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By: Chad Wilson – Editor – GridironStuds Blog<\/strong> As the 49th point was posted on the Hard Rock (then Sun Life Stadium) scoreboard in favor of West Virginia,\u00a0 there was little left in limbo for the 2012 Orange Bowl other than who might be the next coach of the Clemson Tigers.\u00a0 Firing coaches did not occur back then at the breakneck speed that it does in this day in age. However, when you appear in a high profile game like the Orange Bowl and you’re getting your pants pulled down like this,\u00a0 it’s tough not to consider that the head coach of the team down 49-17 at the half might be in line for a pink slip.<\/p>\n I was in attendance that night as the Orange Bowl turned into a personal hell for Dabo Swinney’s squad. The second half provided little relief as West Virginia tacked on another 21 points enroute to the most lopsided and embarrassing loss in the game’s history.\u00a0 There were precious few excuses for Swinney.\u00a0 After all,\u00a0 this was a squad that included Tajh Boyd at quarterback,\u00a0 Andre Ellison at running back and a trio of wide receivers that any team would have died for: DeAndre Hopkins,\u00a0 Sammy Watkins and Martavis Bryant.\u00a0 The defense that yielded 70 points included pros like Dwayne Allen, Bashad Breeland and Coty Sensabaugh. The only logical explanation in Twitter terms could be that the head coach sucked.\u00a0 It was year four in the Swinney regime and this total failure in front of millions of viewers followed a 6-7 campaign the year before. It also included a winless record vs. arch rival South Carolina.\u00a0 In fact,\u00a0 Clemson closed out the 2011 season losing three of their last four games,\u00a0 all by double digits.\u00a0 In 2019,\u00a0 that’s ground for immediate dismal of coach and staff followed by a national search that will culminate with the hiring of some hot shot offensive coordinator who will start all over.<\/p>\n Two things saved Dabo Swinney at the conclusion of that night and the 2011 season.\u00a0 First,\u00a0 Twitter wasn’t a thing and neither was the Nick Saban Crimson Tide Era. Twitter,\u00a0 the platform for fanbases to cry out to the public every emotional swing that encompasses a game day viewing event was in it’s infancy.\u00a0 The platform had not yet amassed the power to get guys run out of town (Rich Rodriguez at Michigan) or get coaches fired before they were actually hired (Greg Schiano at Tennessee).\u00a0 Those superpowers would manifest themselves years later on the social platform and wage war on any and all celebrities.<\/p>\n The end of the 2011 season saw the second national championship for Nick Saban at Alabama.\u00a0 People were certainly paying attention but no one was ready to call the Crimson Tide a monster.\u00a0 Perhaps there was a third thing working in Dabo Swinney’s favor on the dejected plane ride home from Miami.\u00a0 Maybe folks in Clemson,\u00a0 South Carolina just have more patience than the rest of us.<\/p>\n When the 2012 season opened up,\u00a0 Swinney still had a job and the wheels were set in motion for what we all witnessed either in person or on television on January 7, 2019.\u00a0 Both Alabama and Twitter would continue to grow at a record pace.\u00a0 That fact came much to the chagrin of college coaches across the nation.\u00a0 As the Crimson Tide machine got stronger in it’s parts,\u00a0 college athletic directors got weaker in their resolve.\u00a0 As Alabama piled up championships,\u00a0 coaches started getting cut more often and with greater haste.\u00a0 What took Nick Saban years to build in stops across college football and in the pros,\u00a0 athletic directors wanted their coaches to amass in three years or your seat gets hot.<\/p>\n The Twitter monster grew too from 2012 on.\u00a0 More and more sports fans flocked to the social media platform attracted by it’s easy set up and even easier ability to promote individual thoughts and ideals to eager listeners.\u00a0 Long ago in high school you had those pack of gossipers that would huddle together in corners and talk ill of anyone with status.\u00a0 Twitter provided a digital network of gossipers with more access and wider audiences.\u00a0 As such,\u00a0 college football Saturdays would see the timelines packed with fans living and dying by each move their team made.\u00a0 Lose to a rival and embarrass a fan in front of rival fans he’s been beefing with and the clock was ticking and Twitter would fire you.\u00a0 Lose a bowl game by a score of 70-33 and you can forget about fan support come next season.<\/p>\n If Dabo Swinney would’ve lost a bowl game 70-33 in this Twitter Golden Era and after Nick Saban had compiled five national championships in Tuscaloosa,\u00a0 Bleacher Reports would have already released the article “Top 10 Candidates to Be the New Sheriff in Death Valley”.\u00a0 I’m sure even the good folks in Clemson may have even run out of that good ole fashion Southern patience.<\/p>\n As luck, hard work and vision would have it,\u00a0 Dabo would circumvent such ire and circumstance.\u00a0 Since getting a tropical ass whippin in that 2011 Orange Bowl,\u00a0 Swinney has low key produced the 2nd biggest Dynasty during the Saban Era.\u00a0 Clemson has won 11 games in all but one season since 2011.\u00a0 They have appeared in three of the four college football playoff championship games and they have now won two of the last three national championships.\u00a0 Along the way,\u00a0 Swinney has managed to keep his coaching staff together and convince projected first round picks to come back for their final season despite already having a championship ring on their finger.\u00a0 Not only has Swinney built a program,\u00a0 he’s built a family.\u00a0 Last night was hard to imagine when Geno Smith hit Willie Millhouse for a 7 yard TD to give West Virginia a 70-26 lead on that awful night in Sun Life Stadium.<\/p>\n Along the way,\u00a0 one has to wonder just how many college football programs panicked and rid themselves of potentially dynasty building coaches simply because of a less than stellar season or especially embarrassing moment.\u00a0 The frantic,\u00a0 irrational chasing of Nick Saban and incorrect use of Twitter as an effective decision maker has likely dunked many a potential national championship coach into the unemployment line.\u00a0 In it’s wake,\u00a0 college football has been left with only two programs with the resolve, experience and know how to meet each other every year in college football’s final game.\u00a0 However,\u00a0 there are some other programs peeking their heads over the horizon.\u00a0 The question is,\u00a0 did last night buy them time to get to the top of the mountain and add mystery to college football again.<\/p>\n Four short years later,\u00a0 I would settle into my seat in the same Sun Life Stadium only to watch the same Clemson program that got mugged in 2011,\u00a0 drag my alma mater, the University of Miami,\u00a0 behind the woodshed.\u00a0 At 28-0 in the 2nd quarter,\u00a0 I couldn’t take it anymore.\u00a0 I rose from seat in disgust and departed.\u00a0 On my way down the ramp,\u00a0 Clemson scored again to make it 35-0.\u00a0 As I reached the parking lot,\u00a0 a disgruntled fan draped in a Ken Dorsey jersey let off a manic laugh that only a serial killer could appreciate as he barked out “Clemson just scored again.”\u00a0 It was the third score since I left and it would open the door for the third head coach hiring for Miami since Dabo Swinney got the job at Clemson.\u00a0 Oh the irony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Chad Wilson – Editor – GridironStuds Blog Twitter: @GridironStuds As the 49th point was posted on 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