Four Years Later: Swinney and Tigers Excited to Return to FSU; Plus Injury Update

For the third straight week, the No. 4/5 Clemson Tigers will welcome the eyes of prime-time national television audience on ABC when they face the Florida State Seminoles on Saturday, Oct. 15.

Zach Lentz | Oct 11, 2022

Four Years Later: Swinney and Tigers Excited to Return to FSU; Plus Injury Update /

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Clemson Tigers

CLEMSON, SC— Four years. That is how long it has been since the Tigers faced the Seminoles at Doak Campbell Stadium. Of course, there was a little mishap that occurred two years ago, when the Seminoles refused to play Clemson due to COVID "issues".

According to Swinney, the Tigers also took nine extra buses to Tallahassee to account for distancing if their symptomatic player did, in fact, test positive.

Here is a reminder of what happened then,

"I know what the facts are. I laid them out very clear. And you know, I don’t make the rules. And our medical people run all of that. We way met the standard to play. It’s a shot at our medical people. Point blank. And I also know for a fact that Pitt traveled there and had a kid test positive there, and they still played the game. That’s kind of interesting too."

Swinney added, "The last thing we would ever do is put somebody in harm’s way. And it’s an insult to the credibility of our program, the credibility of our medical people. And we all agreed to the same rules, and just magically those rules changed on Saturday morning. I don’t give a crap what they say. I know what the fact are. I know what the standard to play is. I know why the rosters were expanded, because we anticipated positives on Friday. So we said we needed to take more players. The only thing that was going to cancel a game is if you got below 53 scholarship players, you didn’t have at least seven scholarship offensive linemen, or your local community was overrun with hospitals, etc. etc. And other than that you play the game."

"I have no idea. I mean, they say what they said, we said what we said," Swinney said. "We obviously don't agree that's why it was, you know, that was well, it was very clearly stated that the medical groups, did not agree. And so, but I trust our medical people here."

"I said they should be a forfeit, because at the standard of play. And we even offered to play Saturday Sunday, Monday. So in my opinion, we did everything we could our medical group was 1,000% on board we're playing the game. So, you know, and again I felt like, you know, I trust our people here, I have no reason not to," Swinney added

Then there was the ACC Kickoff in 2021 when Swinney said that he had spoken to FSU head coach Mike Norvell numerous times, a statement that Norvell denied.

But that was two years ago, and now the No. 5 Tigers are excited to finally get to play the Seminoles in Tallahassee.

"Oh it'll be a great environment. It'll be rocking, especially when it's Clemson and Florida State," Swinney said. "It'll be a tough matchup, a tough place to play. I have had an opportunity to see them throughout the year just on crossover stuff. They played BC at home, so we saw that film. Mike has done a great job. They have recruited and they have got some guys who have given them some immediate help. Their quarterback is special, dynamic and they've got three transfers on the offensive line, transfers on defense.

"This is a very, very good football team. Incredibly competitive. They've had two tough losses to two good teams and had chances to win both of those games. They can beat anybody on any given day. We'll have to play much better as a team than we did this past week to have a chance."

Injury Update:

The Tigers will be the healthiest they have been all season, as they hit the road. Swinney confirmed that cornerback Sheridan Jones is still day-to-day, and safeties Tyler Venables, Malcolm Greene and R.J. Mickens will be back in action this week.

Swinney also added that Bryan Bresee will be back for the Tigers.

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