Here is the full question from ‘Tyler’, who said Dabo Swinney was starting to sound like Tommy Bowden, before questioning his worth right now, compared to salary.
Also asked Dabo not to clump him into the other 1.5% of fans Swinney has previously mentioned https://t.co/pndtzG07TC pic.twitter.com/8YGOT77G0s
— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace_) October 31, 2023
Clemson’s Dabo Swinney went on an epic 5-minute rant tonight after ‘Tyler, from Spartanburg’ asked him about his $11.5 million salary and 4-4 season.
“I’m not gonna sit here and let you, I don’t care how much money I make. You’re not gonna talk to me like I’m 12-years old..” pic.twitter.com/XvjhZDUd2m
— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace_) October 31, 2023
Looks like Tyler struck a nerve.
Coming off two straight losses and we’ve got Dabo dropping hard A’s on a radio call-in show? Curse words live on the air from a man who claims to be washed in the blood? Not a great look. This version of Dabo that’s rattled and combative is very unlike him. Granted, this is his first real taste of adversity since going on an absolute tear over the last eleven seasons, but you gotta do a little better than this. You can’t be shitting on fans during your weekly show, calling them smartasses and unappreciative in your first garbage season in over a decade. He acknowledged there was a problem but instead of taking it on himself, he transferred all of the blame over to the fans.
Here’s the thing about being the head coach for a big college football school like Clemson: part of your duties are to take things like this in stride and handle the occasional irate fan. What the hell was that shit? Adversity is something I’m sure he preaches to his players every year, and this caller got under his skin that easily? Mental toughness my ass. It’s gonna happen eventually, it’s a part of the job, learn to bite your tongue and give the robotic answer when you need to. I hate when coaches do it but that was a good time to unleash some teleprompter bullshit coach-speak. Don’t lose your marbles any time someone questions you, that’s all.
Things have been weird for Dabo since NIL was put into effect. Dabo was openly against NIL. So much so that he even threatened to quit! We now know why: he’s lost his leg up on the competition. He can’t rinse his money through NewSpring Church (14 locations throughout South Carolina) anymore and the rest of college football has caught up with him. He’s frustrated, plain and simple. It seems like every time he’s opening his mouth nowadays, he’s saying something dumb and inflammatory. He is acting stressed!
Is the fan out of line here? Maybe a little bit, sure. It wasn’t presented in a particularly hateful way, but it was definitely meant to needle him and get a response. Dabo took the bait in a big way. Thankfully he did his homework before this call and was able to rattle off all his past accomplishments to diffuse the situation. Telling the fan to “apply for the job” is the lamest thing a head coach has ever said, like he’s too good to answer a tough question. Also telling the fan that he’s not appreciative enough, as if they should be so lucky to have him lead their team, not the other way around. The rant lasted 5 minutes and there were some wild things said out loud. The entire response was just a perfect lesson on how NOT to handle the situation and it only deepened the hole that Dabo finds himself in as his team flounders and he loses the fanbase.
Ultimately, it’s college football and some fans are dumb and spoiled. Clemson fans have enjoyed a supremely dominant stretch only to see their program fall off the edge of a cliff this year. Naturally, there’s a few that aren’t thrilled at the prospect of less than ten wins this season. Some of what Dabo said is fair and expectations can be exhausting, but alienating your fans is never the move in the midst of a crisis. If things goes poorly and they can’t win at home against Notre Dame this weekend, it’d be three straight losses for the first time since 2010, Dabo’s second year on the job.
4-4 isn’t good enough, Dabo knows that, and he feels his grip loosening. He’s doing what any rat backed into a corner does – lashing out. Maybe he set the standard too high for himself by winning two CFB championships in such a short span, shouldn’t have done that, pal! As a seasoned veteran in coaching spirals and subsequent replacement searches (reminder: I’m a Tennessee fan), this has all the makings of a rapid descent. In college football, these things tend to snowball and become irreparable quickly. It can take years to build a program up but only weeks to see the wheels come all the way off. Dabo needs to get control now or it’s gonna get away from him.
PS – I know I’m jumping the gun here, but I can’t stop thinking about it. If he keeps this up he’s done at Clemson, I think that much is clear. If Dabo does eventually step down, the logical next step would surely be a job in broadcasting. What if he gets a seat next to Urban Meyer on Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff? A little heaven, a little hell. We could see the most Christian of men (Dabo) sitting next to a literal demon (Urban Meyer) on a college football pre-game show. You know Urban would be saying every bad word he knows to Dabo during commercial breaks and hitting on his wife. What a spectacle that would be.