Dabo Swinney is washed and he can only blame himself for it
This is For The Win's daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Here's Mike Sykes.
There were signs that Dabo Swinney and Clemson were done even before the embarrassing Monday night loss on national television to a basketball school. But now that that's happened? Whew, buddy. All bets are off.
RELATED: Winners and losers from Week 1 in CFB.
I mean, who ever thought we'd get here? This was Dabo Swinney's Clemson squad with 56 four and five-star recruits going up against Duke…who just had two? This was never supposed to happen. But by the time Clemson's second field goal was blocked on Monday night, it felt right.
I want to be surprised by this. I really do. But it's just not surprising that college football's least adaptable coach fell on his face. While Swinney's competition has gotten better, he's made an active choice to fall behind. This embarrassing loss is a result of that choice.
The dude refuses to accept any transfers to his school despite the NCAA's new transfer portal rules. It's easier than ever for good schools with nice facilities and lots of money to get talent. Clemson should be raking transfers in at this point. But Clemson has only had three transfers in the Swinney era. Two of them were backup quarterbacks.
And there it is, folks. That's the thing that makes Swinney so unlikable. It's that holier-than-thou schtick that just bothers everyone so much.
If there's anything that might drop an ounce of control into a player's hand, he rails against it. He yearns for the good ole days of college football when players didn't really have any say about where they were playing after they signed that scholarship. There was no such thing as NIL rights and the only payment they got was in an education, as Swinney likes to put it.
Has he accepted these things? Sure, maybe. But he takes them like a 3-year-old taking a teaspoon of penicillin. He's so reluctant to cede any ground. His teams are worse off for it.
The proof is in the pudding, folks. Clemson has lost three of its last four games and four of its last seven, according to The Athletic. Three of those four losses were by three scores. Swinney is just not that dude anymore and he's running out of people to blame for that.
At some point, Swinney is going to have to sink or swim. Today, the dude looks like a 500-pound weight.
A big moment for US Men's Tennis
American men's tennis has a solid chance to actually matter again with the 2023 US Open.
Three American players have made the US Open quarterfinals on the men's side: Taylor Fritz (No. 9), Frances Tiafoe (No. 10) and Ben Shelton (unraked). That's important. Why? Because there hasn't been a single US men's grand slam champion since Andy Roddick won the US Open in 2003.
Do y'all know what was happening in 2003? Finding Nemo had just come out. Justin Timberlake had just gone solo. Beyoncé just dropped "Crazy In Love." That's how long ago that was.
American tennis hasn't really suffered at all since then. The US has Serena Williams to thank for that. But, man, this drought is getting rough. It's been 20 years, y'all. Twenty!
With all that being said, chances for a win are still slim here.
One of Tiafoe and Shelton will make the semifinals because they play one another in the quarterfinals. Fritz has the pleasure of playing against world No. 2 Novak Djokovic, which certainly won't be easy at all. So, certainly, it's likely that only one of these players will make the semifinals.
But there's a chance, y'all! It's a slight chance. But a chance, nonetheless.
Check out the US Open Tennis Bracket
The best interview ever
I know the Yankees win over the Astros was on Sunday, but I feel like I absolutely need to include the best interview I've ever seen here.
A fan tried to catch a fly ball hit by Jordan Alvarez in foul territory. Everson Pereira had a chance to make a play on it, but the fan knocked the ball away by accident and Alvarez was automatically ruled out because of interference.
Of course, some folks were upset about it. But the fan took it in stride. ESPN found the dude and interviewed him and, now, I just feel like the Astros should be credited with a win because of this.
He told us his whole story. He just moved to Houston with his son and he was trying to give him a cool gift here. It just went left. But the going left part is actually the best part of the whole thing.
"The reaction was shock. Disgust. Happiness. Sweat. A little bit of lust, baby. You feel me? I was in there feeling kind of hurt. My fingers still kind of shaking a little bit. The ball was way heavier with the gravity. I'm not going to lie to you."
Can you think of a better description of baseball? Because I cannot. Shoutout to this dude.
Quick hits: How Duke got away with targeting against Clemson … Paolo "Boo"chero … and more
- Remember when Duke still got the ball back after that targeting call on a fourth down from Clemson? Yeah, that was weird. Prince Grimes broke down why that happened and why it worked out for Duke.
- Paolo Banchero was booed by the Italian crowd at the FIBA World Cup. Honestly, it's hard to blame them. Bryan Kalrbosky has more.
- Mary Clarke found all the celebrities who showed up at the US Open.
- Here are the new FIBA World Cup rankings after those upsets we saw last week.
Happy Tuesday! Thanks for reading, folks.