The Clemson Tigers entered the 2026 college football season hoping for a rebound after finishing 7-6 last year. Those hopes were handed a stark reality check after a brutal, humiliating 51-10 loss to LSU on Saturday.
The loss marked the worst defeat of Dabo Swinney’s tenure at Clemson, putting even more attention on the longtime coach. The loss also prompted LSU alum Breiden Fehoko to take aim at the Clemson head coach. However, in the process, Fehoko also took a shot at Nick Saban.
LSU Alum Breiden Fehoko Outlines His Issue With Nick Saban
On his X account, Fehoko addressed Swinney’s current situation and found a similarity with how Saban’s coaching career ended.
“This whole Dabo situation has me thinking about Nick Saban,” he wrote. “When it became legal to pay players and the playing field got even, this man ran from the smoke. Just saying.”
Saban announced his retirement in 2024, at the age of 72, ending a legendary 17-season run with the Alabama Crimson Tide. He pointed to two major factors behind his decision: the physical demands of coaching and NIL.
NIL and an unrestricted transfer portal pushed the sport toward a new “pay-for-play” era. Saban felt that many players had shifted their attention away from development and toward immediate playing opportunities and financial guarantees.
That reality created a challenge even for a program as successful as Alabama.
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“I thought we could have a [expletive] of a team next year, and then maybe 70 or 80 percent of the players you talk to, all they want to know is two things: What assurances do I have that I’m going to play because they’re thinking about transferring, and how much are you going to pay me?” he said to CBS Sports in 2024.
“I want to be clear that wasn’t the reason [behind the retirement], but some of those events certainly contributed.”
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Fehoko appears to see a similar pattern developing with Swinney. While programs like LSU embrace NIL and the transfer portal to reshape their rosters quickly, Swinney still relies heavily on high school recruiting and internal development.
This offseason, Clemson brought in a program-record 10 portal transfers in January 2026. Although that marked a major change locally, it paled in comparison to other national contenders.
LSU, for instance, brought in more than 40 transfers during one multi-week stretch while rebuilding its roster for 2026.
Clemson’s loss to LSU showed just how difficult Swinney’s approach can become against programs willing to use every available tool.
In that game, the Tigers produced only 54 total yards in the opening half, their lowest first-half output during his tenure. Clemson went 0-for-8 on third down, matching its worst first-half mark under Swinney since the 2011 game against Troy.
As a result, Clemson entered halftime down 28 points, giving Swinney the second-largest halftime deficit of his career. The only larger deficit came when Clemson trailed West Virginia by 29 points at halftime of the 2012 Orange Bowl.
