Clemson: College Football Coaches Send Dabo Swinney Clear Warning
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Clemson entered its season opener last year with the No. 4 ranking before hosting then-No. 9 LSU.
The Tigers dropped No. 8 after losing to LSU 17-10. After a 27-16 win over Troy and a 24-21 loss to Georgia Tech on Sept. 13, Clemson fell out of the rankings for the remainder of the season and finished with a 7-6 record.
There has been much chatter during the offseason about where the Clemson program goes from here under head coach Dabo Swinney. Swinney has been reluctant to embrace the transfer portal, something he continued this year by not going after an experienced quarterback.
No doubt, Swinney is still a good coach, but there are real questions as to whether he can remain an elite head coach in modern college football.
In the USA Today coaches poll, it seems Swinney's peers sent the two-time national championship coach a warning. They ranked Clemson No. 23, thinking Swinney won't do enough to keep the Tigers in the College Football Playoff conversation.
Clemson has concerns at the quarterback position amid a battle between Tait Reynolds and Christopher Vizzina. While their only tough battles in the ACC will come against Miami and Virginia Tech, a non-conference schedule against LSU and South Carolina could doom the season.
Last week, former Alabama head coach Nick Saban told Pat McAfee he wasn't sure Clemson was "back" after losing nine players in the 2026 NFL Draft.
“I think we’ll see if they’re back,” Saban said. “I know they’ve got a lot of question marks too, whether it’s quarterback, and they got a lot of holes to fill. I mean, everybody thought they were going to be, you know, the class of the town last year, and it just completely disintegrated on them.
“So I don’t know. I’m not ready to put my stamp on it. I have to see it first, but I think in that league, somebody better beat Miami because I think you know Mario's (Cristobal) got it going down there, and they got some good players, and they’re physical.”
Miami is definitely the favorite in the ACC, and that used to be where Clemson was every preseason under Swinney.
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