Pollack Details Speech Swinney Should Give Clemson Players Entering ‘24

College football analyst and former Georgia All-American David Pollack joined Chad Withrow and Jonathan Hutton on an episode of OutKick’s Hot Mic .

Pollack discussed Clemson and head coach Dabo Swinney, with Pollack laying out how he would challenge the Tigers’ roster entering the upcoming season.

Pollack detailed the speech that he would deliver to Clemson’s players ahead of the 2024 campaign, if he were in Swinney’s shoes.

“Clemson, man, I’m so interested to watch Clemson,” Pollack said. “If I’m Dabo Swinney right now, by the way — I can give you the best Dabo Swinney speech known to man, if you want me to right now. I’m just telling y’all, like I’ve been waiting to say this to somebody that will actually listen. If I’m Dabo Swinney, like I’m literally walking in this locker room at Clemson and I’m going to be like this to all of my guys.

“I’m going to close the doors and be like, ‘Guys, here’s what I want you to keep in mind. People keep talking I need to change, like I need to do things different. I’m one of three active coaches with a national championship, and I’ve got two national championships, and I’m not going to change the way I do things. And here’s another thing, guys — they’re telling me I need to go in the transfer portal to replace you. That’s what they’re saying. They’re saying you aren’t good enough. They’re saying I need to continue to go in because I’m not recruiting at a great level. Guys, we’re getting top-10 recruiting classes, and they want to get more people to replace you. Are you going to step up? Like, that’s on y’all.’ And I think Dabo’s going to use that and I think he’s going to talk to his kids and he’s going to motivate them.”

It’s been well-documented that Clemson is one of four programs in the country that didn’t take a transfer this offseason, which is why Pollack is so intrigued to see the Tigers face off this season against Florida State – a program that has heavily utilized the transfer portal in recent years.

The Tigers will play the Seminoles — who, of course, are now led offensively by Clemson and Oregon State transfer quarterback DJ Uiagalelei — on Oct. 5 in Tallahassee.

“I’m just fascinated to watch them and Florida State,” Pollack said. “They play late in the year, and guess what, one believes fully in the transfer portal and one doesn’t. Your old quarterback, who left in the transfer portal with DJU, is now coming to play you. I think it’s going to be fascinating. But I think Clemson’s going to be a fascinating story, and just everybody telling Dabo he needs to do it different when he has as many national titles as anyone else. He’s tied with Kirby, so he has the right to do it his way and he has the right to tell his players, like, ‘They’re talking about you. They want you to be replaced.’”

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