6-2! Dabo Swinney, head coach of Clemson’s football program, is very disappointed after their recent loss to unranked team Louisville. He had two words to describe their 31-22 home loss: “horrible and awful”. Did they really miss an opportunity to easily make their way into the playoffs? What really went wrong for them? They allowed 210 rushing yards and an average of 7.9 yards per carry, which makes them stand at 95th rank in the nation for yards allowed per rush.

However, their poor performance is not the only thing that is disturbing Swinney’s peace. The departure of one defensive end to the transfer portal and another due to graduation has raised many questions about his coaching style and recruiting strategy. Today on Josh Pate College Football Show, analyst Josh Pate joined the ongoing conversation and firmly mentioned that, as a Clemson fan, he disapproves of the job Swinney is doing right now.

Now that is a big allegation! On 14th October, in a radio show, Swinney commented on the new recruits, “God’s gonna bring the right ones here, and that’s just how I’ve always looked at it.” The confidence is great. However, lots of things have changed and the early signing period is right around the corner. Pate has pointed out some serious flaws in Swinney’s coaching career: “There’s been not, not sprinkles of Portal usage. There’s been zero portal usage, and there’s no excuse for that. We’re Clemson, and we ought to go get players who can help us, who fit our criteria, who are good fits here.”

Pate emphasized that Clemson should aim for 10 transfers each cycle. But even adding one or two could make a big difference in a game. He did not stop there and added that he is trying to maintain the position because they are not an elite program and also highlighted that Clemson is not a solid program when it comes to recruiting.

Clemson had a chance to enter the playoffs for the first time after 2020. Who should they blame? Is Swinney alone responsible for their recent loss or does the entire staff need to be blamed? Josh Pate further discussed the notable shift in class rankings over the past few years: “2021 we were fifth, and the depth of that class past the top guys has been pretty insignificant, so it kind of hollowed out as a class, very top heavy class. 2022, we were 10th, then we were 11th, then we were 11th, and now we’re 16th.”

The trend raises many questions about the effectiveness of Clemson’s recruiting strategy as they compete against elite programs.

Is Dabo Swinney regretting not bringing in a defensive end from the transfer portal?

Like Pate Many, other media outlets and experts raised questions on Swinney’s recruiting strategy. On Tuesday, he spoke to the media and answered questions about whether he should have looked for a more experienced defensive end before the season started.

From the 2025 recruiting class, 4-star defensive lineman Bryce Davis ditched Clemson and joined Duke. Another 4-star defensive lineman Isaiah Campbell did the same thing. Hold on, even 4-star quarterback Blake Hebert flipped his decision to join the Tigers and committed to Notre Dame instead. Something is fishy, isn’t it? However, he is in conversation with defensive ends coach Chris Rump about bringing in a veteran player. Will that work?

Swinney still showed confidence in the players already on the team and mentioned, “We love our roster. Sometimes you have injuries and things like that, so we do not have any regrets on how we put our roster together this past year.” He highlighted that even though people are leaving the current defensive end, the group has shown progress and he is happy with that.

“We are growing. Jahiem Lawson has done some good things. (A.J.) Hoffler is really coming along. We feel like he is developing. Armon (Mason) is getting a little bit of experience as well,” he added. “Peter is definitely one of the best players for sure, but we have to get better.” Moving ahead, they need to work on things that went wrong and come back stronger.

We are sure the coaching staff will give us reasons to appreciate their performance next week as they take on Virginia Tech.