Nick Saban Gives Dabo Swinney Blunt Advice to Cure Clemson's Struggles

Dabo Swinney's Clemson Tigers entered the 2025 season ranked No. 4 in the nation and laden with championship expectations. To say the campaign hasn't started the way Swinney had hoped would be an understatement. Clemson was upset by then-No. 9 LSU in a hard-fought season-opening game, then the Tigers survived a scare against unranked Troy before being stunned by Georgia Tech this past Saturday.

The stark difference between Clemson's 2025 expectations and its performance, as well as its struggles to take care of business against underdog teams in recent years, have put Swinney under the microscope.

The noise around the 1-2 Tigers has been so loud that Swinney, a two-time national champion at Clemson, felt so compelled to go on a lengthy rant defending his track record at the university against critics earlier this week.

One of Swinney's friends, mentors and former opponents, the legendary Nick Saban, offered the Clemson coach some tough love during ESPN's College Gameday on Saturday.

"...He created the success very similar to the way we created a standard and expectation in Alabama," Saban said. "But then you got to keep climbing that mountain because people expect you to live up to it. And you're only as good as your last play. You're only as good as your last game when you're in competition. And you gotta look at the next challenge as an opportunity to continue to grow and develop.

"And Dabo needs to look at what he needs to do in his program to make his program continually successful. Do you have to change the portal? Do you have to change name, image and likeness? The game has changed. You need to change with it. Otherwise, you're not going to put yourself in the same position other people are and having the chance to be successful."

Saban, who won seven national championships at LSU and Alabama and consistently fielded a championship-caliber program through an ever-changing college football landscape up to his retirement in January of 2024, would know a thing or two about adapting to change.

And perhaps Swinney, who has historically resisted the use of the transfer portal as other teams have utilized it to their advantage, needs to heed Saban's advice.

At the moment, Swinney has bigger fish to fry. The Tigers trailed Syracuse 24-14 at the half before the game entered into a weather delay due to lightning in the area.