Tim Tebow and Stephen A. Smith couldn’t disagree more with Paul Finebaum’s take on Clemson.
Finebaum said Wednesday on the ESPN’s Get Up show that he believes Dabo Swinney’s “dynasty is done.”
Tebow and Smith responded to Finebaum’s comments Friday during ESPN’s First Take.
You can check out what the two ESPN analysts had to say in response to Finebaum about Swinney and the Clemson football program below:
Tebow: “What are we talking about? Like, for real. C’mon, it’s two losses. You lost to Georgia, you lost to NC State — two good football teams. But to say they’re not part of the cool kids anymore? Go ask all the five-star recruits, all right. Let’s just be honest. Go look at the people that are falling in love with Clemson. Go look at how they’re raising money right now. Go look at how they’re building a program, how every other school is going to Clemson to look at how they do their marketing, to look at how they do their facilities, all of this. Because they’re getting all these recruits because everybody is falling in love with Dabo, falling in love with the program.
“And yes, they lost two games, but to say it’s done? To me, it’s just not watching. It’s not evaluating, it’s not looking at the program. It’s looking at the result of two games, but that’s not the entire process. Listen, Dabo is still one of the best coaches in college football. He’s had a crazy amount of success for the last decade, and to say they’re done because they lose two games – I think it is absolutely absurd.”
Stephen A.: “Let me say this. We’re supposed to disagree. We can’t disagree here. I’m not counting Dabo Swinney out, and that’s where my focus lies right now. Alabama wasn’t the only place I went to. I went to Clemson – that is a sensational campus. They’ve got sensational facilities, and damn it, they’ve got a sensational head coach. The real problem is their quarterback. Let’s just call it what it is. … Let me tell you something right now, the only reason he stands out at this particular moment in time is because of how you pronounce his last name. It damn sure ain’t his game that’s doing it for him. He is a precipitous drop-off obviously from Trevor Lawrence, from Deshaun Watson, from Boyd. The list goes on and on. Listen, when you look at the recent history of quarterbacks at Clemson University, this brother’s not measuring up and it’s quite surprising because last year when he played in the games that Trevor Lawrence was out, he looked pretty good. I don’t know what happened to him this offseason, but he hasn’t looked good at all.
“Listen, they lost to Georgia 10-3, OK. Another game (against Georgia Tech), they gave up eight points. Now, they gave up 27 to North Carolina State the other day, and I get all of that and I understand that. But what I’m saying to you is don’t tell me that Dabo can’t coach, don’t tell me about coaches that he lost, because you’ve got a whole bunch of coaches that would love to come and coach under Dabo at that university, which is the great Clemson University. This is Dabo Swinney we are talking about, Paul Finebaum. I’m rolling with Tim Tebow on this – I’m not counting Clemson out by any stretch of the imagination. I just think they’re going to have to make a change at the quarterback spot. They’re going to have to find a playmaker at that position, somebody that steps up and lives up to a legacy that as far as I’m concerned, Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence both took to another level. It’s got to be somebody like that. But to me, that’s all it is. If they had somebody like that, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, and we all know Dabo and Clemson are capable of finding somebody like that. They just don’t have that right now.”
Clemson Variety & Frame is doing their part to help bring you some classic new barware and help one of the local businesses that helps make Clemson special.
Order your Nick’s barware and do your part to help. #SaveNicks
