This season has quickly become one of Dabos most important ones.

Sep 2, 2024, 10:40 AM

I’m a Dabo guy through and through. I’m almost as much a Dabo apologist as Keller is A Brownell homer (I said almost).

What Saturday showed me (and many of us) is that something, perhaps many things, aren’t working. Is it Cade? Is it Riley? Is it a lack of talent?

One thing is certain: no matter where the fault lies, Dabo is responsible. He says as much, and I think we’re all grateful for that. But this program is at a place where not only is the national media questioning playcalling and lack of playmakers, we’ve got people saying the program is no longer elite and telling Dabo to plan an exit strategy.

I’m not sure how engaged coaches are with what media says about them. I highly doubt any of them get in here to read what us knuckleheads have to say. But this is already feeling like a legacy defining season for Dabo. The road has never been “easier” to get into the playoffs. Most seasons a loss like the one Saturday would be the proverbial nail in the coffin.

But here we are with 11 games yet to play. Dabo knows things are broken. He has to. And now it’s up to him to press the right buttons, make the right decisions, and get this team in a place where they’re not looked at as a bunch of mediocre players on a has been program.

People will complain about the money these guys make or how much tickets cost. That doesn’t matter. We’ll all pay the prices or at least make sure our cable package is such that we can view every game.

We can whine about the portal, but bringing in a few extra players wouldn’t have made up for 31 points Saturday.

The days of national titles were sweet, but they’re gone now. It doesn’t mean we can’t get back there. It means we can’t point our fingers to the past to try and say how great we are.

This isn’t about Cade or Mafah or wide receivers or Riley or Goodwin. This season is now about Dabo Swinney. How bad does he want to show the world the game hasn’t passed him by? How much does it burn him up that he’s being viewed almost as a program mascot the way Bobby Bowden was in his final years?

Dabo, some might dislike you. Some might even loathe you. I love you as Clemson’s coach. I wouldn’t want anyone else. I just want to see the fire you lit years ago roar with flames again. I want Clemson to be looked at as giants, not has beens.

It’s your program, coach. It’s your legacy. What will you do with it?

We’re all rooting for you. Well, maybe not Keller, but most of the rest of us.

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We all love and respect Dabo and our Tigers. But for the last several years the program has gone sideways or regressed. I do not think it is any one thing, but a combination of factors.

At a high level, the world of college football has changed dramatically...Dabo has not. And that is a double-edged sword - why we respect and love Dabo for his principles, but not the losses and the programs fall from greatness due to a failure his adjust. There needs to be some middle ground, where Dabo finds a balance that he can live with.

Then there are the questions of recruiting, coaching and game planning. I am not a football expert by any stretch of the imagination, but as a fan I know what I see. I see undersized players getting manhandled; I see yet another QB who looks tentative, unsure of what to do, making slow and risky decisions, and with no finesse on his passes; I see receivers dropping the ball and out of synch with the QB; I see the OL breaking down consistently on pass protection; I see no defensive adjustments; and I see an offensive game plan that has plays with not a drop of creativity or imagination that go absolutely nowhere.

What is going on with the football team is deeper than the players, who are doing their darndest to be successful. They do not go out on the field to be embarrassed. Dabo and his staff need to do some real soul searching and decide if they want to do some of the things necessary to regain national prominence, or be satisfied with being a loved, middle tier program.

This season has quickly become one of Dabos most important ones.

Hear-Hear!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: Hear-Hear!!!!!!!!!!!

recruiting is done

Mediocre writer my a##.

100%!***

You have managed to describe how

Re: This season has quickly become one of Dabos most important ones.

Re: This season has quickly become one of Dabos most important ones.

Re: This season has quickly become one of Dabos most important ones.

Re: This season has quickly become one of Dabos most important ones.

Re: This season has quickly become one of Dabos most important ones.

The media criticism may become so bitter-harsh-insulting to CDS that

Re: The media criticism may become so bitter-harsh-insulting to CDS that

Re: This season has quickly become one of Dabos most important ones.

Re: This season has quickly become one of Dabos most important ones.

Re: This season has quickly become one of Dabos most important ones.

Wow, some of the deepest & most astute thoughts on

Re: This season has quickly become one of Dabos most important ones.

Re: This season has quickly become one of Dabos most important ones.

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