Nick Saban made it clear with his comments on College GameDay about Clemson Tigers football coach Dabo Swinney that his job is likely safe. Instead of talking about potential Swinney replacements, Saban discussed what the Birmingham, Alabama, native should do to improve his program.
Of note, they were not things Saban wanted to do as the Crimson Tide’s head football coach, leading to his retirement in January 2024.
“He created the success, very similar to the way we created a standard and an expectation at Alabama. But then you’ve got to keep climbing that mountain because people expect you to live up to it. Dabo needs to look at what he needs to do in his program to make his program continually be successful,” Saban prefaced before asking, “Do you have to change the portal (approach)? Do you have to change name, image, and likeness (approach)?”
Swinney has long been resistant to the transfer portal. Swinney was proudly not participating during the April portal window.
“We're just sitting back and watching, watching it all around us,” Swinney told ESPN. “It's a crazy time, although I'm not sure a lot of people in our sport should be surprised. I'm just glad we're not a part of it.”
Swinney continued his anti-portal stance in June. During that rant, he revealed a fondness for the idea of a structured salary cap.
“There are no rules right now,” Swinney said on "The College GameDay Podcast." “We just want some rules. And I think we're coming out of a period of complete chaos and where there's no cap, the schools can't handle things directly. It comes from outside entities. You have the agent process is not regulated. I mean, there's a lot of challenges, but I do think that we're about to enter into a much more structured environment that is going to ... it might take a year.
“But I think it's going to create some markets, you know, to where there'll be some transparency, there's an actual cap. I think the best thing about the settlement is it keeps college football scholastic.”
Swinney has no choice but to change his stance on the transfer portal, regardless of what the rules are. Clemson’s poor results dictate change.