Clemson football: 4 stages of grief for Tiger fans

The four stages of grief for Clemson football fans

4. Willingness to Change & Work Towards Improvement

The one final stage isn’t necessarily one that is easy or fun to get to, but it is where we would like to be as a fanbase and as a program.

The first thing that Tiger fans have to do is accept that the team, frankly, isn’t very good right now. Accepting that this is going to be a ‘throw-away year’ isn’t an easy thing to do, but it’s something that we all have to come to grips with.

But we’re certainly not stopping there.

Here’s where we need to get to: Willingness to Change.

We need to get to the point as a fanbase where we understand that there are legitimate changes that need to happen and what we really need is for Dabo Swinney to address those issues.

Swinney talked about how the Tigers have some major work to do and what he has to be willing to do is make changes when he deems they are necessary.

Maybe that does mean firing staff members. Maybe it doesn’t.

Those who are angry at Tony Elliott need to be pulling for him to figure it out. Those who want to defend Tony Elliott at all costs need to put their fences down, realize that there are problems and pull for him to figure it out. And if he can’t, there might need to be a change.

The same with position coaches. The same with D.J. Uiagalelei. The same with the offensive line.

We need to have a willingness to change and a willingness to pull for the Tigers no matter what at the same time. For some reason, that seems hard to balance.

Yes, we can celebrate past successes. But there’s also nothing wrong with wanting this success to continue and wanting to see Clemson make the changes needed to continue to have success in the future.

Let’s be real here: If the Tigers are going to continue to be CFB Playoff contenders in the future, there are going to have to be changes.

Whether that be schematically, philosophically, or in other areas as we’ve already addressed, those are decisions that Dabo Swinney will have to make.

We’ve got to get rid of the hostility on both sides and come together under the same banner: Wanting the best decisions to be made and wanting change for the best to happen.

There is still hope for tomorrow, Clemson football fans.

Though it’s not likely, the Tigers still could win the ACC Championship this year. They still could play in a New Years Six Bowl. There is still talent flocking to the program that should give us a bright outlook moving past 2021.

But, it all starts with addressing the problems without getting emotionally entwined and putting trust that Swinney will make the best decisions to help this program flourish moving forward.

We expect that many will be bouncing back between Steps 3 & 4 quite a bit over the course of the next couple of months.