Dabo Swinney and Clemson Football are in the “most unique situation of any major program,” according to national college football analyst Josh Pate.

During an appearance on the Bussin’ With The Boys podcast, Pate spent part of the episode breaking down whether Swinney can save Clemson and return the Tigers to national prominence.

After spending a couple days with Swinney earlier this offseason, Pate distinguished Clemson’s longtime head coach from other coaches and noted that Swinney’s faith in his program remains unwavering, as well as entirely genuine.

“It’s the most unique situation of any major program. … Dabo is unique for a totally different reason,” Pate said. “I spent two days with this man this spring. He’s awesome. It is a great hang. Dabo Swinney is 1,000 percent resolute that they’ve made the right moves they need to make, that they’re not done, they’re just getting started, he’s going to be there for a long time, they’re going to pull the nose up, they will win another national title at Clemson. He is 1,000 percent resolute. He will look daggers through your eyes when he says that.”

Pate asked Taylor Lewan, the host of the podcast, if he feels the trajectory of Clemson’s program is how Swinney sees it.

“I do not,” Lewan said.

As much as Pate says he would like Swinney to be correct, Pate agreed with Lewan, pointing to all the “unknown” surrounding this year’s Clemson team, coming off a 2025 season where the Tigers were loaded with talent and expected to compete for the national title before disappointing to the tune of a 7-6 record.

“I personally don’t either. I’d love for him to be right because I love Dabo Swinney. But I don’t feel that either,” Pate said. “I felt like if you were going to do it, last year’s team was the team to do it, and then this year there’s a lot of unknown. Let’s just take that worldview Dabo has versus the opinion you and I happen to hold, and I think the majority would agree with us. He’s proven people wrong before, and he will bottle that up this year. He’ll bottle up the whole, ‘Well, they’re doubting us again. You know what we’ve done historically when people doubt us.’ I don’t know that history is always the absolute best indicator of what the future holds in this sport, but that’s where the disconnect is.”

Pate weighed in on Swinney’s future if Clemson doesn’t bounce back and things don’t go the Tigers’ way this year. He stressed that Swinney is synonymous with Clemson Football, and Pate thinks a normal “hot seat” conversation doesn’t really apply despite recent on-field performance dips.

“That’s where it’s such a unique case because in a normal world when there’s expectation and you fall flat, you’re on the hot seat next year, and if you don’t deliver the next year, you’re fired. But this is Dabo Swinney. It’s the face of Clemson Football,” Pate said. “Now and for the foreseeable future, unless someone comes in there and does something truly decade-long historic, Dabo Swinney is Clemson Football, and it wasn’t that when I was a child. So, he’s come along since I have existed and totally redefined the face of a major program. He won multiple national titles. He did it against the apex predator in the sport while that apex predator was at its best in Alabama. The dude is a legend, he’s an icon. He’s like Rushmore-caliber in my lifetime of head coaches. So, are you really going to tell me they’re going to tell that guy, ‘Thanks, but no thanks, you’re done here’? Is that how the exit would work?

“Sometimes [mutually parting ways] happens, when you’ve got infinite amounts of respect for someone, both in sports and in the business world, and it just comes time, you mutually decide to part ways. And it’s negotiated and there’s a buyout and you’ve got like a cushy administrative job afterwards, whatever you want. I don’t get the sense that’s how Dabo would leave Clemson, because that is not where his mind is at. Dabo Swinney does not believe he’s on the last few holes of his career. Dabo Swinney thinks they’re about to turn to the back nine right now. That’s just how he views himself.”

Pate emphasized that Swinney has thrived over the years when he’s the underdog and people are doubting him and his program.

“This man has made an entire career of proving people wrong,” Pate said. “So you’ve got to understand, they’ve told that guy he’s delusional before and they’ve won titles. So you thinking he’s delusional is just indicative to him that, ‘I must be on the right track then.’ This does not faze him. It’s not on his radar.”

Pate brought up the fact that Clemson has historically favored into internal player development over heavy transfer portal use, but Swinney leaned more into the portal this offseason, adding double-digit transfers.

But Pate wonders if the shift in approach was “a year too late” and says that question will begin to get answered quickly when the Tigers travel to Baton Rouge for the Week 1 matchup at LSU on Sept. 5.

“He’s kind of dipping his toe into the concept of using the portal more,” Pate said. “It will never be the lean to, but it’ll be a resource they could use. My big gripe with the way they’ve run things over there is they’ve got the Clemson way. They’ve got the characteristics and the values they want a Clemson player to have. People can think that’s hokey — I love that. That’s college football to me.

“I’ve just never believed that those attributes are only able to be found in high school recruiting. I believe you can run a comb through the portal any given year, and most of it may get filtered out. OK, your boxes you need to be checked, that may filter out 90 percent of the portal. But you’re not looking to sign 30 or 40 kids. You’re looking to sign five of them, let’s say. I believe any given year, there are five kids at positions of need for Clemson University in the portal that it would not hurt you at all and it would not sacrifice anything at all to go get. They’re trying it this year. Was it a year too late? That’s kind of the ‘…’ on Clemson. We will start to find out Week 1.”