Clemson coach Dabo Swinney will be in the College Football Hall of Fame one day. He turned Clemson into a national powerhouse and beat Nick Saban and Alabama twice in national championship games.
So, when Swinney speaks people will listen. And a lot of people were listening last week when he publicly accused Ole Miss and Pete Golding of blatant tampering. That may not be a good thing, either.
“We turned everything in to the NCAA, and I’m just going to just say this, this is, there’s tampering and then there’s blatant tampering,” Swinney said during an hour long press conference last Friday. “Tampering 101 is when you’re talking to kids who aren’t in the portal. Tampering 201 is when you’ve already negotiated the deal with the kids not in the portal.
“Tampering 301 is when you got a kid who’s gone in the portal, signed somewhere, moved there, gone to classes, and you’re texting them while they’re in class. That’s like a whole other level of tampering.”
The reaction amongst the Ole Miss and Clemson fan bases were what you expected. Tigers cry foul, Rebels point at everyone else tampering with players. No surprises.
What is somewhat surprising is the reaction of certain media personalities.
Former Clemson players and coaches have applauded Swinney. ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that other coaches are also applauding Swinney for what he said. (Although none have done so publicly, themselves, which brings up a whole other set of questions.)
But then there’s people like Paul Finebaum. One of the prominent voices of the SEC didn’t pull any punches in his assessment of Swinney’s press conference.
“There’s Dabo Swinney, who just does the wrong thing at the wrong time,” Finebaum told Greg McElroy and Cole Cubelic. “(He’s) looking more distant, more out of touch, more antiquated than he has ever been.
“And for a guy that just finished an absolutely miserable season, it doesn’t help him, because he is years removed from a legitimate national championship contender. Last year, being in the playoffs was more of an outlier than it was reality.”
If that burn wasn’t enough, there’s more.
“Everybody knows Clemson started the season in the top five and ended up nowhere, and I just think it hurts him more than it has in the past. That’s a bad look for a guy that, really, still has support of a fan base, because he has been one of the more remarkable coaches at changing a program’s direction than anyone in modern history.
“Dabo use phrases that, while legitimate in sound, don’t really matter much anymore,” Finebaum continued. “Like, ‘we’re going to turn you in.’ I mean, that used to be the golden phrase, ‘if you do that one more time.’ … And it really doesn’t matter what he says. He just, he still comes off the same way — he comes off whiny and out of touch.”
Final Thought
Tampering is very widespread and rampant that I’d be surprised if Clemson was completely innocent of that crime.
Swinney highlighted an issue everyone knew about, but few openly discussed. That’s good, but how he said it is putting him in a bad light to some.
There is some valid criticism about Clemson’s lack of success being tied to its hesitancy to full embrace the transfer portal. That 2024 CFP appearance was an outlier. So, it’s easy to see how others see it as being “whiny.”
Combine that with Luke Ferrelli have a bio profile on Clemson’s official site with “Click here for Luke Ferrelli’s timeline at Clemson,” which takes you to Swinney’s press conference, add petty to the list too.
