Even though it’s been just four games, it already feels like a long season for Dabo Swinney and the Clemson Tigers. At 1-3, the season isn’t officially over, but any talk of Clemson being a national championship contender is gone.
Swinney summed it up after the Tigers were upset 34-21 by Syracuse in Week 4.
“We’re not going to win the national championship this year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t win the season,” Swinney said. “Doesn’t mean we can’t finish well and doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy the journey.”
Off to their worst start since 2004, this is gut-check time not just for Swinney’s team but for Swinney himself. The coach has been as stubborn as anyone in accepting the new reality of college football. If he wants to turn Clemson back into the program it once was, he may need to revisit something he said a decade ago.
Back in 2015, Swinney explained his philosophy on sustaining greatness:
“You’ve got the birth. You’ve got the growth. You’ve got plateau. You’ve got decline. And you’ve got death,” Swinney said at the time. “Those great businesses out there, those great programs, they don’t plateau.
“So how do you do that? You have to constantly reinvent, reinvest, reset, learn, grow. You change. You have to do that. You don’t just change to change, but you have to always challenge yourself each and every year and make sure, ‘OK, this may be how we’ve done it, but is it still the right way?’”
Dabo Swinney Could End Up Being Fired like Mike Gundy
The comparisons between Swinney and Mike Gundy since Gundy’s firing from Oklahoma State have been constant. The two coaches are strikingly similar, whether it’s in their coaching styles, long-term success at their programs, or even their personalities.
One trait they also share: resistance to change, particularly in the modern college football model where NIL and the transfer portal dominate.
“Swinney is a traditionalist; often for admirable reasons,” ESPN’s Dan Wetzel wrote. He wants to be loyal to players he recruited, preferring to believe in and develop them rather than just transfer in a better talent. Times change, though. You can lament it. You can pine for the old days. Or you can adapt so you don’t wind up like a typewriter repair shop.”
If Swinney doesn’t adapt, the game could pass him by just like it did Gundy. And the program’s greatest tradition — the man on the sideline — could be pushed out. The question now is whether it’s already too late for him to save himself.
Dabo Swinney’s One Saving Grace at Clemson
In recent weeks, Swinney has pointed to his past success while his team continues to lose. The one thing he may truly have in his favor, though, is his buyout — something Gundy didn’t have when Oklahoma State fired him.
When the Cowboys moved on from Gundy, they paid a $15 million price tag. Swinney, on the other hand, signed a 10-year, $115 million extension that runs through 2031. He’s making $11.1 million this season, and if Clemson decides to cut ties, the school would have to pay him a buyout of $60 million — the fifth-highest in college football.
Even after the 2025 season, the buyout only dips to $57 million in 2026. In other words, Clemson may not be in position to make a change anytime soon. That could buy Swinney time to reinvent himself — or it could simply prolong the decline of a once-proud program.
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