Saturday night was a memorable one for LSU and Clemson alike, just for very different reasons. For LSU, it marked a dominant start to the Lane Kiffin era
, as his team reeled off a stellar 51-10 victory. But for Clemson? That's another story. More specifically, it was a night that marked the worst loss of head coach Dabo Swinney's career with the Tigers and, overall, cast a new level of concern about the team's offense this season.Following a loss like that, speaking with the media has to be tough, but for Swinney, his comments early this week about the game are what really raised a few eyebrows. During a radio segment in which Swinney spoke about the team's Week 1 loss, he called out the "terrible mindset" some have, while stating that Clemson
isn't "going to go undefeated every year," as Jackson Castellano of The Post and Courier revealed.
"I just think it's a terrible mindset to have. We're not going to go undefeated every year," Swinney reportedly said. "How many times has that happened in the history of 130 years? And in today's college football, there's not going to be many teams that, somewhere, don't have a loss or have a bad day..."
"…We work all year for 12 days, and that's a bad day. And so you pick yourself up and you get back in the fight and you learn. Let's go get better next week."
Dabo Swinney's comments after Clemson's loss to LSU frustrated fans even more
The comments were head-scratching, especially given the fact that Clemson is coming off a 7-6 season, which marks the second-worst record the team has posted under Swinney. You have to go back to 2010 to find a worse record, when Swinney and the Tigers went 6-7.
Even putting aside that the Tigers followed up that 7-6 season with a 41-point loss, it was the product on the field that made Swinney's comments feel even more out of place. Clemson finished the game with just eight first downs (compared to 38 for LSU), they were 1-of-13 on third downs and posted just 145 total offensive yards in the game. It was so out of hand that Kiffin even made a halftime joke about having "pro players" (who weren't active or even on the roster for the game).
Not surprisingly, fans weren't happy with Swinney's comments about not going "undefeated every year," and they made it very clear.
"[Swinney] ...really had the nerve to say this after losing 51-10 in the opener and coming off of a 7-6 season? We cannot fire this buffoon fast enough," said one fan.
"How is he not humiliated by the product he put on the field? They beat us like we were a last place MAC team, letting all their QBs get some reps against us. I am worried we lose this weekend again. If that was what you worked all year for, you did it wrong," added another.
The reactions ranged from frustration, confusion and even humiliation. Some fans called out Swinney for blaming the fanbase and its expectations (seemingly pointing to his "undefeated" comment), while others simply called for a head-coaching change.
One thing that's certain is that if things don't go well for Clemson at home this week against Georgia Southern, the calls for Swinney's job are going to become overwhelmingly loud.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Dabo Swinney's baffling response after Clemson's 51-10 blowout loss to LSU
