Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney shoulders blame for last season

Dabo Swinney isn’t dodging anything when it comes to Clemson football’s 2025 season. If there’s blame to go around, he says it starts with him.

After years of building a program known for closing out tight games, Clemson suddenly found itself on the wrong side of those moments. The Tigers dropped three one-score contests, all of them decided by a combined 11 points, a sharp contrast from what the program has been for more than a decade.

“I did not get it done last year,” Swinney said on the Jim Rome show.

That frustration showed up early. Clemson opened the season with a loss to LSU, then let another one slip away weeks later against Georgia Tech on a last-second kick. Later in the year, Duke stunned the Tigers in Death Valley with a score in the closing seconds, snapping a drought that dated back decades.

“Two of those games were on the last play of the game, just gut-wrenching,” Swinney said.

Instead of stacking wins in those situations like they had in the past, Clemson couldn’t finish. That was the difference between a strong year and a 7-6 record that ended with a bowl loss to Penn State. For a team that entered the year with playoff-level expectations, it was a major letdown.

Swinney didn’t point to players or bad breaks. He pointed to himself.

“One score games are hard,” he said. “To me, the head coach should make the difference in close games, and I did not do that.”

That’s a notable shift when you consider Clemson’s track record. Since 2011, the Tigers have almost never lost when leading heading into the fourth quarter. Last season, though, those late-game situations turned into missed chances instead of wins.

“Two of those (seven losses) were last year. There were a couple of times when we did not finish when we had an opportunity to, and I did not make the difference in the close games. To me that is my job as a head coach,” Swinney said. “I am disappointed that I was not better for those guys because that team was certainly better than its record.”

Now, the conversation around Clemson feels completely different. The hype that followed them into last season isn’t gone, replaced by skepticism after a year that didn’t match expectations.

Swinney seems to welcome that.