Clemson HC Dabo Swinney Plans to 'Evaluate Everything' This Offseason

Clemson's loss to the Penn State Nittany Lions in the Pinstripe Bowl put the Tigers at a 7-6 record, the worst finish to a season in 15 years.

Head coach Dabo Swinney put it simply after the game, saying that his team just did not play "winning football". However, with the season over, it's now time to start the process of next season, and that is a process that Swinney will scrutinize going into the offseason.

"It's really more about just big picture of our issues from the season," he said on Saturday. "I know what's real. I know what's not. I don't read what everybody else writes. I know what's real. I have a good perspective when it comes to things that are in our control and what we've got to do better."

There's a quick turnaround for it, as well. The first domino to fall is the opening of the transfer portal on Jan. 2, and a few Tigers have already put their name into the mix of players looking for a new home.

The other side of it, is coaches, which Swinney was asked about following the loss at Yankee Stadium this past weekend. While having a deep love for his staff, the Clemson head coach knows what he needs to look at, from now on.

"We've got great people. I love all the people on my staff, but you evaluate everything," Swinney said. "That's just a part of our business, and it's a part of the end of a season, when you step back and -- I don't make emotional decisions, but first and foremost, it starts with what happened and how do we—is it personnel, is it scheme, is it bad calls, whatever."

Swinney also believes that a part of it comes from how skewed social media can get. While the Tigers had six losses on the season, he said that the team was a couple of plays away from College Football Playoff contention. A defended two-point converstion against Duke, a key stop against Georgia Tech to prevent a game-winning field goal or a fourth-down converstion against LSU could have changed the whole narrative.

But it is what it is, and he believes that some of the losses spoiled the momentum that the Tigers came into the season with.

"I know what it is, and I know how close we are," Swinney said. "It's one more catch. It's one more good throw. It's a better call. It's one stop. Next thing you know, you win a couple of those games that we lost early, and now you've got confidence and momentum and all those things matter. We just never got that."

Swinney reassures fans, however, saying there is good and bad with every season. Now, it's his time to evaluate it as a pivotal 2026 season will determine where the Tigers go moving forward, whether being an upcoming college football superpower, or one that will be known for their history at the end of the 2010s.

"Again, it's never as good as you think, it's never as bad as you think," he said. "I've done this a long time, and this is the second-worst season we've had in 17 years. There will be something good come from it just like the last one we had in 2010. We had a lot of great things come from it. We'll have a lot of great come from this one, as well."