Lane Kiffin clowned ESPN on Twitter Friday for missing so badly on their Dabo Swinney prediction a decade ago.
Long before he built Clemson into a powerhouse, Swinney was just a wide receivers coach and recruiter for the Tigers. Midway through the 2008 season, Tommy Bowden was fired and Swinney was named the interim head coach. At the end of the regular season, Clemson named Swinney their head coach.
In a column on ESPN analyzing that year’s hires, Pat Forde thought the hire was a poor one and gave it a D+ grade. Kiffin screenshotted the column on Twitter and put a bunch of facepalm emojis in the tweet, while tagging ESPN.
! @espn pic.twitter.com/T2gg03N77J
— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) January 12, 2019
The tweet goes to show that the instant reaction to a hire can be so wrong at times. Clemson couldn’t have gotten their hire any better; Swinney has matched Nick Saban over the past four years.
Of course, leave it to Kiffin to send such a tweet. He always loves to stir the pot.
