Clemson is in a spot few would have realistically envisioned heading into the 2025 college football season.
After appearing at No. 6 in the preseason US LBM Coaches Poll, the Tigers dropped to 1-2 after a heartbreaking 24-21 loss on Saturday, Sept. 13 to Georgia Tech, which kicked a game-winning 55-yard field goal as time expired. The Tigers opened their season with a top-10 loss to LSU, then needed to overcome a 16-0 deficit to beat unranked Troy 27-16 in Week 2.
The early-season stumbles have raised questions about why Clemson has thus far failed to meet expectations, and what it means for a program that has fallen off slightly from its championship heights in the late 2010s.
In the face of those concerns, the team’s head coach is more than happy to defend his record.
During a news conference on Tuesday, Sept. 16, Tigers coach Dabo Swinney was asked if criticisms of himself and his team this season are something he has taken personally. Swinney insisted he hasn’t been affected by them, citing his Christian faith as something that has kept him grounded. He proceeded to passionately rattle off his accomplishments and boast about what the program has done under his watch.
“We’ve had a lot of success here and it hasn’t been perfect,” Swinney said. “I thrive in the battle, honestly. I have my whole life. … Perspective is important. If they want me gone, if they’re tired of winning, they can send me on my way because that’s all we’ve done is win. If they’re tired of winning, we’ve won this league eight of the last 10 years.
‘Is that not good? I’m just asking. Is that good? I don’t know if that’s good or not, to win your league eight of out 10 years, to go to the playoff seven out of 10 years, being in four national championships, winning it twice.”
Indeed, Swinney has been one of the most decorated college football coaches this century, helping turn Clemson into an improbable juggernaut.
A solid program that failed to win at least 10 games in 20 consecutive seasons from 1991-2010 has won nine ACC titles, appeared in the College Football Playoff seven of the 11 years in which it has been staged and, most notably, won two national championships under Swinney.
Since taking over as interim coach in the middle of the 2008 season, Swinney has gone 181-49. That includes a 162-34 mark since the start of the 2011 season, during which Clemson has only finished a season with fewer than 10 wins once — and even then, it went 9-4.
In recent years, the Tigers haven’t been the consistent national power they were for so much of Swinney’s tenure. They’ve made the playoff only once in the past four seasons and have lost at least three games in each of the past four seasons. This season’s 1-2 start has dropped them to 2-4 in their past six games going back to the final stretch of the 2024 season.
Though Swinney’s far from anything resembling a hot seat, he issued a warning for those who may want Clemson to make a change at head coach.
“If Clemson’s tired of winning, they can send me on my way,” he said. “But I’m gonna go somewhere else and coach. I ain’t going to the beach. Hell, I’m 55. I’ve got a long way to go. Y’all gonna have to deal with me for a while.”
This season’s margins have been close, with Clemson’s two losses coming by a combined 10 points. Both defeats came against teams, No. 4 LSU and No. 19 Georgia Tech, currently ranked in the top 20 of the Coaches Poll. The Tigers have had slow starts before, too. In 2014, they started 1-2 before finishing the season 10-3. More recently, they were 2-2 in 2021 only to finish 10-3.
It’s one of many reasons Swinney isn’t panicking.
“Yeah, we’re a little down right now,” he said. “Take your shots. But I’ve got a long memory, in case y’all don’t know. We’ll be all right. We’ll bounce back. This is a program built to last. It always has been, always will be.
‘I’ll just say that if you don’t believe in us because we’ve lost two games in the last three, you didn’t believe in us anyway, so it don’t matter. You weren’t all-in anyway. If you’re all-in, you burn the ships, man. There ain’t no exit strategy.”