Dabo Swinney Delivers Epic Teardown Of "SmartA-- Kid" Who Questioned His Worth To Clemson, Takes Aim At Ungrateful Fans
After spending the last decade at the top of the college football world, Clemson has fallen to 4-4 this season, and fans are starting to chirp. Further proof of this was heard Monday night during the Dabo Swinney call-in show.
After another loss this past weekend, this time to NC State, fans took to the radio to either praise Dabo Swinney, or give him the business. Obviously this stuff happens during a call-in show, when a radio producer has no idea what the actual question will be.
If you're not familiar with these call-in shows, I recommend you start tuning into some of them around college football. Honestly, they are pure gold. If a caller wants to ask the coach a hard-hitting or obnoxious question, they'll usually give the producer a fake question, before getting on live radio.
Lets face it, we’re in a new era of college football, not the one that saw Clemson taking most of the headlines. What was once a program talked about on a weekly basis, now has the potential of getting lost in the fray.
After finishing last season with a loss to Tennessee in the Orange Bowl, the 2023 season has not gone the way Swinney or Clemson fans had hoped.
Clemson Fans Are Beyond Frustrated With 2023 Season
The frustration of fans, along with Swinney, is starting to get worse every week. There are some that have questioned Swinney and the trajectory of the program.
Obviously Dabo Swinney is not going to take the criticism without giving fans a piece of his mind, which we've seen recently. But Monday night during his call-in show, 'Tyler from Spartanburg' questioned the Clemson coach about his salary, and why he was worth the $11.5 million the Tigers are paying him.
Unfortunately for Tyler, he picked the wrong night to mess with Dabo Swinney, who delivered some truth to the Clemson fan.
Dabo Swinney's rant included multiple shots at the caller for being one of the problems within the fan base right now. Some fans may not like the head coach's answer, but Swinney has obviously had enough of some of the ungrateful fans, in his eyes.
"You can have all your opinions you want, all right. I don’t know how old you are, don’t really care," Dabo Swinney said to start his 5-minute colonoscopy of Tyler. "Let me tell you something, we won eleven games last year, and you’re part of the problem to be honest with you, because that is part of the problem. It’s people like you. The expectation is greater than the appreciation and that’s the problem. We’ve won twelve 10-plus seasons in a row, and that’s happened three times in 150 years. So if you wanna know why, Clemson hasn’t sniffed a national championship in 35 years. We’ve won two in seven years, and there’s only two other teams that can say that, Georgia and Alabama.
"Is this a bad year? Yea, and I take 100% responsibility for it. But all this bull-crap your thinking and all these narratives you read, listen man you can have your opinion all you want and you can apply for the job. And good luck to ya."
Dabo went on to discuss he amount of winning seasons Clemson has had during his tenure, compared to schools like Tennessee.
"It's not just winning, it's how you win. We've had twelve, ten-plus win seasons in a row, twelve. We lost to Tennessee last year, they won eleven games for the first time in like twenty years. We've had eight 11-win seasons in whatever, eleven years or whatever.
"We've won two national championships," Swinney' history lesson to Tyler continued. "Clemson went 35 years, probably since before you were born, your whole freakin life and we've won two in seven years, and we earned it, beat the best of the best to do it. The best of the best."
For the full answer, you can listen here, or by listening to the full call-in show.
Dabo Swinney Says It's Appreciation Over Expectation At Clemson
In terms of where the Clemson program is at, there is a concern within the fanbase of the spotlight moving away from the Tigers. After years of dominating, we've seen a shift in college football, with other programs stealing the spotlight while Clemson figures out the new era of the sport.
As mentioned just a week ago, Dabo Swinney pointed towards the bad apples in the fan base, with the 2023 season a perfect way to rid some of them. On Monday night, he further called out some of the fans for appreciation over expectation.
“At some places there’s an expectation, but at Clemson there’s an appreciation," Dabo Swinney further explained Monday night. "And what’s happened at Clemson is we’ve won so much, that even when it used to be the fun with the winning, now even when you win, people like YOU complain and criticize the coaches and question everything. People like you, when I hired Tony Elliot as offensive coordinator, who never called plays in his life, I’m sure you were critical then. He took us to two national championships.
"People like you who just love to destroy people with your comments. I’m sure you’ve never made any bad decisions, I’m sure you’ve lived a perfect life, I’m sure you’ve led a bunch of people. To answer your question, I started as the lowest paid coach in this business, and I’m where I am because I’ve worked my ass off every single day."
It's safe to assume that Dabo is starting to feel the pressure, which is normal in this sport. After successful seasons, things have not gone as expected for the Clemson program, and the college football train isn't stopping so Clemson can catch up.
It's perfectly clear after listening to Swinney on Monday night that he's not going to sit around and deal with an unappreciative fan base or athletic department. After winning two national championships in the past seven years, he's got the right to pickup his bags and move on, if he ever chose to.
"I ain’t gonna let some smartass kid get on this phone and create this stuff. So if you got a problem with that, I don’t care. I work for the Board of Trustees, the President and AD. And if they're tired of me leading this program, I’ll go somewhere else where there is an appreciation."