College football is changing. For better or worse, Dabo Swinney is not

CLEMSON, S.C. — Dabo Swinney insists he doesn't care about correcting the record, but if he's being asked, then yes, the narratives he's heard all offseason are — to use the most colorful phrasing he's apt to provide — bull crap.

After nearly a decade of unparalleled stability on his coaching staff, Clemson waved goodbye to four assistants this offseason, including both coordinators. There was a time when Swinney was praised as a coach who knew how to surround himself with the best people, but when he replaced Tony Elliott (now head coach at Virginia) and Brent Venables (now head coach at Oklahoma) with two internal candidates, that narrative shifted into something more akin to «Swinney is afraid of outside ideas.»

Bull crap.

There was the time, in 2019, when he offhandedly suggested that, should college football shift toward a professional model, perhaps he'd just quit and head to the NFL. That comment has become shorthand for every out-of-touch coach unwilling to let players profit off their ability, despite Swinney's repeated insistence he simply didn't want the college game to lose sight of its educational mission.

In other words, the narrative is bull crap.

Swinney hates the transfer portal.

Swinney cashes $10 million checks while opposing players getting paid.

Swinney would rather lose doing things his way than win by adapting to the modern amenities of the game.

Swinney is selfish, stubborn, hypocritical.

It's all bull crap, he says, devoid of context and nuance and intent. And yet, travel outside Upstate South Carolina, and the same coach who, just a few years ago, was a fan favorite — the goofy, fun-loving, BYOG-ing alternative to Nick Saban's joyless process — is far more likely to be cast as the villain.

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