CLEMSON — In the days that followed Clemson’s 41-point loss at LSU, the Clemson football program under Dabo Swinney came under intense fire, again.

Prior to last season, Swinney preached how strong his program was despite refusing to use the transfer portal, NIL and revenue sharing to bring players in that could possibly help the Tigers get back to where they were prior to 2021.

He told whoever would listen that you could still win in this new age of college football by recruiting high school talent, developing that talent and retaining that talent. He pointed to 2025 as the year that will prove his point, and to be honest, the majority of the Clemson faithful believed him, or at least took a wait-and-see-approach.

And why wouldn’t they, he earned that respect. Swinney has won at a very high level in his career at Clemson and had just won another ACC Championship and taken the program back to the College Football Playoff, a year ahead of schedule, according to him.

But 2025 turned out to be a disaster.

Those players that he retained, who were supposed to be really good—the nine players that were drafted and are currently on NFL rosters as we speak—most of them got their money and decided to take most of the season off, especially after the Tigers opened the season with losses to LSU and Georgia Tech in the first three weeks.

It did not get much better after that, either. The Tigers were 3-5 when Swinney said, “Honestly, as I evaluate myself, I have probably gotten a little bit away from my instincts. Not trusting some of my instincts, and that’s one of the things I have to get back to. Some people say I am stubborn, but I think I have conviction.”

Well, Dabo, they are definitely saying you are “stubborn.” Or at least that is what the majority of some of Clemson’s major boosters told The Clemson Insider.

Following the LSU game, TCI spent the last week reaching out and talking to some of IPTAY’s Heisman and Riggs level donors, those that give anywhere from $13,500 to $27,500 or more to the annual fund. We also spoke to some Fike ($9,000) and McFadden ($7,250) level donors as well.

These are the people who are truly invested in Clemson Athletics, especially Clemson football. We spoke to them anonymously, so we could get their true feelings when it came to the state of the football program.

TCI can tell you that the majority of those high-level donors we spoke to love Dabo Swinney. They want to see him succeed.

However, those same people are fed up with the excuses or Swinney pointing to what the program did in the past, before college football was forced to change.

They appreciate that Swinney cares about his players and that he still wants to develop young men both on and off the field, but… “We do not need an $11 million coach to be a Sunday school teacher,” one passionate donor said.

The majority of the donors we spoke with want to see some serious changes when it comes to how the program is being run and what it is doing to move forward in this new world.

“I like Coach Swinney. He is a good man, and he has done a lot for Clemson, but he needs to adjust,” a Riggs donor said. “I do not want to see him go, but if things do not change, then he needs to go.”

One Heisman level donor does not have faith in Swinney, or the Clemson administration to do anything about it. “I do not think Dabo will do anything, and Clemson has not shown me they will force him to do it.”

A lot of the donors we spoke with are frustrated with the whole situation, and they are worried it “will end in an ugly breakup” because they think Swinney is “too stubborn” to make the necessary changes to be successful.

They point to what Swinney did this off-season, or did not do, I should say, with the quarterback and offensive line positions. The Clemson coach refused to go to the portal and recruit a quarterback. Then he could not come to a financial agreement with at least three of the offensive linemen they tried to recruit out of the portal. They missed on all of their targets and did not bring an offensive lineman into camp from the portal.

“I think we have seen how that has worked out for us so far,” one donor said.

I’ll end with this. One donor, who has been giving to IPTAY for more than three decades, said this about the state of the Clemson football program, “We are not competitive right now, and don’t know if we can get back there. If we do not do something, we will never be able to beat the Miamis and LSUs of the world anymore.”

Stay tuned for more on this topic later this week.