A notorious critic of Dabo Swinney and the Clemson football program, Paul Finebaum made a fresh comment about Swinney’s team that might surprise many Tiger fans.

The longtime ESPN and SEC Network personality believes Clemson has a legit chance to win it all in 2025.

Finebaum stated that opinion during a conversation with a Clemson fan, Chris from South Carolina, on The Paul Finebaum Show this past week.

“By the way, I think Clemson is a legitimate contender for the national championship,” Finebaum said.

That statement from Finebaum is starkly different from a lot of his other comments about Clemson in the past – for example, what he said about Swinney and his program following the season-opening loss to Georgia this past season.

After the Tigers’ 34-3 loss to the Bulldogs, Finebaum said he thought that game showed that the elite status of Swinney and his program was over.

“It’s as much about how well Kirby Smart has control of that program as it is to say that Dabo Swinney’s time as an elite coach is over,” Finebaum said.

“Clemson is a good program, they’ll compete in the ACC, but their days as a program that matters, their days as a program that is spoken with reverence, are gone. Everyone knows what they’ve done, but they’re not doing it this year, and I don’t see them ever doing it again as long as Dabo Swinney is there.”

Clemson will open the 2025 season with a marquee matchup against LSU at Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 30 – what Clemson hopes will be the start of a march toward its first national title since 2018.

Coming off its eighth ACC title in the last 10 years and its seventh College Football Playoff appearance, Clemson (10-4 in 2024) has gotten plenty of love in early preseason rankings for the 2025 campaign, with many touting the Tigers as a top-10 team entering next season.

–Photo courtesy of Brett Davis-Imagn Images