Dabo Swinney responds to idea roster-building cost Clemson: 'Ridiculous'

Dabo Swinney has been at the center of the firestorm of criticism from the Clemson Tiger fan base, after their lopsided Monday night defeat to the Duke Blue Devils in Durham. Many fans are unhappy with Swinney’s inability to adjust to the modern times in college football and utilize the transfer portal to upgrade his roster.

On Wednesday evening, Swinney held a press conference and slammed the idea that his method of roster building cost the Clemson program.

“I don’t have any reaction to that I think that’s ridiculous,” Swinney began. “That had nothing to do with us getting beat by Duke on Monday night. What cost us the game the other night was being first and goal at the one –twice — and getting nothing. Down inside the five a third time and getting nothing. That ain’t got anything to do with that. Whatever narrative you want to create, that’s fine. We’ll keep on keeping on.”

As On3’s Andy Staples noted, Clemson’s offense did some good things against Duke. However, the bad outweighed the good, which is why he disagreed with Swinney’s assessment of the situation.

“I’d say yes. If you average 5.3 yards a carry for the rest of the year, that’s great. But if you average [4.9] yards a pass attempt — which you averaged on Monday against Duke — you will definitely not win every game this year,” Staples said on Andy Staples On3. “You will not go 11-1. One thing, Duke may not be the best defense you play. Mike Elko, great defensive tactician, and Duke’s talent has obviously been upgraded in the Elko era. So, they are one of the better teams that Clemson will play.

“But in terms of defense right now, Florida State, NC State, Notre Dame, probably more talented on defense than Duke. I mean, almost definitely more talented on defense than Duke. Miami, probably more talented than Duke on defense. This is not going to be easy for them. That doesn’t make any sense.”

Andy Staples: There’s ‘a lot of work to be done at Clemson’

Clemson’s road to a strong end of the season isn’t an easy one. The Tigers have multiple ranked teams on their schedule, including Florida State and Notre Dame. They also have strong defenses — even better than Duke’s.

So while Staples said Clemson can prove everyone wrong, it might be asking a lot of the struggling offense.

“Maybe Dabo’s right. Maybe they go 11-1 for the rest of the season. I just, I can’t see it,” Staples said. “It is very hard to imagine based on what we saw at the end of the game the other night with Duke just ramming the ball down Clemson’s throat. That was probably the most shocking part of it. I was at the Florida State-LSU game on Sunday, and it was very similar to how Florida State did LSU in the second half where it kept going and going and getting worse and worse, and then at the end, Florida State was just roaring through LSU. And that’s the same thing Duke was doing to Clemson, which is stunning to see because Clemson’s defense just doesn’t let that happen very often.

“So, a lot of work to be done at Clemson, and I get that Dabo needs to stay positive and keep his team up and maybe he’s ripping them behind the scenes, and trying to put a good face on it for the public. But no. What they did the other night will not be good enough. It will not win them the rest of their games. It’s just that simple.”

Clemson will look to rebound against Charleston Southern in Week 2. That one is slated for Saturday, Sept. 9. Kick off time is slotted for 2:15 PM EST. The game will be televised on ACC Network.

On3’s Nick Schultz also contributed to this article.