Clemson Donors Call for Brutal Dabo Swinney Decision

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The Clemson Tigers have certainly gotten off to an inauspicious start this season. They were blown out by LSU, 51-10, in Week 1, and then they barely beat Georgia Southern this past Saturday.

Dabo Swinney's job security at Clemson is now generating more discussion than ever, especially when you couple the first two weeks of 2026 with the fact that the Tigers went just 7-6 last year.

The Clemson Insider polled around 30 IPTAY donors to see where they stood on Swinney, and while 61 percent of the donors wanted the Tigers to keep him, they had qualifiers.

The other 39 percent wanted Swinney gone.

“I just do not know why we need to be so different,” one donor said. “We have tried it his way, it is not working. It’s time to give someone else an opportunity.”

Swinney took over as Clemson's head coach midway through 2008. By 2011, the Tigers had posted a double-digit win campaign, which began a stretch of 12 straight such seasons.

That also included four National Championship Game appearances — and two titles — between 2015 and 2019.

Since then, things have largely gone off the rails.

“We have too many resources and put too much money into football to lose by 41 points on national television,” another donor said. “It was an embarrassment as a Clemson graduate and as an IPTAY donor. I love Clemson and I will support our teams, but that can’t happen.”

A third donor said that athletic director Graham Neff should hire a general manager to work above Swinney and that Clemson should let Swinney go if he refuses.

It's hard to comprehend just how far the Tigers have fallen in such a short span of time. They have not won a playoff game since January 2021. Last year, they lost to a disappointing Penn State squad in the Pinstripe Bowl.

Up until this winter, Swinney had not utilized the transfer portal, and his recruiting methods are also obsolete in this new NIL era.

It seems clear that the 56-year-old does not want to adapt, and while that's understandable, it could ultimately cost him his job sooner rather than later.

Clemson will host North Carolina this Saturday.

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