Dabo Swinney compares Duke loss to past career losses: 'They're all disappointing'

During his time as the head coach at Clemson, Dabo Swinney hasn’t lost much. It’s a credit to the dominant program that he’s built since he took over in 2008. That’s also why the loss to Duke, including the manner in which Clemson lost to Duke, was so surprising.

After the game, Swinney compared Monday night’s loss to Duke to the other ones in his career.

“They’re all disappointing,” Dabo Swinney said. “Every loss I’ve ever had is disappointing. They’re all disappointing. You hate to lose, certainly, this is a bad way to start.”

The box score for Clemson’s loss to Duke is a strange one. In the end, Duke won the game by three scores but Clemson led the game in categories like passing yards, rushing yards, and first downs. However, thanks to turnovers and frustrating red zone possessions, Clemson failed to finish several drives.

“But again, they’re a good football team. You’re not entitled to win, you’ve got to go earn it. And we had plenty of opportunities to get control of that game on multiple occasions and we just didn’t. That’s how you get beat. How do you have 108-0 and then you lose one? Well, okay, crazy stuff happens. Turnovers, blocked kicks, miscues on some basic, basic stuff early in the game. … There’s nothing we can do about it now other than try to go get a win this week and see if we can put some good momentum together.”

Dabo Swinney is 161-40 as the head coach at Clemson and 99-19 in ACC play. Clemson hasn’t lost more than three games in a season since 2011. In the time since then, Swinney has led Clemson to two national championships with four total championship game appearances.

Dabo Swinney’s transfer portal usage magnified the loss to Duke

Dabo Swinney has made it clear in the past that he’s not interested in using the transfer portal to bring in multiple players from outside the program. It’s an approach that On3’s Andy Staples thinks will be magnified by the loss to Duke.

“The portal stubbornness is the key thing right here. This is what we keep coming back to is Dabo not adjusting to today’s college football,” Staples said after the game.

“One of the things we’ve noticed about Clemson the last few years is an inability for receivers to separate. Remember, this is a program that had the best of the best receivers. [DeAndre] Hopkins, Sammy Watkins, Mike Williams, Tee Higgins. They haven’t had a dynamic receiver like that in quite a while.”