Has the Game Passed Swinney By? ESPN’s Dinich Gives Her Take
By: Robert MacRae September 2, 2024

Has the game passed Dabo Swinney by?

That was a topic of discussion Monday morning on ESPN’s Get Up show. 

Among the analysts who weighed in on the question is Heather Dinich, ESPN’s lead College Football Playoff Insider.

Dinich was asked by Get Up host Mike Greenberg for her take on whether the game has “quite literally passed (Swinney) by, based on the rules of engagement” in the current college football landscape — specifically, with Swinney’s approach to the transfer portal.

In her response, Dinich pointed to the outcome of 14th-ranked Clemson’s 34-3 loss to No. 1 Georgia in Saturday’s season opener for both teams. 

“The answer is the gap between Clemson and the best team in the country is exactly what the score indicated. So the answer is yes,” Dinich said.

“Kirby Smart has found out the perfect remedy for how to use the transfer portal. You don’t have to go Deion Sanders and get 41 players in there. But you do that if you’re Lincoln Riley in your first year, Deion Sanders in your first or second year, and you want to shock your roster. Kirby Smart figured out how to use the portal, but also what Dabo wants — get those high school players in, develop them and have them in your roster being major contributors down the stretch.”

It’s been well-documented that Clemson is one of only four programs in the FBS that didn’t take a player from the transfer portal this offseason (Air Force, Army and Navy).

“But yes, Kirby Smart said this — after the game, Kirby Smart said you have to use the transfer portal,” Dinich said. “He wasn’t saying that about Clemson, he was talking about his own program. If you want to win, you gotta do it.”

Dinich hasn’t shied away when talking about Swinney’s program of late. Prior to this season, she ripped Clemson when pegging the Tigers as the most overrated team at No. 14 in the preseason AP Top 25 Poll.

In her preseason predictions for this year’s College Football Playoff (subscription required), Dinich gave her prediction for the 12-team CFP field and eight teams on the bubble, and she had Clemson as one of the eight teams on the outside looking in.

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