'It's Over': Clemson HC Dabo Swinney's Waterloo Moment Just Came
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Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney talked a big game this offseason, rallying his troops to rectify a 7-6 record last season.
Clemson looked more like an FCS program on Saturday night, giving LSU Lane Kiffin a cupcake matchup in his first game in Baton Rouge. Kiffin told reporters after the game that his scout team offense put up more points on his defense in a scrimmage game than Clemson could muster on Saturday night.
A 51-10 loss to LSU was a backbreaker for Clemson and Swinney. Clemson didn't play with much fight or care after the first quarter. The defeat was a Waterloo moment for Swinney, who had refused to adapt to the modern era of college football.
ESPN analyst Dabo Swinney suggested "The Matt Barrie Show" on Sunday that Clemson's dominance under Swinney had finally ended with the loss to LSU, and there isn't a path back for the two-time national champion head coach.
“Clemson is a shell of itself,” Finebaum said, via a transcription from On3. “I’ve been critical of Dabo Swinney for a long time. And the reason I’ve been critical is because this program has been sliding into an abyss. I believe last year they had resurrected the program. You heard the same things I heard.
"They have not. It is over for Dabo Swinney. It’s time for him to take a good long look at himself. Quit the protestations every Tuesday when he shows up at the media (scrum), quit trying to remind people of what he once was. He is no more. The game has passed him by.
Swinney tried bringing back a general who helped him turn Clemson into an empire, but Chad Morris was out of his depth against LSU.
"You went out and hired Chad Morris, who has been run out of a number of places since his last glory days, and you thought that was going to solve the problem?" Finebaum said. "Are you serious?”
"That’s like your air conditioning breaking in your new house, and then you go down to a trading line and get an old air conditioner that’s already been broken down, and think that’s going to fix it. He cannot salvage this program.”
Swinney would have us believe Clemson didn't play to its potential on Saturday night. And that might be true, but the Tigers' potential would have been a three-touchdown loser to Kiffin.
The program has rot in it. And that is because Swinney refused to build the roster with the types of winners he used to lord over, but never employ.
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