Swinney Weighs in on the State of College Football

Last season saw numerous instances tarnish the sparkling appearance of college football.
Swinney Weighs in on the State of College Football
Swinney Weighs in on the State of College Football /

CLEMSON— Last season saw numerous instances tarnish the sparkling appearance of college football.

Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer was suspended for three games Wednesday his handling of domestic violence allegations against former assistant coach Zach Smith—eventually resigning following the season—and allegations of a “toxic culture” led to the dismissal of University of Maryland’s head coach DJ Durkin.

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney was asked, by Jim Rome of CBS Sports Radio, to weigh in on his thought on the state of college football in light of these headlines.

“I think that college football is such a special opportunity for so many people—just provides so many opportunities and joy for so many people and that hasn’t changed,” Swinney said. “I just think that we live in a world today where there’s so much exposure. I think the game is great, probably as good as it’s ever been. I think there’s so much good, but in the world we live in today with social media and all that stuff the bad really gets exposed—and I think that’s really good. I think that’s one of the good areas of social media is that it exposes the bad quickly. It’s also bad at times because people can paint with a broad brush and it’s all bad, but it’s not.

“Twenty years ago there was bad things that happened, 20 years from now there’s going to be bad things that happen because there’s people involved. There’s always going to be mistakes and disappointments and bad decisions, but as far as just the sport, I think it’s a great sport that provides so many opportunities for so many people and I’m glad to be a part of it. I try to do everything I can every day to try to focus on doing the right things here at Clemson. Hopefully, we can continue to develop our guys on and off the field and help create opportunities in life through their experience here.”

Swinney continued to say that, without naming programs, he knows of situations where winning football games becomes more important than building up young men to be productive members of society—which is the opposite of the way he wants his program to operate.

“I’ve known of situation where they don’t really love the guys—it’s more the love of winning,” Swinney said. “Ever since I’ve had this job, I’ve just focused on—I mean, I want to win as bad as anyone, but I’d rather lose trying to do it right than win knowing that you didn’t. That’s the way I’ve built the program, the philosophy that I’ve had here and I just want to love our players. It’s always going to be some setbacks and things like that.

“But for us, I just want to make sure that these guys have the opportunity to go be successful when the air goes out of the ball and that’s how we’ve done everything in our program.”


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Zach Lentz
ZACH LENTZ

The home for Clemson Tiger sports is manned by Zach Lentz, the 2017 South Carolina Sports Writer of the Year and author of “The Journey to the Top”—which reached No.1 on Amazon.com’s best seller list for sports books. Zach has covered the Clemson program for 10 years and in that time has devoted his time to bringing Clemson fans the breaking stories, features, game previews, recaps and information that cannot be found anywhere else.