Line in the sand
CLEMSON -- In the wee hours of a Sunday morning in December of 2011, a bunch of fans indeed showed up at the West End Zone of the football stadium to welcome back their conquering heroes from Charlotte.
It was the first ACC title in two decades, and it was largely unexpected.
A blissful moment, no doubt.
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But a moment amid other moments that weren't so hunky-dory between Dabo Swinney and Clemson fans.
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The night before, after a dismantling of Virginia Tech was complete, Swinney told the ESPN sideline reporter that the trophy his team earned "isn't for everyone."
"This is only for the fans who were all in all the frickin' time," he said that night, probably referring to all the heat that came the previous week after a third consecutive loss to South Carolina.
Months earlier, before Tajh Boyd and Chad Morris' offense really took off, boos cascaded from the home fans as the Tigers entered halftime down 16-13 to Troy in the opening game.
And a month after the wee-hours celebration of the ACC title, Clemson would watch West Virginia hang 70 on the Orange Bowl scoreboard to make fans uncomfortable again.
That was followed by Swinney, a couple weeks later, making sure that all the trophies (ACC title, division title, etc.) were on display at his next press conference when he went off on fans who frequented the "devil's playground" of message boards and social media, the keyboard tough guys who disparaged the negatives that accompanied the overwhelming wave of positive in just his third season.
Swinney is nothing if not calculating, and he chose yesterday to deliver another sermon that we'll probably remember a decade from now.
In some respects the timing made sense, because this was the same slideshow and largely the same circle-the-wagons message that he delivers privately to recruits and their families -- basically a forceful counter to all the narratives out there from media and the overall college football populace who are perpetuating the idea that Swinney has lost his fastball, that he's a casual old relic being passed by in the age of NIL and the transfer portal.
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In Swinney's mind, it made sense to repackage this presentation as a reminder to the fans of how good they've had it. As a reminder to maybe think twice before they moan and groan about winning "only" 11 games in 2022, or 10 in 2021.
And it didn't come across as a friendly reminder, either. More like a line in the sand, on a day that's normally solely about celebrating another great recruiting class.
A few hours after his lengthy sermon in the morning, he was asked at his press conference if his intent earlier was to remind a large portion of his fan base what has been accomplished under his watch.
His answer was basically: "Damn right."
The nature of most discourse today is to identify a winner and a loser with every controversy or sensation.
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And naturally that reflex has been apparent in the reaction to yesterday.
One camp is "Go Dabo! Yay for him for calling out the negative, spoiled fans who want to fire a coach at the first sign of adversity!"
The other is: "Wait, there's something wrong with me for expressing disappointment over an offense that has stunk it up the last two seasons, and for saying he needed to make a coordinator change that ... he just made?"
The premise of this writing is not to declare a winner, but to perhaps illuminate the best arguments for both sides.
From this corner, it brings some discomfort when a coach specifically goes after the majority of a fan base. A decade ago he specified that he was referring to a decided minority -- a lunatic, quacking fringe that he said represented just 5 percent of the overall constituency.
Yesterday he confirmed that "a large part" has rankled him.
And this is where we wince a little in viewing it from a bit of a distance.
Because in our minds, at least, the majority of Clemson fans have earned some immunity from that broad brush. More than enough, we'd say.
In numbers and in spirit, they have been remarkable not just during the boom times. They packed the place for home games in 2021 even after the COVID season left us wondering how many would ever come back. And they packed the place this past season even after the offense stunk it up the previous season.
The visual and sensory experience of game day at Death Valley suggests that the vast majority of fans had faith in Swinney's unconventional hires to replace Brent Venables and Tony Elliott.
Even after South Carolina, after the offense with DJ Uiagalelei provided zero reason for faith in favorable results in the ACC championship, the fans still faithfully made the trip to Charlotte and packed one side of Bank of America Stadium.
And the large number of fans who made the trip to Miami for the Orange Bowl would suggest that most of the Clemson populace doesn't just pitch a fit and bail after every season that doesn't end in the playoff.
We'd add that such in-person loyalty is a lot more expensive than it used to be. For at least a decade, as the new oceans of TV revenues have been discovered by power conferences and major players, we've been asking when something substantial might be done for the fans. Because in a lot of cases, the rise in the cost of being there in person is not at all proportional to the trajectory of paychecks as just about everyone else involved (coaches, facilities, administrators, now even players themselves) becomes more enriched.
The more empty seats you see elsewhere, the more you hear about the slow drain of fans attending games across college football, the more you appreciate the consistent spectacle that is game day at Clemson.
The total package -- the history, the product, the presentation, the family-friendly environment -- is the envy of just about everyone else out there. It is an oasis. That is awesome, and it doesn't just magically happen.
Swinney is totally justified in reminding everyone of the accomplishments to date. It is laughable to suggest we're not sitting here smack-dab in the golden era of Clemson football, and given that he's the architect of it all it does seem wacky when you hear folks here and there say they have better ideas for how he should run his program.
Perspective and context should be emphasized. Appreciation for an absolutely astounding run should be reinforced -- not just by Swinney, but by everyone who has any recollection of how hard it was for this program to win games for two decades after the previous golden era (an era that, by the way, was tarnished by regular brushes with the NCAA and severe misalignment between the football program and administration).
Without a doubt, these are the good old days. And good on Dabo for reminding everyone that this shouldn't just be taken for granted.
But good on the majority of fans, when specifically preached to, if they feel the urge to counter.
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Because it's also fair to say their loyalty, their rear ends in all those seats at the stadium in Clemson and stadiums far beyond, shouldn't be taken for granted either.
Fact: Winning is hard.
Fact: So is being a participating fan who's not flush with money.
Maybe that's the common ground that can be found next to the line Swinney drew in the sand yesterday.
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