ATLANTA — There are a lot of people in college football who respect Dabo Swinney.
They believe in him. They praise his family-friendly work environment, the stability of his staff, and the culture of his team. His players seem to genuinely enjoy playing for him. He seems to enjoy coaching them.
While some question his authenticity, many defend him as a genuine Southerner. If you meet him, nestled in his purple-and-orange office, he’s the same man you see on the podium in public: the country accent, the God-fearing messages, the Clemson vibe, the “thou shalt not steal” aura.
Many people in the sport think it is honourable that he sticks to his principles and trusts his philosophy no matter what. they TO DO.
They He doesn’t venture into the transfer portal. He doesn’t.
They He doesn’t brag about zero payments. He doesn’t.
They These are transactional relationships. They are not.
On Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in downtown Atlanta, as the No. 1-ranked Georgia Bulldogs finished their 34-3 drubbing of Dabo’s Clemson Tigers, as they capped a crushing second half, as they asserted the dominance of an SEC powerhouse, many in the sport — even defenders of the man himself — were probably wondering something.
Will we ever see Dabo’s Clemson of old again?
You know, the one Dabo turned into a monster, the ACC Goliath that stood up to teams like Ohio State and Alabama, the program that won two national championships with two different All-American quarterbacks, the once-lovable underdog and the only real challenger, for at least a while, to the SEC’s evil empire’s reign over sports.
West that Clemson? Where has he gone? And will he come back?
Let’s pause for a moment. This isn’t about any one game. This isn’t an overreaction to any one performance. Few expected the Tigers, 13-point underdogs, to truly beat the most dominant program in the country over the last four years. Georgia, the 2021 and 2022 title winner, will and has made many teams, even good ones, look bad. In fact, at halftime Saturday, it was a reasonable contest: Georgia 6, Clemson 0.
But what happened in the second half, beyond Kirby Smart and new offensive coordinator Mike Bobo calling on their 5-star players, is a damning indictment of Dabo’s group. That relentless, relentless style of play is gone.
And the coach himself knows it.
“The worst thing is when you don’t finish. You have to play four quarters,” he said at a post-match press conference. “When you get beat like that, it’s the head coach’s fault. He’s totally responsible for an absolutely crappy second half. Sometimes you get your butt kicked and that’s what happened today.”
In the second half, Georgia scored touchdowns on four of five possessions, drove for nearly 300 yards…