Dabo Swinney calls on media to 'tell everybody' Clemson sucks after Week 1 loss

Dabo Swinney saw all the glowing headlines and heard all the positive preseason narratives about his Clemson football team this season. And each time he likely winced at each example of what former Alabama head coach Nick Saban coined “rat poison.”

Now, after watching his then-No. 4 Tigers fall flat — at least offensively — in a 17-10 season-opening home loss to then-No. 9 LSU on Saturday, Swinney challenged the assembled media Tuesday to completely flip the script on how they talk about his program.

“Hell, a lot of narratives in the offseason, and the only one that held up was (new defensive coordinator) Tom Allen and that D-line, and those linebackers. The rest of ‘em? Ah, none of them held up,” Swinney said before going in on his own offense. “All these great wideouts we’ve got, great wideouts make contested plays to win a game. If you’re a Heisman (contending) quarterback and first pick in the (NFL) Draft and all that crap, you don’t show up and play like that. So, the only narrative that held up was Tom Allen.

“That’s it. The rest of them, everybody can just start throwing mud now. Just bring it on,” Swinney continued. “Say we suck again. Tell everybody we suck. The coaches suck, (senior quarterback) Cade (Klubnik) stinks — start writing that again. Bring that on. Maybe y’all will write that stuff (now).”

Klubnik, a preseason Heisman Trophy favorite who some NFL evaluators are projecting could be an option as the No. 1 overall pick in next April’s 2026 NFL Draft, struggled Saturday night against LSU. The visiting Tigers defense kept Klubnik on his heels much of the night, limiting Clemson’s third-year starting quarterback to 230 yards on 19-of-38 (50-percent) passing with zero touchdowns. Klubnik’s 31.4 QBR (quarterback rating) on Saturday was his lowest since the end of the 2023 season.

While most local beat writers aren’t generally going to outright attack the program or the players they cover for a living, others have already taken Swinney up on his request.

Paul Finebaum pokes at ‘credibility’ of Clemson football after Week 1 loss

ESPN’s Paul Finebaum poked at the credibility of Clemson following the its Week 1 loss to LSU at home. LSU entered Clemson’s Death Valley and controlled the game to the bitter end, including completely shutting out their hosts in the second half Saturday night.

Dabo Swinney was left scratching his head, especially considering the preseason hype surrounding his 2025 roster, which was dubbed one of Swinney’s best since splitting four College Football Playoff national championship game appearances over a five-year span between 2015-19.

“I was all in on Clemson. This is the fourth straight loss to an SEC team, and that hurts the credibility of the program, which I thought had overcome all the doomsday dynasty talk by people like me,” Finebaum said on Monday’s Get Up. “So it’s a shattering loss for them. But Heather is right, I mean, their path back is not that difficult because of the schedule, other than maybe South Carolina at the end of the season, at South Carolina, we’ll see.”

Just based on his postgame comments, including on Tuesday, Swinney won’t be putting up much of a defense against Finebaum’s criticisms. In fact, Swinney was quick to call out both Klubnik and his receivers immediately following the LSU game.

“Cade did not play well,” Swinney said Saturday night. “It was a very average game for him. We all know he can play better. He didn’t do some of the basic things. He’ll get better from it. He also made some plays where we didn’t help him out on.”

— On3’s Nick Kosko contributed to this report.