Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney had plenty to say during his Tuesday press conference about the criticism from Clemson fans following a 1-2 start to this season.
“If they want me gone, they’re tired of winning, they can send me on my way, because that’s all we’ve done is win,” Swinney said. “We’ve won this league eight out of the last 10 years. Is that not good? I’m just asking. Is that good? I don’t know if that’s good or not, to win your league eight out of 10 years, to go to the playoffs seven out of 10 years, be in four national championships, win it twice. Yeah, we’re a little down right now. Take your shots. But I got a long memory, in case y’all don’t know. We’ll be alright. We’ll bounce back.
“Hey, listen, if Clemson’s tired of winning, they can send me on my way. But I’m going to go somewhere else and coach. I ain’t going to the beach. Hell, I’m 55. I’ve got a long way to go. Y’all gonna have to deal with me for a while. I’ve got a long way to go. I’m just getting going. I’m just now good enough to be a head coach.”
Swinney’s viral rant has drawn a lot of reactions from members of the national media, including longtime sports personality Dan Patrick.
On the Dan Patrick Show, he weighed in on Swinney’s comments and posed the question of, “You want to run him out of town, who you bringing in?”
“You may not like his approach,” Patrick said. “He doesn’t like the transfer portal, but I think they brought in three starters or three marquee players in the portal. But his point is, if we recruit well enough, we’ll have a good enough team, and our players don’t transfer. But most of the teams that are bringing in transfers are losing players, or players go to the NFL. And a lot of teams, they’ll bring in a quarterback. Will Howard comes in at Ohio State. Notre Dame’s done this the last couple of years. They’ve had Cade Klubnik there for a few years at Clemson. But Dabo Swinney will get a job.”
Patrick says if Swinney is “gone today, he’ll get a job by later today.”
“If Dabo Swinney became available, how do you think Alabama would react with what’s going on there with [Alabama head coach] Kalen DeBoer?” Patrick said. “They’d probably be like, ‘Uh, what’s the buyout here?’ And Clemson, I think, has got maybe it’s a $60 million buyout with Dabo. He’s available, what do you think Florida would say? ‘Um, Coach, come on down.’
“Now, has he had the recent success of playing for a national championship, being in the hunt for that? No. But he’s a great coach. If he’s gone today, he’ll get a job by later today.”
Patrick joked Swinney should hand out his resume to the critics.
“Be careful what you ask, and it’s that, in the moment, like you know what, ‘We’re getting embarrassed and we don’t lose these games.’ But then, you know, you’re going to question his resume?” Patrick said. “I thought, why not just hand out your resume to everybody there to remind them. Here you go, here you go, here you go, here you go.”