Dabo Swinney Did Not See It Coming

Here are excerpts from an article by Matt Hayes who is a senior college football writer for USA Today. His feelings kind of sum up mine.

(start of excerpts)

You see a coach losing it on the sideline, berating players in an ugly, underperforming season of distress.

I see a coach who should’ve left Clemson two years ago.

“This is a low of lows,”Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said after last weekend’s loss to Duke.

And it should’ve never come to this. Think about baseball for a moment in a football-crazy world. The best hitters read the ball out of the pitcher’s hand, recognizing spin and seeing curveball just in time to adjust.

Swinney didn’t recognize curveball when he should’ve. Didn’t pack it up at Clemson, call it a fantastic career at a place he loves – and run home as fast as that private Crimson Tide jet could’ve taken him to Alabama.

Now his undoing at Clemson is playing out for all to see.

These things never end well for coaches who’ve spent a career at one school, unless your name is Nick Saban or Tom Osborne. Because every other coach who has tried to go beyond the horizon line at a job they made great has eventually faded away from losing or shame. Or both.

Swinney had the perfect out two years ago when Saban decided he didn’t want any part of where college football was headed and left the behemoth he built. Swinney could’ve simply said what Bear Bryant said all those decades ago when he left the monster he built at Texas A&M for Alabama.

Momma called. But instead of recognizing the clear signs, Swinney doubled down on the process, the culture, he built at Clemson. He embraced the life he carefully and dutifully orchestrated, on and off the field, at a university he desperately loves.

He thought, like all coaches do, he could flip a switch and recruit the right players and find the groove again. Shoot, he’d even embrace the transfer portal if that meant righting the ship.

So he did, and it didn’t. Sometimes, these things just run out of gas on their own volition. What worked for years doesn’t anymore.

Top five recruiting classes become Top 10 or 15 or 25, and hitting on three straight rare quarterback recruits (Tajh Boyd, DeShaun Watson, Trevor Lawrence) becomes missing on three straight five-star quarterback recruits (DJ Uiagalelei, Cade Klubnik, Christopher Vizzina).

The next thing you know, you’re losing to Duke at home and laying into your defense on the sideline, you have five losses and this season looks a whole lot like when you first started this ride – and thought you were going to get fired.

Worse, those same players you were barking at during the game look like they don’t give a flip. They’ve tuned you out.

After the loss to Duke, after Clemson had reached five losses for the first time since 2009, the coach who had brought the program unprecedented success and two national titles was at a loss for words while Clemson athletic director Graham Neff watched in back of the room.

“I may get fired today,” Swinney said, half-joking – or maybe he wasn’t. “Can’t say I’d blame him.”

Swinney saw fastball all the way two years ago when he could’ve had the Alabama job.

Now he’s another curveball away from the whole thing imploding.

(end of excerpts)

My question to Clemson fans is this. Do you think Dabo Swinney is another Nick Saban or Tom Osbourne? If so, hang with him and see if it turns around. If not, and history says he's probably not, then shed a tear and send him on his way.

May God always be your number 1 draft pick!

Draftman Rick