Clemson’s slow start to the 2025 season continued Saturday. Just a couple of weeks after losing at home to LSU and struggling to put away unranked Troy, the Tigers faltered again on the road against Georgia Tech.
Clemson trailed 13-0 for most of the first half until Cade Klubnik connected on a short touchdown pass to cut the deficit. The Tigers briefly took their first lead when Klubnik hit Bryant Wesco Jr. for a 73-yard score.
Even after tying the game at 21 with 3:26 remaining, Clemson’s defense couldn’t hold. Haynes King and the Yellow Jackets’ offense closed it out, handing the Tigers their second loss in three weeks.
At 1-2, Clemson’s College Football Playoff hopes appear all but gone unless the Tigers run the table and win the ACC.
The result is certain to fuel more questions about head coach Dabo Swinney and his future with the program. Swinney, who has led Clemson since 2008 and delivered two national championships, is facing one of his most difficult stretches. Some around college football are beginning to wonder whether this could be the beginning of the end for his tenure.
Here’s a closer look at whether Clemson might consider moving on from Swinney—and who could be in line to replace him.
More: Who is Brent Key? Get to know the Georgia Tech head coach that knocked off Clemson
Would Clemson fire Dabo Swinney?
It’s an interesting question to be asking this early in the season, especially for a program like Clemson. The reality is that Dabo Swinney is not likely to be fired anytime soon.
This was a tough road test for any team, let alone Clemson. Credit goes to Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key, who is building something impressive with the Yellow Jackets. Key is currently 7-1 against ranked ACC opponents and notched notable upsets last season over Miami and North Carolina, both ranked inside the Top 25 at the time.
Clemson didn’t completely fall flat in this loss. The Tigers overcame an early deficit but ultimately fell victim to Key’s ground-and-pound, clock-draining offense late in the game. While Tech is unranked, it remains a difficult road opponent and a surging ACC program.
Clemson is unlikely to move on from Swinney this week, but the slow start does raise questions. The Tigers are 1-2 for the first time since 2014, and the path forward could determine whether this season turns into one of the worst under Swinney’s tenure.
The schedule does provide opportunities. Clemson faces just two remaining ranked opponents: No. 10 Florida State on Nov. 8 and No. 11 South Carolina on Nov. 29. Still, there are challenging road trips to North Carolina (Oct. 4) and Boston College (Oct. 11). The Tigers also host SMU on Oct. 18, a team that nearly beat them in last year’s ACC title game, and travel to Louisville on Nov. 14, where they lost at home last season.
The roster has the talent to recover from this slow start. However, if results don’t improve, speculation about Swinney’s future will only grow louder. Clemson has not won fewer than nine games in a season since 2010, when the Tigers finished 6-7. A season that mirrors that kind of downturn could be enough to spark a change for the first time in decades.
More: Dabo Swinney contract buyout explained
What is Dabo Swinney's buyout?
As one of college football's highest-paid head coaches, Swinney's buyout is pretty stiff. Swinney's buyout in 2025 is reportedly $60 million, which is the same figure from 2024. His current contract with the Tigers, signed in 2022, was a new 10-year deal.
What is Dabo Swinney's record?
Swinney is 181-48 overall as a head coach. He's won a pair of national titles in 2016 and 2018, including five CFP appearances. He is 2-2 in national championship games, losing to Alabama in 2015 and LSU in 2019.
His 181 all-time wins ranks third amongst active FBS head coaches, behind Iowa's Kirk Ferentz (205) and LSU's Brian Kelly (197).
Although his record is impressive, Clemson hasn't been a powerhouse like it has been in recent years. Clemson barely made the playoff last season—thanks to Miami losing to Syracuse, the Tigers went to the ACC title game instead. In their first playoff appearance since 2021, Clemson fell 38-24 against Texas in the first round, and didn't look too competitive throughout.
The Tigers haven't advanced past the first round since the 2019-20 season. Until last season, Clemson hadn't played in the ACC title game since 2022, and the Tigers were already out of the CFP hunt by that point anyway.
Swinney has also been one of the few modern college football head coaches to resist two of the sport's biggest changes— utilizing the transfer portal and using NIL to build recruiting classes. He has since done a complete 180 on both of those aspects, while promising to invest heavily in NIL, and even landing a pair of transfer-portal players this past recruiting cycle.
There are still a lot of games left to be played, and there's no question that Swinney has been counted out before. But if this season gos downhill much further, Clemson making a change for the first time in decades doesn't seem too far-fetched.
Who would be in line to replace Swinney at Clemson?
The college football coaching carousel is always spinning, and there are a number of names that could be linked to the Clemson job. For starters, the bigger names like Ole Miss' Lane Kiffin and Oregon's Dan Lanning would likely be considered.
But there are others out there—would Clemson try and go after the coach that just beat the Tigers in Brent Key? Maybe! It's hard to see Key, a GT alumnus himself, leaving for a rival ACC program, but with the resources that Clemson has, my guess is he'd at least consider it.
One name that Clemson would absolutely come back to is Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables. Venables was one of Swinney's most revered assistants, hired by him in 2012.
He spent 10 seasons with the Tigers, and was elevated to associate head coach at Clemson in 2018. Several considered him to be Clemson's next head coach if Swinney were to leave for Alabama. Venables left Clemson for Oklahoma in 2021, and the head coach is 24-17 over the last four seasons in Norman as the Sooners have struggled to find their footing in the SEC in recent years. to take the head coach
Speaking of continuity, Clemson elevate someone already on-staff with the Tigers, like it did with Swinney. The biggest name is likely Tigers offensive coordinator Garret Riley, the younger brother of USC head coach Lincoln Riley.
