CLEMSON – Maybe it is not good for me to have so many Green Bay Packer references with my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers taking them on tonight in Sunday Night Football.

But I cannot help but bring them up.

With Clemson struggling so much on the football field, everyone wants somebody fired. Not Dabo Swinney necessarily, but they want someone fired for what has been a miserable season for the orange and white.

Though that might be true, I can tell you, firing a position coach and/or coordinator is not going to fix the Tigers’ issues. Not even the great Vince Lombardi can fix Clemson Football right now.

What’s wrong with Clemson? Why are the Tigers in the midst of their worse season in 17 years?

Coaching is part of it, but it cuts deeper than coaching?

The players are part of the problem, too. Clemson no longer has the dudes that it used to have.

How do the Tigers get these so-called dudes again?

Simple! They go to the portal and try to find them. They continue to recruit them out of high school.

They also need to pay them.

This is the way, in most cases, you will land a top-of-the-line player.

I heard Clemson baseball coach Erik Bakich say last week the Tigers were not going to try and win a bidding war for a player if he did not fit their culture in the clubhouse. That is a fair way of thinking, and I think that part is understandable. We know Dabo Swinney feels the same way about the football program.

I am all for that, however, Clemson should try and win bidding wars for those great players who do fit the culture in the locker room or clubhouse. And that is not happening.

Why?

Bakich and Swinney have both said they will not pay a player from outside the program more than the guys who are already on the team. Again, commendable, but it is not sensible.

If Clemson has a quarterback or defensive end they really like, then they should do all they can to land that player, even if it means paying him more than your star quarterback or stud defensive end already on the team.

Here comes my second Green Bay Packers reference.

Have you ever heard of Reggie White? You know, the Minister of Defense.

In 1993, White left the Philadelphia Eagles, where he became a star defensive player, for the Packers. He started a new era in the NFL for player-requested free agency. At the time, he signed a 4-year, $17 million contract with Green Bay to become the third highest paid player in the NFL.

In 1996, the Packers investment paid off when White played a major role in leading them to their first Super Bowl title since the days of Lombardi. These days, free agency is its own season in the NFL, as teams try to find their next Reggie White in hopes he can lead them to the Super Bowl.

This is what college football has become in the transfer and NIL world it now lives in. I know college football fans do not like it, but it is not going anywhere.

Teams have to embrace it. Fans have to embrace it.

Those who do will be successful. Those who do not, well, you see the 2025 Clemson Tigers.

If Clemson wants to get back to where it once was in college football, it needs to play the game. Swinney and athletic director Graham Neff need to attack the portal and bring in the best players who fit the football program’s culture. But Swinney also needs to pay them and stop worrying about how it can hurt a current player’s feelings.

If these players want to play in the NFL one day, they have to learn that some players, especially the best players, are going to make more money than them. That is just a part of their football life.