On Saturday afternoon, the Clemson football program dropped to 3-5 with another home loss, this time at the hands of the Duke Blue Devils. This game was a back and forth affair throughout, with the Blue Devils taking an early 21-7 lead but the Tigers ultimately tying things up by halftime.
Still, it was a familiar result for a Clemson team that, if not for the Penn State Nittany Lions, would be by far the biggest failure of this college football season.
After the game, head coach Dabo Swinney got one hundred percent real on his state of mind amid the losing streak, including his thoughts on his job security.
“I may get fired today, Graham's sitting there in the back, so I don't know, can't say I'd blame him,” said Swinney, per Yahoo Sports on X, formerly Twitter, referring to Clemson athletic director Graham Neff.
“Shoot, we've got to win some games,” Swinney said later, via Brad Crawford of CBS Sports. “I'm just worried about trying to beat Florida State.”
A disastrous season for Clemson
Heading into this season, the Clemson football program was expected to be on the short list of teams with a legitimate chance to win a national championship. Fast forward to early November, and it still remains to be seen whether or not the Tigers will even be bowl eligible.
While a narrow home loss to the LSU Tigers to open up the season was by no means a death sentence for Clemson, the fact that they were down by three possessions the following week against Troy erased any image that people had in their minds of them as legitimate championship contenders.
At this point, it would appear unlikely that Clemson truly considers firing Dabo Swinney considering the two championships he's helped win them, albeit the better part of a decade ago. Of course, Clemson's problems this year don't fall solely on Swinney's shoulders, but some fans are clamoring for the program to hit the reset button.
Clemson will next hit the field against the Florida State Seminoles next week.
