Dabo Swinney still living rent free in the heads of Ohio State fans

There has been an unhealthy obsession with Clemson football and, in particular, Dabo Swinney that has developed within portions of the Ohio State Buckeyes fan base.

It all started in December of 2019 when the Tigers rallied for a come-from-behind 29-23 victory over the Buckeyes in the Fiesta Bowl during the CFB Playoff semifinals. Ohio State fans and the administration were upset with a call from review that cost the Buckeyes what could’ve been a scoop-and-score touchdown.

Of course, no Ohio State fan wants to talk about the fact that the Buckeyes still had several chances to score and get stops, but never did so. Instead, they allowed Trevor Lawrence and that Tiger offense to march 94 yards in just 1:18 seconds for what would be the game-winning touchdown.

Even then, Ohio State had an opportunity to answer but Justin Fields threw an interception in the end zone that officially ended any chance they had of beating the Tigers.

Dabo Swinney still living rent-free in the heads of Ohio State fans

Ohio State got its revenge in a big way this past January when they beat Clemson 49-28 in the Sugar to advance to the National Championship. Though the Buckeyes couldn’t win the big trophy, you would’ve thought getting the best of the hated Dabo Swinney would’ve satisfied them enough to move on.

Turns out, that’s not the case.

Eleven Warriors, which prides itself on being one of the top Ohio State media sites with more than 245K followers on Twitter, just posted a new T-shirt for sale featuring none other than Dabo Swinney.

"“It may be a new season, but Dabo Swinney is still a clown. Let him know with your wardrobe,” Eleven Warriors wrote."

When you talk about unhealthy obsession, this is the exact definition.

There’s a decent chance that Clemson and Ohio State won’t even match up on the field this year and, yet, the Buckeyes are still making shirts and spending time thinking about Dabo Swinney.

It’s not just the t-shirt, either.

If you go to basically any Twitter post mentioning Swinney and look at the comments, you’ll see several– sometimes even hundreds– of Ohio State fans giving their thoughts on the Clemson coach.

It’s not Jim Harbaugh that they’re concerned with. It’s not winning the Big Ten. It’s not that non-conference matchup with Oregon. They’re concerned with Dabo Swinney, a coach of a team that has only played you a handful of times in its history and of which you’re not even guaranteed to see again.

Name one other school who has media sites creating shirts against another school when they’re not even in the same conference or traditional rivals. I can guarantee you Clemson football fans don’t want a shirt with Ryan Day’s face on it.

We’re not in anyway going to call this a rivalry with Ohio State, instead we’re going to stick with the term ‘unhealthy obsession.’ Because that’s exactly how this comes off.