“I forget they still played football”: Paul Finebaum takes bold jab at Dabo Swinney, Clemson, while talking about their schedule

The Clemson Tigers are hoping to have a more successful 2024 season than what they had in 2023. During that year, the normally dominant Tigers struggled and lost their ACC crown to the Florida State Seminoles.

However, many analysts think that Dabo Swinney's team is going to return to their winning ways this season. But on Friday's edition of 'First Take', college football analyst Paul Finebaum criticized the Tigers and their head coach.

"You mentioned Clemson. I forgot they still played football."

The Tigers have been an incredibly successful football program in the last 10 years, making six College Football Playoffs and winning two national championships.

However, in the run-up to the 2024 season, Finebaum has voiced the sentiment of a few fans who believe that Clemson aren't doing a lot in relation to football.

One key example of this has been the transfer portal. This is something that every college football program, no matter how big or successful they are, will use to bring the best available talents to their program.

Clemson has not done this. They have barely brought anyone via the transfer portal and have only lost a few players in it.

While some would say that this shows that Dabo Swinney's team is so strong that it doesn't need many additions, this will not help the Tigers in the long run.

Dabo Swinney talks about anything but his Clemson Tigers

Another way that the Clemson Tigers are not focusing on football in the build up to the season comes directly from their head coach.

This week, it is the ACC Kickoffs, where all of the head coaches of the programs in the conference gather and take questions from the media.

While many coaches spoke about their team, Swinney spoke more about college football as a whole, and his opinion on the current landscape of the sport.

For example, he spoke about the plans to make every player have a scholarship (which will effectively eliminate the walk-ons). On this issue, he told the media:

"That’s great for baseball, soccer and some of the sports where you take 11 scholarships and spread it out amongst 30-some guys. But for football, the unintended consequence is it basically eliminates your walk-ons. There’s no coach that wants that."

Swinney also spoke about the Transfer Portal (which he is not a fan of) and his worries surrounding the expanded College Football playoffs.

Whether this shows confidence in his own team or a lack of intensity will be revealed only through the results in the upcoming season.