Dabo Swinney says Clemson 'grossly underachieved' in 2025 - ESPN

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. — Clemson tied a program record with nine NFL draft selections last month, reigniting conversations about how the Tigers finished 7-6 last season with a roster that talented.

In his first comments since the draft, coach Dabo Swinney said Monday from ACC spring meetings in Amelia Island, «it's pretty well documented we grossly underachieved last year. That isn't a news flash.

»We just keep beating that dead horse to death. We're onto the new season. We grossly underachieved and underperformed and did not coach and play to our potential. We've had other seasons where we had nobody drafted and won 10-plus games. That's football.

«It didn't work last year. If you do this long enough, you can have a year where it just doesn't work. I don't care if you're Roy Williams or Coach K or Dabo Swinney, it doesn't matter. It's what you do moving forward. But I think perspective is important.»

Swinney says he does not push back on the criticism or disappointment from last season, when the Tigers were the preseason pick to win the ACC and a popular choice to make it into the CFP. But he also wants to point out what Clemson has accomplished — including ranking No. 7 in the country in wins this decade.

«The narrative of our program, it's just not accurate,» Swinney said. «If we go have a bunch of bad years, that's different, but we've had one bad year in 15 years. Ten wins is not a bad year. Eleven wins is not a bad year.

»We wrote a bad chapter, but we're still writing, and the lesson in all of that is it's not about what people predict, it's not about what people say. It's about what you do. We've had many years where we were predicted to stink that we were good, and we've had a couple years that we predicted to be