Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney made it clear on Tuesday that the Tigers’ 1-3 start falls on him and his staff, calling it nothing short of a “coaching failure.”

Speaking ahead of Clemson’s upcoming trip to North Carolina, Swinney said the open date gave him time to reflect on where things stand. He described it as “a lot of soul searching” and admitted that even though the margin between success and failure can be small, Clemson hasn’t been on the right side of it.

“From a big picture standpoint, this has just been a coaching failure, honestly,” Swinney said. “That’s the best way I can say it. We have just failed as coaches. I’m not taking accountability away from the players. They’ve got accountability in this, too. But it’s just an absolute coaching failure. I don’t know another way to say it. And I’m not pointing the finger, I’m pointing the thumb. It starts with me.”

Swinney acknowledged that his players haven’t consistently performed to their potential, but he believes that comes back to the staff. He pointed to fundamentals, including blocking, getting off blocks, and routine decision-making, as the areas where Clemson has to improve.

“The good news is we can coach and play our way out of it,” Swinney said. “But we’ve got to be better. And again, program-wise, I don’t think we could be in a better spot. This is football stuff. That’s what’s frustrating.”

Despite the rough start, Swinney stood by his staff, saying now isn’t the time to make changes.

“No, no. We just have got to be better. We’ll be better,” he said. “This is not the time for that. We have good people, but we’ve not done a good job. It’s on us, and it starts with me. That’s what we get paid to do, bring out the best in our players. And we haven’t done that.”

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This article originally appeared on Clemson Wire: Swinney blames himself, the coaching staff for the Tigers’ 1-3 start