Dabo Swinney’s approach at Clemson will be tested in 2023

Dabo Swinney’s approach at Clemson will be tested in 2023 in what could be a defining season, according to On3’s J.D. PicKell.

Swinney and Clemson won two national titles together and made numerous College Football Playoff brackets. But something’s changed over the last two years where there was no Clemson in the sport’s biggest part of the postseason.

Will Swinney’s same old approach keep working or will the addition of outsider Garrett Riley as OC be the start of something new moving forward?

“Clemson without a doubt is a headline team when it comes to the 2023 season,” PicKell said on The Hard Count. “And a big part of that is because of the expectation they’ve created over the past couple of years doing it Dabo Swinney’s way. Clemson previously had made the College Football Playoff six years in a row … ‘Hey, we just met the College Football Playoff, that’s kind of a given.’ And then all of a sudden, that well sort of runs dry. Missed the College Football Playoffs a couple of years. And so it’s this thing where you previously were really putting a lot of chips into the Dabo’s way is the way, basket. 

“That was what you believed in. Dabo Swinney not going to the portal, Dabo Swinney promoting internally. That’s great. That’s how we do it at Clemson and it’s produced these really great results, but now the results are having a little bit of a lower return on investment.” 

PicKell then made a gift analogy. Clemson was so used to those types of results under Swinney.

At that point, like the old saying goes: “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

“It’s like if you were getting 20 Christmas gifts every single year for six years,” PicKell said. “You just sort of assume every year ‘Hey, I’m gonna get 20 Christmas gifts.’ And you say well, why are we getting 20 Christmas gifts every year? Because the people that shopped for my gifts, they go to this one store, and they always have what we want and they always get at the right price at a great quantity. And that’s why Christmas morning happens the way that it happens. 

“Well, then after a couple years, you start getting 15 gifts. Maybe it’s 12 gifts in one year. Maybe it’s 18 gifts in one year, but it’s not 20. And so previously, you were talking so highly about this store that you were going to and the way that you were shopping for these gifts and now you’re saying, ‘Well, you still stopping shopping at the same store? Well, yeah … I’m doing the same thing. Hmm, well, maybe we need to reassess that and that’s what’s now getting the pressure. That was Dabo Swinney, his way of doing things.”

Based on the recent results, it’s now to a point where Swinney may need to adapt to the times. Will he? That’s ultimately up to Swinney.

“You hear sort of the rumblings in the background of maybe they should go to the portal a little more, maybe they should dip their toe into those waters,” PicKell said. “Maybe they shouldn’t just promote internally for their coordinator hires and to Dabo Sweeney’s credit when got Broyles award winning offensive coordinator from TCU, Garrett Riley, now to call the offense. So what I’m trying to say is the headline is going to be a lot about Dabo Swinney and his way of doing things at Clemson. 

“Is it evolved enough with modern college football or do they need to switch things up with how they go about their business? I’m curious to see it. But Clemson without a doubt is going to be a headline team for the reasons that I just mentioned to you because the bar is set so high down there in Clemson, South Carolina.”