On his college football show, national analyst Josh Pate gave his take on the mood of the Clemson fan base as things stand now ahead of the 2026 season, and what the upcoming campaign might have in store for Dabo Swinney’s team.
Coming off last season where the Tigers struggled to a 7-6 record and failed to live up to lofty expectations of being a national title contender, Pate believes Clemson fans are feeling doubtful about the outlook of the program, like he is.
Pate says the “failure to launch” last year was the “backbreaker” for many Clemson fans believing things will get back to the way they were when the Tigers went on one of modern college football’s most dominant runs.
“A majority of the crowd kinda said, ‘Alright, that settles it,’” Pate said of Clemson’s dismal 2025 season. “Because we haven’t recruited top 15-caliber classes here lately. We’ve dipped our toe into the portal and all the players are probably getting hurt, but we only recently have dipped our toe into the portal. We’re never going to be what Miami is in the portal or LSU is in the portal — the roster is not going to be what it used to be, so how are the results going to be what they used to be? I think a lot of Clemson fans feel that way.
“They’d be happy to be proven wrong. Me too. I’m not pulling against Clemson. I’m not pulling against Dabo Swinney. I always leave room for an in-season surprise. There are times where you have high expectations for a team and they don’t fulfill them, and then you by default doubt them the next year, and then that’s the year that they pop a surprise on you. It could happen. I don’t see it.”
After last year’s disappointment, Pate wonders what a successful 2026 season would actually be for the Tigers.
“Their over/under win total is 7.5 coming into this year. … What if they win eight games? What if Clemson goes 8-4? … Is that a successful season?” Pate asked. “Have we really gotten to the point where the over could hit for the Clemson win total, and people would still be disappointed to the point where they want change? I think we have.”
Pate says his big-picture opinion of Swinney is locked in, but at the same time, Pate sees the upcoming season as a “last-stand moment” for Swinney’s program.
“I will say this — you will have to rip this opinion out of my cold, dead hands — I have solidified my feel on Dabo Swinney,” Pate said. “95 percent of my opinion on Dabo is sealed. Immense, lifetime respect for the guy, no matter what happens. They go 0-12 this year, and my opinion on him this year would be bad. But my opinion on him overall is set. He is a first-ballot Hall of Fame. He’s that forever for me. And I’ll also say this — as much as people want to talk about what he should do, as much as people want to talk about the changes he should make, or if it’s going downhill, people want to talk about the way that he should go out, he should retire, he should do this and he should do that. … If it starts off poorly, I think you’ll just hear more of the same drumbeat. I think the fan base mood there is kind of, it’s a last-stand moment here.
“That’s OK. We’ve got multiple conference titles. Multiple national titles out of this. If this is it, then it was the most iconic run in the history of our program and one of the most iconic runs in the history of college football. They don’t make many of those.”
Clemson will open the 2026 season against LSU on Sept. 5 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La. LSU is currently an 11.5-point favorite, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.