An emotional Cade Clubnik shows the personal impact Coach Swinney has had on this roster this season
Clemson ended the season 7-6, with under eight wins for the first time in fourteen seasons. They failed to win a postseason game for the first time in an FBS record fourteen seasons. They fell to Penn State for the first time in school history, and had their second worst season by record in Dabo’s entire seventeen year tenure. To say this season was a disappointment for the Tigers would be a massive understatement.
Dabo Swinney is eight wins shy of the most victories by a Head Coach in their first twenty seasons in college football history, and has three seasons to do it. He’s earned five playoff appearances. He has nine conference titles, going 9-1 in the ACC Championship. He’s coached four national games, and won two. Literally no coach has opened their career this consistently successful.
However, as college football has changed drastically in the last few seasons, it’s clear Dabo has struggled with adaptability. Poor coordinator hires, lack of effort in the transfer portal, and mediocre player development has made Clemson’s golden years of play appear far in the past.
The poor season was addressed, and Dabo was asked what changes he needs to see to turn things around. He began with a relatively vague strategic response;
“I’ve got a good perspective of things that need to be better. I love my staff, but you gotta evaluate everything, that’s just a part of the business and a part of the end of the season and I don’t make emotional decisions. First and foremost you have to ask yourself; ‘what happened? was it scheme, personnel, etc'”
Dabo continued, talking about his feelings on the season, offering a more optimistic outlook than most would;
“People don’t realize how close we are… it’s one more catch, one more good throw, better calls, one stop. Next thing you know, you win a couple of those games that we lost early and now you got confidence and momentum. All those things matter.”
While accurate, when a team goes from the college football playoff to 7-6, it isn’t simply about a few plays. When you only play 12 regular season games, every team can site a few moments as “what could have been,” but the product we saw on the field was far from what we expected heading into the season. Dabo did agree, stating; “This is the second worst team we’ve had in 17 years, and we trust that good things will come from it. Last time we were this bad was in 2010, and good things came from that.”
After Coach Swinney stretched three questions into twenty minutes, Quarterback Cade Klubnik was finnally offered a question. The signal caller had been emotional before, but never to this degree. As tears stained his white Clemson jacket, Klubnik praised his coach, and their time together following his final collegiate game.
“He is the exact same person every single day. Whether coming off a loss, or an ACC Championship. Whatever day it is, he brings the exact same person. I try to be that. I want to push myself every day. I want to be the best that I can be, and that’s because of him.”
While the on field success has not been akin to what we’ve seen in the past, the culture is still strong in Clemson. Seeing Cade poor his heart out, Dabo was asked about his personal relationship with his players; “that’s my calling in life-glorify god, be a great husband and father, and use this platform to turn boys into men. its more about how I win, that’s what’s important to me.”
Dabo will always fight to preserve his culture-first infrastructure. Let’s hope that philosophy can turn into success, and the Tigers can replicate the success they’ve seen in the past.
