Josh Pate Sounds Off on Clemson Football's Future as a Program

After being asked the future of the Clemson Tigers by a viewer, here's what the rising college football analyst had to say.

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney looks toward a line judge after calling pass interference on corner back Elliot Washington II (3) defending Virginia Tech Hokies wide receiver Ayden Greene (0) during the fourth quarter at Memorial Stadium Saturday, October 24, 2026. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

After the Clemson Tigers’ loss to Virginia Tech last weekend, the program fell to 2-8 in their last home games against Power Four opponents. Then, the national media found that out. 

Now, the Tigers are 4-3 with longshot odds to make either the ACC Championship or the College Football Playoff, and a bowl game will be the target the rest of the way. However, some are beginning to think about where the program will go after the 2026 season. 

One of those people is college football analyst Josh Pate, who was asked about it on his podcast, Josh Pate’s College Football Show. The question revolved around head coach Dabo Swinney and whether he would be fired after the season. 

Pate cleared the air first, saying he didn’t want that to be the case, and support Swinney as head coach. 

“No, I don’t think he’ll be fired,” he said on Tuesday. “Not classically fired, not the, ‘Dabo, please sit down. We’re going to have to let you go and you are owed $60 million and we’re going to pay that because, contractually, we’re obligated to do that.’”

However, Pate understands the downturn that the program has taken since about the 2020 season, when Clemson lost in the semifinal of the College Football Playoff to Ohio State, which would end up as Trevor Lawrence’s final game as a Tiger. After that, the Tigers have only made the College Football Playoff once, winning two of the five possible ACC Championships. 

It’s continued to get worse, and it starts with the home result last weekend. 

“Can you imagine going back 10 years and Clemson loses a home game in primetime?” Pate said. “It’s just not a big deal anymore, and there are no indications that suggest that he has any regrets about how he’s handled things. If he does harbor those regrets, he’s not verbalizing them.”

The ESPN analyst has seen Swinney make countless moves to bring the Tigers back to where they were at the end of the 2010s. However, the record continues to drop, and it only makes sense for one person to blame for the issues. 

And it starts at the top for Pate. 

“Now, this is his 18th season. It is going nowhere fast,” he said. “It continues to trend in the wrong direction. He is the variable.”

However, Swinney’s buyout is $57 million, dropping $3 million from a season ago and being a enormous amount of money for the school to use. So, Pate brings up an alternative route that Clemson and Swinney could navigate later. 

Of course, that would be if the Tigers’ head coach steps down himself and discusses an alternate departure plan.

“There is a possibility, maybe remote, but there’s a possibility that at the end of the year, Dabo looks in the mirror and just acknowledges, ‘It’s time,’” he said. 

However, Swinney still has time to turn it around, still having five games left on the schedule and a potential bowl game to put momentum into next season. If he decides to go all in on the portal, especially offensively, perhaps that swagger in Tigertown could come back. 

Until then, Pate believes that his stance on all things college football is the wrong way to put it. 

“He’s just set in his ways. He is now the victim of his own standard in an era where the old way of doing things can’t meet that standard anymore,” he said.