Finebaum Thinks He Knows How Clemson Fans Feel About Swinney

Dabo Swinney caused quite a stir and drew plenty of criticism with what he had to say last week regarding the transfer portal and Clemson’s use of it, or lack thereof.

The Tigers’ head coach took a lot of heat in the wake of comments such as “ every player is technically a transfer,” and “we just signed a whole class of guys transferring from high school.” Swinney also said , “Most of the guys in the portal aren’t good enough to play for us. That’s just the reality of it.”

ESPN personality Paul Finebaum gave his reaction to Swinney’s comments, and the notorious Swinney/Clemson critic didn’t hold back on how he feels about Swinney and his future with the Tigers.

In an appearance on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning , Finebaum was candid as usual when asked about how Swinney is handling the transfer portal in general, and whether that will catch up to him or if he can continue to sustain success with how he’s building his program and maintaining his roster right now.

Finebaum thinks he knows how Clemson fans feel about Swinney and his future.

“It is catching up to him as we speak,” Finebaum said. “Forget the pundits. I know Clemson fans like to aim their arrows at all of us who pontificate about Dabo. But I’m talking about people that graduated from Clemson, people who are Clemson fans — and I run into a lot of them based on where I live — and they don’t think Dabo Swinney is going to be there a long time. When I mean a long time, I mean three to five years.”

“I think his time is nearly up,” Finebaum added.

Swinney led Clemson to six straight College Football Playoff appearances from 2015-20, four national championship game appearances and national titles in 2016 and 2018, though the Tigers have missed the playoff each of the last three seasons while going 10-3 in 2021, 11-3 in 2022 and 9-4 in 2023.

Finebaum has asserted on multiple occasions that “Dabo’s dynasty is done,” and he clearly believes the days of the Tigers being a perennial playoff and national title contender are behind them.

“We alliterated a couple of years ago that Dabo’s dynasty was done, and people (were like), ‘How can you say that?’ Well, a couple four-loss seasons will make you believe that. But to me, he is falling so far behind,” Finebaum said. “That doesn’t mean they can’t have a good program. That is if you call 9-3 or 8-4 or maybe an occasional 10-2 a good program. But that’s not the same school that went to six consecutive CFPs a couple years ago, that played for four national championships. I think that part of it is over.”

Clemson is one of four programs in the FBS that didn’t take a player from the transfer portal this offseason, and Finebaum feels Swinney is “way behind” the times of the current college football landscape.

Finebaum added that now, at this point, Swinney is “not catching up” to the elite programs in the sport.

“(College football) has changed so quickly in the last three years, and if you missed a minute, you fell behind,” Finebaum said. “He missed three years. He is way behind and he’s not catching up.”

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