He just can’t be quiet.
Ohio State is taking on Clemson in the Sugar Bowl as one of the semifinals of the College Football Playoff. The Tigers’ coach, Dabo Swinney, has been very critical and incessant when it comes to his belief that the Buckeyes have not played enough games to be considered for the playoff. He came out to criticize Ohio State’s lack of games (during a global pandemic mind you) when he knew his team could be going up against the Buckeyes for that final spot, but hasn’t backed down since.
Swinney appeared on ESPN Saturday and tried to explain to Tom Rinaldi why he believed Ryan Day and Ohio State shouldn’t have been considered for the playoff, and why he even went as far as to rank the Buckeyes No. 11 in his Amway Coaches Poll.
And, once again, he sounded tone-deaf to what’s going on in the world today when asked by Rinaldi about the reaction of many who had a problem with him questioning OSU’s credentials, and ranking it so low.
“Yeah, overreaction,” Swinney said. “First of all, my vote don’t mean anything, but it means something to me, you know? It’s my poll. I do it. It creates a stir because we just so happen to be playing Ohio State. It has nothing to do with Ohio State — absolutely zero. You can change the name to Michigan, or Georgia, or Florida, or Tennessee, or Nebraska. Anytime you have a top-ten, it should be that special. This year it’s like really, really, really special and I wanted it to be that way. And so, I wanted to recognize the teams that played nine games or more. And so, if you didn’t play nine games, I just didn’t consider you from the top ten. That’s why they were 11.”
“Obviously, they’re a great team. They’re plenty good enough and talented enough to beat us and good enough to win the national championship. But in my opinion, I don’t think that it’s right that three teams have to play 13 games to win it all, and one team has to play eight. What universe am I living in? And it has nothing to do with them. It was about qualifying. And I didn’t think they were qualified based on the number of games versus all these other teams. In my opinion, Texas A&M, Florida, Oklahoma, Cincinnati — they got punished for playing more games.”
There are so many things wrong with this, I don’t even know where to start. First of all, Dabo is a hypocrite. Eary on before the season started, he went on record to state that he wouldn’t have a problem with a team from the Big Ten making the College Football Playoff with a lesser amount of games. It was all due to — you know, the global, once-in-a-century pandemic we are all still dealing with.
Back in September, Swinney seemed to understand that.
“Shoot, in a year like this, no,” Swinney said. “It’s a crazy year. Who knows how many games anybody is going to have? You have some of the best teams and coaches in that league. It’s not their fault. They’ve worked their butt off.”
Dabo on if he has problem w/ Big Ten in CFP despite less games: "Shoot, in a year like this, no. It's a crazy year. Who knows how many games anybody is going to have? You have some of the best teams & coaches in that league. It's not their fault. They've worked their butt off."
— Anna Hickey (@AnnaH247) September 16, 2020
OK?
What has changed? I’ll tell you what. His comments were self-serving as of late because it impacted his program. They were self-serving in September as well because Clemson could have been hit hard. Just say it. At the time these comments were made back when the Big Ten reset the season, I believe he really didn’t project it could come into play with his team, then when it looked like it might, he began cranking up the narrative machine.
Also, it’s a freakin’ pandemic and Ohio State had no control over how many games it played. For once, the College Football Playoff committee got it right by understanding this year is different.
And, taking it a step further, by Swinney’s own logic, maybe we should make Trevor Lawrence ineligible for the Heisman Trophy. I mean he missed three games, two because he got infected by COVID-19, and one because Florida State couldn’t play because of their own issues with the pandemic. Alabama’s Mac Jones and DaVonta Smith played eleven games, while Lawrence played just eight — two more than Ohio State. So, is Lawrence disqualified? Of course not, because it fits Swinney’s interests.
We could go on here, but the reality is that this is a unique and different year than any of us will likely ever see again in our lifetime. The fact that Swinney continues to hammer home the fact that Ohio State doesn’t belong in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic is quite perplexing.
Would anything be more satisfying than beating Clemson and disqualifying the Tigers for the national championship on the field of play? Many Ohio State fans would emphatically agree that there wouldn’t be much else on top of that possibility.
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