**New** What is Dabo Swinney's program currently about?

Me watching the Tigers play the last few seasons.....

Chris Ard said:

https://www.on3.com/sites/tiger-illustrated/news/the-day-after-for-clemson-football-2/

Embrace the Suck!!! That is what this Program is about AND Clemson nation will like it.

Everyone watching knew that when GT needed 2-3 yards on that last drive that the QB would run it up the middle. Everyone. But they couldn’t stop it. Kevin Steele all over again.

I hate everything about this football team. Hope we get better. Go Tigers!

This team is missing something. Swagger, Dog, Edge call it what you will. But football is a violent game played by gladiators. I’m reminded of the teams of the 5 bomb era…certainly talented…but passive when Swearinger stood over players and mocked our sideline. I see some of that again. We seem to absorb more than dish out on both side, at all levels. I don’t know how you train that, in fact I believe you can’t. We need pups that will bite to train into dogs that will maim. They aren’t totally absent…but not enough of them. Artavis, Shaq, and company would fight you. Watson and Lawrence would rip your heart out and laught at the blood pool…this team feels…finesse again, and finesse without the elite skill I don’t know that it can be fixed in real time…I think it takes some turnover

Give. Vizzina. A. Couple. Series. You have to. You have got to see if Cade, Riley, or something else is the issue. Isolate the problem. I’m not saying Vizzina will be better, but not saying he won’t be.

Seems like there are likely lots of issues. Coaching/deveopment beneath the coordinator level (RB/WR) has been widely discussed. Player execution has been an issue (is that coaching, personnel, likely some combo of both). Plus still relying on HS recruits to all be “hits” is risky. Add all this to the NIL/portal world and other teams have caught up quickly. Teams like Vandy and Tech playing well with 6th year QBs and teams like FSU, Louisville and Miami go year-to-year with QB rentals as we try to develop HS QBs with growing pains since 2021. Seems like multiple issues swirling together.

Thanks for framing this accurately. Just what defines this program right now? Toughness? No Fearless? Nah Desire to be great? Uh uh Key and his team play with that “chip” that the tigers used to have. The tigers no longer have that “edge” that great teams have. In fact, I’m seeing a lot of “parts” but no “engine.”

This team just lacks talent. And then you add lack of talent with marginal development and it’s the ingredients for an average team. And that’s what NIL has done, created a bunch of average teams with 6-8 being able to rise above through talent acquisition and be able to win the playoff. Clemson doesn’t change until he goes and supplements talent deficiency through the portal. We needed help badly at secondary, lb, and running back and we decided to run with who we had. Retention is still very important but so is enhancing your roster YoY and we are not recruiting well enough to solely rely on incoming classes. I recognize coaching struggles as well but at the end of the day, it’s the athletes that go out and make plays and if we don’t go get a few every year, it’s going to continue to be this way.

Anybody in sports that have coached at a program that has the bones to be good knows it’s harder to stay at the top than get to the top. Once you’re there, complacency and other damning traits start to sneak in. That’s what made Saban unreal and the best to do it, he for the most part avoided that. This is not a this year problem. This is a combo of years of mishandling and ill advised decisions rearing its ugly head. David Hale tweeted yesterday, without a 50 yard run with 1 min to play at Pitt and a 57 yard field goal against SMU, this team would be 1-7 against their last 8 P4 opponents. That’s not the standard Dabo set. He’s the head coach, that falls squarely on him.

at this point it’s just about him making money. I appreciate Dabo and what he has done for Clemson. I would have done anything for him even up to 2022, but let’s be honest here, Venables was more important to this team than anyone realized. I have zero faith in Dabos decision making and It’s clear he doesn’t know WTF he is doing anymore. Wes Goodwin? Hall? Conn? Spiller? Grisham? Our coaching staff is atrocious. our evaluations and self scouting are laughable. I don’t even blame Riley. I think Dabo pulled the wool over his eyes as well. Good teams make plays. We are not a well coached team. He’s about to Bobby Bowden us. what’s worse? Clemson is going to suck and get left behind in expansion. If that happens, he’s killed the program.

Well said guys. Hopefully Dabo realizes there is a general problem that will take a complete overhaul

We are a soft team!!

I think having better quarterback play and the leadership that goes along with it would exorcise a lot of demons around this program. It seems like this has been the recurring theme for most of 5 years now. I know it has made me weary, and I feel like it has infected the team culture as well. No matter how hard anyone else plays it has been such an impediment it makes it hard for everyone, fans included, to stay motivated.

Paul said it best. Clemson makes everything look hard. The offense doesn’t have anything it can dial up to get an easy six yards. The defense has players in position and just can’t make easy tackles to get off the field. The offense looks slow and laborious. Everyone looks like their head is swimming. We don’t know who to block or where to go. Receivers and the QB aren’t on the same page, our running backs miss the holes and the offensive line is nothing short of a mess. On defense, we overpursue and don’t maintain gap integrity. The linebackers get lost in the wash or “guess” wrong (I say guess because we either nail it or it’s a disaster) and our secondary can’t run with anyone. Troy had guys speeding around them. Troy!!!! I don’t know what’s needed but they better find something to get their butts in gear or we could find ourselves at the bottom of the ACC. Even Stanford won a league game last night. Stanford!

It’s far beyond the three games this season. The current state is reflective of the turn that has happened over the last 4 or so seasons. It’s not one thing. It’s a culmination of a number of factors…internal and external to the program. Dabo has historically overcome odds and showed up when he was the underdog…so now more than ever…he should see that his legacy is on the line and how he will be remembered long term is going to come down to the decisions and choices he makes right now and in the immediate future.

Add to it that the fan base has mostly stuck with Dabo the last few years while watching the same issues each year. The patience has seemingly worn off.

I would rephrase Paul’s question to “what does this coaching staff do well?” Completely understand that players make plays, but coaches put them in the position to. They lead agendas at practice to instill discipline, confidence, physicality, etc. This team doesn’t show any of those things. The offense has a theme of coming out flat. Not just over this season, but through Riley’s tenure. Why? What’s happening (or not happening) throughout the week that leads to that?

No doubt there's a lot of issues, but we get good QB play and everything looks fine.

TigerRoar8 said:

Anybody in sports that have coached at a program that has the bones to be good knows it’s harder to stay at the top than get to the top. Once you’re there, complacency and other damning traits start to sneak in. That’s what made Saban unreal and the best to do it, he for the most part avoided that. This is not a this year problem. This is a combo of years of mishandling and ill advised decisions rearing its ugly head. David Hale tweeted yesterday, without a 50 yard run with 1 min to play at Pitt and a 57 yard field goal against SMU, this team would be 1-7 against their last 8 P4 opponents. That’s not the standard Dabo set. He’s the head coach, that falls squarely on him.

Those what ifs are hyperbole…not saying I am happy but you can’t cherry pick plays…on wins or loses.. you create your own luck and all the luck is your’s both good and bad…and this team creates a lot of bad luck and has for 5 seasons

The biggest thing I have read on TI is the comment by the Oliver guy with apparent long standing ties to the program and was on the sidelines yesterday. He said it just feels like there is no passion. X’s and O’s can get corrected. No passion, if true, is a crack in the foundation.

Chris Ard said:

https://www.on3.com/sites/tiger-illustrated/news/the-day-after-for-clemson-football-2/

Respectfully, the sum is not less than the parts. We are NOT as talented as we've been told we are. We do not have one player on the offensive side of the ball that opposing coaches have to stay up late at night worrying about. Not one. Zero. We also need a complete overhaul of the defensive backfield. We are not any more talented than our record at the end of the season(7-5, 8-4) will suggest we are.