Clemson football: Dabo Swinney has earned the benefit of the doubt

The 2021 Clemson football season has been one that we will all want to forget.

Through the first seven games of the season, the Tigers have an abysmal 4-3 record that, honestly, could be even worse.

Over the course of these two months, we’ve offered plenty of criticisms of the Clemson football program and areas that the Tigers must grow if they want to remain a part of the national CFB picture for years to come.

We’ve been as critical as anyone when it comes to decisions made by the staff, Dabo Swinney’s handling of the NCAA Transfer Portal and plenty of other issues that are surrounding this program here in the midst of a low-point.

But, there is one thing that I was reminded of this past week after hearing Dabo Swinney’s speech to the Clemson football fan base that I believe holds merit as we head into the rest of this season and beyond.

Dabo Swinney has earned the right to have the benefit of the doubt with the Clemson football fanbase

If you haven’t listened to Swinney’s comments, I would encourage you to go check them out. He was passionate and real, and there was a different sense surrounding the way he articulated his points compared to the past few weeks where we’ve heard a lot of coach speak.

And he finished it all off with a promise: Clemson isn’t going anywhere.

Swinney was imploring the fanbase to have some faith and to trust that he knows what he’s doing and, honestly, he’s earned that right.

It’s easy to focus on the negative aspects right now– and there are a ton of them– but Swinney has made a promise that there is going to be a lot of good to come from this 2021 season and when has he not followed through on a promise?

I understand that there are frustrations. I understand that there’s a ton of criticism to go around.

But, this is a man who has been raked over the coals by national media members for the last two years and relentlessly attacked for no good reason. This is a man who has done nothing but win consistently outside of three seasons as a head coach and, here in this low point, he deserves the support and trust of the fanbase to turn things around. 

Maybe he has made some bad decisions. We’re not saying that you can’t offer criticism of the program or speak of frustrations– we do it almost daily here in this space.

But, what we are saying is this is a program that deserves our support and Dabo Swinney has had more than his fair share of success to tell us that he’s not going to sit idly by and watch the Clemson football program that he’s built crumble.