‘Defiant Dabo’ Is One of College Football’s Top 2024 Storylines

One college football insider believes Clemson coach Dabo Swinney and his philosophy on roster construction will be worth watching.

Apr 6, 2024; Clemson, South Carolina, USA; Clemson during the fourth quarter head coach Dabo Swinney talks with media after the Clemson spring football game at Memorial Stadium. / Ken Ruinard-USA TODAY Sports

Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney has two national championships and a bushel of ACC titles to his credit. But he’s not immune to criticism, especially coming off a 9-4 season while watching Florida State go 13-0 and win the ACC last season.

But Swinney isn’t exactly playing from the same deck as everyone else, and that’s why The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel believes Swinney’s 2024 season with the Tigers will be one of the Top 10 storylines this season.

In fact, Mandel called him “Defiant Dabo.” Why?

Entering the 2024 season the Tigers haven’t taken on a single transfer from another school. In the new era of college football, every major college football coach is using the portal to get better, in some cases a little bit or in some cases a lot.

Everyone, that is, except Swinney. It isn’t like the long-time Tigers mentor doesn’t have incoming talent. His 2024 recruiting class has one five-star player and five four-star players, but there are only 13 players in the entire class.

Swinney recently told SiruisXM Radio that most players in the transfer portal "aren't good enough to play for us."

College football analysts see the Tigers as a Top 25 team regardless of its lack of transfers. But a few well-placed impact transfers could put them in position to truly challenge Florida State for the ACC title.

This is why Mandel wrote that he couldn’t “…remember such a high-profile coach so defiantly zigging where everyone else is zagging.”

Swinney doesn’t have his head in the sand. He knows what is going on. He told The Clemson Insider recently that the college game was in this “…crazy time of very, very rapid, unsustainable change,” but that he felt the game was getting to a good place.

ESPN’s Rece Davis recently defended Swinney’s decision to not bring in transfers, saying that he was “sick to death of the Dabo blasphemy.”

After all, Swinney has been one of the most successful coaches in the game since he took over the program on an interim basis in 2008 and then got the job full time in 2009.

He has a 170-43 record entering 2024 with eight ACC titles and two other national title game appearances, to go along with the two national titles he won in 2016 and 2018. He has a resume that will put him in the College Football Hall of Fame one day.

As for now, Tigers fans will watch intently to see if Swinney’s way will work this season.