Dabo Swinney and Clemson Football are in the “most unique situation of any major program,” according to national college football analyst Josh Pate. He stressed that Swinney is synonymous with Clemson Football, and Pate thinks a normal “hot seat” conversation doesn’t really apply despite recent on-field performance dips. It’s the face of Clemson Football,” Pate said. “Now and for the foreseeable future, unless someone comes in there and does something truly decade-long historic, Dabo Swinney is Clemson Football, and it wasn’t that when I was a child. I don’t get the sense that’s how Dabo would leave Clemson, because that is not where his mind is at.