Swinney says he will defend his players, but sometimes the tree needs to be pruned

Swinney laughs during Tuesday's press conference.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Tue Oct 31 12:21:16 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON – Dabo Swinney torched Tyler, then said Tuesday he will also take up for his program and his players.

Swinney met with the media Tuesday morning to preview this weekend’s game against Notre Dame, and he was asked about his Tuesday call-in show when a caller named Tyler from Spartanburg created a stir with his comments and questions about Swinney’s salary and direction of the program.

Swinney said he delivered an Old Testament response to Tyler and then said he will always take up for his players and program.

“I know what we've done here now, and I know what we're going to do, and what this season will do. It's going to produce some amazing fruit,” Swinney said. “Just get ready and watch what God does. I'm 53 years old. I've had a lot of challenges and adversities and setbacks. Again, as I said last night to my new friend, I've been a part of failure many times, but I ain't ever failed at anything that I've set out to do in my life. Ever. Ever. We're in the midst of an amazing journey in college football history. I'm not going to let one season when I know exactly what the issues are – with a bunch of great kids and great coaches - I'm not going to let one season damper that. I'm going to fight for this program. Hopefully, we can get back to some appreciation around here. It's freaking hard to win. All you have got to do is look around the country. What's happened here is historic. We're having a bad year. That's my responsibility. Ain't nobody happy about it. That's my responsibility.

“That's on me 100%. I am not asking anybody to be happy, but let's don't eat our own. That's what we've done. Even what's happened around here is even when we've won, everybody's miserable. That's sad. It's really sad. I'm thankful for the struggle. I'm thankful for the opportunity to teach in a way that I haven't had a chance to teach in a long time. Sit back and just enjoy the journey.”

He was then asked to add on to his remarks.

“What else is there to add? What else is there to add? I'm going to fight for this program,” Swinney said. “That's why I know coaches don’t take calls. That's why, right there. Because people hijack the phone call. That's why they want to hear themselves talk. That's why most coaches around the country don't take calls. That reason right there. They go to their… That's probably what we'll start doing next year. We will take the call and go, ‘Okay, Kathleen from Clemson. She wants to know what's your favorite ice cream.’”

How does Swinney coach through the adversity?

“Well, you try to coach all these things all the time. It's just sometimes they listen more when you have some adversity. Honestly, we really haven't had much adversity around here in 13 years,” Swinney said. “It's been a long time. Losing a national championship is not adversity. We've won seven out of eight ACC titles. Nobody feels sorry for the Tigers. We've been to six playoffs, six final fours. We got a couple of national championships the past seven years. Even though you have some disappointment and maybe a little failure along the way, we really haven't had much adversity, like true adversity.

“Sometimes it's healthy to have a little pruning season, if you will. Cut the crepe myrtles back a little bit. This is a healthy tree, but even healthy trees need to be pruned. This is a healthy tree that's produced a lot of good fruit around here. A lot. I've seen Clemson University change. I've seen lots of things change. I've seen lives change. I've seen a lot of things. This is a very healthy tree that's produced a bunch of great fruit. But even healthy trees need to be pruned so that you can bloom back even better and produce more fruit.”