On First Take this week, several ESPN analysts, including former LSU and NFL safety Ryan Clark, weighed in on Dabo Swinney’s future with the Clemson Tigers.

The discussion came in light of Clemson starting 1-3 for the first time under Swinney, and centered around Paul Finebaum’s comments that he believes “it’s over” for Swinney at Clemson and “it’s time for him to go” – suggesting that Swinney should either leave Clemson to coach at another school, or become an analyst on TV.

Clark says it’s not about firing Swinney, but added that Clemson’s start to the season is a straight up “coaching failure,” especially considering the preseason expectations of the Tigers being a national championship contender, and Swinney “not adjusting to the changing landscape in college football.”

“Dabo Swinney has done too much at Clemson for him to be someone that you fire at this point of his career,” Clark said. “But it’s starting to get there, where it’s starting to have these conversations too often about Clemson underachieving, about Dabo Swinney not adjusting to the changing landscape in college football. And when you don’t do that and you find yourself behind some of these teams, and you enter this year with the level of expectations that they had because of the talent we perceived was on the Clemson roster, it is a coaching failure.

“If Cade Klubnik doesn’t play to his level of expectation, that’s on coaching. If the 80 percent of the talent that you are returning doesn’t play to that level, that’s on coaching. If defensively, you can’t stop Steve Angeli and the Syracuse Fighting Orangemen, that’s on coaching.”

Clemson came into this season having won the 2024 ACC Championship, its eighth conference title in 10 years. The Tigers were coming off a College Football Playoff appearance in 2024 and entered this season ranked No. 4 in the AP Poll.

Now, with Clemson sitting at 1-3 overall and 0-2 in the ACC, it’s the first time the Tigers have started a season 1-3 since 2004, and Clemson’s worse start in conference play since 2010.

“Heather Dinich, who is an absolute genius when it comes to college football — when I was on [ESPN’s] Get Up [show], she straight up said, ‘They have no chance. They’re going to beat LSU to start the season.’ Now you see them lose to Georgia Tech, you lose to Syracuse. This is a team that’s not only underachieving — they’re flat out bad,” Clark said. “And we have to remember, they eked their way into the College Football Playoff last year by beating SMU, by a great comeback and a huge kick.”