Spring football roundups: Dabo's reinvention?
Dabo Swinney finally made a splashy, outside hire. Will it be enough to reinvigorate the Clemson football program?
During the 2022 season I chimed in on the Clemson season and suggested Dabo Swinney’s run of success might be coming to an end.
The main reasoning was Dabo’s insistence on repeatedly hiring from within and the talent drain which was occurring on his staff. The Tigers made their big move on the college football scene early in the 2010s when Dabo hired Chad Morris to bring his HUNH spread stylings and Brent Venables to build their defense. Morris successfully installed his approach and then left the staff with a strong system and a blooded Deshaun Watson, Venables hung on until the Oklahoma job opened for the 2022 season.
Dabo replaced Venables and the departing staff the same way he’d replaced Morris and other numerous Clemson offensive assistants who’d left, by promoting from within. Well eventually they stopped getting the same return, stopped generating the same cohesion on the O-line, and while everyone will point to the slippage at quarterback the biggest factor has been their failure to produce more NFL wideouts.
This last offseason Dabo finally made a big move by poaching Garrett Riley from TCU after a wildly successful season in Fort Worth where he transformed Max Duggan and a veteran but largely unsuccessful Frog offense into a playoff participant.
Will this infusion revitalize Clemson football? Or will they still continue their decline amidst an improving ACC and refreshed recruiting competition from Hugh Freeze and Auburn on the other side of Atlanta?