CLEMSON – Dabo is still the same ol’ Dabo, but his program has not been the same ol’, same ol’ for a while now, which leads one to conclude that the 2024 football season is shaping up to be a crossroads campaign for both the coach and his 17^th team.

A 9-4 season capped with a bowl victory in 2023 would be celebrated by the overwhelming majority of FBS programs and their respective head coaches.

But Clemson isn’t most programs.

And Dabo Swinney isn’t most coaches.

In many ways, Swinney is a victim of his own success. That has a tendency to happen when you win two national championships, make six consecutive College Football Playoff appearances and stockpile ACC titles like cordwood.

Expectations rise accordingly.

“If we did it once, why can’t we do it again?” fans say.

“If we did it twice, why can’t we do it a third time?” fans reason.

Instead, Clemson football finds itself mired in what be best described as a mild downturn – a reversal of fortune that has the Tigers clinging to the second rung on the ladder of college football’s elite.

Consider:

• The Tigers have lost as many games (12) in the past four seasons as they did in the previous eight;

• Clemson had as many ACC losses (four) last season as it had in the previous six combined;

• The Tigers’ 12-year streak of winning 10 or more games came to an unceremonious end in Week 8 last season;

• Clemson tied for sixth place in the 2023 ACC standings – its lowest finish ever under Swinney;

• The Tigers’ 28-7 loss to Duke in the season opener was Clemson’s most lopsided defeat at the hands of the Blue Devils since 1936;

• Clemson's No. 20 ranking in the final US LBM Coaches Poll was the lowest for the program since 2011.

“We did a lot of good things last year and we did some things that were really frustrating – that really limited opportunities for us,” Swinney said Wednesday on the Tigers’ opening day of spring practice. “So we spent a lot of time on quality control and studying the good, the bad, the ugly and how we get better.”

To make matters worse, Clemson’s downturn has coincided with an uptick in Tallahassee, where Florida State dipped heavily into the transfer portal to help it re-enter the upper echelon of the ACC.

Make no mistake – Swinney continues to be revered by most Clemson fans, but they also remain convinced that his teams should be in the playoff on an annual basis.

Spring practice is the beginning of that effort and remains Swinney’s most excitable time of the year.

“This is ultimately why you coach – you get to be with the players, you get to be on the field and build a team,” Swinney said. “We all wear the same color jersey and have the paw and all that stuff, but that still doesn’t make you a team.

“You have to earn that and develop that. I love this part, I love starting over. I love the process you have to go through.”

Clemson fans just hope that process once again yields the results to which they’d become accustomed.

Scott Keepfer covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at skeepfer@gannett.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ScottKeepfer

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: What Dabo Swinney said about Clemson football as spring practice opens