Dabo Swinney rattled off the names of a half-dozen schools he had watched tape from to prepare for Clemson’s season opener against a new-look LSU team with 40-some transfers on the roster. Oh, and he also spent some time scouting NFL camps, too.
“I got to watch practice with the Browns in early June,” he said. “I’m probably going to get turned in for tampering.”
Yes, Swinney’s got jokes.
His best work, he prefaced with: “No pun intended,” before suggesting Clemson would bow out of the debate about Lane Kiffin’s desire to utilize multiple players who have been in NFL camps by saying his Tigers would just “stay in our lane.”
Never mind that Swinney’s pun game is always intentional. What a nation of frustrated fans heard from him was less a dad joke and more akin to the opening of a “CSI” episode.
“We’re just going to stay ...” Swinney pops on sunglasses as the opening howl of “Won’t Get Fooled Again” plays, “... in our Lane.”
It took college football’s most sacred tenets crumbling to dust this offseason, but here’s the unassailable truth: Swinney’s cool again, and in the battle of Tigers in the Bayou’s Death Valley, Clemson is decidedly the good guy.
It wasn’t that long ago that Clemson was college football’s biggest power, a school that made the four-team playoff six straight seasons, won two national titles and played for two more, and Swinney, its outspoken coach a lightning rod for criticism as he lauded all he found great about the collegiate model -- academics, amateurism, loyalty, playing for the love of the game. Swinney was decidedly out of touch with a world that saw so much inequity in that model.
Now, as the 2026 season begins, LSU is at the center of the sport after Kiffin abdicated his role with a playoff team, swiped a handful of the Rebels’ best players on his way out the door, spent the rough equivalent of a SpaceX IPO to build a roster, then invited anyone who wasn’t already collecting an NFL pension to fall camp. It is now LSU’s outspoken coach who has become the lightning rod for criticism as he has exploited every loophole, gray area and worst-case scenario the crumbling infrastructure of college athletics has offered. Aaron Donald coming out of retirement to return to the Los Angeles Rams had to be a massive blow to Kiffin’s plans to shore up his interior defensive line.
But if Saturday’s showdown in Baton Rouge has become a de facto battle for the soul of college football, it must be said that the bad guys have the upper hand.
On one side, there is Sam Leavitt -- arguably one of the top QBs in the country. On the other, Christopher Vizzina, a QB whom Swinney described as “consistent.”
On one side, there’s a stout defense that includes holdovers like Whit Weeks from the Brian Kelly era and newcomers like TJ Dottery, who followed Kiffin from Ole Miss. On the other is a secondary Swinney lamented as “awful” a year ago.
On one side is a host of future first-round draft picks, highlighted by tight end Trey’Dez Green and left tackle Jordan Seaton. On the other is the husk of a team that sent nine players to the NFL after a 7-6 season in 2025. (That Kiffin hasn’t tried to sign any of those players this offseason though suggests maybe they weren’t actually that good.)
For years, Swinney has tried to remind the world that, in spite of all its success, this was still “little old Clemson.” People stopped buying the bit a long time ago.
But now, here he is, a two-time national championship coach barely hanging on to relevancy in a system run amok, now clearly on his preferred side of a David vs. Goliath matchup.
No outcome in Saturday’s game will end college football’s current chaos. It won’t settle any debates or even give pause to the next local judge who’s willing to sign a TRO allowing Bevo to play fullback at Texas if asked. More powerful figures than Swinney and Kiffin will ultimately determine what this sport looks like in a year or a decade.
But when Clemson and LSU kick off Saturday night in Death Valley, the stakes will nevertheless feel immense. Swinney needs to prove he can still win without compromising his morals. Kiffin needs to prove morals were a worthy sacrifice in pursuit of a ring. And for everyone watching without a dog in the fight, the outcome might just offer some idea of which way the arc of the moral universe is pointing.
Top games to watch
Louisville vs. Ole Miss (Nashville, Tennessee)
There’s a good case to be made that the two most explosive running backs in the country will take the field in Nashville for this game. Ole Miss’ Kewan Lacy had 14 runs of 20 yards or more last season, tied for second most in the Power 4, while rushing for more than 1,000 yards after contact. Louisville’s Isaac Brown led the nation in yards per carry at 8.8 -- nearly two full yards better than the next-best rate among Power 4 backs with at least 100 carries.
Boise State at Oregon
It has been 16 years since LeGarrette Blount, in the aftermath of Boise State’s win over Oregon in Chip Kelly’s first game as head coach of the Ducks, punched Broncos’ defender Byron Hout in plain view of cameras. This year, Boise State can punch back and, in the process, knock Oregon onto the periphery of the playoff race before the season really gets started.
SMU at Florida State
For the better part of the past two years, Mike Norvell has been the cartoon dog sipping coffee and insisting “this is fine” while the Florida State program is consumed by an inferno. A lackluster performance in the Week 0 game against New Mexico State certainly didn’t offer much hope that this was the moment Norvell would take out the fire extinguishers. Now, FSU gets a veteran SMU team before a road trip to Alabama, and it’s likely a bunch of Seminole boosters have been maxing out their ATM withdrawal limits to scratch together enough buyout money.
Liberty at James Madison
The race to see which Group of 6 team loses to Texas by 40 in the first round of the College Football Playoff begins here, with the preseason favorite to win Conference USA traveling to face the preseason favorite to win the Sun Belt. The winner gets an early leg up in the playoff discussion. The loser gets a deck of playing cards and some leftover Poulan Weed-Eater gift cards, along with an invite to the Independence Bowl.
Colorado at Georgia Tech
There will be plenty of nostalgia in the air when former Atlanta Falcons great Deion Sanders returns to the ATL as head coach of Colorado against Georgia Tech. Not “hey, let’s watch MC Hammer’s ‘2 Legit 2 Quit’ video and rap along with Prime” level nostalgia, but nostalgia nevertheless.
UCLA at Cal
This is a sneaky-good matchup between two schools in a similar place. Two first-year head coaches. Two prized QB recruits with ample upside. Two former Pac-12 rivals. Two athletics departments that would gladly spend the night in a haunted house for a million dollars right now. Regardless, if you’re an Indiana fan, it’s probably a good time to start scouting Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele now since he’ll almost certainly be your starting QB next year.
Under-the-radar matchups
Western Michigan at Michigan
Broc Lowry ran for 963 yards and 14 touchdowns last year while piloting Western Michigan to a 10-win season. Michigan has a sign in its athletics department counting how many days it has been since its last national embarrassment.
Washington State at Washington
As Apple Cups go, this one is more pink lady than honeycrisp, but a rivalry game is a rivalry game.
Tulane at Duke
The only matchup of Week 1 featuring two defending conference champions. Also the only matchup of Week 1 featuring two teams who received “new team, who dis?” texts from Darian Mensah.
Upset alert
Miami at Stanford
Let’s summarize this situation: Miami made it to the national championship game last season and is riding high, the clear favorite to win the ACC despite the fact that, due to a series of catastrophes that would’ve felt excessive in a “Three Stooges” skit, the team has never actually won the ACC before. Stanford has not won more than four games in a season since 2018. Now the Canes travel across the country for a Friday night game that, in a less chaotic universe, would’ve otherwise been dubbed “Pac-12 after dark” at a stadium that might make USC’s opener feel like Walmart on Black Friday. There’s at least a 12% chance commissioner Jim Phillips wakes up in a cold sweat Saturday morning muttering, “It was all just a dream.”
Toledo at Michigan State
The Pat Fitzgerald era in East Lansing kicks off Saturday with a tricky matchup against one of the MAC’s top teams. Fitzgerald’s return to coaching is a little like “Ted Lasso” Season 4. We weren’t really expecting to get it. We’re not sure we needed it. We have a vague recollection of a time it seemed enjoyable. We’re open to giving it a try but our expectations aren’t high.
Baylor at Auburn
Quarterback Byrum Brown is really fun. Enjoy watching him in this one before some SEC defender breaks him in half on a scramble in early October.
Week 1 Heisman five
Each week, we’ll take a look at our top contenders for the Heisman.
1. Notre Dame QB CJ Carr
The consensus betting favorite, we’re obligated to put Carr at No. 1. But, how often does the preseason Heisman favorite actually win? You’d have to go back to Marcus Mariota in 2014. It’s far more likely -- see: Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Fernando Mendoza -- that the eventual winner is someone no one is talking about now. On the other hand, Carr gets to play against Wisconsin, so don’t expect his Heisman bandwagon to veer off course in Week 1.
2. Texas QB Arch Manning
September wasn’t kind to Manning a year ago, but he gets a bit of a softer start to the schedule in 2026 with Texas State first on the docket. But after you’re done swooning over Manning, don’t miss out on Bobcats QB Brad Jackson. Only two QBs in the country last season accounted for 3,200 pass yards, 700 rush yards and at least 35 touchdowns: Heisman runner-up Diego Pavia and Jackson.
3. Virginia QB Beau Pribula
In his debut with the Cavaliers in Week 0, Pribula completed 9 of 11 passes for 155 yards and two scores and ran 14 times for 120 yards (not counting sacks). This is either a sign the former Penn State and Missouri QB is ready for a breakout season or that NC State built its entire program on an ancient Indian burial ground and is forever cursed. Maybe both.
4. Ohio State QB Julian Sayin
The Buckeyes open with Ball State, ensuring Sayin will get a solid four series of playing time to pad his early Heisman résumé before Ohio State’s backups take over. The Buckeyes, by the way, have the nation’s longest opening week winning streak, having started 1-0 in 26 straight seasons.
5. None
We’re leaving No. 5 blank out of respect to Jayden Daniels.
Post-Week 0 power rankings
A quick recap of last week’s biggest winners ...
1. Finally spending an entire day not thinking about lawsuits and revenue shortfalls
2. Virginia (1-0)
3. USC (1-0)
4. Memphis (1-0)
5. North Dakota State (1-0)
6. Anyone who stayed on the Bill Belichick bandwagon
7. Stanford (1-0)
8. Dabo Swinney news conferences
9. Billable Hours (forever undefeated)
10. NC State fans who kept their travel plans to Brazil and skipped the game altogether
Unranked: The weather in Ireland, pulling a reporter’s credentials before a game, Mike Norvell’s buyout, Sacramento State
