Dabo Swinney still believes in his process and that good times will come again at Clemson under his watch despite his program crashing hard this season.
The Tigers fell to 3-4 overall and 2-3 in conference play with Saturday’s 35-24 loss to SMU. It marked the program’s fifth straight home loss to Power Four competition dating back to last fall and means Clemson’s in danger of suffering its first losing season under Swinney since 2010 unless things get corrected quickly.
Swinney pounded the table for “credibility” and what he’s done in the past — two national championships and nine ACC titles with the Tigers — after watching his team stumble against the Mustangs with backup quarterback Christopher Vizzina filling in for injured starter Cade Klubnik.
“I take the good with the bad,” Swinney said. “I don’t like it, but that’s just my perspective. And I know something good will come from it. I promise you, though, I’ve never worked harder. And I’m going to continue to do everything I can, and we’ll be back.
“We’ll win more championships. We’ll win more championships. All right? I promise you that. May not happen this year, but we’re going to win more championships. That’s all I can say. And I think we have a track record that demonstrates that.”
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Clemson was ranked No. 4 in the preseason before opening with a loss to LSU, a come-from-behind win over Troy at home and back-to-back losses to Georgia Tech and Syracuse to open ACC play.
“We’re going to try to fight our way and finish this thing the very best that we can,” Swinney said. “And then we’ll start over just like we do every year. You know, that’s what we do every year. We have a great year, we have a tough year, you know, we start over and then you go back to work.”
This has been a major failure for the Tigers, especially when you consider preseason expectations after reaching the College Football Playoff last fall as ACC champions. Swinney even predicted his team would be the “first to 16-0” in August before that projected triumph was derailed in the opener.
After losing to Syracuse at home last month, Swinney called Clemson’s 1-3 start a “coaching failure” before get-right wins over North Carolina and Boston College.
“That’s the best way I can say it. We have just failed as coaches,” Swinney said. “I’m not taking accountability away from the players. I mean, they got accountability in this too. You got some guys that gotta play better.
“I’m not pointing a finger, I’m pointing a thumb. It starts with me.”
With a sizable buyout, Swinney’s not going anywhere unless he chooses to leave a program he helped build on his own accord. At 3-4 overall, the Tigers head into an open date hoping to get Klubnik healthy before hosting Duke on Nov. 1.
Swinney understands the frustrations within the Clemson family and those who support his program.
“I don’t blame them [fans]. I’m disappointed too. We’re all disappointed. We’re incredibly frustrated,” Swinney said. “But that’s where we are, and I take full responsibility for that. But all I can do is keep working and see if we can find a way to win the next game.
“… We got to pick ourselves up and keep going. That’s what we’re going to do. There ain’t no quit in this bunch. That’s one thing I’ll say about this team. It hurts, but there’s no quit. We’re going to fight our butts off to the end. And then we’ll count them all up, and then we’ll — you know, it’s a season. And right now it’s not been anywhere near the season that we want.”
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