‘It’s a Blood Sport;’ Dabo Swinney on the chaotic college coaching era

CLEMSON, S.C. (FOX Carolina) – College football has always moved fast. The transfer portal and NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) era turned roster construction into year-by-year free agency. But this season, the instability has shifted somewhere else; the head coaching offices.

And not at the margins. Some of the most secure jobs in the sport suddenly aren’t.

Penn State moved on from James Franklin less than a year removed from making the College Football Playoff semifinals. LSU parted ways with Brian Kelly this week. Florida and Arkansas have already made midseason changes of their own.

Add UCLA, Virginia Tech and Oklahoma State to the list, and the scale becomes hard to ignore.

Four of the 25 highest-valued programs in the country currently do not have permanent head coaches.

The coaching carousel isn’t spinning. It’s lurching.

Clemson Football Head Coach Dabo Swinney wasn’t surprised by the trend.

“It’s kind of a crazy world, but it’s the world we live in,” Swinney said in his Tuesday press conference aired live on FOX Carolina. “You know, it’s like a blood sport. People love to see people get fired. There’s a part of society that likes to see that.”

Swinney is now the second-winningest active coach in college football after Kelly’s exit.

Yet Clemson is in the midst of a stretch that has raised questions of its own.

The Tigers have already hit four losses for the third-straight season—something that would have been unthinkable during the program’s national title runs in 2016 and 2018.

Swinney didn’t pretend past success guarantees anything for the future.

“I’m very fortunate here because I’ve been the head coach 17 years,” he said. “That doesn’t mean (anything). They could get rid of me tomorrow. You’ve got to win. There are a lot of really good coaches who have won a bunch of games that are losing jobs.”

Which brings Clemson to a familiar question; How much patience is enough?

Clemson has long taken pride in operating differently.

Stability and continuity have been foundational elements of the program’s identity. Swinney pointed to former head coach Frank Howard, after whom the Tigers’ field is named, who started 1-3 or worse eleven times. But that was before the modern pressure cycle.

“I probably won’t get 11. I probably wouldn’t get three,” Swinney said, “Clemson people are very loyal, committed people. They’re certainly very patient with me.”

There is truth there.

Clemson has rarely reacted to short-term swings. The program’s rise was built on culture, development and a consistent internal standard.

But the broader sport has changed. Faster roster turnover. Faster expectations. Faster firings.

So the real question isn’t whether Clemson believes in its model. It’s whether that model can still thrive in a climate that increasingly rewards immediate payoff.

Swinney has won at the highest level. Twice.

Only two active coaches have multiple national championships; Swinney and Georgia’s Kirby Smart. That kind of resume gives Swinney a margin, but not immunity.

Because the environment around the program is evolving, expectations shift. Comparisons grow louder. And results are judged more quickly than ever.

The carousel isn’t slowing down.

And no one—not even the coaches who once looked like fixtures—is immune to the current speed of the sport.

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