The Clemson Tigers have been one of the best programs in college football for a long time now. Really, the only team in the nation to go toe to toe with Nick Saban’s best Alabama Crimson Tide teams and come out on top on several occasions.

Sure, Georgia and Kirby Smart emerged late in Saban’s career, but over the past two decades, if he had one true rival, it was Dabo Swinney and Clemson.

In recent years, however, the Tigers have slipped from their pedestal. While they continue to rack up conference titles, win double-digit games almost every season, and remain nationally relevant, they have not looked like a true championship team. The weight of those expectations has grown heavier, and fans have grown restless.

This has only been punctuated by the 1-2 start to the year Clemson has suffered after losses to LSU and Georgia Tech.

The noise around Swinney has been impossible to ignore. This week, the Clemson coach fired back defiantly, unleashing a press-conference rant that let critics know he’d had enough. The fiery moment produced what may go down as one of the most candid soundbites ever delivered by a head coach.

“What’s so bad about our program?” Swinney asked before rattling off the list of accomplishments, which dwarfs 99 percent of teams across the nation over the last 15 years. “Perspective is important. If they want me gone, they can send me on my way. If they’re tired of winning, they can send me on my way. I won’t stop. I’m 55. I’ll go somewhere else and win. I ain’t going to the beach.”

Swinney continued, “We’ve won this league eight of the last 10 years. Is that good? I’ve got a long memory in case y’all don’t know. This is a program that’s built to last. If you don’t believe in us after we lost just two games, you weren’t all in anyway. Hate to disappoint all the haters out there, but I have a long way to go, boys.”

Whether Clemson would actually get rid of Swinney or not remains to be seen but barring a complete and utter disaster for multiple years in a row, it feels incredibly unlikely given his resume of accomplishments. If Swinney got fed up with the attitude there, though, seeing him coaching somewhere else would be one of the biggest stories college football has seen in some time.