One Quick Thing: Dabo Swinney’s seat is well insulated

CBS’s Dennis Dodd recently published a ‘hot seat ranking’ for all FBS head coaches. His scale was from 0 at the lowest (untouchable) to 5 at the highest (Win or be fired).

Dodd had Clemson Football head coach rated as a 2 in 2024, described as ‘Good…for now’. This is up from 2023 when Dodd rated Swinney as untouchable.

This has upset a few fans and created a reaction. The Clemson Insider’s Will Vandevort skewered CBS. His interpretation of Dodd’s rating was that they were saying Clemson needs to win or Swinney’s seat would get warm next year.

Vandevort acknowledged the growing frustration in the fan base but sums up the situation accurately.

"I am not saying Clemson is going to win a national championship or anything, but I can tell you this much. Dabo Swinney is not done at Clemson, and he definitely will not be on any hotseat. That would be ridiculous."

- Will Vandervort

As one of the fans who is frustrated with the program moving in the wrong direction on the field, I fully acknowledge that there is zero chance that Swinney will ever be on a hot seat or even a warm seat. I agree that Swinney is 'not done at Clemson'.

I don’t think Swinney would ever let things get bad enough under his watch for any real discussion of a hot seat to occur. The program would have to be truly awful to erode all the goodwill Swinney created with years of success.

Swinney has demonstrated that he will make changes to improve. He won’t make them based on my timetable or using my reasoning. Nor will he use yours or anyone else’s, but when he decides the changes are necessary, he will make them.

If it turns out that Swinney doesn’t want to make the changes necessary to be successful, I think he will step away.

Please note: I did not say that I think Swinney will resign.

I said if it ever came to a point where Swinney decided that the only way he could make the program competitive would be a manner in which he would no longer be happy and fulfilled as the head coach of the Tigers, I think he would find other options.

He has plenty of money. He could pursue a Saban-like direction where he remains involved with the university in an ‘emeritus’ type role while he works in television. He would be great as a color commentator or on a pregame show.

If he doesn’t have coaching out of his system, he could look at coaching at the FCS, DII, or DIII level where things are much more akin to the way all college sports were 20 or 30 years ago.

Again, I am not predicting that will happen. Improvement in 2024 followed by improvement in subsequent years will put all of this to bed. Pundits will either admit they were wrong about Swinney’s ability to build the roster or make fools of themselves trying to explain how it was a fluke.

I am simply saying that Swinney isn’t a coach who is going to bang his head against a wall year after year and try to hang onto something too long. If he decides things aren’t working, he will walk away long before his seat gets warm.