Paul Finebaum calls for Dabo Swinney to 'make a serious run' to feel fine moving forward

The Clemson Tigers have been one of the dominant programs in all of college football under head coach Dabo Swinney. However, with a slight step in the wrong direction in recent years, the Tigers are now looking for a way to get back to making deep College Football Playoff runs.

Certainly, Clemson looks to be in a good position to win the ACC this season and make it to the Playoff. As analyst Paul Finebaum explained on Get Up, this is a team capable of building on what it did last season. In fact, that’s going to be Finebaum’s expectation.

“I think he needs to get to the playoffs again and maybe make a serious run,” Finebaum said. “Last year, they snuck in. I mean, I say they snuck in because they won the ACC Conference Championship game against SMU and probably robbed Alabama of a berth that they probably really didn’t even deserve. But this year with [Cade] Klubnik, Cade Klubnik at quarterback, I think expectations are through the roof in Death Valley, and I strongly believe they’ll make a serious run at the title.”

In 2024, Clemson made the Playoff for the first time since 2020. However, for a good portion of the season, it appeared they’d be on the outside looking in on the field. That was before they were able to steal a bid to the field. Still, the Tigers would be quickly knocked out by the Texas Longhorns after making the road trip to Austin.

One strength, which Finebaum pointed out, is that Swinney has a veteran quarterback returning in Cade Klubnik. He’s going to be in his fourth season with the program and his third as the full-time starter. He’s also expected to soon be a high NFL Draft pick and potentially compete for the Heisman Trophy.

Clemson will begin its 2025 season with a major non-conference test against LSU, with the Tigers making the trip to Clemson. ACC play will begin later on September 13th against Georgia Tech.

Dabo Swinney predicted as ACC Coach of the Year by David Pollack

The Clemson Tigers are going into the season with high expectations at every level of the program. That includes Dabo Swinney, who analyst David Pollack expects to become the ACC Coach of the Year.

“It’s Dabo Swinney,” Pollack said. “I’d love to find other names and other guys, and I really want to be like, I want to give everybody love, (but I can’t) … Dabo has only won it like, in the last, you know, whatever, seven, eight years, like, he hasn’t won it since ‘18. It’s crazy that they found ways not to give it to him. Obviously, they gave it to him a bunch, you know, before that.”