Dabo Swinney on Clemson's Struggles: 'Breaks My Heart Where We Are' After Loss to FSU

It's been a tough fall from grace for Dabo Swinney and the Clemson Tigers, who haven't exactly reached their typical heights through the first few weeks of the college football season.

The Tigers have sort of limped out of the gate, quickly falling out of the Top 25, and they lost their second game of the season in heartbreaking fashion against Florida State on Saturday.

Swinney was at a loss for how quickly things had turned for his program.

"It breaks my heart where we are, I wish I could say why," Swinney said postgame. "All I know is we've got a lot of good days ahead. And I believe that."

It was just a few years ago that the Tigers were a fixture in the national title picture, winning two championships over a four-year span over Alabama. The last few years haven't been quite as successful, however.

Dating back to 2021, Clemson has loss three games in each of the last two campaigns, though they did make the College Football Playoff in the former.

What's even worse news for Swinney is that his squad still has several matchups against Top 25 teams, including No. 20 Miami, No. 9 Notre Dame and No. 17 UNC, respectively. The Tigers haven't loss more than three games since the 2011 season.

They are already on pace to surpass that number of losses this season.

The outside perception of Clemson's program has also taken a nose dive this season as ESPN's Paul Finebaum ripped into Swinney and his team following their season-opening loss to Duke.

"Dabo's dynasty is done," Finebaum said at the time. "What else can anyone say? It's really been teetering for a couple years, but what happened last night is simply unexplainable. ... Dabo's nonsense after the game isn't going to impress anyone. This program is flatlining right now."

And just a few weeks later, he's looking like he may be right.