Dabo Swinney's Clemson tenure in jeopardy following blowout loss to LSU

As one coach's tenure began in glorious fashion on a stormy Saturday night in the Bayou, it felt like the opposing coach's time was ending.

After a dramatic week full of lawsuits, court hearings and threats of significant penalties, Lane Kiffin did what he does best by putting on a show in a 51-10 win over Clemson. LSU looked every bit like a College Football Playoff contender. Clemson was a clear level or two below that standard.

It's the worst loss in Swinney's time at Clemson but, really, it's about so much more. It's about a man who has resisted change, who has bucked traditional wisdom and looks much closer to being unemployed than ever hoisting a trophy above his head again. Maybe the demise began in 2021, when DJ Uiagalelei fell on his face as a starter, or in 2023 when Clemson opened the year with a road loss to Duke after turning the reins over to Garrett Riley. A headline the next morning read, 'How dynasties die: Is Clemson flirting with disaster?' There was a brief stay of execution during the best of the Cade Klubnik years -- with a few WTF moments sprinkled into a back-doored ACC Championship and CFP appearance -- until everything came crumbling down last season, Dabo's worst since 2010.

Swinney looks out-matched and unable to succeed in this current era of college football. The glory days of Clemson football, which included two national championship wins over Alabama, feel like a lifetime ago. Worse, the path back to that level of success feels impossible now under Swinney.

No one other than Swinney thought hiring Chad Morris as offensive coordinator was a smart decision. It was the ultimate double-down move from Dabo, the defiance that prevents him from evolving as other top coaches have to succeed in the NIL and transfer portal era.

Morris hadn't been a successful offensive coordinator since his first stint with Dabo back in 2011-2014. He failed as Arkansas' head coach, failed as Auburn's offensive coordinator and has mostly bounced around the last six years in analyst roles and back at Texas high schools. There's not another Power Four school in the country other than Clemson that would have hired him as offensive coordinator. Frankly, there likely wasn't a Group of Six one, either.

Swinney, of course, didn't care. He was friends with Morris and thought rehiring him would somehow lead to the same success the duo experienced in the early 2010s.

"There are always tough decisions that have to be made in this profession, and though I had to make a couple tough decisions, it was an easy decision to hire Chad Morris," Swinney said explaining the decision. "I'm really excited for our players. It's pretty cool to have guys like DeAndre Hopkins and Sammy Watkins and a bunch of great players shooting me text messages with their excitement knowing what's to come offensively. I think we've got elite offensive personnel, and the name of the game is points."

Against LSU, Clemson totaled 40 rushing yards, only eight first downs compared to LSU's 38 and even made a quarterback switch before halftime. At the time of the switch, Clemson had negative rushing yards. Quarterback Christopher Vizzina had no chance against a swarming and aggressive LSU defense, throwing an interception and managing only 83 passing yards on 16 attempts. Freshman Tait Reynolds wasn't any better with a 4-for-6 for 22 passing yards and negative-nine rushing yards stat line. Morris' offense looked completely overwhelmed and incapable of stymying LSU defensive coordinator Blake Baker's group.

Just as Swinney doubled down on Morris, he did the same with Vizzina. He has resisted the trend of adding high-level transfer quarterbacks even when his roster situation begs for it. Clemson kicked the tires on a few transfer options this last portal cycle but didn't bring one in to compete against Vizzina. It's only one game and LSU may be elite, but that decision already looks like a mistake. It's simplistic but evidently Dabo hasn't grasped it yet: His best teams are when he has great quarterbacks. Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence were that. Kelly Bryant and now Vizzina are not.

To understand Dabo's refusal to change, you have to understand where he came from. The son of an alcoholic father, Dabo had a challenging upbringing where his family financially struggled. While in college at Alabama, Dabo and his mother, Carol, had to share a bed -- not just a room -- because they couldn't afford anything else. When you rise above those circumstances and become a famous football coach who makes eight figures and wins national championships, it only reinforces your belief in yourself. Dabo trusting his gut turned him from a poor boy from Pelham, Alabama, to the toast of the college football world.

Unfortunately, his greatest strength became his greatest weakness. He'd rather believe the outside critics are wrong than that he has to dramatically change his ways. His earlier success has made him stubborn, and that's an awfully dangerous mindset in a college football world that seems to change by the hour.

A year ago, I worried Dabo was headed down the same path as former Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy. There was more than enough talent on last year's roster to fare far better than the Tigers' 7-6 record. There's simply no excuse for a team that had two first-rounders, two early second-rounders and a third-rounder to be losing to a 3-9 Syracuse team.

Is this salvageable? Nothing Dabo has done in the year since Gundy was fired indicates that he learned any lessons from a similarly stubborn and loyal man who finally wore out his welcome at a place he thought he could stay at forever.

Swinney would be owed a whopping $57 million in buyout money if Clemson moved on from him this season, an absurdly large number that feels too big and yet college football has taught us there's no such thing as too big a buyout number if the frustration gets high enough. Could Clemson leaders convince Dabo to retire at the end of the year as a way of saving face and perhaps shave some money off what he's owed on a contract that runs through 2031?

Saturday night in Baton Rouge was billed as the new era versus the old. The Portal King versus the man trying to do it the old-fashioned way.

The new trounced the old in convincing fashion. And there's no reason to believe old dog Dabo can learn any new tricks after refusing to do so for years now.

Clemson's run as a nationally elite program ended in Louisiana. The big question is when the same will be said for the man who built it.