Dabo Swinney may be losing ability to back up his words at Clemson

Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney may be really feeling the heat under his seat after a Week 4 loss to Syracuse that dropped the Tigers to 1-3 on the 2025 college football season.

Clemson has now lost two in a row, and the Tigers have looked bad in the process. They lost to Syracuse, 34-21, while going just 3-of-13 on third downs offensively and giving up 435 total yards on defense, including 157 yards on the ground.

Swinney has been at Clemson since 2008, and he's brought championship wins to the program. The prevailing criticism against him in 2025, though, is that he's not adjusted to the NIL and transfer portal era, and perhaps, he's lost his voice in the locker room and over the program.

That criticism may be valid, but Swinney went on a rant recently that would suggest he's not hearing any of it or taking anything to heart.

“If Clemson’s tired of winning, they can send me on my way,” Swinney had said. “I’ll go somewhere else and coach. I ain’t going to the beach. Hell, I’m 55. I got a long way to go.”

Paul Finebaum rips Dabo Swinney and Clemson

It's one thing to come out with a rant like that and lead your team to a win in what should have been an inferior opponent. It's another thing, altogether, though, to talk that way and then go out and no-show.

The Syracuse loss has led to even more criticism of Swinney. Particularly, SEC expert and long-time talking head Paul Finebaum went after the Clemson head coach.

"It’s really unbelievable, and it’s almost indescribable how bad they have been—especially at the quarterback position, where they were supposed to be as good as anywhere, and on defense, where they had one of the best defenses in America," Finebaum said on ESPN's "SportsCenter" on Monday, according to On3.

“They can’t do anything. Dabo Swinney really bears the blame, and I wish he would be quiet. He cannot get the foot out of his mouth right now," Finebaum continued.

Swinney is talking the talk but not walking it

Swinney has a long history of success at Clemson, so any analysis of his 2025 season so far has to not get caught up in a "prisoner of the moment" attitude. This is a coach who is 181-50 all-time for the Tigers and, again, he's won two championships plus a conference-record nine ACC Championships.

He's long been thought of as an elite head coach, but right now, he's talking a lot of talk and not backing up any of it.

The Tigers have an away game against Bill Belichick and 2-2 North Carolina this weekend. Belichick is another legendary head coach (albeit with NFL experience) who is struggling in 2025, so if this is a game that Clemson ends up losing to make it three-straight, the wheels could absolutely come off right out from underneath Swinney.

It's one thing to talk about it. It's another thing altogether to be about it, and no amount of winning history can save a coach once they've lost that touch.

It's going to be very interesting to see how the rest of this season plays out for Clemson.