While it might feel like the college football season just ended to some, the fact is, spring practice will kick off at Clemson later this month.

After the Tigers entered the 2025 season ranked inside the Top 5, only to finish 7-6, the upcoming season will be a big one for Dabo Swinney. It feels like his program is currently at a major crossroads.

If Clemson were to turn in another mediocre season, Swinney’s seat might even start to warm up. Something that seemed inconceivable just a short time ago. Swinney is still just one of two active coaches with multiple national titles. Kirby Smart at Georgia is the other.

Despite all the success Swinney has brought to Clemson, it’s fair to question whether the legendary head coach can get things headed back in the right direction. Let’s face it, we’ve seen this movie before. Think Bobby Bowden at Florida State. Once things started going in the wrong direction, he just wasn’t able to right the ship.

From 1987 to 2000, the Seminoles finished every season with at least 10 wins and in the top 5 of the AP Poll. Bowden won two national titles during that stretch. After that, Bowden only had one Top 10 finish and was out after the 2008 season.

After going 10-2 and making the College Football Playoff for the sixth straight year in 2020, the Tigers have had at least three losses in every season since. Swinney’s teams suffered four defeats in 2023 and 2024. Clemson was able to make it into the first 12-team playoff in 2024, despite being beaten three times during the regular season. Texas then ran all over the Tigers in the first round, quickly sending Swinney’s team back home.

What makes last year’s six-loss season even harder to swallow was that it was supposed to be the year Clemson was back to being Clemson. The Tigers returned more production than any team in the nation, including a senior quarterback in Cade Klubnik, who was one of the favorites to win the Heisman coming into the season.

It was supposed to be the season that proved Swinney’s emphasis on high school recruiting and development still worked, with the rebuild expected to possibly take place in 2026. We all know how that played out, and now the pressure is on to field a winner this season.

In other words, it’s time for Swinney to try and get the ROY bus fired back up.

Those efforts begin later this month with the start of spring practice. While the team has been in strength training, spring ball will be the first opportunity for the coaches to get the players back on the practice field.

For the first time in forever, there will be a legitimate quarterback competition. There will be battles along the offensive line and all over on the defensive side of the ball. Several freshmen will be vying for early opportunities.

There may not be the kind of pressure that comes with being one of the schools many are predicting to compete for a national title, seeing as this Clemson team could very well enter the season unranked. However, that doesn’t mean there won’t be internal pressure.

While Swinney likes to routinely take the optimistic approach, he knows this fan base expects more than 7-6. Even if he truly believes last year’s team was only “a few plays away,” Swinney knows this team needs to produce better results in the fall.

Maybe going into the spring as an afterthought from a national perspective will be a good thing. Swinney has done some of his best work when he thought his teams were being overlooked.

Either way, what happens during spring practice will go a long way towards determining whether the ROY bus gets fired back up, or whether it stays stalled out somewhere on the side of the road.