Ex-Clemson coach Danny Ford sounds off on Tigers’ 2026 season, LSU opener
Danny Ford is a fan of Clemson football and Dabo Swinney.
Having played and coached in a lot of night games at LSU’s Tiger Stadium, though, he also knows that atmosphere can rattle even the most seasoned quarterback.
So when Ford thinks about Clemson’s 2026 season, he keeps coming back to the season opener at LSU – and how Clemson’s new starting QB will handle the pressure.
“This first ball game in Baton Rouge with a quarterback that’s never started? Man, you’re asking a lot from anybody,” Ford said in a radio interview with SportsTalkSC. “I’ve played football in Baton Rouge as a player. I’ve coached there as a coach. There’s a whole lotta difference between nighttime and daytime in Baton Rouge.”
In its first ever game at LSU, on Saturday, Sept. 5 at 7:30 p.m., Clemson is expected to start redshirt junior Christopher Vizzina at quarterback. Swinney hasn’t explicitly named Vizzina his 2026 starter, but he said after spring practice Vizzina still had “pole position” in the competition.
Vizzina, Cade Klubnik’s primary backup the past three seasons, has appeared in 14 games for Clemson and started one game last year when Klubnik had an ankle injury. Swinney notably declined to pursue a transfer quarterback this offseason because of his confidence in Vizzina and the rest of the team’s QBs, including true freshman Tait Reynolds, who enters the fall as Clemson’s QB2.
Ford, 78, led Clemson football to its first national championship in 1981 and coached the Tigers for 12 seasons. Speaking to SportsTalkSC on June 10, Ford said this season is an “important” one for Clemson and Swinney after a 7-6 finish in 2025.
But until he sees them play LSU, he’s not sure how it’ll go.
Ford experienced multiple night games at LSU as a player and assistant coach at Alabama and as head coach at Arkansas from 1993-97.
Clemson is currently an 11.5-point betting underdog in the game.
“Whew, it’s gonna be a telling story, but you’ll learn a lot from that first football game,” Ford said, adding with a laugh: “So instead of predicting how they’re gonna do, I’m gonna wait until September.”
Ford also said the fact the game is Lane Kiffin’s LSU coaching debut could loom large.
“He’s gonna try to show out on TV and run it up all he can run it up and beat ‘em by all he beat ‘em,” Ford said of LSU, ranked No. 10 in ESPN’s post-spring Top 25.
Danny Ford on current state of CFB: ‘Not feasible’
In his interview with SportsTalkSC, Ford – who retired to the Clemson area, still lives and works on his farm and recently helped his son make a run for SC agriculture commissioner – also weighed in on the state of college football.
Ford still follows the sport closely, and said it’s “unbelievable” how much money coaches (and players) are making nowadays compared to what he made while coaching. He’s concerned that the ever-rising costs of funding an elite football roster in the NIL/revenue-sharing era will drive away fans and donors.
“It can’t continue,” Ford said. “People are going to get tired of it. They hit the same people for NIL every year. Unless you’re a big, big school with a lot of money or you’re in oil or something special like Texas (schools) … it’s tough to survive.”
Ford said universities with larger alumni bases also have a natural advantage because they have more graduates to solicit NIL donations from. He pointed to the fact Clemson has about 200,000 living alumni, while Ohio State has about 600,000.
“Who’s gonna continue to win in that situation?” Ford said.
Ford said the NCAA’s current “Wild West” setup is the organization’s own fault because it “wanted to fight the court system” on the notion of paying student-athletes instead of embracing the trend and formalizing a system.
“When you don’t have any control over anybody that works under you or for you, then you’ve got no system,” Ford said of the NCAA.
Clemson’s former coach said the current environment is “not feasible,” but he anticipates the gap between the haves and the have-nots will keep widening because “everybody’s got the answer as long as it doesn’t affect their program.”
“And if they keep it up, it’s gonna be a big 25 schools (with major advantages) and everybody else playing intramural football,” Ford said.
