Clemson football: Dabo Swinney has to evolve for the Tigers to move forward

It is clear that Clemson football is falling behind.

Over the last few days, Clemson football fans and media have expressed a range of emotions after another embarrassing beat down in the College Football Playoff.

One thing that has become clear, Clemson football is falling behind and if “best is the standard” is still the motto that head coach Dabo Swinney wants to live by, he has to evolve in his way of thinking and he needs to be held accountable to that.

If you are not embarrassed by this program’s last two games in the College Football Playoff, you are part of the problem. Too many times over the last several days, we have seen thousands of posts of people bringing up past accomplishments and the question to those people should be – what does that have to do with right now?

National title wins over Alabama in 2016 and 2018 don’t erase the embarrassment from getting our tails kicked in by LSU and Ohio State these last two seasons, just like winning a title in 2016 didn’t erase the heartbreak of 2015.

Over the last two seasons, the Clemson football defense has given up a total of 8,248 yards. In the Tigers, the last three College Football games have given up 1,786 yards, which is 22 percent of the total yards given up.

The Tigers have played 27 games the last two years, so 22 percent of their yards were given up in 11 percent of their games. That is atrocious and clearly signals that there is issues that have to be addressed.

Clemson football has to embrace new college football.

Dabo Swinney has always had a philosophy of blooming where you are planted but he cannot keep losing four-star recruits to the transfer portal and replace them with walk-ons. That simply does not lead to anything other than what we have seen in the games that matter in the last two seasons.

The transfer portal has become a new recruiting tool for teams to address weaknesses on their roster this is something that Clemson football should have taken advantage of especially on the offensive line and in the secondary.

Dabo also needs to start recruiting kids from junior colleges. You cannot continue to say that “best is the standard” while ignoring a large population of talented football players in the country. There are a lot of reasons that kids end up and juco’s and very rarely does it mean that they are bad kids. If the culture at Clemson is what Dabo says it is and what we all think it is, then bringing in a transfer or two every year should not be a big deal.

When it is all said and done, if Dabo does not evolve in some of his philosophies given the changing climate of college football, the run at Clemson is over and we will look back in 10 years and wonder what could have been instead of celebrating the best decade in Clemson football history.