Paul Finebaum on latest Clemson, Dabo Swinney loss: 'Who cares?'

Things have changed quite a bit for Dabo Swinney and Clemson since their heyday of competing for national championships. Paul Finebaum, who’s been fed up with the Swinney era, has now switched to apathy with Clemson. The Tigers fell 20-16 to Virginia Tech at home Saturday and are now 4-3 on the season. In fact, Clemson had a 16-10 lead going into the fourth quarter and found a way to lose this one, typical of the current iteration of the program. $19.99 gets you a FULL year of On3 | Rivals national coverage “I’ll just mention Dabo one more time. But there was a time when a Dabo Swinney loss was treated the same way as a Nick Saban loss,” Finebaum said on The Matt Barrie Show. “I mean, it sent shivers. And now it’s like, okay, was that three? Was that four? And who cares?” Tait Reynolds was essentially the entire offense on Saturday. The quarterback was 20-of-26 passing for 153 yards and ran for 63 yards and a touchdown. But without a score in the fourth quarter, Swinney and Clemson were left thinking how that one got away. “The story of the game was critical missed opportunities on offense,” Swinney said postgame. “I thought our defense played their tails off. They played tough, played physical. They (VT) were averaging 37 points a game coming in. We held them to 20 I thought we did enough on defense and special teams to win the game. You win as a team, you lose as a team, and there’s always a few plays. … But just nowhere near good enough (on offense).” Swinney blamed himself and his coaching staff for the lack of offense in the fourth quarter and for, essentially, switching up on how Reynolds and crew operated against the Hokies down the stretch. “Tait (Reynolds) was 77% in the game and at one point had 13 straight completions and did some good things, but I didn’t think we did enough as coaches to help him win the game, and that’s our job,” Swinney said. “He’s a young player, and I feel like we have to be better at helping him. … We came out in the second half and we took some of those things away. We took the reads away. We just had some direct runs. It was very effective.” Swinney is now 11-9 since the start of the 2025 season. Clemson is just two years removed from an ACC title and their 7th College Football Playoff appearance. But with where the team is now, that’s a far cry for the program.