Dealing with both a loss of valuable personnel and the rising ACC Atlantic, the Clemson football dynasty just might be as good as dead.
For the past six years, the Clemson football program has been the face of ACC football. The Tigers’ dominance in that stretch was so elite that opposing fans were hoping that their teams could just keep the margin of defeat within 20 points.
That run just might be coming to an end, though, as there is little for Clemson to smile upon in the college football world today. The two main reasons for this are the Tigers’ drop in personnel (on both the roster and sideline), and the improvement of the ACC’s Atlantic division.
The biggest hit so far has undoubtedly been the departure of Dabo Swinney’s defensive coordinator, Brent Venables.
Most uninformed fans would probably not think too much of this, as fellow powerhouses like Alabama lose personnel all the time and merely slap in a replacement and move on. That’s not how Clemson football is used to operating, though.
The Tigers have not developed much of a habit for replacing coordinators, as said coordinators haven’t felt much of a need to relocate in the last six years. But now it is happening and at the worst possible time.
Venables wasn’t some schmuck, blindly brought in to do a simple job for a season or two. Rather, he was the DC for Clemson football throughout the entirety of their dynasty (having held the position since 2012).
From then to now, he also served a couple of other important positions, including linebackers coach and assistant head coach.
In other words, Venables took on a lot of responsibilities for the Tigers for several years, and now he is out the door without as much as a how-do-you-do. To label that as a concern would be a hefty understatement.
Alongside Venables, Tony Elliott also departed for his own head coaching gig at Virginia. Elliott covered a multitude of positions over his 10 years on the Clemson sideline, but his biggest was offensive coordinator. So that means the Tigers have lost two crucial Swiss Army knives back-to-back.
Clemson has to deal with a tougher ACC too
But hey, Clemson still plays in the ACC, which is totally winnable, right? Well, not exactly. The conference has proven this season that it is certainly on the come-up, especially in regards to the Atlantic division (which the Tigers play in).
Clemson was one of three–yes, three–Atlantic teams to hit nine wins or more this year (the others being NC State and Wake Forest). The Wolfpack actually managed to top the Tigers this year, while Wake Forest is garnering attention for Dave Clawson, who is one of the top coaches in CFB today.
Things won’t be much softer in the Coastal division, either. Pittsburgh, the best team in the conference, plays in there, and they beat Clemson by 10 points this season. And names like Miami and North Carolina are sure to mean more next year than they did this year, as the former has a strong new head coach in Mario Cristobal, while the latter has the top recruiting class in the ACC.
Clemson Football is obviously not in danger of being a bad team anytime soon, but it’s truly hard to imagine the program continuing to make playoff runs following both its underwhelming 2021 performance and all of this troubling news.