David Pollack certainly did not expect Clemson to go 7-6 in 2025.

Clemson came into this season having won the 2024 ACC Championship, its eighth conference title in 10 years. The Tigers were fresh off a College Football Playoff appearance in 2024, entered this season ranked No. 4 in the AP Poll and were one of the media darlings of the offseason, with multiple national analysts even picking Dabo Swinney’s team to win the national title.

Pollack, the ex-ESPN analyst and former Georgia/NFL linebacker, is one of those analysts who was “all in” on Clemson in the preseason and picked the Tigers to win it all.

But now, after a highly disappointing 2025 campaign that saw Clemson finish with its second-worst record of Swinney’s tenure, Pollack says 2026 will be a “prove-it year” for Swinney and the Tigers.

“I don’t have anything wrong with saying ‘prove it.’ It’s a prove-it year, man,” Pollack said on his See Ball Get Ball show. “What are you as a program? … Clemson needs to come back with some kind of saying, like, they’re going to be a physical team. They’re going to be elite. They’re going to have to go in the portal more than they ever have. They’re going to have to. All the departures leaving for the NFL, and then all the guys that you naturally continue to lose, you have to play this game. In order to do that means you have to pay them to come into your culture, and Dabo’s an elite culture builder and he’s so proud of it, and he should be. Because it’s awesome, man. It’s an awesome culture, but they’ve got to find a way to balance the awesome culture and going out and getting more guys that fit their culture that keeps their thing going in the same direction. They just need a little more nasty. They need a little more physical. They need a little more punch to them.”

Clemson’s 7-6 record marks its worst since 2010, Swinney’s second season as the full-time head coach. The Tigers saw their 14-year streak of winning at least eight games in a season come to a close, as Clemson had won eight or more games every year since 2011.

Coming off the 22-10 Pinstripe Bowl loss to Penn State and going into the offseason, Pollack says Swinney and his program cannot “stay stagnant” and must make changes moving forward.

“There’s always a lot of talk about Clemson and Dabo and evolving and all of that stuff,” Pollack said. “I was starting to think about Clemson and Cade Klubnik and that roster. We can go down the defensive guys that are all going to the NFL and gonna be highly drafted. I’m like, what is Clemson going to be next year? Clemson, most losses in a season since 2010, this season. That’s the second year Dabo took over. … First time they’ve lost more than four in a season since 2010.

“Obviously Dabo continues to preach the culture that he’s going to preach. He’s talking about graduation rate. That’s fine. Graduation rate across the country is out of here. Every time you transfer, it’s 25% less likely to graduate. So, it’s a harder thing. They’re doing it their way. He’s doing it his way. But watching them lose to Penn State, watching them struggle offensively again, and thinking about them moving forward – I don’t think that’s a program that can stay stagnant. I don’t think that’s a program that’s not going to make changes.”

Of course, Swinney made a couple of changes to his staff on Monday, parting ways with safeties coach Mickey Conn and offensive coordinator Garrett Riley.

Before the OC change was announced, Pollack pointed to Clemson’s offense as a big issue that needs to be fixed.

“That’s a program that’s going to have to make changes. Not just aggressively in the portal – I think the offensive side of the football, there’s got to be something that changes,” he said. “When I watch their offense — you can always tell great coordinators and coordinators that separate themselves offensively is when one play kinda looks like the next play, and then there’s a next little wrinkle off of that and a little wrinkle off of that. … Plays that build on top of plays. I gotta be honest, I don’t see a lot of that with Clemson. I want to see more creativity.

“Clemson is a spot, man, that has won national championships not too long ago because they had elite quarterback play, elite playmakers, and that’s how they did it. If they’re going to do that again, they’re going to have to get an elite quarterback. I don’t know if it’s on the roster. I don’t know. But they’re going to have be creative, and they’re going to have to have those playmakers and they’re going to have to have a little bit more of an identity than I’ve seen them have the past couple seasons.”