Dabo Swinney discusses the end of Clemson's double-digit win streak
Things are looking more bleak than at any time over the past decade at Clemson. The loss this past Saturday unofficially cements a downward trend that many fans have been wary of since the 2021 season. All of a sudden this team is in danger of not even qualifying for a bowl game.
For now, Dabo Swinney is being forced to stand in front of reporters after their first back-to-back regular-season losses since 2011 and try to respond to questions that he doesn't necessarily have answers to. One question did make him crack a smile though, in a dark-humored sort of way, as he was asked about the 12 straight seasons of at least 10 wins now coming to an end.
Dabo Swinney is one win away from passing Frank Howard as Clemson's winningest coach.
"I appreciate bringing up a positive," Swinney joked. "Yeah man, we'll have to start a new one. There's a reason why there are only three teams in the history of football to do that. It's hard to do."
Looking back on that period, the head coach grew reminiscent, "What a run man. What a freaking run. Historic. Nobody wants to hear that right now but it's historic."
With some wondering after all of this time whether Dabo might be running out of steam the answer seems to be clearly no. "We'll start a new streak. We'll see what happens but we got a long way to go man. I'm 53 so I got a ways to go. Hopefully, we can put another long streak together. A lot of great days ahead."
Maybe these losses will be the impetus Swinney needs to hit the reset button on how they've been operating the last few seasons. Time will tell but the head man is always nothing if not optimistic. Hopefully, fans will hang in there too.
