Dabo Swinney faced a pointed question in the aftermath of an ugly loss to LSU on Saturday.

The Clemson head coach wasn’t exactly thrilled to answer it.

Swinney was asked point blank by The State’s beat reporter, Chapel Fowler, if he had any regrets over how Clemson’s roster construction looked in the wake of a 51-10 blowout loss to the Lane Kiffin-led LSU.

Swinney replied that he didn’t have any issues with the roster but was not happy with starting the year with a loss. But in an extended rant, Swinney bashed the question and asked Fowler if he had ever played the sport.

“No, I don’t, man. I regret being 0-1 right now. I regret that,” Swinney said. “Can you ask me at the end of the season. The season ain’t over. We’ve got one game. We’ve got 11 more. What if we go 11-1? Promise me you’ll ask me that. I’m not answering questions like that, Chapel. I know that’s your role in this environment, to be the guy who wants to create all the controversy and ask the controversial questions. That’s who you are. It’s fine. I get it.

“We’ve played one game,” he continued. “Did you play football? Okay, well, they give you 12 games, and at the end of the year, you count them up. That’s when those types of questions are fair to me, not after one game to maybe the best team in the country. Other people have good teams and coaches and things like that, too. So I give them credit. We’ve got 11 more games to go battle. We’ll count them up. Then you can ask me whatever question you want.”

Swinney, a two-time national championship-winning head coach, led Clemson to the College Football Playoff in 2024 but saw the Tigers stumble to a 7-6 finish last year, ending things with a loss to Penn State in the Pinstripe Bowl.

Saturday’s primetime defeat to LSU saw Clemson record just 165 total yards of offense with eight first downs. LSU, in Kiffin’s first game with the program, was on the opposite end of the spectrum with 644 yards and 38 first downs.

“You play like that, you deserve to be criticized,” Swinney added Tuesday.

Clemson hosts FCS opponent Georgia Southern on Saturday night at Memorial Stadium as it looks to get the ship righted.