Dabo Swinney should probably try embracing the transfer portal and learning to excel with it, especially after his No. 14 Clemson Tigers got trounced in their season opener Saturday by No. 1 Georgia.
Last season, Clemson finished 9-4 and failed to get at least 10 wins for the first time since 2010, which was Swinney’s second season with the Tigers. Once a College Football Playoff staple, the Tigers have been shut out of the playoff for the last three seasons, and Saturday, the Tigers certainly didn’t look like a College Football Playoff contender, even with an expanded 12-team field.
But after the Bulldogs, who were 13.5-point favorites, rocked Clemson, 34-3, in Week 1 in Atlanta, it has a bit of work to do to even be considered a playoff team. The 31-point loss was the Tigers’ third-largest defeat under Swinney.
The Tigers were one of four teams — along with Army, Navy and Air Force, all of which don’t take transfers as service academies — that didn’t land a transfer player in the offseason.
DABO SWINNEY: ESPN’s Booger McFarland sharply broke down how Clemson’s dynasty fell apart
Swinney recently said “it wasn’t really necessarily like an intentional thing,” but he’s also far from the most enthusiastic coach when it comes to embracing the transfer portal. As ESPN’s Georgia-Clemson broadcast noted late in the fourth quarter, Swinney’s squad has had zero starts from transfers since the portal became a thing in 2018.
Again, he should probably rethink that strategy because he may not like where college football is going, but he’ll get left behind if he doesn’t start working with the system.
During and after a lopsided game where the Tigers fell apart on both sides of the ball — particularly on defense in the second half — college football fans absolutely torched Swinney.
https://twitter.com/MikeBeauvais/status/1829959947763007543
https://twitter.com/KeithJouganatos/status/1829953656348950666
https://twitter.com/CodyLac/status/1829960709448376331
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https://twitter.com/_TonyCabrera/status/1829953384813629675
https://twitter.com/PollyMarino/status/1829960383257592075
https://twitter.com/FDSportsbook/status/1829961723459010990
https://twitter.com/CollegeSportsO/status/1829950837252055240
https://twitter.com/AgKoopa/status/1829960714116878547
https://twitter.com/FQClemson/status/1829951397846011953
https://twitter.com/DraftKings/status/1829960773122343050
https://twitter.com/thesportsontap/status/1829952563657269684
https://twitter.com/SECUnfiltered/status/1829954001464672328
https://twitter.com/d00gs/status/1829949701665231211
https://twitter.com/MoeChella301/status/1829953232942006347
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