Paul Finebaum on Dabo Swinney: “Somebody just give the man a pacifier.”
The undefeated Clemson Tigers are massive favorites in Saturday’s ACC Championship game against 9-3 Virginia, but a shocking loss against the Cavaliers would almost certainly drop the reigning national champions out of the College Football Playoff conversation. After his team destroyed rival South Carolina this weekend, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney railed on what he believes is a bias against his program, and complained that people don’t want to be in the Playoff in the first place.
“If we lose this game, they gon’ kick us out. They don’t want us in there anyway. We would drop to [No.] 20, you know? Georgia loses to this very same team, and the very next day it’s, ‘How do we keep Georgia in it?'”
Swinney was almost certainly just trying to motivate his team, but Clemson’s resume is unquestionably the weakest among the four current projected playoff teams, with just one win over a ranked opponent all season (against a Texas A&M team that is now 7-5).
On Tuesday, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum blasted Swinney over his rant, and joked that somebody needs to give the coach a pacifier.
“I think that Dabo Swinney is the most annoying winner in all of sports. I mean the guy just can’t keep his trap shut. Somebody just give the man a pacifier, send him to timeout, and we’ll check in with him on December 28th when he finally plays a legitimate team during this entire college football season.”
Dabo says Clemson has to be undefeated to make the College Football Playoff, which is probably true.
Dabo Swinney wants his Clemson team to get the respect it deserves for finishing the 2019 regular season with a 12-0 record, extending the Tigers’ win streak to 27 games across two seasons. But he says his team is held to a different standard than other College Football Playoff contenders.
After No. 3 Clemson downed South Carolina, 38-3, on Saturday in its final game before playing for a fifth straight ACC championship, Swinney ranted against what he sees as a bias against his team when it comes to its playoff resume.
He specifically pointed to No. 4 Georgia, which lost earlier this year to South Carolina, and said if his team lost to the Gamecocks, it would be out of the top four in the playoff rankings, which is probably true. And he argued that the perceived bias is why the Tigers have to be perfect.
Swinney said to the media after beating South Carolina:
“How important is this game? It’s huge from a national standpoint because obviously if we lose this game, they gon’ kick us out. They don’t want us in there anyway. We would drop to [No.] 20, you know? Georgia loses to this very same team, and the very next day it’s, ‘How do we keep Georgia in it?’ We win to the team that beat South Carolina, and it’s, ‘How we get Clemson out?’ It’s the dadgumest thing.
“So it’s big because they can’t vote us out. We gotta go [undefeated], we gotta go 30-0. We ain’t got not choice because we don’t play nobody. So it’s big from a national standpoint, but it’s huge for this state and it’s huge for our program.”
Finishing a regular season undefeated is undeniably a challenging accomplishment, and, as Swinney pointed out, only Clemson, LSU and Ohio State entered Week 14 with perfect records. And last season, the Tigers won their second national title in three years with a 15-0 record.
Since the Tigers’ one-point win over North Carolina in September — which no one can seem to forget — they’ve absolutely destroyed their opponents, beating them by an average of more than 35 points. They also entered the weekend with the No. 2 defense and No. 3 offense nationally.
Our defense held SCar to just 174 total yards and now have held EVERY opponent this year under 300 yards.
Swinney said his team dominated 11-of-12 games this season, but “we just had one close game where we stunk.”
However, the major flaw in Clemson’s playoff resume is its schedule, which is likely why there is less room for error compared with other teams. Its strength of schedule is currently ranked 69th, and that’s significantly lower than several other playoff contenders, like Georgia (7th), LSU (36th), Oklahoma (45th), Ohio State (46th), Utah (49th) and Alabama (54th).
Also, none of its opponents are currently ranked — though Virginia, the ACC Coastal champ, might slid into the top 25 after beating No. 24 Virginia Tech this week ahead of the conference title game.
Swinney seems to acknowledge the weak schedule when explaining why he feels his team has to be undefeated “because we don’t play nobody.” But then he went on to praise Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.
When asked if the perceived double standard against Clemson fuels his team, Swinney continued his rant:
“There’s nobody [that has] been more consistent than us. We’ve been unbelievably consistent, but again, our league doesn’t get the credit. Maybe we need some of them ACC guys on some of them big network shows. …
“But all I can tell you is we [are] 10-1 versus the SEC in our last 11, and we’ve won 115 games this decade. So has Ohio State and so has Alabama, and we’ve played both of them. And our program is what people don’t focus on. And let me tell you: Virginia, they’d be in 9-3 in any league. V-Tech, they’d be whatever they are, 8-4 in any league. Wake Forest, they’d be 8-3. …
“There’s a lot of good football teams in this league, but people just don’t pay attention. But at the end of the day, it’s not my job to build a good league. It’s my job to build good program, and I think we’ve done a nice of that for a long time.”
Clemson entered Week 14 ranked No. 3 by the College Football Playoff committee, and it’s likely to remain there next week after Ohio State’s win over Michigan and if LSU beats Texas A&M. It’s next game is against Virginia on Saturday, December 7 for the ACC championship, which it has a 94.3 percent chance of winning.
