ATLANTA — Coach Dabo Swinney will always have his two national championships. Clemson will forever be indebted to him for breathing life back into the program and delivering the school’s first title since 1981. When he walks away from football someday, his spot in the College Football Hall of Fame will be waiting for him.
But Swinney and the Clemson program have lost their way.
The Tigers haven’t been national contenders since the 2020 season, the last time they played in the College Football Playoff.
And if Saturday’s performance against No. 1 Georgia at Mercedes-Benz Stadium was any indication, Clemson still isn’t ready to hang with the elite programs. The drop-off is too stark, the talent gap is too large.
“At the end of the day,” Swinney said, “we just got our butts kicked.”
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Georgia smothers Clemson: Has anything changed for either program?
The Bulldogs embarrassed the Tigers 34-3 in a game that in many ways felt like Bill Murray’s “Groundhog Day” for a Clemson team that has been plagued by the same issues since star quarterback Trevor Lawrence and his supporting cast departed after the 2020 season.
The offense didn’t look like it made much progress this offseason — finishing with just two first downs in the first half and 188 total yards for the game. Junior quarterback Cade Klubnik continued to look underwhelming, and his wide receivers weren’t much help, occasionally looking lost and committing costly penalties.
The defense — which should again be the strength of the team — looked promising early and held Georgia to just six points and 34 yards rushing in the first half. But things collapsed in the second half, with missed tackles from Clemson and chunk plays from Georgia. The Tigers scored three points in the second half. The Bulldogs scored 28.
Same story. Different year.
Do I think Clemson lost because the Tigers won’t use the portal? Not necessarily. But do I think it would go a long way for Dabo Swinney to at least try to show he’s adaptable and just test it out? Yes.
— Grace Raynor (@gmraynor) August 31, 2024
“There will be some things that we can take away from it that we can go build on for the season,” Swinney said. “(But) that doesn’t take away the fact that you just got your ass kicked in the third and fourth quarter.”
Give Swinney an A for honesty — or at least for hitting the high notes in his postgame news conference, when he apologized to his fans, said he felt “terrible” for them and said this loss was entirely “on the head coach.”
But the bleak reality for the Tigers is that this just might be Clemson’s new norm.
The Tigers have the chance to be a solid team in 2024. They could win double-digit games and even set themselves up to compete in the expanded College Football Playoff should they win the ACC.
But is that good enough at Clemson? Is it good enough just to be good and not elite?
On one hand, no one has done more for Clemson than Swinney, who took down Alabama legend Nick Saban on the sport’s biggest stage — twice. Clemson football rose to the top of college football because of Swinney’s vision for the program and how he meticulously built it.
On the other hand, it’s frustrating for Clemson supporters to watch the former kings of college football take such a drastic step back. Georgia is likely the best team Clemson will see all season and will probably be the best team in the country. But this is the company Clemson wants to keep. And on Saturday, the Bulldogs looked bigger, stronger, faster and more adaptable while for the Tigers, it was more of the same.
“Tonight was bad,” Swinney said. “Georgia is gonna make a lot of people look bad and they made us look bad (Saturday), but we’ll get back to work on Monday and we’ll go get better.”
Swinney’s reluctance to use the transfers portal is a hot-button issue — and has been for years.
Clemson is just one of four FBS schools that did not use the portal this offseason, joining Army, Navy and Air Force. The topic came up again on Saturday.
“People are gonna say whatever they wanna say,” Swinney said. “It doesn’t matter what I say, people are gonna say whatever they want to say. But we do what’s best for Clemson year in and year out. And when you lose like this, (people have) got every right to say whatever they wanna say. So say whatever you wanna say, write whatever you wanna write. That comes with it. It’s just part of it.”
There are other issues, too.
Swinney has no doubt been stubborn, but Lawrence — and Deshaun Watson before him — set a near-impossible standard that has made Clemson a victim of its own success.
Plus, the wide receivers — once a program strength — haven’t been able to consistently produce. Tyler Brown, Clemson’s leading receiver last season, had just three catches for 25 yards on Saturday. Five-star T.J. Moore and four-star Bryant Wesco, true freshmen whom Swinney raved about this offseason, barely played.
So where do the Tigers go from here?
Swinney will need to build Klubnik’s confidence as the Tigers head into a sneaky competitive matchup against Appalachian State next week. The offense needs to keep looking for answers. Klubnik implored his teammates after the game Saturday to not quit on him — not a great sign for Week 1. And the defense, which has been strong under coordinator Wes Goodwin in the last two seasons, will have to figure out how to adjust better.
Until then, it’s difficult to give Clemson the benefit of the doubt.
“They didn’t hand out a national championship trophy tonight. We didn’t lose the ACC tonight,” Swinney said. “We got our butts kicked in one game, and we’ve got a long way to go. Let’s go play it out and see what happens.”
(Photo: Ken Ruinard / USA Today)
