College football fan bases tend to have short memories. Days of glory quickly fade into days of “What have you done for me lately?” And by lately, fans, administrators, and commentators seem to mean immediately.

Indeed, the last few years have marked a difficult era for many top coaches. Nick Saban decided that working for ESPN was easier than navigating NIL, and Jim Harbaugh swapped out NIL for the NFL. Very few coaches experience long tenures or can sustain success.

Hot Seat for Dabo (and potential new opportunities)

All of this makes the fall of Clemson’s Dabo Swinney all the more surprising. Swinney set college football on its ear in an historic run from 2015 to 2020. Over six seasons, he put Clemson into the four-team College Football Playoff field each season and nabbed a pair of national titles. Despite those titles and 187 Clemson wins, Dabo’s job might be in trouble.

A trio of Yahoo Sports panelists took up Swinney’s situation in discussing coaching hot seats and the consensus was that there may well be trouble in Tigertown.

“He’s got to get better or Clemson’s going to have to do something,” said Andy Staples.

“I’m under the impressive that Dabo would be aggressive in pursuing [another coaching job],” said Steven Godfrey. But he analogized the situation to Mike Gundy’s firing and noted that the former Oklahoma State coach had tested the waters and had been told there was no real interest. “I think the market would say that about Dabo too,” Godfrey admitted.

Ultimately, Staples highlighted Baylor as another potential destination for Swinney, based on his pronouncements of religious faith and the struggles of that institution under Dave Aranda. Godfrey broke in, “He ain’t going to Bama.”

This prompted Staples to discuss that with the troubles of Kalen DeBoer at Alabama in 2025, Swinney “thought that if Kalen DeBoer left for another job, that ‘Bama would call him.” After Godfrey confirmed that opinion, Staples noted, “I think he understands that’s not happening now.”

Swinney’s Struggles to Adapt

During Swinney’s 2015 to 2020 run, Clemson was 79-7 and Swinney was the hottest coach in college football. Of 21st century coaches, only Nick Saban and Urban Meyer can top the two national titles that Swinney won in that remarkable run.

But Swinney has been slow to adapt to the transfer portal and Clemson has dipped to 26-14 over the past three seasons. Some of the issues have been personnel, as Clemson has struggled through some notably poor QB play in recent seasons. Former offensive coordinator Chad Morris has returned to try to set Swinney’s house in order.

But it’s an uphill battle and as Yahoo’s reporters discussed, Swinney may be facing tightening expectations and minimal other possibilities in 2026.