BATON ROUGE, LA – The beatdown complete, the only thing left to do was decide what to make of it. Lane Kiffin advised caution, almost as if to say: Hey, guys, this was nice, but it was only Clemson.
“We’ve got bigger tests that are going to come up,” LSU’s coach said after his team routed Clemson, 51-10.
In an epic diss, Kiffin told ABC his scout team scored as many points on LSU as Clemson did.
“It was about the same score,” Kiffin said.
Holy smokes. Coming in hot, a missile, to incinerate Dabo Swinney’s career!
Kiffin described Clemson’s offense to ESPN as “dysfunctional.” That was putting it kindly.
Pitiful fits, too.
This is what it’s come to for little ol’ Clemson. Swinney filled his roster with a bunch of nobodies. The squad compares to an SEC scout team.
"The best thing about that one," Swinney said, "is that it's over."
He’s talking about the game, but what about his career? How many more humiliations must Clemson endure before somebody in power admits: This is over. So, how to execute a offramp?
Would Dabo Swinney leave Clemson?
Swinney, 56, is not the type to grab a Tom Clancy novel and a Tommy Bahama chair and retire early to the beach, so, this could become uncomfortable.
If you’d asked me before the game what Swinney needs, I’d have told you he needs a reboot somewhere else. Leave Clemson. Start fresh somewhere else. See if that re-energizes Swinney and reignites his career. Now, after the most lopsided loss of Swinney’s career, I’m wondering: Who would be desperate enough to want Dabo?
He’ll forever be a legend, but he’s no longer a commodity.
Swinney’s stock, within just a few years, plunged from Nvidia to Spirit Airlines. Even if he wasn’t stubborn enough to make Clemson fire him, could he drum up a Power Four suitor once the coaching carousel kicks into gear and leave on his own terms? Not if the hiring committee gets ahold of this game film.
Swinney would be the first to remind you of his impressive career resume, but I’d point out there’s a guy not much older than Dabo with a national championship ring who can’t find a job, so he works for the ACC Network.
Make room on the TV set, Jimbo. Grab a seat for Dabo.
Jimbo Fisher, though, didn’t get fired by the school where he won the national title. He left Florida State, then got fired by Texas A&M.
Clemson firing a legend would be altogether different. It would be firing a coach for whom it’ll also commission a statue. Clemson could afford the statue, but what about Swinney’s buyout? He’d be owed $57 million if Clemson fires him, and his deal includes no offset language. That, folks, is what an impasse looks like.
Victory music at LSU. Lane Kiffin is 1-0. Dabo Swinney is broken. pic.twitter.com/yDUY6gqn2M
— Blake Toppmeyer (@btoppmeyer) September 6, 2026
Clemson football withers, from root to stem
You could say Swinney made a predictable mistake by anointing veteran backup Christopher Vizzina as Clemson’s starting quarterback, rather than doing what Dabo’s contemporaries would do and heading to the transfer market, with a wad of cash in hand, to buy a better quarterback.
You’d be right to say it, but the problem goes deeper than that.
You also could say Swinney was woefully unimaginative to try to play the hits by rehiring Chad Morris, with whom he launched Clemson’s glory days more than a decade ago.
You’d be right about that, too, but the problem still goes deeper.
This isn’t about one quarterback or one coordinator. Clemson is broken, the problems extend from root to stem. A coach who insists he’s too young to retire nonetheless looks like a relic from an era that’s not coming back.
Legends don't always get to write their ending. Tennessee sacked Phillip Fulmer 10 years after his national championship. Well, it's been 10 years, Clemson, since Trevor Lawrence.
We no longer have to ask whether the game has passed Swinney by. It obviously has. Heck, Tyler from Spartanburg saw this coming years ago.
“We're a lot better than what we played,” Swinney said.
I think he means: We used to be a lot better, back when the rules were different, back when coaches constructed rosters differently, back when the best teams didn’t cost tens of millions of dollars, back when Swinney’s sign, retain, develop approach built a program that was the envy of the land, instead of a glorified scout team.
This is over. Now, when and how will Clemson and Swinney choose to end it? That's the part that's tough to answer.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's senior national college football columnist. Listen to his podcast, "College Football Unfiltered." Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dabo Swinney: 'It's over.' He could be talking about his Clemson career | Opinion
