Clemson coach Dabo Swinney didn’t pull any punches in his Friday afternoon, hour-long press conference accusing Ole Miss of tampering and bemoaning the state of college football.
“This is just a really sad state of affairs,” Swinney said. “We have a broken system.”
That’s something only a few would argue against. The calendar and dates of important events overlapping with one another is, frankly, ridiculous. The transfer portal opens in the middle of the playoffs? National signing day takes place days or weeks after new coaches are hired?
None of it makes sense and the only people to blame are the ones who made the decisions. We covered the timeline Swinney presented regarding Luke Ferrelli’s recruitment to Clemson and then to Ole Miss a week later yesterday. It highlights what’s going on around the country.
For whatever it’s worth, the NCAA issued a statement saying “The NCAA will investigate any credible allegations of tampering and expect full cooperation from all involved as is required by NCAA rules. We will not comment further on any ongoing investigation.”
But even though it’s blatantly obvious the system is broken, it’ll take a while for any changes of substance to be made.
For now, this is how the sport is. Everyone is tampering with everyone. Are we supposed to seriously believe Clemson is totally innocent of tampering?
And is it tampering when other schools are talking with coaches during the season? We know that happens because Lane Kiffin admitted to talking to LSU officials during the Rebels’ season. Does that make LSU guilty of tampering?
If there are no guardrails against coaches talking with other schools, why should there be guardrails preventing players from doing so?
It’s a lot of hypocrisy and crying about a system that it doesn’t appear Swinney is very good at. Friday looked a lot like a coach wanting to go back to a system in which he was winning 10-11 games every year and competing for national championships.
Now he has less playoff wins in the NIL era than a coach whose only been a head coach for four weeks. “We’re gonna give him some grace,” is what Swinney said about Thomas.
The condescending attitude at times didn’t prove anything other than lines like “This is not about a linebacker at Clemson,” aren’t entirely true.
“I think it’s a symptom of a system that you have a kid that I meet at 9:30 p.m. and he’s signing the next day,” Swinney said. “Like, I feel sorry for the young man, to be honest with you.”
OK, if that’s true why let him sign then?
We all know the answer. Get him locked in now so he can’t go someplace else. It’s hard to sympathize with someone bemoaning the system they’re an active participant in.
