Dan Patrick has joined the growing number of voices who have been critical of Clemson coach Dabo Swinney in the wake of the Tigers’ 34-3 loss to Georgia on Saturday.
Swinney’s approach to the transfer portal (or lack thereof, more accurately) has long been under fire, but it’s become a key point for college football fans and media who are analyzing Clemson’s downfall in the portal era.
On Tuesday, Patrick compared Swinney to legendary Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski but with one key difference: Krzyzewski chose to adapt to the times rather than stay stuck in his ways. In his case, it was the decision to recruit one-and-done players who would be quickly moving on the NBA.
Swinney, so far, has shown no such ability to evolve — which caused Patrick to refer to him as the “flip phone of college football” during a segment on Tuesday.
“He needs to evolve,” Patrick said. “He may not like it … it’s like modern technology. I don’t have a flip phone. But there’s modern technology that makes things easier for me. I would have a flip phone [but] it doesn’t make any sense. Dabo is the flip phone of college football right now. You just, you’ve got to evolve.
“They may be great the rest of the year, but [the Georgia game] was against the best team. And you used to be right there. You were one of the best teams. Four years ago, we lumped you in with all of the elite teams. Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Clemson. Not anymore. And it has to do with evolving.”
Here’s video of Patrick’s segment on Clemson:
“Dabo Swinney is the flip phone of College Football… You just gotta evolve.”
-DP thinks it’s time that Dabo embraces the transfer portal pic.twitter.com/eiRgqALm1A
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) September 3, 2024
Clemson will look to get into the win column against App State in Week 2.
Attention DFS fans! Here’s a Sleeper Fantasy promo code that will earn you a deposit match of up to $100 when you sign up!
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
