“I ain’t asking nobody to be happy,” Dabo Swinney said Tuesday, “but let’s not eat our own.” (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)Amid a 4-4 start that has Clemson’s football team on pace for its worst season in more than a decade, Coach Dabo Swinney chided a vocally unhappy portion of the Tigers’ fan base as being “part of the problem,” and he went viral Monday after ripping into a caller to his weekly radio show who questioned Swinney’s large salary.
“We really haven’t had much adversity, like true adversity. So sometimes it’s healthy to have a little pruning,” Swinney, 53,“This is a healthy tree,” he continued, “but even healthy trees need to be pruned. This is a healthy tree that’s produced a lot of good fruit around here.Dabo echoing himself of the last month or so, continuing to clap back at fans who don’t “appreciate” what the head coach has done in his Tigers tenure.
In a lengthy response to the caller, Swinney cited Clemson’s 12 straight seasons before this one of 10-plus wins, a feat he claimed had only “happened three times in 150 years,” as well as his 2016 and 2018 teams’ national titles. headtopics.com
two weeks ago on his radio show, “Honestly, maybe we need to lose a few games and lighten up the bandwagon. Sometimes the bandwagon can get a little too full. … That’s the one good thing about going through a little bit of so-called adversity, is you really find out who’s with you and who’s not.”“I’m going to fight for this program,” he told reporters Tuesday, “and hopefully we can get back to some appreciation around here. It’s frickin’ hard to win.
As for what’s been plaguing his Tigers, Swinney said by far the biggest issue has been turnovers. Of their four losses, a pair of which were in overtime, Clemson committed three turnovers in two. In the other two, Tigers opponents returned turnovers for touchdowns in what became defeats by seven-point margins.“No. 1, we’re last in the nation in fumbles,” Swinney said. “No. 2 is we’re last in the nation in fumbles. And No. 3, we’re last in the nation in fumbles. And I’ll give you a No. headtopics.com
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