Story by
Dabo Swinney's worst start at Clemson: Tigers coach has 1-3 record for first time
- Story by
- Dabo Swinney's worst start at Clemson: Tigers coach has 1-3 record for first time
Clemson football entered the 2025 season with College Football Playoff national championship hopes, as it returned numerous starters and quarterback Cade Klubnik.
Those hopes have all but disappeared only four games into the season.
Advertisement
REQUIRED READING: Dabo Swinney buyout, contract: What Clemson would owe football coach if fired
The Tigers dropped their second consecutive game to fall to 1-3 this season after falling 34-21 to Syracuse at home on Saturday, Sept. 20. Clemson 's CFP hopes might be nonexistent after the loss, and its chances at an ACC championship game might not be much better with two conference losses already.
Clemson has trailed by seven points or more in all four of its games this season, which only UCLA and Virginia Tech have also done in 2025.
"If Clemson's tired of winning, they can send me on my way, but I'm gonna go somewhere else and coach," Swinney said Sept. 16 in the days before the Syracuse loss. "I ain't going to the beach. I'm 55, I got a long way to go."
Advertisement
Here's a look at Clemson's worst-ever starts under coach Dabo Swinney in his 18 seasons with the program.
Clemson's worst starts to season under Dabo Swinney
Clemson hasn't had many bad starts under Swinney, who led the Tigers to CFP national titles in 2016 and 2018. In fact, 2025 is the Tigers' worst start ever through four games.
Prior to 2025, Clemson never began the season with three losses in four games, and never produced a record worse than 2-2.
Clemson has only had two more losses than wins at one point in a season one other time under Swinney, which was in 2010. The Tigers were 2-4 before finishing 6-7 on the season. Three of Swinney's five worst starts have come after 2020, as Clemson has fallen off a tad from its dominance in the late 2010s.
Advertisement
Here's a look at the top-five worst starts to a season for Clemson under Swinney:
-
1.1-3 (2025)
-
2.2-4 (2010)
-
3.4-4 (2023)
-
4.1-2 (2014)
-
5.2-2 (2021)
Dabo Swinney coaching record
Here's a look at Swinney's year-by-year record at Clemson:
-
2008:4-3
-
2009:9-5
-
2010:6-7
-
2011:10-4
-
2012:11-2
-
2013:11-2
-
2014:10-3
-
2015:14-1
-
2016:14-1
-
2017:12-2
-
2018:15-0
-
2019:14-1
-
2020:10-2
-
2021:10-3
-
2022:11-3
-
2023:9-4
-
2024:10-4
-
2025:1-3 (four games)
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Clemson football falls to 1-3: Worst starts under Dabo Swinney
