If you watched the Clemson vs. Duke game on Monday night, then you know Clemson football has some serious problems kicking off the 2023 season.
The Tigers hired one of the most sought after offensive coordinators in the country, Garrett Riley, to help an offense that has struggled heavily the past two seasons, and hopes were high now that anticipated quarterback Cade Klubnik is leading the offense.
However, those high hopes were dashed on Monday night, as the Tigers only scored seven points, and had a number of costly turnovers and missed field goals in the red zone, ultimately losing to the Blue Devils 28-7 for the first time since 2004.
Needless to say, this isn’t the same dominant Clemson team that we saw from 2015 to 2020 that featured two National Championships, and unless they figure something out quick, it appears the Tigers’ incredible run may officially be over.
Many have pointed to head coach Dabo Swinney as the reason for the major drop off, as Swinney has always spoken out against NIL and using the transfer portal.
And if you’ve taken notice, Clemson has been on a steady decline since the NIL and transfer portal took over college football back in 2020.
Clemson has seen a ton of former blue chip recruits transfer out of the program since, but since Swinney refuses to use the portal, he hasn’t been able to fill the void of those roster spots.
With that being said, one person in particular is taking shots at Swinney’s decision making over the past few years…
And it’s no other than Dave Uiagalelei, the father of former Clemson quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei.
D.J. struggled a good bit during his two years as the Tigers’ starting QB, and many people put the blame on the offense’s issues on him.
D.J. ultimately got benched for Cade Klubnik in the ACC Championship last season, and Klubnik balled out, ultimately leading to D.J.’s decision to transfer to Oregon State where he looked really good in his first game against San Jose State, scoring a total of five touchdowns.
After Clemson’s bad performance against Duke, Dave took to Twitter, saying:
“I get it, YOU’RE against the portal, and you dislike NIL. But that’s you and how you feel.
Your obligation is to the athletes and what best fits the success of the program”
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
As a Clemson fan myself, I’ve wanted to believe that Clemson could still remain dominant by doing things the old fashioned way by keeping the dollar signs out of college football, and sticking with the players Clemson recruited out of high school.
However, that has proved not to work over the past few years, and it looks like Clemson is going to have to adapt if they want to get back to relevance, if it isn’t too late.
