Paul Finebaum blasts Dabo Swinney for being ‘stuck on stupid’ over defense of Clemson resume: ‘They’re not great anymore’

One of the biggest disappointments of the 2025 college football season had to be Dabo Swinney‘s Clemson Tigers. Clemson opened the season ranked No. 4 in the AP Poll, led by preseason Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback Cade Klubnik. It however dropped its season opener (at home) to No. 9 LSU, and then opened ACC play with an 0-2 record following losses to Georgia Tech and Syracuse. The Tigers finished with a 7-6 record with their loss to an interim head coach-led Penn State team in the Pinstripe Bowl, marking the first time they failed to win eight games in a season since 2010 (6-7). At ACC Media Days, Swinney took time to remind everyone about how much success he’s enjoyed at Clemson, along with taking on an underdog role of sorts. “You know, we’ve had 15 winning seasons, 13 ten-plus win seasons, 14 nine-plus win seasons,” Swinney said. “We’ve won 11 championships in the last 15 years, and then you have a season like last year, and that’s kind of what everybody wants to focus on, and I get that. We earned that. “This year, ain’t none of y’all going to pick us. Ain’t none of y’all going to say anything good about us. I’ve been dead. I’m gone. I think I’m still here, all right? But it’s not about that either. It never has been. If it was about what people predicted, I would have been gone a long time ago. All right? It’s about what you do. That’s what it’s about. You know, we didn’t do the football stuff well enough last year. You know, we got everything we need. We don’t make any excuses. We’re going to get what we earn this year. That’s what we’re focused on, doing what it takes to earn the results that we want.” Paul Finebaum calls out Dabo Swinney for being ‘stuck on stupid’ It’s safe to say that Swinney’s comments did not sit well with ESPN’s Paul Finebaum, who called out the Clemson coach on Friday morning’s edition of Get Up. “I am getting so exasperated listening to Dabo tell us how great he used to be. They’re not great anymore,” Finebaum said. “You don’t hear [Tom] Brady talking about his Super Bowls. Dabo is just stuck on stupid right now trying to convince us that his program is still legitimate. It’s not. It’s slipping and sliding away. It’s good. Maybe they’ll win nine games this year or maybe they won’t. But, they lost six games last year with the Heisman favorite (Cade Klubnik). That is downright embarrassing.” Since Clemson‘s last one-loss season in 2019, the program is 57-22 over the last six seasons. This has resulted in just one College Football Playoff appearance (2024) after the program made five consecutive appearances in the four-team CFP from 2015-2019. Over the last three seasons in particular, Clemson is just 26-14 (65%). That’s as many losses in three seasons as Clemson suffered in total from 2012-2020 (14). It will take a strong bounce back performance from the program this season, led by first-year starting quarterback Christopher Vizzina, to truly re-establish the Tigers as once again being one of college football’s most important brands.