Clemson Coach Dabo Swinney Thinks Social Media Is Making It Harder For College Coaches To Keep Their Job

YardBarker-  “It’s a sad state of affairs,” Swinney said. “It comes with the territory. It’s not like it used to be, where you evaluate the totality of a season. It just isn’t that way any more. Social media gets people hired, fired and retired quick. Just like that. It’s just an overwhelming swell of emotion, good, bad or whatever.  Unless you’ve got people with thick skin in those decision-making roles, it happens all the time."

“When did you ever see this many coaches without jobs in the middle of the season? It’s like the trend now, and it’s sad. With the amount of money that’s involved, win right now, the expectations, shoot first, ask questions later mentality that we’ve got, it’s just the way it is. I hate it. These are people.”



You guys got any spare change? Apparently coaching is an extremely volatile and unpredictable career. Pass the collection plate, millionaires are more likely to lose their jobs because fans and analysts alike can more easily express their opinions on a widely viewed platform. Is anyone looking out for the coaches!?! It's just not fair I tell ya. What happened to the good old days when college coaches overstayed their welcome because University officials were blissfully blind to the negativity surrounding their programs? What happened to the days when people that made seven figure salaries could fly under the radar as they continued to do their job inadequately? Goddamn it social media, these men are people too! How could we expect them to perform in their field, which they are handsomely rewarded for, to the best of their abilities at all times?

Hey Dabo, I realize that not every nameless, faceless asshole on the internet has a valid opinion. I know that more often then not it's some drunk idiot (such as myself) overreacting to one play or one game, but isn't that kind of an occupational hazard of being a college football coach? Think about it, these guys coach 12, maybe 13, games a year. If they do a shitty job of coaching 6 of them then they have failed to competently complete half a year's worth of work. If that happened in any other business then the person that didn't suitably complete the requirements of their occupation would be canned as well. Obviously college coaches spend a lot of time recruiting too, but their main responsibility is to win on gameday. If they don't do that then I don't think it's unjust to send them packing, with a fully paid off contract might I add, whether or not the criticism originally stemmed from a bunch of outspoken halfwits on Twitter. Like you said Dabo, for every coach that gets fired because of social media there are an equal amount of coaches hired because of social media. Sports are a results based business. Win and the internet becomes self promotion. Lose and the internet will do it's best to crush the entirety of your spirit. Maybe it's time to accept that social media has it's positives and negatives, although I wouldn't count holding a coach accountable for his team's performance on a game by game basis a negative. Fans may have irrational complaints but they generally only have them when their team is losing. College athletics is big business, and big business can be a fickle bitch. The best way to avoid her wrath is to win, so ride that wave while you still can Dabo...