On Saturday, the Clemson football program's abysmal 2025 season continued with a 35-24 home loss against SMU, dropping their record to 3-4 in the process. Overall, it's been a trainwreck of a campaign for Clemson, beginning with their season-opening loss to LSU and continuing from there.
Some murmurs have begun about how hot head coach Dabo Swinney's seat has gotten in Clemson. While the two national championships he won in the 2010s might have bought him invincibility from such discussions, fans' patience is certainly growing thin with the losing football the team has been playing over the last few years.
After the game on Saturday, Swinney once again went on the defensive by pointing to his past accomplishments as opposed to addressing his present problems.
“We hopefully have earned a lot of credibility around here,” said Swinney, per ESPN. “There's been a lot of great years, a lot of great years. But this is a tough one.
“We're going to try to fight our way and finish this thing the very best that we can. And then we'll start over just like we do every year. You know, that's what we do every year. We have a great year, we have a tough year, you know, we start over and then you go back to work.”
A brutal year for Clemson
Clemson football entered this season seemingly with a legitimate chance to compete for a national championship, which would have been its first since the 2018 season. While a season-opening loss to LSU in narrow fashion was by no means a death sentence, the following week's slugfest against Troy made it abundantly clear that this was not the Tigers team that was going to get the program back to the promised land.
“I take the good with the bad,” Swinney said. “I don't like it, but that's just my perspective. And I know something good will come from it. I promise you, though, I've never worked harder. And I'm going to continue to do everything I can, and we'll be back.”
Clemson will next take the field after a bye week against Duke.
