It got ugly almost immediately for Dabo Swinney and the Clemson Tigers in Baton Rouge. One team was led by a two-time national championship-winning head coach in Year 19 on the job. The other was coaching in his first game at a major rival of his former employer. The worst part in all this is Lane Kiffin needed roughly one quarter of action leading LSU to make everyone want to see Swinney gone.
It may not be officially over, but this loss is the straw that will break the camel's back for Swinney's time at Clemson. Even if Tait Reynolds becomes the greatest invention since sliced bread over the next few months, Swinney's stubbornness has destroyed the program he once took to unforeseen heights. Apparently, Deshaun Watsons and Trevor Lawrences don't grow on trees. Dabo is cooked.
So what will it take for Clemson to actually buy out its greatest head coach of all time? According to the Greenville News, it would cost Clemson $57 million to buy Swinney out of his contract. This is down from the $60-million mark from only a season ago. Swinney signed a 10-year, $115 million deal back in 2022 to remain at Clemson through the 2031 college football season. That is a ton of money.
Clemson would need $57 million to buy Dabo Swinney out of his contract
Entering this season, there were plenty of other Power Four head coaches who were sitting on hotter seats than Swinney. Mike Norvell may be sitting on the hottest seat of all at Florida State, but at least his team has won a game this season. Bill O'Brien might be dead to rights in Boston College. Dave Aranda does not have much time left at Baylor. At least September is Mike Locksley's good month.
That is the group Swinney now finds himself in. All four of those coaches have had varying levels of success in the college game. In O'Brien's case, he won the AFC South several times leading the Houston Texans without consistently great quarterback play. In the end, coaches are hired to be fired. While Swinney might want to go out on his own accord, he may no longer have that luxury after this.
The big questions now are if Clemson has a second act coming at some point this season, as well as if the Tigers have the right collection big-pocketed boosters to make the call nobody ever thought would happen. This was the signature game of the Week 1 slate. Sadly, it was over before we even got to the midway point of the first quarter. Clemson played LSU in a national title bout seven years ago...
To be totally honest, maybe we are jumping the gun a little bit? Then again, what have we seen from this first week of the season that leads us to believe things are going to get better? It has to, because this feels like we are scraping along at rock bottom. Yes, it could still get worse, but there is not going to be a game on a stage quite like this where Clemson failed to live up to expectations this pitifully.
Swinney will not be the first head coach fired this season, but he has put himself in line to be let go.
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