New year, same Dabo Swinney. With Cade Klubnik off to the NFL, Swinney took a hard look at his incoming roster on January 3 and thought that was good enough. Larry Williams of Tiger Illustrated wrote about a controversial message Swinney told his staff about the state of his quarterback room. "Stop asking me about going to the portal for a quarterback. We have what we need there." Unreal...
Clemson lost its best quarterbacks since Trevor Lawrence and Klubnik went to the league. The Tigers had unproven Christopher Vizzina at the top of their depth chart, with Chris Denson, Trent Pearman, and true freshman Tait Reynolds backing him up. Vizzina had a good start versus SMU last year, but that is it. Denson has been converted into a receiver. Reynolds has started every game since Week 3.
While Swinney was more than willing to let Tom Allen go get his guys in the portal on defense, the same principle has not been applied on offense. The receivers are great, but that is a quarterback-dependent position. The running game has been improved, but the offensive line remains suspect. In the end, it all comes back to a careless decision that could cost Swinney his job in a matter of weeks.
On the third day of January, Dabo Swinney opened a staff meeting with a message: Stop asking me about going to the portal for a quarterback. We have what we need there.
— Larry Williams (@LarryWilliamsTI) October 25, 2026
Inside the fallout from that and other roster-management decisions from the head coach:…
Dabo Swinney made a fool out of himself by not pursuing any portal QB
It is the combination of not pursuing a transfer quarterback and his undying loyalty to Chad Morris that will inevitably be Swinney's undoing. If you are going to zag when everyone else zigs, you better have a pretty good reason for it. Re-hiring your friends and being overly loyal to former prospects who picked you out of high school are not good enough reasons anymore. Swinney has to adapt now!
At this time, we have to ask ourselves this. What do all three teams that have beaten Clemson so far this season have in common? They are all bowl-eligible Power Four teams who start transfer-portal quarterbacks. Sam Leavitt is on his third team at LSU. The same principle applies to Darian Mensah at Miami. As for Ethan Grunkemeyer, he followed his head coach, James Franklin, over to Virginia Tech.
If Grunkemeyer, Leavitt, or Mensah were playing for the Tigers, this would be a playoff team. Clemson has the defense to hang with anyone. Few teams in the Power Four are as strong on special teams as Clemson. With a wide-receiving corps dying without water like a houseplant, how much better would Tyler Brown, TJ Moore, and Bryant Wesco Jr. be with someone of substance throwing them the ball?
In the end, maybe Paul Finebaum was right about Swinney? The quarterback mess and the Morris nonsense give way to being stuck on stupid. Frankly, as fans, we are starting to feel stupid watching this team attempt to figure out modern offensive football for the umpteenth time this year. We are simply running out of time and out of patience. Clemson might need to score 30 points to beat FSU.
Clemson's season may have begun over Labor Day Weekend, but Swinney ruined it on January 3.
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