Opinion: Dabo Swinney Needs to Go, Too — But Florida State Has No Excuse for Mike Norvell

NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

I don’t want to fire Dabo Swinney.

That’s the weirdest part of this whole thing.

I actually love what Dabo built at Clemson.

For a generation of college football fans, Dabo was the guy who proved you didn’t need to be Alabama, Ohio State or Texas to become a national power. Clemson went from a good ACC program to an absolute monster.

Two national championships. A 15-0 season. Trevor Lawrence. Deshaun Watson. ACC titles. College Football Playoff runs. Years of beating the hell out of everybody and walking into Death Valley believing Clemson belonged on the biggest stage in the sport.

And Dabo did it his way.

He recruited high school kids. He developed them. He built relationships. He created a culture. He didn’t want his program to become an NFL free-agency machine.

Honestly?

I loved that.

That was college football.

Unfortunately, whatever the hell college football is now isn’t that.

The sport changed underneath Dabo.

The transfer portal exploded. NIL became central to roster construction. Programs started throwing absurd amounts of money at coaches and players. LSU reportedly poured more than $180 million into its latest football operation.

And Clemson, without a blue-blood logo or a billionaire mega-booster machine behind it, is being asked to play the same game.

That’s a brutal disadvantage. And before you accuse me of being too kind to the Tigers, let me be the one to admit. I write this as an Alabama fan who grew up on the SEC.

Dabo’s philosophy was elite in the college football we grew up with.

But this ain’t that sport anymore.

And Clemson’s 51-10 demolition by LSU to open 2026 was about as ugly a demonstration of that reality as you could possibly ask for.

So, yeah.

I think it’s time.

But I don’t want Clemson to fire Dabo like some disgraced coach getting escorted out the back door.

Mutually part ways after this season.

Give him half the buyout.

Name something at Clemson after him.

Build the damn statue.

Give him an associate athletic director title and let him remain part of the Clemson family forever.

Shake hands.

Hug it out.

So long, partner.

Dabo deserves that.

In the meantime, Clemson deserves a coach willing to embrace what college football has become and I don’t think it’ll happen under Swinney.

And Dabo deserves the opportunity to walk away before this era completely changes the way we remember one of the greatest coaching jobs of the modern era.

You know that scene in the Cars 3 movie where Jackson Storm passes by Lightning McQueen, who is eagerly still trying to win another Piston Cup, even though all of his fellow racing mates have retired and been replaced?

That’s Dabo Swinney and Clemson football. The day Dabo hangs it up, he will get a massive ovation in the Upstate and a final curtain call. Let him finish out this season and start laying the foundation to hire someone new.

Then there’s Florida State.

And, man, I simply have no words.

At least Clemson has a legitimate excuse.

Florida State doesn’t.

The Seminoles have been living off the ghost of the 2023 season and the playoff snub ever since. Outside of the shocking Alabama upset last year, there has been very little evidence that this program is actually moving back toward national relevance.

Norvell is now 39-35 at Florida State after the latest loss to SMU.

The roster isn’t good enough.

The program isn’t good enough.

And Florida State is carrying enormous financial obligations while trying to figure out how the hell it got here.

FSU and Clemson probably should have been having serious conversations about getting into the SEC or Big Ten years ago.

Instead, they waited.

Now the sport has consolidated around the schools with the biggest brands, biggest conferences and biggest checkbooks.

And both programs are finding out what happens when you get left behind.

Clemson has Dabo’s legacy to fall back on.

Florida State has Mike Norvell. I don’t really care how much it costs at this point. You can’t keep giving away football seasons before they truly begin.

Good luck, man.

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos