During First Take on Monday, Paul Finebaum was part of an ESPN panel that reacted to Dabo Swinney defending his credibility after Clemson’s latest loss to SMU this past Saturday.

“This is a tough year to this point,” Swinney said. “But the year’s not over. So, that’s all I can say, is we hopefully have earned a lot of credibility around here. There’s been a lot of great years. A lot of great years. But this is a tough one. … I promise you, though, I’ve never worked harder and I’m going to continue to do everything I can.”

“We’ll be back. We’ll win more championships. We’ll win more championships. I promise you that,” Swinney added. “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.”

In the preseason, Finebaum was among the analysts who were singing Clemson’s praises and lauding the Tigers as a bona fide national title contender in 2025.

After the 3-4 start to this season, Finebaum’s tune is much different now, and he says Swinney has “really lost control” of his program.

“The problem with Dabo Swinney is this is a continuum,” Finebaum said. “What happened last year, when he had a pretty average season but managed to sneak into the playoffs by beating SMU on the final play of the game in the ACC Championship, was the outlier. The trendlines have been there that he has really lost control of the program. Many people thought he had it back. A lot of people picked Clemson to win the title. He had [Cade] Klubnik, who was thought to be maybe the No. 1 draft choice. They lost that LSU game. It’s been straight downhill ever since, and I believe Dabo Swinney has gone to the well one too many times trying to convince his fanbase, ‘Hey, we played for four national championships. I have two. I can still do it again.’”

Following Clemson’s loss to Syracuse on Sept. 20 that dropped the Tigers to 1-3 for the first time ever under Swinney, Finebaum said he believed “it’s over” for Swinney at Clemson and “it’s time for him to go.”

Finebaum doubled down on that sentiment about the Tigers’ longtime head coach.

“There is nobody that believes Dabo Swinney is ever going to win a national championship again at Clemson. This was his last shot,” Finebaum said. “I frankly think it’s time for him to go. I’m not suggesting they fire him, but he needs to find an exit strategy because Dabo, your time is up. You are not going to turn it around, and quit trying to sell the people of that great university a bill of goods.”

Last Saturday’s loss to SMU marked Clemson’s fifth straight to a Power 4 opponent, the first time that has happened at Clemson since 1970 and 1971 when the Tigers lost six straight.

This marks the first time since 2001 Clemson has lost three home games in a season. The Tigers are 12-7 at Memorial Stadium in their last 19 home games, and it has been a full year since Clemson last beat a Power 4 team at home.

According to Finebaum, Swinney’s reluctance to adapt to the changing college football landscape — specifically regarding NIL and the transfer portal — has caused his program to fall behind the times.

“It’s a very big factor, because he finally began to shift a little bit in the last year or two, but it was almost too late,” Finebaum said. “And it’s really sad for me to say this, because I think everybody on this panel respects Dabo Swinney and appreciates that he has been one of the great coaches of this era, but that’s gone. It goes very quickly nowadays. And I think what’s even more irritating to that fanbase is he just keeps going to the well trying to live off of what he used to do, and unfortunately in college football, that doesn’t matter, especially if you don’t change. He did not change, and frankly, it’s too late.”