Time To Get Ruthless: How Clemson Can Avoid Becoming A Has-Been

Dabo Swinney is on a run of success at Clemson that is unmatched in school history, and puts him in the discussion of the greatest college coaches of all time. And all the greats, be it coaches or programs, have a similar quality: ruthlessness.

For a second year in a row now, Clemson is poised to miss the playoffs. While the Tigers started the season ranked #3 and were in the playoff discussion all year, their last chance to make the postseason came crashing down last week, when they lost to South Carolina for the first time in eight years.

Normally a 1-point loss to a solid rival wouldn't be cause for panic, but the truth is, cracks have started to show in the machine that Dabo has built. The most obvious one is how average-- being generous --the offense has been for the past two years. In truth, the last two years do not tell the whole story-- Clemson’s offensive scheme has actually been pedestrian for years, as many pundits have observed. But it's easier to cover that fact up when you have an all-world QB and RB as the Tigers did in Trevor Lawrence and Trevor Etienne for three seasons.

So, after a terrible offensive showing in 2021 and complaints about the scheme and slippage on that front in 2020, what does Dabo do after his offensive coordinator, Tony Elliot, leaves for a head coaching job? He promotes from within, a move some might describe as hubris. Dabo was handed the perfect opportunity to reinvent his team with both his offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator (Brent Venables left to take the head coaching job at Oklahoma) departing. But he shunned that chance and promoted from within instead, elevating two people who have never called plays in their career: Wes Goodwin as DC and Brandon Streeter as OC.

Now as we come to the end of the regular season of 2022, we an acknowledge that the offense did take a noticeable step forward from its dismal 2021 season. That step, though, was a stumbling and uneven step that one might not consider real progress for a program that should be competing for championships. Especially a program that uses the mantra, “Best is the Standard.”

If Dabo is serious about “Best being the Standard,” then it is time for him to be ruthless. It wouldn’t be the first time he has done it; while he paints a humble, even 'aw, shucks' personality in public, he's made some serious moves behind the scenes, firing the offensive coordinator after 2010 and the defensive coordinator after the infamous Orange Bowl loss in 2012, for example. He hired someone from outside the program in both instances. Admittedly, after Chad Morris left in 2014, Swinney promoted Tony Elliott and Jeff Scott from within and that indisputably worked out, to the tune of two national championships. The question, however, is if Dabo learned the wrong lesson and if the success of the past decade has given him a sense that he is above reproach. After all, he promoted from within before and it worked, so why wouldn't it work this time?

One could say this is a talent issue but at least on paper, the players on the field are some of, if not the best in the nation. Their development clearly hasn’t been what it should have been. That is a coaching problem. They have not been put in positions to succeed. That’s a coaching problem. 2021 was the first season to see a decline on one side of the ball in particular, and that side's coordinator, Tony Elliott, left. So naturally, Dabo decided to promote from within a staff that didn’t get the job done and seemed to have no answers. Unsurprisingly, 2022 has showed that this staff clearly still has no answers.

Several games come to mind this season that exemplify this. Take the Florida State, Notre Dame, and South Carolina games, for example. While Clemson seemed to be in control at FSU, the play-callers suddenly decided to play it very safe as early as the 3rd quarter, and what was a 20-point lead became a tight 6-point victory due to a lack of aggression. Some weeks later, the loss at Notre Dame was a clinic of bad coaching and preparation. There is absolutely no reason that Clemson, with two weeks to prepare for a Notre Dame team that had not proven to be anything but mediocre at that point, should have been manhandled the way they were. Notre Dame was only up 14 going into the 4th quarter somehow, but that was by the sheer will of the defense alone. Clemson’s offense looked as lost as I have ever seen it. Then just last weekend, against rivals South Carolina game, Clemson makes the mind-boggling decision to run star RB Will Shipley a grand total of twice in the 4th quarter, though South Carolina had not showed any indication they could stop him. Clemson ended with less than 100 yards passing and ended up losing, at home, after leading by 9 points at halftime against their unranked rival.

Let’s not kid ourselves, it is easier said than done to be ruthless. You are going to have to fire guys that have become your friends, and that very well may end your good relationships with them. But the lack of these hard decisions after the 2020 and 2021 seasons have put the program at a crossroads, one that only tough choices will solve. Dabo Swinney needs to make the tough choice of cleaning house on the offensive side of the ball. Promoting from within, especially coming off a disappointing season, is a great way to die slowly. Like it or not, college football is a business, and your job as head coach is to put your program in the best position to win games and championships. Dabo himself has made this exact statement.

Clemson has plateaued. At this point, it's just a plateau. But now comes the time where one has to make ruthless decisions to make sure that does not turn into a decline.