling has been questioned relentlessly. Within the second half towards LSU, with Clemson both forward or inside a rating, the Tigers just about deserted the run sport completely.
Allen was introduced in to toughen up a protection that was scorched final season by Louisville, SMU, Texas and, in probably the most embarrassing efficiency of the season, by Sellers and rival South Carolina. And but, with NFL expertise resembling Heldt, Peter Woods and T.J. Parker on the line of defense, Syracuse owned the road of scrimmage in its Week 4 win in Demise Valley.
In the meantime promising recruits resembling T.J. Moore and Gideon Davidson have but to look prepared for the massive time, and the switch additions past Heldt — Tristan Smith and Jeremiah Alexander — have provided just about nothing.
Begin making an inventory of all of the issues which have gone incorrect, and the frustration is clear.
“Dropped balls, Cade misses a guy, the offensive line gets beat, Cade has PTSD and rolls out when he shouldn’t — it’s just all these things,” Rencher mentioned. “You can blame a lot of things but it’s just too much wrong to where it can’t be right. It’s too many things everywhere so it can’t come together. You can overcome some things, but they’re just all not on the same page.”
Will Clemson and Dabo Swinney be capable to flip issues round, or is the top of a dynasty? Ken Ruinard/GREENVILLE NEWS-USA TODAY Community through Imagn Pictures
BEFORE HIS GAME towards Clemson, which Georgia Tech in the end received on a last-second discipline aim, Yellow Jackets coach Brent Key set the stage for what he knew can be a battle, regardless of the Tigers’ rocky begin.
“No one’s better at playing the underdog than Dabo,” Key mentioned.
Swinney has resurrected his groups time and again, swatted away the critics, stayed true to his core philosophies and emerged victorious — if not a nationwide champion.
So, is that this 12 months actually completely different? Has Clemson misplaced its edge? Has Swinney misplaced his magic?
“I see an extremely talented team,” Syracuse defensive coordinator Elijah Robinson mentioned. “Those guys are dangerous. I don’t care what their record is. That’s not just a team, that’s a program. Dabo Swinney does a great job, and they went out and lost the first game last year and went on to win the conference. A lot of these kids, when I was at Texas A&M, we tried to recruit them. People can think what they want when they look at the record. I’m not looking at the record at all.”
Added one other assistant coach who confronted Clemson this season: “It wouldn’t surprise me if they run the table the rest of the way.”
Profitable out would nonetheless get Clemson to 10 wins, a mark that has been the usual beneath Swinney. Profitable out would seemingly shift all of the criticism of September into one other offseason of promise, such because the one Clemson simply loved. Profitable out remains to be potential, in keeping with the gamers there who’ve mentioned a deep breath throughout an off week has been an opportunity to reset and begin anew.
“The college football landscape has changed so much over the last 10 years,” Renfrow mentioned. “But developing, teaching, coaching, bringing people together — that hasn’t, and Swinney’s as good as I’ve been around at those things.”
That’s largely the lesson Florida State head coach Mike Norvell took from his group’s depressing 2-10 efficiency a 12 months in the past. Within the face of a landslide of change and criticism, the bottom line is doubling down on the beliefs that made a coach profitable to start with, not a bunch of adjustments supposed to appease the plenty.
“The dynamic of college football and being a part of a team and the pressures that are within an organization now are greater than they’ve ever been,” Norvell mentioned. “You put money into the equation, and you have all the agents and people surrounding these kids, when things don’t go as expected, you’ve got to really stay true to who you are and make sure you’re connected with these guys at their needs. The example we had last year, we didn’t do a great job at that because as the tidal wave of challenges showed up, it’s critical to refocus and revamp the guys for what they can do. It’s not fun to go through, but I think you’ll continue to see more and more.”
The sport has modified, and Clemson, for all of Swinney’s steadfast resolve, has been swept together with the currents.
There’s a legacy at Clemson, one it helped construct, and for all its religion in Swinney’s course of, it’s not arduous to see the cracks within the façade.
By no means thoughts the file, Rencher mentioned. Sustaining the Clemson customary is what’s at stake now.
“That, more than any loss, would be the most disappointing thing, if they didn’t respond,” Rencher mentioned. “Swinney’s optimistic. They’re built to last. He said they’re going to use all these things people are throwing at us to build more championships, and I believe him. Clemson is built on belief and responding the right way. It would be unlike Clemson to not respond. That would be so much more disappointing than going 1-3 if we just laid down. If this is the class that just lays down, I can’t imagine that.”
