Clemson was ranked No. 4 in last year’s preseason AP Poll and came into the 2025 season with national championship expectations, only to go 7-6 and finish the year with a 22-10 loss to Penn State in the Pinstripe Bowl.

Considering how things turned out for the Tigers, Dabo Swinney’s team was obviously a major disappointment. Now, Clemson hopes to turn the page and heads into the 2026 campaign hoping to bounce back from the second-worst season in Swinney’s tenure as Clemson’s head coach. The only season worse than last year record wise was the Tigers’ 6-7 campaign in 2010.

In a sit-down interview with Andrea Adelson and David Hale on ACC Network, Swinney took the blame for the Tigers’ 2025 season, saying last season is “nobody’s fault but mine.”

“We didn’t win the close games. We didn’t finish in the fourth quarter like we needed to, and to me that’s nobody’s fault but mine,” Swinney said. “That’s where coaching has to make the difference, and I didn’t make the difference. So, I’ve got to be better. … Whether it’s a decision or personnel, whether it’s a player or staff — that’s all my responsibility.”

Under Swinney’s leadership, the Tigers have participated in the College Football Playoff seven times, tied with Ohio State for second to Alabama’s nine appearances. Clemson holds the record for consecutive years making the CFP (six straight seasons from 2015-20), and during that span, the Tigers reached the national championship game four times and won two titles (2016, 2018) while finishing in the Top 5 of the CFP rankings every year. Clemson has six CFP victories overall, third to Alabama’s 10 and Ohio State’s seven.

However, the Tigers have only made one CFP appearance since 2020 – a short-lived one in 2024 that ended with a first-round loss at Texas in the inaugural year of the 12-team format. Clemson has won fewer than 10 games in two of the last three seasons, after winning 10 or more games every year from 2011-22.

Despite the recent lack of success compared to what Clemson has accomplished in past years under Swinney, he believes Clemson is in a great place and still has what it takes to compete for national titles. Swinney is also adamant that his program’s culture is as strong as ever.

“Culture wise, we’re in a great place,” Swinney said. “We have great people. Football stuff can be fixed. You’ve got to improve it, and that’s kind of what our focus is right now. Sometimes you’ve got to go back to go forward, and getting back to some of the basics of what we’ve got to do. … But culture wise, I don’t think we’ve ever been better. I think our culture is strong. We’re built to last.”

As for the Clemson haters out there and those who doubt Swinney’s program and Swinney himself?

“A lot of people don’t know me,” Swinney said. “There’s a lot of people who talk about me, but they don’t know me. They don’t know me. They don’t. And rarely do you ever hear anything bad from inside Clemson. Haters hate, talkers talk, criticizers criticize, doers do, and I just focus on doing it.”