Things have to Change in Clemson - More questions than answers after embarrassing loss to Georgia

ATLANTA — It is not often Clemson is beaten as bad as it was by Georgia on Saturday.

In fact, there are just a few occasions in Dabo Swinney’s long tenure in Tigertown that the Tigers have been as manhandled as they were at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. There was the infamous 2012 Orange Bowl loss to West Virginia (70-33), the loss to Florida State in Death Valley in 2013 (51-14) and Notre Dame’s beat down in South Bend in 2022 (35-14).

However, Saturday’s 34-3 pummeling by No. 1 Georgia just seemed different. From the very beginning, it just felt like the 14 ^th -ranked Tigers did not deserve to be on the field with this Georgia team.

“Biggest thing, when you get beat like that, that’s on the head coach,” Swinney said. “That’s on me, so… That’s just complete ownership of just an absolute crap second half. Really disappointed. But I’ve done it long enough. Sometimes you get your butt kicked, and we did today.

“That’s not what we came here to do. But you got to give Georgia credit. We got to move on, we got to learn from it.”

The question is, will they learn from it? Will Swinney learn from it?

It seems like Clemson was just here. Before Tyler from Spartanburg got things riled up last November and before the five-game winning streak to close the season, the Tigers were in the same spot they are right now.

They are coming off an unforgivable defeat in what was an embarrassing performance. And the problems still seem to be the same.

Cade Klubnik just is not getting it done at quarterback. Again, he looked indecisive and uncomfortable at times.

The offense does not seem to have any rhythm. It’s seems as if Garrett Riley is calling plays to be safe, instead of being aggressive.

The offensive line looks about the same. It’s adequate at best and cannot hold up against bigger and stronger defensive fronts.

Once again, against a quality defense, the wide receivers could not consistently get off the line of scrimmage to help their quarterback. There were dropped passes, and they physically got manhandled at times.

Tight end Jake Briningstool made a nice one-handed catch in the game, but he dropped what could have been a big catch on the game’s opening drive and finished with four catches for just 26 yards.

The only thing you can say that was not the same was the defense. The Tigers allowed 287 yards in the second half and allowed four touchdowns on Georgia’s first five possessions of the second half.

It was an embarrassing loss. One the Tigers should be ashamed of.

So how do they fix it?

Maybe Dabo Swinney needs to change his ways. Maybe the national media is right, Swinney has let the game pass him by because of his refusal to embrace the new world of college football.

I am a long-time supporter of what Swinney believes in. However, the old way is obviously not working anymore.

Clemson is not only losing on the field, but now, it is losing on the recruiting trail, too, where several of its targets this past summer committed elsewhere. Why is that?

What has changed?

Swinney has always been known as a closer. But now guys that he is recruiting are decommitting and are going to Duke. That’s right Duke. And this isn’t basketball.

Clemson is losing football recruits to Duke, and that should never happen.

I do not know how to fix it, but it is not my job. All I can do is raise the questions and hope they get answered.

But it is obvious, Clemson’s program has slipped a bit. Georgia made that abundantly clear in Atlanta on Saturday.