Pete Thamel shares what changes could be coming for Dabo Swinney, Clemson

ESPN insider Pete Thamel believes Dabo Swinney and the Clemson program could make some changes after the worst season in more than a decade.

The Tigers are currently 4-4 entering Saturday’s game with Notre Dame, and the streak of 12 consecutive seasons of at least 10 wins is coming to an end.

Thamel appeared on the Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday and said that he expects the struggles this year to lead to some changes this offseason.

“I do think we’re at an inflection point for some potential change at Clemson. Obviously it’s been long-discussed Dabo’s hesitancy to enter the transfer portal. I believe they’ve taken two backup quarterbacks in it,” Thamel said. “Obviously he has been slow to embrace NIL, I think, might be the fairest way to say that. So there are some modernizations that may have to happen with the Clemson program.”

Thamel added that Clemson and Dabo Swinney could look at staff changes, too.

Swinney has had success promoting from within during his career, but it hasn’t worked out as well as of late.

Of Clemson’s 10 on-field coaches, seven are coaching at the Power 5 level for the first time at Clemson.

“I think they’ll also take a long, hard look at that staff. Where he is now, a decade-plus into Clemson, is a place where a lot of the people who have risen up on that staff have come up through his system. So the question is, are there more outside voices needed?” Thamel said. “Is there more outside juice needed? Do you need to change and evolve more? The previous staffs were double downs on what he’d done, and quite frankly, he’d done it better than anybody else.”

As Thamel pointed out and Swinney, and mentioned on his call-in show on Monday, Clemson had plenty of success promoting from within for years. That includes Tony Elliott leading the Clemson offense to the most successful season in school history.

But continuing to promote from within hasn’t worked out as well as of late.

It’s clear that some changes needed to be made as the Tigers are currently 2-4 in the ACC, with a tough schedule remaining. But what exactly those changes are remains to be seen.

“Dabo’s going through a slump,” Thamel said. “Now he’s won two national titles, right? The list of coaches that have won two national titles that are actively coaching in college football is very, very short. … So nobody is through with Dabo Swinney.

“So I really think four losses… they went a three-year stretch from I believe ‘18-20 without losing four games. So it will be interesting to see how Dabo evolves from this, because I think we’re at an inflection point for evolution.”