This is the End: Dabo Swinney's Time at Clemson

© Ken Ruinard - Imagn Images

College football's FBS comprises 134 teams, and four of those 134 teams—Navy, Army, Air Force and the No. 25 Clemson Tigers—did not add players from the Transfer Portal this off-season. Following, a blowout loss to No. 1 Georgia on Aug. 31 by a final score of 34-3, the question on everyone’s mind is: has the game passed by Clemson’s head coach Dabo Swinney? 

Transfer Portal Follies

Since the beginning of the Transfer Portal era, which emerged in the fall of 2018, Clemson has been one of the few teams that has not tried to take advantage of its potential. Head coaches throughout college football have used the portal strategically, regardless of whether they prefer focusing on high school recruits or more experienced players from other teams. Swinney has not been one of them. 

© Ken Ruinard - Imagn Images

Dabo Swinney: End of an Era?

Throughout the past couple of seasons, veteran coaches in not just football but also college basketball have stepped away from their sports due to objections to the Transfer Portal. Legendary coaches from both football and basketball like Mike Krzyzewski (Coach K), Roy Williams, Jay Wright and of course Nick Saban, had objections to certain aspects of the transfer-at-will system.

Swinney appears to share the mindset of these legendary coaches, but he has been even more grudging in his resistance.

Swinney is one of the winning head coaches since beginning his head coaching career at Clemson in 2008, with 170 career wins, two national championships and eight Atlantic Coast Conference championships. However, unless the 54-year-old coach changes his ways, his dismissal might be on the horizon. Have the wheels already begun to spin in the heads of the higher-ups at Clemson?

Paul Finebaum, a college football personality, seems to think so. On ESPN's Get Up (hosted by Mike Greenberg) on Sept. 1, Finebaum let the viewing audience know his thoughts: "Sadly, it seems like Dabo, this time, is really done at Clemson." Finebaum continued, "He can say he's doing the right thing, but clearly he has screwed up badly, refusing to go into the Transfer Portal." Unless Swinney can turn this past weekend’s Georgia game into a distant memory, the clock could soon strike midnight on his time at Clemson.