In the wake of No. 1 Georgia’s 34-3 beatdown of No. 14 Clemson on Saturday in Atlanta, Dabo Swinney’s critics were sure to have plenty of fresh ammunition to use against the Tigers’ coach.
On Monday morning, they lined up their proverbial shots .
Swinney’s biggest critic, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum, was at the top of the list. Appearing on Get Up with hosts Mike Greenberg and Heather Dinich, Finebaum said that Swinney was “really done.”
“We have been writing them off for some time but they’ve been hanging around,” Finebaum said of Clemson. “But they were up against the best kid on the block Saturday, and they got manhandled. And there is nowhere to go for Dabo Swinney. He can complain about the criticism, he can say he’s doing the right thing, but clearly he has screwed up badly (by) refusing to go into the transfer portal.”
Jumping to Swinney’s defense was ESPN college football analyst Joey Galloway, who pushed back against Finebaum by saying he didn’t feel the Clemson coach was getting the respect he deserved.
“There are two coaches who have two national championships — only two,” Galloway said. “If you look at the string of 10-win seasons he’s had up until last year when he got to nine, we make it seem like Dabo has been terrible for years. Those two national championships weren’t that long ago, Paul. All I’m saying is this: can we act like this guy is one of the all-time greats? Because he is.”
Galloway went on to add that the Tigers weren’t “that far off” from competing, even if the score Saturday indicated otherwise.
“All I’m saying is, if Dabo Swinney is the problem, he is a problem that about 120 schools would love to have right now,” Galloway said. “That is because he has won national championships. He has won games. They’re not terrible, and Georgia’s going to make a lot of teams look like this, this year.”
Galloway also expressed doubts as to whether teams relying heavily on the portal could continue to sustain success.
“What I’m wondering is, how long are these other teams going to be able to keep up winning that way?” Galloway asked. “Because there are a lot of checks going out here, and a lot of people are not winning national championships. And so I’m wondering, how long are these other schools going to keep writing these checks and not winning national championships? Two of which Dabo Swinney has won.”
Galloway likened Swinney’s approach to the portal to former Alabama coach Nick Saban’s initial hesitation to adapt to the hurry up, no-huddle offenses in 2013-14. Saban’s 2013 Alabama team was ranked 11-0 and ranked No. 1 before losing to Auburn and coach Gus Malzahn’s fast-tempo offense in the Iron Bowl, which cost the Crimson Tide a chance at a college football three-peat.
A year later, using the same type of offense against Saban’s defense, Ole Miss and then-coach Hugh Freeze knocked off Alabama in an early season upset. Saban famously asked, “Is that what we want college football to be?” It was a question that was seen as a complaint at the time, but one that ultimately ended up feeling more akin to a threat after Saban hired Lane Kiffin as his offensive coordinator and turned ‘Bama into an offensive powerhouse.
“Years ago, when we used to watch Alabama, Nick Saban used to complain about these fast-paced offenses and was like, ‘Man, I don’t like, I ain’t gonna do it, I think it’s unhealthy. And then he figured out, ‘I better start doing that because everyone else is,’ and he found a way to win,” Galloway offered.
Finebaum insisted that Swinney’s approach to the modern game was “stubborn” and even “stupid.”
“Nobody is trying to make Dabo out to be terrible, but what he is, is stubborn and I would go so far as to say stupid,” Finebaum said. “Because if you don’t use the tools that you have at your disposal, you are dumb in today’s world of college football. The problem is, we can’t have a conversation with Dabo Swinney without talking about the past. We are living in the present and moving toward the future. I’m around Clemson fans. I don’t live that far from where Clemson University is headquartered, and quite frankly those fans are frustrated, too, because they got used to going to six playoffs and playing for four national championships.
“This is a man that beat Nick Saban twice for the title, but that was a couple of years ago,” Finebaum added of Swinney before taking a jab at Galloway’s alma mater, Ohio State. “LSU fans are angry about Brian Kelly today, and they won a title in 2019. That’s just the way college football is. Maybe at Joey’s school, which last won a national championship in 2014, there’s a little more leeway, but not here and not at Clemson.”
The Tigers return to the practice field Monday as they prepare to host Appalachian State Saturday night at Clemson Memorial Stadium (8 p.m. ET, ACC Network).
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