Dabo Swinney and the Clemson Tigers entered the 2025 college football season with sky-high expectations. Many expected that Clemson would be a national championship favorite. That hasn’t been the case.
Unfortunately, the season was doomed right off the bat.
In the season opener, the Tigers lost to LSU at home. That started an unraveling that no one expected from Clemson.
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Thankfully, after the Tigers defeated Furman this week, they became bowl eligible. However, they are just 6-5 on the year and their hopes of a College Football Playoff run have been over for a long time. Now, the question becomes, what does the future hold for Clemson following the end of the season?
There have been some rumblings about Swinney potentially being on the hot seat. Others have suggested that Swinney should look to carve out a fresh start for himself away from the program he has coached since the 2008 season.
Should Swinney have any interest at all in hearing outside offers, there is one team that would make a ton of sense.
That team is none other than the Florida Gators.
Florida made the decision midseason to move on from head coach Billy Napier. Since that decision, the Gators have been searching for a new head coach. They have been heavily connected to Lane Kiffin, although he appears destined to stay at Ole Miss or become the new head coach at LSU.
Assuming Kiffin is out of the picture for Florida, Swinney would present an intriguing option.
Since taking over at Clemson back in 2008, Swinney has led the program to a 185-52 record. He has also won two national championship games with the Tigers and has made it to two more but come up short.
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Joining a powerhouse program like the Gators would have to be an intriguing idea for Swinney. Whether or not it would be intriguing enough to make him consider leaving Clemson is a complete unknown. However, it would be worth a phone call for Florida.
It will be interesting to see what the Gators end up doing and who they land on as their new head coach. Just as interesting will be seeing what the Tigers and Swinney choose to do.
The most likely scenario is that Swinney ends up back with Clemson for at least one more season in 2026. But, if he’s open to considering the option of leaving, the Florida job would be exactly the kind of landing spot it would take to lure him away.
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