Dabo Swinney walks back comments ripping ‘terrible mindset’ of Clemson football fans

Dabo Swinney on Tuesday walked back some of the comments he made on his radio show criticizing the “terrible mindset” of Clemson football fans.

The Tigers’ longtime coach, though, still maintained that 1.5% of the fans of his program “create a lot of the problems” and are “part of the problem, not part of the solution” when it comes to supporting a Clemson team that is 4-2 and unranked at the halfway point of the 2023 season.

“98.5% of our fans are amazing, but we’ve got 1.5% that they’re with you win or win,” Swinney said Tuesday at his weekly news conference, later adding: “A little adversity in this world is sometimes good. … I think sometimes you can win so much you lose appreciation for the blessing. That’s just a reality. And it’s hard to win. It’s freaking hard to win. And to win consistently is almost impossible. People don’t understand that, I can’t help them.”

Swinney had faced online criticism from fans and media members after comments he made on his Monday radio show, Tiger Calls, in response to a caller who thanked Swinney for what he’d done for the Clemson program and said some fans didn’t fully appreciate his program.

Clemson spent the offseason talking openly about its goals for contending for a 2023 national championship with 15 of last year’s 22 starters returning, a promising young quarterback (Cade Klubnik) and a flashy new offensive coordinator (Garrett Riley, formerly of TCU).

But the Tigers, ranked No. 9 in the preseason AP Top 25, stumbled out of the gates with a season-opening loss at then-unranked Duke that laid bare a number of lingering issues, especially when it came to red zone execution, tackling and wide receiver play.

Clemson was essentially eliminated from College Football Playoff contention three weeks later with a home overtime loss to No. 4 Florida State and has been unranked in the AP Top 25 for six straight weeks heading into Saturday’s game at Miami (8 p.m., ACC Network).

“We’re at a point in our time – and I hate that – where people (think) if you don’t go undefeated, you’re losers and you’re terrible,” Swinney said in response to the caller. “It’s just such a terrible mindset. Honestly, maybe we need to lose a few games and lighten up the bandwagon. Sometimes, the bandwagon can get a little too full.”

Fans and media members pushed back on Swinney’s comments on the platform X (formerly Twitter), noting, among other things, his high salary ($10.75 million this season), the demands that come with competing at the highest level of college football and the national championship standard that he and his 2023 team publicly set in the offseason.

Swinney, expanding on those radio show comments Tuesday, said that “nobody has a sense of humor anymore around here, but that’s just kind of the world we live in” and went on to praise the clear majority of Clemson’s fanbase (98.5% of them) as the best in the country.

“I just made the comment that a little adversity along the way ... you hate it, but the one positive is it makes you grow,” Swinney said. “But you also learn kind of who’s with you. And that’s a good thing. That’s good. So I love our fans … Again, 98.5% of them are amazing. But the other 1.5%, they create a lot of the problems. They’re part of the problem, not part of the solution.”

Dabo has had ‘plenty of criticism’

Swinney said to win consistently in college football is “almost impossible” and Clemson’s been able to accomplish that with 12 consecutive seasons of 10-plus wins and at least one postseason season.

But the Tigers will all but certainly miss a third consecutive College Football Playoff this season, as the four-team field has never included a two-loss team, and have eight losses in the last 2.5 seasons after seven total losses from 2015-20, a run that included two national championships.

Clemson, the reigning ACC champion, started 0-2 in ACC play for the first time since 2010 and currently sits at 2-2 in conference play, seventh among 14 teams and trailing programs including Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech.

The Tigers’ ACC championship game chances are slim at the moment, and they’d also need to win out if they want to avoid missing out on a New Year’s Six bowl for the second time in three seasons after playing in the Cheez-It Bowl in 2021 and the Orange Bowl in 2022.

Swinney does not actively use social media but said Tuesday it’s a “loud voice for a minority of people that want to complain about something” instead of appreciating and supporting Clemson football, which he feels like the majority of fans still do.

“I mean, 13 years at Alabama, I’ve had plenty of criticism,” Swinney said. “And as long as I’m doing this, I’ll continue to get criticism. I’ve been married for 29, going on 30 years. I’ve had plenty of criticism along my way.”

“So it’s just kind of part of it. I know what’s real, what’s not real. But I think if anybody doesn’t believe in us after what they’ve been able to witness the last 15 years, they never believed anyway. So it doesn’t matter to me.”

Next Clemson football game

Who: Clemson (4-2, 2-2 ACC) at Miami (4-2, 0-2 ACC)

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla.

TV: ACC Network

Line: Clemson by 3