Greg McElroy reacts to Dabo Swinney’s message to Clemson fans, points to why expectations change

Dabo Swinney turned heads last week when he sent a message to Clemson fans about not losing perspective from the program’s recent success.

“What’s happened the last 12 years in this program is historic,” Swinney said. “And it’s been done by a lot of people. All I’ve done is my part. … For us to act like a bunch of failures around here because we only won 11 (games) and won the league and we lost to our rival in state for the first time in a decade, I think that’s a bad mentality.”

Swinney added that it doesn’t serve the program well, and doesn’t want there to be “a bunch of miserable people out there if we don’t go 15-0.”

Greg McElroy said it’s understandable that anything less than 15-0 is not necessarily a failure. And he recalled telling Swinney at the Orange Bowl that last season was “one heck of a down year, and he laughed and he chuckled, ‘All right, Greg, don’t call it a down year.’ He knows.”

But McElroy’s message to Swinney about expectations being too high is, “You created them,” and added that coaches like Swinney are the ones who preach high expectations and to be the best.

“You cannot determine your season, as a success or failure, based on who won the national championship,” McElroy said. “Did TCU fail this year, did Tennessee fail this year, did Alabama fail this year? No, they had very good years.”

McElroy added that the College Football Playoff has changed expectations because there’s so much focus on the top 4 teams.

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