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Clemson football head coach Dabo Swinney received immense criticism after the Tigers' season-opening 34-3 loss to Georgia. However, since then, Clemson is 2-0, having crushed both Appalachian State and NC State by a combined score of 125-55.
Since Swinney is often criticized, primarily for his outspoken stance regarding the transfer portal, it came as little surprise that Swinney would have some thoughts when asked this week if he would like to “stick it” to his critics, especially after the feast they had following the Georgia game.
“No, I could care less about that stuff. People say what they want to say. I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. I don’t read any of it. I don’t listen to it. I don’t let any of that in my mind. I just focus on doing my job every day,” Swinney said. “I’m not trying to prove anything to anybody, man, I’m just trying to love these guys here, man. I’m just trying to do my job and do what’s best for Clemson day in and day out, put these guys in the best position to go win, and worry about none of that stuff. People say whatever they want. I don’t need validation from anybody. I know who I am. I know where I’ve been, where I’ve come from, where I’m going. So none of that stuff affects me or bothers me at all. People say whatever.”
While that is what you might expect of a coach, Swinney took it a step further and said that the criticism is a product of the environment we live in.
“That’s the world we have right now. We’ve created a society where it’s just normal to attack people, destroy people, make stuff up, create narratives. That’s just the society we live in,” Swinney said. “So you have to choose, as a person, whether or not you’re gonna let that type of stuff affect you, or you just rise above it and focus on what you know and what matters. But I don’t participate in that stuff, so that doesn’t matter to me. I can care less.”
Last season, amid Clemson's worst campaign in more than a decade, Swinney increased criticism and pressure from fans and media members. But one instance drew mass attention when a Clemson fan, Tyler from Spartansburg, called into Swinney's radio show and asked, among other things, why Clemson was paying Swinney more than $10 million annually to go 4-4, the Tigers' record at the time of the call.
Swinney responded in kind and instantly created a viral feud that led to the banning of all calls on Swinney's radio show. But the Tigers, in a likely coincidence, went on a roll after the incident, winning its final four regular season games and the Gator Bowl vs. Kentucky to finish 9-4.
Clemson will try to get back to 10 wins, a mark the program had not failed to reach from 2011 until last season. The Tigers host new ACC foe Stanford this week at 7 p.m. ET.
