It should come as no surprise, but Paul Finebaum sounded off on Clemson yet again this week. It should also come as no surprise that the ESPN personality’s commentary about Dabo Swinney and the Tigers was not positive.

During a radio appearance on the Mac & Bone Show on Friday, Finebaum — a notorious and vocal critic of Clemson and Dabo Swinney — labeled Swinney as a “fading coach.”

Finebaum firmly stated that he doesn’t see the Tigers ever returning to the level of national dominance under Swinney that they enjoyed for an extended and remarkable run.

“I do not see them coming back,” Finebaum said. “Clemson is a good program, but I think the ACC media got it about right. At the moment, they’re no better than fourth-best. That run was legendary. We’ll really never see anything quite like that again, playing for four national championships, being in the playoffs pretty much every single year. I think it was a perfect storm, especially at the quarterback position.”

“So, the fans ought to get used to it instead of fighting back at people like me every time I utter a comment on Clemson,” Finebaum added. “All these yahoos on the Clemson message boards come after me like, ‘The guy can’t get Dabo Swinney out of his head.’ Listen, Dabo Swinney isn’t in anybody’s head right now. He’s a fading coach.”

The Tigers are coming off an overly underwhelming 7-6 season last year, and while Finebaum does not think Clemson will completely fall off into being a losing program, he thinks it’s now a “9-3, 8-4”-type program.

“I don’t think Clemson is going to be a losing program. I don’t think they’re going to be a terrible program. But I think Clemson is now pretty much a 9-3, 8-4 program,” Finebaum said.

Finebaum criticized Swinney for being slow to adapt in the modern college football landscape with NIL and the transfer portal.

“And then Dabo Swinney thought he knew more than everyone else in college football and decided that he could do it his old way, and it didn’t work,” Finebaum said. “He finally adapted, but the problem is others have moved ahead of them. … He does that stupid typical Dabo, you know, ‘we’re just a bunch of nobodies.’ Last year, Clemson had arguably the most talented team in the country, and they did nothing with it. They went 7-6. I still can’t quite figure it out.”

Finebaum concluded by opining that if Swinney doesn’t turn things around this season, he’d probably be fortunate if the administration “doesn’t run him off.”

“If he has another bad year, he probably ought to be lucky if the Clemson administration doesn’t run him off,” Finebaum said.

–Photo by Dawson Powers