On First Take this week, several ESPN analysts discussed Dabo Swinney’s future with Clemson and Paul Finebaum’s comments that he thinks “it’s over” for Swinney at Clemson and “it’s time for him to go.”
“I think it’s over at Clemson. Let’s quit trying to sugarcoat it,” Finebaum said on The Matt Barrie Show, following Clemson’s loss to Syracuse that sent the Tigers to 1-3 for the first time under Swinney.
“Sometimes it’s very difficult to get it back when you’ve lost it. He lost it, he got it back, now he’s lost it again and he’s lost it badly. It’s time for him to go.”
ESPN analyst and former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky was asked if he agrees with Finebaum’s comments about Clemson’s longtime head coach.
“Shocker of a take right there, Mr. Finebaum. I disagree with him,” Orlovsky said. “I think that when you look at the makeup of this football team, I think part of the narrative around Clemson was the expectations created in the offseason. This is a team that a lot of people said, well, they’ve got three first-round defensive linemen that are going to go [to the NFL.] They’ve got a quarterback that is going to be the No. 1 pick in Cade Klubnik. They’ve got 80-plus percent of their offensive production back. And rightfully so, I would sit there and go – a lot of the expectations around this football team were that they were going to be a national championship contender.
“And honestly, Cade Klubnik hasn’t played like a top-five pick. He hasn’t played like a first-round quarterback in the least bit. Those defensive tackles, those defensive linemen, only one of them has performed in that way. So I would sit there and go, like, there’s still talent on the roster – it’s just not performing to that level.”
Orlovsky added that “you’ve got to be very wary” when you’re talking about moving on from a coach like Swinney, and wonders if Clemson’s situation has to do with recruiting, or a lack of player development internally.
“I think you’ve got to be very wary because there’s a lot of programs that have moved on from the older coach or the coach that peaked or maybe wasn’t performing, and then all of a sudden, they spend a decade trying to find another coach,” Orlovsky said.
“I think the bigger question in relation to Dabo is, can he recruit the way that he did when they were in their heyday? There’s evidence that says he still can, and then there’s evidence that says why did we have the 26th-ranked recruiting class in the country? Or is it a lack of internal development? Are there highly recruited players not becoming those top-10 picks?”