Swinney says flu bug hit the Tigers to the point there was a sick van for players

Shipley battled the flu this week but still ran for 80 yards on 15 carries (Photo by Merrell Mann).

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Sun Nov 26 00:38:16 GMT-04:00 2023

COLUMBIA – Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney didn’t have any idea what players or coaches would be able to make it to the rivalry game after the flu bug ravaged his squad this week. It turns out everyone got a little better with a win over the Gamecocks.

Clemson defeated South Carolina 16-7 Saturday night in Williams-Brice Stadium, the eighth win in the last nine meetings for the Tigers in the series. But Swinney didn’t know how the week would shake out after the flu made its rounds and other injuries popped up.

“But we had so many guys that didn’t practice all week. Shipley didn’t practice until Thursday,” Swinney said during his postgame press conference. “We had a big run of the flu go through the team. I think we had 12 guys on IVs after the pregame, after breakfast this morning. We looked like a dadgum MASH unit in there, just trying to get them to the game. We had coaches out, broken hands, broken thumbs, bad feet. It’s just wild. I’m just really proud of the staff and our players for just finding a way to get it done. It’s just a great, great response by all these guys tonight.”

Swinney said it got so bad that he avoided head trainer Pat Richards.

“It’s just somebody got sick, and then another guy got sick. I tried to avoid Pat Richards. I would see him coming. I’d just go another way. It’s bad news every day,” Swinney said. “Every single day, we’ve had bad news since last week. It’s crazy. Again, we’ve had staff out. Hunter Helms didn’t practice all week. I hadn’t seen Hunter Helms until today. I take that back. I saw him on Monday. I made him captain on Monday.

“I did not see him again until today. We had to have separate vehicles come down here, sick vans. Nick Eason was out sick, Thomas Austin out. He’s in there getting IVs. It was crazy. Will Shipley didn’t practice until Thursday. He was sick. I didn’t see him Monday or Tuesday. The first time I saw him was Wednesday. It was a wild week. I mean, just bad news every single day. We’ve been battling, but we found a way to patch them all up and get them through.”

Swinney said the flu actually started last week.

“Yeah, I think it started maybe Friday of last week, and then next thing you know, was another guy or two Sunday, then Monday we had a guy. Then it just spread through some of these guys,” he said. “It was a crazy week for us. I gave the game ball to Pat Richards, our trainer, you all are looking him up, because we had very few guys practice this week. It’s crazy.”