Clemson Offensive Coordinator Stands With Swinney

Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott was preparing to go throough his normal pregame routine Saturday morning, when he got the news that the Tigers' game against Florida State had been postponed.

Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott was preparing to go throough his normal pregame routine Saturday morning, when he got the news that the Tigers' game against Florida State had been postponed.

That is when his 'heart dropped''.

"I was where the players were, we were all sitting ready to eat the pregame meal. Coach (Swinney) came in and made the announcement and my heart just dropped," Elliott said. "I was waiting for him to say, 'No I'm just kidding.' But as he continued to talk, you could see he was very serious. I kind of scanned the room to get the reaction of the players. Just extremely disappointed, not so much because of the work I put in -- that's my job -- but for the players. They find out at 8:30 in the morning that they aren't going to have an opportunity to do what they love." 

Sunday night, Swinney addressed the trip to Florida State with a scathing rebuke and some harsh words after Clemson had one player test positive for COVID-19 Friday who traveled with the team, and just one positive is not a prerequisite to postponing a game under ACC guidelines.

"If the standard of play was zero positive test, then we would have never had a season," Swinney said. "This game was not canceled because of COVID. COVID was just an excuse to cancel the game. And to be honest with you I don't think it has anything to do with their players. I have no doubt that their players wanted to play, and would have played. And same with the coaches. To me, the Florida State administration forfeited the game."

"If they want to play Clemson, in my opinion, they need to come to Clemson, or they need to pay for all expenses," Swinney said. "Other than that, there's no reason for us to play it. We were there, we were ready and we met the standards," Swinney added.

Elliott believes that Swinney was justified in his defense of the Tigers' protocols and defending the Tiger program.

"I didn't have a chance to hear word for word what he said, but coach Swinney knows what he's doing," Elliott said. "He's the leader of our program and he's always going to defend our program. We all know every day we come to work, we put our trust in the medical staff to have the protocols in place. From the beginning of August to know, just complete confidence in those guys doing it the right way.

"Definitely understand coach Swinney defending our program, the medical players, the staff, because it's tough when you work and put a lot into doing something you love to do and you do everything you can to follow the rules to a T... you can see guys are here and not opting out and they believe in what we're doing. So a little bit frustrated. He speaks from the heart and he's going to call it like he sees it."