‘I forgot they still played football,’ Paul Finebaum takes another shot at Clemson, Dabo Swinney

ESPN commentator Paul Finebaum took another shot at Clemson and Dabo Swinney during a recent appearance on “First Take.”

Finebaum, who previously labeled Swinney “the get-off-my-lawn guy” and called his comments on the unintended consequences of the 12-team College Football Playoff “plain dumb,” went on another anti-Clemson/Swinney tirade last week.

Finebaum said that the Tigers would “get run out of the building” by Georgia in the team’s season-opener at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium (noon ET, ABC) August 31.

“I forgot they still played football. Is Dabo Swinney in a missing person’s bulletin right now? Because they had the ACC media days recently and usually Dabo controls the theater, and I don’t remember a single thing he said because he’s still complaining about everything that’s wrong with college football while his program slips into mediocrity,” Finebaum said.

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Back in May, Finebaum predicted that Swinney’s time was “ nearly up ” because of the coach’s stance on the transfer portal and NIL. He added that Florida State had already “ pulled ahead” of Clemson and that Miami and other ACC programs could, as well.

“To me, he is falling so far behind. That doesn’t mean they can’t have a good program,” Finebaum said of Swinney and Clemson at the time. ‘That is, if you call 9-3 or 8-4 or maybe the occasional 10-2 a great program. But that’s not the same school that went to six consecutive CFP’s a couple of years ago, that played for four national championships. I think that part of it is over.

“And Dabo Swinney may think he’s smart, playing this game of how it’s going to be, but that’s not the way things are… (College football) has changed so quickly in the last three years, and if you missed a minute, you fell behind. He missed three years, and he is way behind and he’s not catching up.”

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