"I don't know where I'm going ... but I sure know where I've been."
Dabo Swinney listed Garth Brooks, Kenny Chesney, and Prince among the best concerts he's ever attended, but it's that line from Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again" that captures Clemson's current situation.
Swinney unquestionably knows where he's been, jumping at any chance to reference his incredible resume whenever he comes under heat from the media. Unfortunately, if you've watched the Tigers over the past few years, it's clear Swinney has very little idea where they're going.
The latest debacle was also the worst: a 51-10 blowout at LSU to open the season, in which Clemson allowed 503 yards while gaining just 75 yards by the end of the third quarter. It was a national embarrassment, viewed by a peak audience of 8.7 million, making it the most-watched Saturday game in Week 1.
What followed next was all too familiar for Clemson fans, with Swinney recalling the good old days when asked how he plans to fix things.
"I've been in several of those games," Swinney said earlier this week, according to Austin Hannon of 247 Sports. "What was it, 54-14 out here in 2013, and we went 11-2, finished eighth in the country. You have to go play the next one. We won in the playoff 30-0 - we weren't 30-0 better, but we were that day. Circumstances in the game, things happen: the ball don't always bounce the way you want it in football. National championship, 44-16 - ain't no way we're 44-16 better. That ain't far from 51-10 now. We ran into a buzzsaw; it's just that simple."
LSU might be a buzzsaw even without professional players coming back to join the roster, but describing Clemson's performance as a case of the "ball don't always bounce the way you want it" is the early front-runner for the most ridiculous comment of the campaign.
Clemson has now lost its season opener in four consecutive years, getting outscored 130-30 in those contests. It leaves one to wonder just what exactly Swinney is doing during fall camp.
However, the Tigers didn't just lose the opener last year; they dropped two of their first three games, prompting many to question if their time among the nation's elite was over. Swinney again hit the resume from the podium in response.
"All we've done is win," Swinney said during a fiery press conference, according to Andrea Adelson of ESPN. "We've won this league eight out of the last 10 years. Is that not good? I'm just asking. Is that good? To win your league eight out of 10 years, to go to the playoffs seven out of 10 years, be in four national championships, win it twice. Yeah, we're a little down right now. Take your shots. I've got a long memory. We'll be all right. We'll bounce back."
In another example of the phrase not quite fitting, Clemson didn't exactly "bounce back," losing its next home game to a Syracuse team that ended the season by dropping its final eight contests. The Tigers ultimately finished 7-6, Swinney's worst record since 2010.
Despite an unlikely ACC title that gave it a surprising playoff berth in 2024, Clemson has now lost at least four games in each of the last three seasons - after going 12 straight years without dropping that many contests.
That adds important context to the program's situation. Outside of Alabama, the Tigers were the team of the 2010s, and Swinney was often the toast of the sport. He had previously tapped into something special at Clemson, consistently bringing in top-10 recruiting classes and sending boatloads of players to the NFL.
What changed?
How about the entire sport? NIL and the transfer portal have completely altered the landscape, and Swinney was extremely slow and stubborn to adapt. He's also loyal to a fault, something almost unheard of in today's college football.
This year's prime example of that is Swinney's hiring of Chad Morris to fix last year's dismal offense. Morris was very successful as Clemson's offensive coordinator from 2011-14, but he hadn't called plays in six years and spent last season away from coaching to watch his son play quarterback at Virginia. It's safe to say that his LinkedIn message box likely wasn't overflowing with job offers.
The loyalty isn't just in the coaching ranks. Swinney essentially developed a severe allergy to the transfer portal from 2018-22, then finally relented and brought in some talent over the past offseason. Yet, the quarterback room was one area he didn't improve with an addition, instead opting to start Christopher Vizzina - a junior who's been with the program for three years.
Vizzina struggled against LSU, finishing with just 83 yards and an interception, resulting in a quarterback rating of 13.9. To be fair, there might not be a quarterback alive who could've played behind Clemson's offensive line last Saturday. By contrast, Swinney was riding high with the likes of Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence under center during the glory days, and willingly going into a season with Vizzina as QB1 might be the clearest sign of how far standards have fallen.
Perhaps we should have seen this coming in 2026. The cracks were clearly there last year, and Swinney spent a large portion of this summer's ACC Kickoff event playing the hits with the media.
"Well, most people don't have one (national title) and probably never will get one. So I don't really feel like I gotta go win another national title to prove anything to anybody," Swinney told David Ubben and Ralph Russo of The Athletic in July. "I just wanna focus on the things that really drive me, and that is impacting these guys' lives, truly fulfilling the purpose that we have in our program. Nobody wants to win more than me. And we've won 11 (conference and national) championships in the last 15 years. I think the next closest coach has six."
So, where does that leave Clemson? Swinney is, without question, the most accomplished coach in the program's history, and his buyout exceeds $50 million. It's rare for a coach with multiple national titles to get fired by their school unless a major scandal forces its hand.
That puts the Tigers in a bind as they try to hold onto whatever national relevance they have left. Swinney's team is probably too talented to bottom out, and the porous ACC will do little to help.
With Clemson firmly below the sport's elite and led by an icon going full Whitesnake and "hanging on the promises in songs of yesterday," the Tigers' mediocrity will likely continue for the foreseeable future.
