The Dabo Swinney dynasty at Clemson is not just collapsing; it's now the target of scathing, "get-out-while-you-can" advice from college football's most powerful voice.
ESPN's Paul Finebaum, who has watched Clemson spiral from a No. 4 preseason ranking to a 3-5 laughing stock, "sounded off" on the Tigers' head coach Monday, delivering a message that was equal parts public intervention and ominous warning.
Following Clemson's latest humiliation—a 46-45 home loss to Duke—Finebaum said it's time for Swinney to find an exit.
"Nobody here is suggesting Dabo Swinney be fired,” Finebaum said on The Matt Barrie Show. “I am strongly suggesting Dabo Swinney get outta there, though. It’s gotten so bad, and I hate to see a Hall of Fame coach act that petulant and that poorly."
Finebaum's advice: Swinney needs to "hit the restart button" on his career, somewhere else.
"I don’t have any doubt he can find a job," Finebaum continued. "And sometimes you just have to move on... I think his agent should look around and say OK, which one of these openings would be fun for me? Where can I go... where I can just hit the restart button?”
'His Fan Base Will Want Him Fired'
The criticism comes as Clemson hits a new low point, now 3-5 on the season and 2-4 in the ACC. The Tigers are in serious danger of missing a bowl game for the first time since 2004, a catastrophic fall for a team that began the year with national title aspirations.
Finebaum, in particular, took issue with Swinney's increasingly sour public demeanor.
“And quit being a cranky, get-off-your-lawn guy and make these self-deprecating jokes about getting fired, when everybody knows he’s not getting fired,” Finebaum added.
But that's where he delivered his final warning. While Swinney may not be on the hot seat in 2025, Finebaum cautioned that the "new normal" in college football means his runway is shorter than he thinks. If this disastrous trend continues, the program he built will be the first to show him the door.
“If he’s not careful though — and if this season ends the way it obviously is, and next season doesn’t go well — his fan base will want him fired. That’s the new normal in college football.”