Paul Finebaum Explains ‘Complete and Total Failure’ Of One College Football Coach

Week 1 of college football is in the books, and it provided some a very clear answer to one big offseason question for Paul Finebaum.

That question: Can Clemson and Dabo Swinney win without using the transfer portal at all? Since its inception, Swinney is basically the only major college football coach to thumb his nose at the idea of adding transfers, dying on that hill despite, now, years of decreasing success.

On Saturday, the Georgia Bulldogs rocked Clemson in Atlanta by a 34-3 score. That final tally could have unfolded even if the Tigers had added star transfers. But they didn't, and being destroyed by one of the top programs further proves that maybe it is time to try the portal.

When he joined ESPN's "Get Up" Tuesday morning, Finebaum ripped Swinney over the loss and pointed directly to the Clemson coach's biggest failure yet as a coach.

"It's a complete and total failure, and I don't know how you could find it any other way," Finebaum said of Clemson's approach to the transfer portal.

"When you look up and down college football, many of them have quarterbacks who have transferred in," he continued. "Georgia doesn't, but Texas does, Oregon does, so many other schools do."

Finebaum doesn't mind Swinney's Frank Sinatra approach on the whole, but at this point, he doesn't understand the refusal to change.

"For Dabo to completely say 'I am going to do it my way' — that's fine, but this is 2024," he pointed out. "Everything has changed and you're still living in another world — and it's costing him."

The Swinney family shouldn't panic, though, because despite his harsh criticisms, Paul Finebaum still doesn't believe Dabo Swinney is in danger of losing his job.

"I'm not suggesting the end is near for him, but his fans, the ones of which I've heard from, are frustrated, and they don't know what to do because he's been so successful," he added. "But it's going nowhere right now."

Since Trevor Lawrence left, let's face it, the Clemson quarterback play simply hasn't been good enough, nor the offense as a whole. Even fixing one position, the most important position, through the portal could work wonders for Swinney.

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