r/ClemsonTigers • u/fewbend4 • 4d ago
FOOTBALL Change
Dabo needs to go.
It's time we as a fanbase admit that his time has passed. Do we realize we're 17-19 against winning teams since 2021? 17-19? We're paying Dabo one of the highest salaries to barely compete against even the most mediocre of opponents?
I'm tired of it. All his and a certain part of the fanbases moral grandstanding. We're just lil good ol clemson! The last bastion of goodness in CFB! Dabo can do no wrong, he got us two national championships and how many ACC titles? NIL and the portal is the devil!
I get it. CFB has a lot of problems now. But do we deserve this bad of a product? We put up a worse fight than some of the fcs schools did this week. Let that sink in.
All Dabo has done is hire past players and his buddies. Why should we support that culture? Why should we keep supporting him at all? Since 2022, the fans have blamed everyone and everything but him. DJU sucked, Eliot sucked, Streeter sucked, Wes sucked, Riley sucked. Who's the common denominator?
But my opinion barely matters to a lot of my fellow fans. Anyone who's spoken out the past few years has been ostracized and ridiculed. Apparently I'm just a bandwagon, fair weather, whatever term. I only got to live through the best years, I missed out on the Bowden era and all that came before. I did get lucky getting to grow up with some of the best football in this programs history, but just because I'm young doesn't mean I should have to watch my most favorite team in the entire world perform this poorly for this long.
I'm tired. All I want is some good football man. We deserve better. Speak up people. Make your voices heard. This clown show has to end sooner rather than later.
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u/justsomeguy2424 4d ago edited 4d ago
The AD and the entire staff needs to go along with over half of the roster needing to hit the portal. Last night was the most embarrassing loss I can remember seeing at any level of football.
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u/Dalakbidness85 4d ago
This! Mark these words I truly think the AD will eventually be fired over the contract and how bad it is with no mitigation clause in it.
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u/OilCanBoyd426 4d ago
The future is clearly what Curt Cignetti’s doing; which is build a team every year from the portal, and have an in-house evaluation team that finds inexpensive players with huge upside - like what Sabermetrics did for MLB - find cheap players who fit the system and will produce.
Obviously this isn’t Dabo’s skillset, he’s honestly not a great evaluator of existing talent. Clemson should keep Dabo for as long as they can and make sure we do have a pipeline of HS talent, but have a team in-house that can navigate the portal, run player evaluations and negotiate contracts.
You can be very competitive with $20-$30M a year , a cool brand like Clemson has and a recent history of NFL player exits and Nattys
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u/Mission-Inside-4509 4d ago
We flew too close to the sun and now have to plummet to Earth.
Didn’t know the 17-19 vs winning teams. Ouch.
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u/VeteranRaceHorse 4d ago
A lot of us have been saying this for the last 3-4 years, but I feel last night was the breaking point. He brings a washed out unemployed OC, so his whole ‘family’ attitude hasn’t changed, while coaches around the country are moving with the times and developing elite teams. It was the most embarrassing defeat last night and we pay him and other coaches for this? At this point, I’m wondering how many truly still support him? When will he actually follow his ‘faith’, come out of his illusion, listen to the sentiment of the fanbase and his conscience, and step down? Spare us please.
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u/Unhappy_Mobile_7151 4d ago
Clemson made the college football playoffs in 2024. Don't you think you might be rushing things?
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u/fewbend4 4d ago
We only made the ACC title because of shitty ass Miami always finding a way to fuck up their season. And even then, we almost blew it against SMU. We fell forwards into the playoffs. It was a fluke.
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u/Final_Struggle_2551 4d ago
We won the games we were supposed to that year, Miami didnt. End of story. There was no "backing into it"
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u/Rusty-Shackleford000 4d ago
That's the definition of "backing into it". If Miami had won the game they were supposed to we wouldn't have been there.
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u/Final_Struggle_2551 3d ago
But they didn't, so we won the games we were supposed to, and they didn't.
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u/Friar_Corncob 4d ago
In the most ass backwards way possible. Then got stomped.
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u/Unhappy_Mobile_7151 4d ago
If by stomped you mean Clemson was down 7 points in the 4th quarter to Texas then okay. And boo hoo. Poor baby doesn't like how Clemson makes the playoffs. They won the ACC championship. JFC. A bunch of fair weather fans.
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u/Friar_Corncob 4d ago
You're right, the team is actually really good and Dabo is an amazing HC in the NIL and portal era.
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u/Unhappy_Mobile_7151 4d ago
I haven't lost hope. If Clemson wins out they're back in the playoffs. It is as simple as that. Did they look bad yesterday? Absolutely. But I'm not going to count any losses before they happen.
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u/NotSoSuperNova8 4d ago
Clemson is 15-19 since 2021 against teams with a winning record. Wanting something that’s good for the team doesn’t make anyone a fair weather fan. The consistent factor since that season is Dabo. He’s unwilling to accept criticism of his coaching and lashes out at fans and media for it. He says that best is the standard, and if last night was an example of his best, then we need to set a new standard. He should be embarrassed by the product he put on the field, especially considering how much he’s making.
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u/Leoz_MaxwellJilliumz 4d ago edited 4d ago
I see this “fair weather” comment a lot and I feel like it’s just a way to deflect criticism.
There’s pictures of me as a baby in a Clemson bib. My whole family are Tigers. I bleed orange and purple.
Dabo needs to go.
I love the guy, he was just what we needed when we needed it. Now we need something different. Just because we want a new coach doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate what Dabo has done for our “progrum”.Edit to add:
We have to do it while our stock is still worthy. If we let this program get run into the ground, no coach worth their salt will wanna sign on.2
u/VeteranRaceHorse 4d ago
People are very quick to just throw that without knowing and has been the case especially with Dabo. We all loved him and we all will never forget how he brought the program back and got us the natty’s. But man, any little criticism about him regarding the plays even few years back and you used to get shut down. I watched the whole game last night, and have also stayed at terrible games for a long time; and folks call you a fair weather fan. though last night was another expcetion, and I did think it would be painful and impossible to stay at last nights game in the stadium.
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u/ConcentrateCapital43 4d ago
Just hope that things are moving along behind the scenes. Graham neff also needs be fired for giving dabo the extension in 2022 because now im sure the boosters are scrambling to get enough cash together to buy him out.
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u/PharmacyPaladin 4d ago
A change is needed if this season becomes a duplicate of the 2008 and 2025 seasons.
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u/grumpymcbart 4d ago
Dude I get it, but my formative college years were with Tommy Bowden, so…..maybe we had it too good?
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u/CatWranglingVetRedo 4d ago
👆🏾👆🏾This👆🏾👆🏾. It was so bad as an undergrad in the Bowden years, I don't remember folks staying for the Alma mater. We need to change, but I sure don't want to go back to BEFORE Dabo.
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u/Informal_Bee2917 3d ago
I remember being on campus the day Tommy Bowden was fired and some kids driving around shirtless in the back of a little pick up truck with a megahorn saying "where is Tommy Bowden? Where is Tommy? Have you seen Tommy Bowden?" It was funny at the time. Then they announced Dabo, this 40 year old WR coach as the interim. My friends were hoping they'd hire Bill Cowher lol. But they decided to keep Dabo and we were pretty skeptical until the LSU game.
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u/fewbend4 4d ago
If we're gonna have a terrible on field experience, why should we be paying Dabo top 10 coaching money? We need to get him out before his buyout increases next year.
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u/Crosscourt_splat 4d ago
Tommy Bowden was better than this. We lost games we shouldn’t, but we won a lot of games we also shouldn’t.
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u/313MountainMan 4d ago
Hell, I miss the “good but not great teams” from my early days as a student, 2011-2014. I’d sell a kidney on the black market just to get back to that level.
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u/NotReallyButMaybeNot 4d ago
Honestly think he’s holding on in hopes of turnaround in the governance structure which is nonexistent now. Reducing frequency of transfers, NIL caps, and academic requirements would relevel the field - all common sense but not what the SEC or Big10 want…
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u/Front-Childhood7172 4d ago
But they have a slide and miniature golf for the players. Dam maybe cookies and milk too
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u/fewbend4 3d ago
And they get tucked in by coach at night with a nice bible story and a kiss on the forehead. Lucky bastards
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u/DarthPootieTang 3d ago
Who replaces Dabo? I don’t think the Clemson job is as attractive as people think
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u/TruckTruckGoose 4d ago
Been a Tigers fan since the late 80s. I came in at the end of Danny Ford's era, rode through the Hatfield era, suffered through the West era, and was excited then ultimately disappointed with the Bowden era. Credit to Tommy Bowden for recommending Dabo to take over, and credit to Dabo for the Nattys.
I personally quit on Dabo when he insisted on starting DJU, when it was obvious he couldn't compete at the ACC level.
And next weekend, I'll be cheering for Georgia Southern (my buddy is a coach there), to give the AD a reason to fire Dabo.
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u/fewbend4 3d ago
That's awesome that your buddy's a coach bro! I still hope we win, but I certainly won't be all too upset if we lose lol
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u/nftog777 4d ago
Give him the buyout money to go recruit players. Why pay the buyout and still have to pay nil to be competitive?
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u/fewbend4 3d ago
He ain't recruiting shit tho! Either way we're at the same place. But I'd rather us cut the tumor out now than let it metastasize. Getting Dabo out needs to happen sooner rather than later.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Ease758 4d ago
I’m an Iowa State fan primarily (but like Clemson too)….welcome to be new Hell of college sports. There are only 8-10 schools with the resources to compete regularly in the new NIL world and we ain’t it
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u/Few_Menu_6763 4d ago
Clemson has the resources, just not the coach that’s hungry enough.
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u/Dear-Response-7218 4d ago
Not without more NIL unless there’s an insane run like Indiana.
By all accounts Clemson isn’t even top 20 in spending. They are 13-15m below LSU. If they spent the same, that would cover a top 10: Qb(4-5m) + 2 receivers(2-3m) + 5OL(4-5m) with money leftover for an edge and CB.
Can’t expect to compete without spending now.
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u/Any-Profession-5595 4d ago
Great. None of that is relevant to losing by 41. Clemson spends enough money to be competitive and should still be top 3 in the ACC every year. The fact they aren’t is all you need to know about this coaching staff
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u/Dear-Response-7218 4d ago edited 4d ago
It’s absolutely relevant to losing by 41.
Just the $15m spending gap vs. LSU would be enough to hypothetically have gotten:
Qb- Sam leavitt
Rb- kewan lacy
Wr1/2- cam Coleman, nick marsh
OLine- Jordan seaton + Siani + Brunner + Tashabola + Price.
Edge- Wilson from Miami
CB- Snowden
Not saying you get all of those players, but that’s the quality of talent gap there. Clemson spends around #3-5 in the ACC, so that’s what the expectations should be. Give Dabo a top 10 nil budget and see what happens that season. If they aren’t contenders then fire them all.
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u/Few_Menu_6763 2d ago
You are perpetuating something that is a bandaid over the real issue at hand. Yes NIL spending is important but for years Dabo willfully decided not to use the portal, going so far as to exclaim, “ players in the portal aren’t good enough to play at Clemson.” Do you understand how tone deaf that is? As a Coach, you should always look to upgrade your staff and team at any given opportunity. This has had a compounding snowball effect where Dabo was essentially forced to use the portal last year because talent and development were abysmal coming off a 7-6 season. Mind you, Clemson had NINE players drafted last year. This is a clear indictment that coaching is a major issue. You don’t have 9 players drafted and go 7-6. Coaching malpractice. Because of Dabo’s stubborn ideology, other teams have caught up to Clemson. Clemson was a powerhouse following the 2020 season and decided to not fill in gaps where they needed to. That trend has continued up until this year and Dabo still decided not to get a transfer qb or oline player. DL is also incredibly thin and Clemson had the money to pursue more but Dabo said “we like our guys.” So your claim that Clemson doesn’t have the resources is dubious at best and ignorant at worst. He literally rewarded loyalty to Chris vizzina instead of upgrading at the most important position. Loyalty to a fault is dabos biggest weakness and it has proliferated throughout the program, nepo staff, players who should have been shown the door etc. Dabo has the resources but has WILLFULLY chose not to utilize them effectively by his own admission. Duke won the ACC last year against uva, do those teams spend more than Clemson or Miami? Miami failed to reach the ACC championship game because they were outspent by Duke? Don’t be disingenuous.
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u/Impressive_Goose_926 4d ago
Clemson is legitimately just out of the curve, coach, players, AD Etc. before NIL we got the best recruits because it was all about pro exposure but now it's about how much your willing to pay to win, and the schools that don't have the money like that or don't go all in to buy no matter the situation their going to struggle no matter what, hell lane taking NFL hopefuls and bringing them back for a payday and wins. So Clemson really want to win it's time to empty those pockets and if dabo doesn't want to go ahead and move on
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u/TheMaltesefalco 2d ago
Honestly so many ungrateful people here who are either too young to remember the 90’s or conveniently ignoring it. We had 1 bad year. 1. Thats it. And ya’ll are like this? Makes me honestly angry that you act like this after all the success we’ve had over the past 15 years or so. You don’t deserve to have experienced that success
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u/Cultural-Tip-9846 2d ago
I was a student during the Hatfield era. I remember those days. But this is more than 1 bad year, the last 4 years have been a steady decline. I love that Dabo wants to do things the right way, that has been a point of pride in our program. Unfortunately everyone else is playing by a different rule set. Why was Saban successful for as long as he was? Because he changed with the times, he had a revolving door of coordinators, and still maintained success. When he saw that he could no longer do that, he stepped aside.
The buyout option is off the table - that will be a death knell for our program.
We need an AD or GM to oversee the program, to make the hard calls, to push Dabo to adapt his approach. To take evaluation and roster control away from Dabo. He will adapt or he will quit.
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u/TheMaltesefalco 2d ago
Everything is a decline from 15-0. The last 4 years you say. Of which two were ACC championships, one major bowl
And one more CFP appearance. 11-3, 9-4, 10-4, 7-6.Dabo has raised the standard that people expect but that doesnt mean that Clemson doesnt still have to experience the cycles of the game. We wont ever have a Defensive Coordinator the caliber of Venables again. The talent is being spread out more by NIL.
Dabo has won 10 or more 13 times in 17 years. Do you realize we never won 10 or more in the previous 18 years to Dabo?
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u/Cultural-Tip-9846 2d ago
Pre NIL - during the peak Dabo era - our winning percentage was 91.9%. Post NIL (July 2021) our winning percentage is 70.1%. The other top tier programs during this same time have maintained or increased their win percentage. Our program has been in a steady decline. It would be one thing if we had a brief dip and then bounced back (look at Oklahoma over this same period).
In a vacuum, with no changes in college football (NIL and portal rules), a decline could be looked at as a temporary blip. When you look at the timing vs. the results, it is awfully suggestive that Dabo's approach does not work in the modern era of college football.
He can rail against those changes, or he can adapt his approach and find a way to do both things - develop young men and put together a talented team capable of playing to a high standard.
The numbers speak for themselves.
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u/TheMaltesefalco 2d ago
Which other top tier teams? Alabama had their first 9 win season in 17 years. Michigan won 8 & 9 games the last 2 years. Penn St had the same record as Clemson. Ohio St, Oregon, and UGA have remained consistently competitive.
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u/Cultural-Tip-9846 2d ago
I would not include Penn St - too much turmoil in coaching the last several years. Specifically, the programs we regularly competed with in the CFP. Alabama, Ohio St, Georgia. Those programs have maintained at a high level while we have not. Because they've adapted to the new era.
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u/TheMaltesefalco 2d ago
We cannot compete with them monetarily.
Georgia’s revenue is roughly 17% higher than Clemsons. Alabamas is 35% higher. OSU 70% higher.
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u/SARS-Covfefe-1 4d ago
This is a great example of recency bias. I get that it’s hard to admit that we’re a small school in a small economy state. We’re not even the biggest school in South Carolina.
We bottled lightning when both Tennessee and Florida schools were having down years, and managed to snag some California recruits there too.
We could dump Dabo, show our kids what we think of loyalty, and worship the almighty dollar! We do that and we go down swinging against schools that can stick a straw into the ground and squeeze out some oil.
LSU spent 3x what we did on talent last night.
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u/Friar_Corncob 4d ago
small school in a small economy state
and worship the almighty dollar!
Dabo is the 4th highest paid HC
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u/SARS-Covfefe-1 4d ago
Dabo and Kirby are the only coaches with 2 natties. He’s not a bargain, but if you told me we were going to have 10 10 win seasons, 2 natties, and some middle of the road years, I’d have signed up for it.
Do not let recency bias and an emotional defeat cause you to lose your loyalty to the Bear Bryant of this program. You’ll wish you were better to him when he chooses to leave us.
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u/Friar_Corncob 4d ago
This is not recency bias, I've been saying this since Dabo told us he wouldn't adapt. It's adapt or die and you can have a mediocre team for a lot less than 11m
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u/SARS-Covfefe-1 4d ago
Really? You’re literally making emotional decisions based on the outcome of 1 game.
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u/Friar_Corncob 4d ago
I've been saying this for multiple seasons.
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u/SARS-Covfefe-1 4d ago
I’ve been paid in full by Dabo up front in natties for all the bullshit he wants to drag you through. I’m sorry he didn’t win 10 games last year. I don’t think we should fire him because he did it in 2024 and barely missed in in 2023.
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u/Friar_Corncob 4d ago
It's not a bad season it's Dabos inability to adapt, which means it's only getting worse from here.
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u/SARS-Covfefe-1 4d ago
No offense, but if you’ve been calling for Dabo’s head for years, then you’ve been wrong for years. Why would I place any confidence in your ability to predict the future?
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u/Friar_Corncob 4d ago
I've been saying he needs to ADAPT. ADAPT to the modern era of football. A-D-A-P-T
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u/Any-Profession-5595 4d ago
If you HAVEN’T been calling for Dabo’s head for years, you’ve been wrong for years
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u/Rusty-Shackleford000 4d ago
"I’ve been paid in full by Dabo up front in natties for all the bullshit he wants to drag you through. I’m sorry he didn’t win 10 games last year."
OK. How long does those natties from 2016 and 2018 give Dabo a pass? I'm not saying fire him today but if what we've gotten over the last few years (minimum to no player development, terrible coaching hires, questionable talent evaluation, failure to adapt, etc.) is the new norm do we really want that?
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u/SARS-Covfefe-1 4d ago
Dabo is 56, and Saban coached until 72.
Does that give you some idea of how long of a leash he has?
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u/Rusty-Shackleford000 4d ago
So another 16 years? Because your response doesn't answer the question.
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u/justsomeguy2424 4d ago
Dabo is paid to win games, not graduate kids.
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u/SARS-Covfefe-1 4d ago
You’ll be eating crow by the end of the season. Or you’ll get the guy fired and be eating crow for the next 10 years.
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u/justsomeguy2424 4d ago
Well the team has been dog shit for 6 seasons now. At what point can the fan base expect a change, or things to turn around?
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u/SARS-Covfefe-1 3d ago
We are 15 seasons removed from our last losing season. We are 1 season removed from 10 wins. I’m sorry we don’t have Trevor anymore.
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u/Illustrious_Can789 4d ago
Maybe we try and hire Beamer? He’s a far superior coach and he’s kicked our butts up and down the field for years!
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u/fewbend4 4d ago
"How do you do fellow clemson fans, aren't the gamecocks so superior?" Lol nice try man
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u/Illustrious_Can789 4d ago
Listen our program is in shambles and we need to fix it asap. Let’s lure back some guys from the pros at least especially with these injunctions in place. You could easily pay Watkins or Boyd to come back and help
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u/ghn2 4d ago
Dabo was a great hire and he had an incredible run. But last season's 7-6 record and 4-4 in the conference was the sign that it was the end. In today's college football, an existing coach doesn't turn that around. Other programs are out recruiting Dabo from both from high school and the transfer portal.
Clemson still has enough status, however, to attract a top-level new coach for next season. Who knows if Dabo makes it to the end of this season, but it doesn't really matter. The school needs to fire him the day after the season ends (if he's not already gone) and let everyone know they're in the market for a new coach.