Dabo Swinney built a football dynasty at Clemson.
Rome was a dynasty, too. Like Clemson football, it was not built overnight. Rome collapsed, and it feels as if the Tigers’ and Swinney’s program is teetering on that precipice as well. So, will the 2024 season make or break the dynasty that has dominated South Carolina and much of the college football world for much of the past decade?
That answer might not be so simple.
Swinney built Clemson football from the ground up. He built it his way and through ups, downs, good, and bad, Dabo has stood on the self-made mountain of his personal ideology. Swinney has always been the ultimate underdog and so, too, was Clemson.
But what Dabo has done at Clemson is remarkable in itself. That he took a perpetually good, but not great, program and transformed it into a golden standard of honest winning has been one of the great stories in the history of the game.
A dynasty that was years in the making was constructed on belief in one another, hard work, and in the joy of winning. When the pieces coalesced, the Tigers would win six consecutive ACC championships between 2015-2020, qualify for the college football playoffs all six of those seasons, play for four national championships, and win two of them.
By anyone’s standards, that is dynastic. And while all of those accomplishments have come in the past decade, it still feels as if Clemson football is being overrun by the nearer-do-wells of the modern college athletics landscape who have adjusted and adapted to the changing times. Something Swinney has steadfastly refused to do to a large degree.
It has been three seasons since the Tigers have reached the play-offs and have won the ACC championship in just one of those. Clemson has played in nothing higher than a mid-tier bowl game since 2021. While last season’s thrilling win over Kentucky in the Gator Bowl was certainly a windfall of momentum heading into the 2024 campaign, it was still far removed from the heights of glory witnessed between 2015-2020.
National analysts, pundits, and prognosticators have been quick to proclaim Clemson’s downfall. They shout from the rooftops that the dynasty is dead. The truth is, there are cracks forming in the foundation of Clemson’s football dynasty, but it is far from perished. But it could be if Swinney and the Tigers do not act soon.
Rome fell, in part, because it outgrew itself and allowed its power to be eroded from within. Swinney replaced proven coordinators who had departed for head coaching jobs with less seasoned assistants from the inside. It led to Brandon Streeter’s ouster as offensive coordinator when the Tigers’ numbers plummeted in 2021 and 2022.
Once a bastion of elite quarterbacks, Clemson has struggled at the position for the past three seasons. That, and attrition through injury and departure through the transfer portal, which Swinney does not use to replenish the talent pool, have further degraded the foundation.
The dynasty is not dead, no. But it is hanging in the balance. Other programs have changed with the times, whether they liked it or not, and as a result have overtaken Clemson at the top of the sport. Georgia and Michigan being prime examples. Two programs who were always good to above average, but never in championship conversations, have won the last three national titles while Clemson sat at home watching with hungry eyes and hearts.
If the legacy, and dynasty, built by Dabo Swinney is to be revived and survive, then Clemson’s head coach will have to come to a personal reckoning with himself about how it has to happen. He has done it before and can do it again. It goes back to being the underdog. Swinney thrives the most when he is doubted, and if everyone but the Tigers believes the dynasty is dead, then that is proof enough that it still lives.
But the foundation does need some reinforcing masonry to solidify its place. The 2024 Clemson Tigers are a loaded team and once built to compete for the ultimate crown. The pieces are in place. But it does feel as if this season will be a tipping point. Twelve teams will make the play-offs now, and should Clemson fail to be among them, then the dynasty may very well be on life support.
If the Tigers do make the field, and contend for a championship, then the doubters would be effectively silenced. If they don’t, then those waiting for Clemson to fail will delight as they watch another stone fall from the belfry of the program it once lauded.
The 2024 season might not make or break the Clemson dynasty, but it will go a very long way in determining its ultimate fate.
