Week 1 of any college football season is never short on reactions, but that holds especially true when a coach as hotly debated as Dabo Swinney gets blown out in the manner the Clemson Tigers were on Saturday night.
LSU dominated Clemson in every facet of the game en route to a 51-10 victory that marked the Tigers' fourth straight season-opening loss and their fifth in the past six years.
Christopher Vizzina's second career start and his first away from Clemson Memorial Stadium was a nightmare. At one point in the first half, he had as many passes intercepted and returned for touchdowns as the Tigers had first downs. LSU crushed Clemson behind 335 rushing yards and another 309 through the air.
Clemson's first game with Chad Morris back as offensive
coordinator saw the Tigers held to only 145 yards of total offense and eight first downs. By contrast, Lane Kiffin's team had 38 first downs.
The 41-point loss is the most lopsided defeat Clemson has suffered in Swinney's 18 seasons as coach, surpassing the Tigers' 37-points losses to West Virginia in the 2012 Orange Bowl and to Florida State in 2013 during the Seminoles' run to the national championship.
Clemson star linebacker embarrassed after blowout loss against LSU
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Here's a look at what the national media are saying Dabo Swinney and Clemson football after Week 1.
Clemson reaches new low under Dabo Swinney, veteran college football voice says
Longtime college football analyst Stewart Mandel of The Athletic (subscription required for full access) called Clemson's beatdown on the bayou a new low for the program under Swinney and said:
?His commitment to an old-school recruiting and development model is admirable but incompatible with today's environment.
"Clemson and LSU finished with the same 7-6 record last season. Kiffin got the LSU job on Nov. 30 and, in the span of about six weeks, brought in 40-plus transfers who drastically upgraded LSU's roster. Whereas Dabo, who's had years to build his own 2026 roster, lost nine NFL Draft picks, brought in 11 transfers and otherwise ran it back with a 4-4 ACC roster.
"Is it any wonder that happened?"
Clemson football reaches rock bottom under Dabo Swinney, leads USA TODAY Sports Week 1 losers
Veteran college football analyst Paul Myerberg of USA TODAY Sports said that Saturday's loss to LSU "paints a brutal picture about the state of Dabo Swinney's program."
The biggest error for Swinney was putting his trust in an unproven third-year quarterback with all of one career start rather than following his coaching contemporaries by turning to the transfer portal, Myerberg said.
"Nowhere is Swinney's approach and mistakes more obvious than in his decision to go with senior quarterback Christoper Vizzina instead of bringing in a transfer, as did more than half of the teams in the preseason US LBM Coaches Poll," Myerberg noted.
He added:
"Clemson's decline has many chefs but only one primary culprit: While Swinney first made the program one of the best in the nation, his unwillingness or inability to adapt to the new normal of college football... Schematically and athletically, Clemson look behind the times and more like one of the worst teams in the ACC."
Clemson is 'broken' under Dabo Swinney: what's next for Tigers coach?
Elsewhere at USA TODAY Sports, college football analyst Blake Toppmeyer took it a step further in his critique of Swinney and wonders how many more losses Clemson brass are willing to put up with from Swinney after the Tigers' drubbing at the hands of LSU.
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?"
Toppmeyer admits that firing Swinney outright would be "difficult" -- a generous description -- but believes the school and coach are at an impasse.
"(Clemson) 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."
After criticizing Swinney's decision not to pursue a quarterback on the transfer portal market and handing the offense back over to a coach in Chad Morris who hadn't been an offensive coordinator since 2020, Toppmeyer added:
"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. Florida State pushed out Bobby Bowden 10 years after his second national title. Well, it's been 10 years, Clemson, since Deshaun Watson, and eight since Trevor Lawrence unlocked another title.
"We no longer have to ask whether the game has passed Swinney by. It obviously has ... This is over. Now, when and how will Clemson and Swinney choose to end it? That's the part that's tough to answer."
CBS Sports: Dabo Swinney in 'big trouble'
CBS Sports likewise highlighted Clemson and Swinney as its biggest loser from Week 1's slate of games.
Analyst Shehan Jeyarajah noted:
"Coming off a disappointing season and heading into a hornet's nest, expectations were unbelievably low. Really, all Clemson had to do was remain competitive and look like they belonged on the field. They were 10-point underdogs, but LSU had a brand new roster to work through.
"Instead, it went just about as unbelievably bad as it could possibly go. Lane Kiffin absolutely obliterated Dabo Swinney in a 51-10 final. Clemson's only first-half points came after a tipped ball interception on the first drive of the game. Nine of the (Tigers') next 10 drives ended in punts; the other was an interception. The Tigers had fewer than 100 yards entering the fourth quarter.
"If Swinney's seat wasn't already blazing, now it is. On Oct. 3, Clemson plays against No. 7 Miami. If the team can't look more capable by then, the Tigers may seriously have to consider moving on from Swinney."
Dabo Swinney roasted for hiring Chad Morris as offensive coordinator
Elsewhere at CBS Sports, analyst John Talty, the author of several books about college football figures like Nick Saban and Lane Kiffin and the modern NIL era, took specific aim at Swinney's decision to turn back the clock with Chad Morris as offensive coordinator.
Talty said:
"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."
Paul Finebaum doesn't want Dabo Swinney fired, suggests off-ramp for Clemson coach
During his weekly appearance on ESPN's "The Matt Barrie Show," Barrie said that Kiffin and LSU had put Clemson's program in the ground."
Finebaum, Swinney's longest critic among the sport's most recognizable voices, said Sunday:
"It is over for Dabo Swinney. It's time for him to take a good long look at himself, to quit the protestations every Tuesday when he shows up at the media, quit trying to remind people of what he once was. He is no more. The game has passed him by.
"That doesn't mean he can't go some place else and refresh. But comparing Dabo Swinney to Lane Kiffin (Saturday) was frightening. There is not that much difference in age, a couple of years, but it was almost tragic to look at -- how much Lane Kiffin out-coached, outmaneuvered, and completely overwhelmed a guy who, six years ago, was facing the same team in the national championship game, meaning Dabo Swinney and Ed Orgeron."
Finebaum was clear he didn't think Clemson should fire Swinney.
"That is not what I'm talking about," Finebaum said. "Clemson's administrators, though, should talk to Dabo Swinney and say, 'This is the best you can come up with? You went out and hired Chad Morris, who has been run out of a number of places since his last glory days, and you thought that was going to solve the problem? Are you serious?'"
Finebaum added that Swinney could not salvage Clemson's program, one the longtime ESPN and SEC football analyst called a "second-tier" program.
"That will not go down well with a very proud fan base, but it's the reality. I was told it might be the fourth-best team in the ACC. I think (that's) being charitable. This program is horrifying to look at. They may match up later in the season against the middle of the pack of the ACC, but they're not matching up with what I saw Friday night with Miami."
Clemson hosts No. 7 Miami on Oct. 3 at Memorial Stadium.
Finebaum concluded:
"I think Dabo's got an agent, like we all do. He should talk to his agent and say, 'Keep your eye on a good league, a second-tier team and get me out of here because I can't keep reminding the Clemson fans that we were once good. We're no longer good. We suck. We're terrible. We're embarrassing.'
"And I'm telling you, Dabo: get out. Get out while you can. Get out before your program literally goes down in utter flames because on the big stage, which you were on Saturday night, you failed. You can't cut it there anymore."
Clemson reaches new low under Dabo Swinney with blowout loss to LSU
— Clemson Wire (@Clemson_Wire) September 6, 2026
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Who does Clemson football play next? Week 2 opponent for Tigers
The Tigers open their home schedule against Georgia Southern at Clemson Memorial Stadium on Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on ACC Network.
Clemson football schedule 2026
All start times Eastern.
- Sept. 5: at LSU Tigers (L, 51-10)
- Sept. 12: vs. Georgia Southern Eagles, 7:30 p.m., ACC Network
- Sept. 19: vs. North Carolina Tar Heels, noon, ESPN
- Sept. 25: at California Golden Bears, 10:30 p.m., ESPN
- Oct. 3: vs. Miami Hurricanes, TBA
- Oct. 17: vs. Charleston Southern Buccaneers, TBA
- Oct. 24: vs. Virginia Tech Hokies, TBA
- Oct. 31: at Florida State Seminoles, TBA
- Nov. 7: at Syracuse Orange, TBA
- Nov. 14: vs. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, TBA
- Nov. 20: at Duke Blue Devils, 7:30 p.m., ESPN
- Nov. 28: vs. South Carolina Gamecocks, TBA
Record: 0-1.
Will Christopher Vizzina start for Clemson next week? Dabo Swinney responds
— Clemson Wire (@Clemson_Wire) September 6, 2026
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This article originally appeared on Clemson Wire: National media sound off on Dabo Swinney, Clemson after embarrassing Week 1 loss
