Paul Finebaum calls out Dabo Swinney: ‘Dabo is just stuck on stupid right now’
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Paul Finebaum doesn’t want to hear it anymore from Dabo Swinney, and he said so during an appearance Friday morning on ESPN’s Get Up.
The ESPN college football analyst had a day to digest what Swinney said on Thursday in Charlotte at ACC Kickoff, and then Finebaum had a lot to say about what Swinney said during his session with reporters. Swinney has been the head coach at Clemson since 2009, and he once had the program as a perennial elite contender for the national title.
Swinney cashed in on 2 of those years, leading the Tigers to national crowns in 2016 and 2018. There were also those 9 ACC championships that Swinney led Clemson to, but those have dried up as well lately, with Swinney losing at least 3 games in every season since 2021.
It all bottomed out last season, with Swinney’s Tigers suffering through a 7-6 campaign. And that’s where Finebaum took issue with Swinney on Friday morning.
“I am getting so exasperated listening to Dabo tell us how great he used to be,” Finebaum said. “They’re not great anymore. You don’t hear (Tom) Brady talking about his Super Bowls.”
Finebaum didn’t stop there. Not even close.
“Dabo is just stuck on stupid right now trying to convince us that his program is still legitimate. It’s not,” Finebaum said. “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 (quarterback Cade Klubnik). That is downright embarrassing.”
Those were fighting words from Finebaum on a mid-July morning, and time will tell how well those words age when the 2026 season plays out this fall.
Not too long ago, Swinney had Clemson in the College Football Playoff mix every season, with national championships to show for it. Swinney will be fighting to get the Tigers back in that Playoff mix this fall, and here is what the Kalshi market is currently saying about those top teams it believes have the best shot to be playing for it all in 2026:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
