It may not officially begin until September, but a very important season for Dabo Swinney’s legendary Clemson tenure ramps up on Thursday when he attends Atlantic Coast Conference Kickoff in Charlotte.

Twelve months ago, the program seemed revitalized, coming off its first College Football Playoff appearance in five years and entering the 2025 season as the No. 4 team in the preseason AP poll.

Swinney had finally succumbed after holding out as the last major coach who wasn’t bringing in any transfer additions. People thought he had the quarterback in Cade Klubnik, the defensive line anchored by Peter Woods and the good vibes back after questions had begun to emerge about if the game had passed him by.

One 7-6 season later — his worst since his second full season in 2010 — those questions are back entering the 2026 season.

After winning two national championships and nine ACC titles, can Swinney return to the Tigers back to that former glory? Or will his college football future end up elsewhere?

Because he made it clear in an On3 Sports interview this summer that he doesn’t see his time as a coach ending any time soon.

“Hell no. I mean, I’m just getting going,” Swinney said. “I’m right about the same age Nick (Saban) was when he got to Alabama. So I’m just getting going, man. I love a challenge, and again, all we’ve done is win.”

Fittingly entering a prove-it year of sorts, Swinney is getting some of the gang back together. Chad Morris, who was his offensive coordinator during the early stages of Clemson’s rise to power from 2011-14, is back as OC after Garrett Riley was fired.

There’s some new-school to this Clemson roster as well, though. Notably, Swinney and his staff have fully embraced transfers, adding 11 portal players this offseason after bringing on their first four last year.

The quarterback will be new, with Klubnik — the program’s all-time leader in pass attempts and completions — gone after appearing in 49 games over the last four seasons. While he drew criticism at times for not being at the level of former Clemson greats like Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence, he brought a high level of reliability and experience.

That won’t be there no matter who wins the job, most likely redshirt sophomore Christopher Vizzina, who has been waiting in the wings.

The good news for Vizzina and the rest of the roster is that the pressure should be gone. Clemson isn’t likely to be a preseason top-25 team — which would be a first since 2011.

The bad news is that it won’t be as easy to win the ACC as it used to be with a number of other teams having closed the gap or overtaken the Tigers in the pecking order.

Miami, who Clemson hosts Oct. 3, played in the national title game last year, SMU and Louisville are trendy picks to make ACC noise and Virginia and Duke are coming off ACC championship game appearances.

Once the season finally arrives, Clemson won’t have to wait long for its chance to make a statement that it is back.

The Tigers kick things off Sept. 5 at LSU in Lane Kiffin’s first game in Death Valley.

LAS VEGAS – If you haven’t seen it by now, Conor McGregor’s attempt at a comeback after a five-year layoff ended in nightmarish fashion on Saturday. The once Notorious Irishman went out in humiliation, suffering a knee injury on his very first action of the fight.

Afterwards, a distraught McGregor took to social media to convey his heartbreak and deny rumblings that he was entering with a pre-existing injury. On Monday, McGregor posted on Instagram that he plans to get surgery and that he’ll fight out the last remaining fight on his contract.

Let me just say it in no uncertain terms: McGregor absolutely, positively should never step foot in the Octagon again. His last two attempts have ended in catastrophic injury, and he has just one win that occurred after the end of the Barack Obama administration. McGregor was never the insurmountable foe he was often made out to be in his prime, and he hasn’t even been close to that level as a fighter on this side of the 2020s.

How Dana White could save McGregor’s future

Fortunately for McGregor, Dana White’s new Zuffa Boxing project could potentially present some intriguing options for his final contracted fight with UFC and the TKO organization. Perhaps it’s a boxing match against an enigma like Jake Paul, which would almost certainly find itself in Mayweather-McGregor territory in terms of hype and handle. And on the topic of Mayweather-McGregor, could you even rule out the possibility of running that back a second time.

The reality of McGregor’s situation is that he simply can’t be trusted to sell a high-level MMA fight again. Fans were already reluctant to buy into any pre-fight hype this time around, and it feels like a near impossible task to once again try and sell the fact that a man who’s spent the better part of the last decade destroying his own body and mind can fight at a high level.

If McGregor attempts to box once again, it almost certainly removes another catastrophic leg injury from the equation. Despite the fact that he lost to Mayweather in 2017, his performance in that bout showed that has the hands to seriously contend with the best boxers on the planet. I’d expect him to have an even better performance against Mayweather if he did go down the path of that second fight.

If McGregor and TKO/Zuffa attempt to pivot to a Jake Paul fight, the fireworks that will come from those promotional press conferences and face-offs would likely make the bout the most viral fight in history. McGregor would certainly have to find an answer for Paul’s size and power, but the fact that Paul’s jaw is so severely compromised from the Anthony Joshua fight gives McGregor a window for an early stoppage.

In reality, the idea that either Mayweather or Paul are next for McGregor seems far-fetched. Admittedly, I don’t know the legal logistics that would be required to move his contract from UFC to Zuffa boxing either, though I imagine it’s something that can be done. As it stands, I would expect to see McGregor finish out his contract in the Octagon against either Michael Chandler or Max Holloway once again.