Clemson Football: The Implosion Accelerates

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by WILL FOLKS

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Clemson began its 2025 season with high hopes – and a top five national ranking. After a disastrous start to the campaign, however, fans are now openly criticizing a coach who has led them to a pair of national titles, seven playoff appearances, nine conference championships and thirteen ten-win seasons.

It’s what head coach Dabo Swinney‘s team has done for Tiger fans lately that’s the problem…

After spending all week defending his program following an upset loss to Georgia Tech last week, Swinney’s squad was vanquished again – this time at home by 17-point underdog Syracuse.

The loss left the head coach in tears… literally.

The Orange (3-1, 1-0 ACC) held off the Tigers 34-21 in Death Valley – dealing the once-proud Tiger program is second consecutive conference defeat against an unranked conference opponent.

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Clemson is 1-3 for the first time in 21 years. The last time a Tiger team started a season this poorly? 2004 – under former coach Tommy Bowden.

A Swinney-coached football team has never started a season so badly…

“I’ve been in a lot of painful locker rooms,” Swinney said after the game. “That was up there near the top. My heart just hurts for our team and our fans.”

“We just cannot seem to get on the same page and play complimentary football,” Swinney continued. “We can’t seem to get it all together. We kind of work against each other.”

Clemson’s Cade Klubnik – a preseason favorite to win the Heisman Trophy – continued his inconsistent play, completing 37 of 60 passes for 363 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. While Klubnik registered season-highs in completions, yardage and touchdowns, most of those numbers were amassed during desperation time – with the Tigers trying unsuccessfully to rally from a three-touchdown deficit in the fourth quarter.

Is Klubnik rethinking his decision to return to Tigertown for his final season? Probably… because Clemson now must win every single one of its remaining games to have even an outside shot at making the College Football Playoff (CFP).

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Embattled coordinator Garrett Riley‘s offense was able to move the ball to the tune of 503 total yards against Syracuse, but much of it came during garbage time – and even then, Clemson couldn’t convert when it counted. The Tigers made good on just three of 13 (23.1%) third down conversions and only one of five fourth down conversations. In addition to Clubnik’s fourth quarter interception, tailback Adam Randall committed a key fumble late in the third quarter which led to Syracuse’s final touchdown.

Aside from that one costly miscue, Randall did well rushing the football – amassing 130 yards on sixteen carries before Clemson became one-dimensional late in the game.

Message boards erupted in rage after the latest defeat… mocking the program’s “Best is Standard” motto and mercilessly pillorying Swinney.

For the first time since he took over the Tiger program midway through the 2008 season, cries of “Fire Dabo” began to be heard from the Clemson faithful.

One Tiger fan had another idea, suggesting Clemson should hire Syracuse coach Fran Brown before he left Memorial Stadium.

“Don’t let Fran Brown leave without a job offer,” one noted.

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Prior to the game, ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith criticized Swinney for his “reluctance” to engage the new landscape of college football – including the transfer portal and name, image and likeness (NIL) deals for players.

“They’ve been one of the last ones to the party, and even then, they do it begrudgingly,” Smith said. “They don’t want to do it, they don’t like it. He’s one of the most outspoken individuals on that.”

“If you are a guy like Dabo Swinney, who has made so much noise, and you don’t go out there in the age of NIL and the transfer portal with all that your program has to offer, and with all that you have to offer as coach because of your great personality and your great coaching acumen… you’ve won two national championships, you’ve went to (four) national championships… how in God’s name has this happened?”

That’s a question Tiger fans want answered…

As for Swinney, he’s moving swiftly through the stages of grief over the collapse of his program. After channeling his anger last week, this week’s mood would seem to be “depression.”

“I mean, I’m human,” Swinney said. “I’m not a cyborg. I mean, this is my life, man. I mean, I’ve been here 23 years. I love this place. I give this place the very best I’ve got every single day. Every day. There’s never been a day that I haven’t given Clemson every ounce of everything I have. I hurt. I’ve invested my life here. And when I don’t get the job done, I’m responsible and I feel the pain. It’s not just my pain, I feel everybody’s pain. But that comes with my job, and I don’t run from that at all.”

Swinney signed a 10-year, $115 million contract extension in 2021 keeping him in Tigertown through the end of the 2031 season. Were Clemson to fire him this year, the school would owe him a buyout of $60 million.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

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