This is the final year we see Dabo Swinney at Clemson’: College football analyst offers grim take

Sep 20, 2025; Clemson, South Carolina, USA; Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney late in the game against the Syracuse Orange at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ken Ruinard/GREENVILLE NEWS-USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images

It’s been a rough couple of seasons for Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney, as his teams have largely underperformed for the past several seasons. Now, as he prepares for his 19th season leading the Tigers, one prominent college football analyst believes it will be his last.

It was not all that long ago that Swinney helped guide Clemson to unprecedented success, winning two national championships and finishing ranked in the top five of the AP Poll in six straight seasons. But after the second-worst season of his career at Clemson last season, NBC Sports analyst Nicole Auerbach thinks this will be his last season with the Tigers.

Dabo’s Recent Struggles

Swinney is undeniably the most accomplished active coach in college football, with two national championships and 187 wins, making him the winningest coach in ACC history. At the same time, he has failed to meet expectations for five straight seasons, and his antics are growing tiring when the victories aren’t coming.

Following six consecutive seasons ranked in the top five, Clemson hasn’t finished in the top 10 in five years, and last season was a genuine disaster, with the team posting just a 7-6 record – the second-worst season of Swinney’s tenure at Clemson, which began in 2008. Swinney has failed to adjust to the transfer portal and NIL era, and at this point, that has become painfully obvious.

The reality is that Swinney has built up a tremendous amount of goodwill at Clemson, while his $60 million buyout makes firing him a difficult proposition even if the school wanted to move on. But a mutual parting of ways wouldn’t be impossible.

Dabo’s Last Year at Clemson?

On Saturday, NBC Sports’ Nicole Auerbach boldly predicted that this would be Dabo’s final season as Clemson’s head coach.

“My bold prediction is that this is the final year we see Dabo Swinney at Clemson,” Auerbach said via On3 . “We had talked a lot about him in this era, not really embracing the transfer portal and not really embracing NIL. Huge disappointment last season.

“They don’t go into the portal for a quarterback. I think if it’s maybe him deciding or maybe there’s a nudge, or maybe it’s just people deciding that Clemson needs to adapt to the times.”

Obviously, this is just a bold prediction and not a report, but the reality is that things have not been going well for Dabo, and this does not seem out of the question.

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