What Dabo Swinney thinks of the new college football rules changes

The NCAA recently approved a new rule that will allow college football players to play in up to four games in a season without using a year of eligibility.

College coaches have overwhelmingly been supportive of the rule change, including Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, who is thrilled that players will have the opportunity to play in up to four games and still redshirt.

“That’s awesome. Are you kidding me?” Swinney recently told reporters. “I think it’s great. I think it’s great for the health of the student-athletes and all of those reasons we talked about.”

Swinney went on to mention several scenarios in which it would be helpful to get a player experience without having to burn a year of eligibility.

“The fact that you have the chance to play a kid that you know you want to redshirt, but maybe it’s a home game or something and you get an opportunity to get them a little bit of experience. Or maybe you’ve got a guy that’s just not ready but all of a sudden you have a couple of injuries and by the end of the year maybe you’ve got three games left and a guy can play and finish it out but yet not lose a whole year of eligibility,” Swinney said. “Maybe something in the bowl situation where maybe you’ve gotten injuries or whatever and you’re down on your depth and here’s a kid that maybe hasn’t played all year but he can help you in the bowl game.”

The NCAA also approved a new rule allowing players to transfer to any school that they would like to without receiving permission from their current school.

The Tigers have had several players transfer this offseason, most recently quarterback Hunter Johnson.

Former Clemson defensive tackle Josh Belk also recently transferred, going from Clemson to rival South Carolina.

Swinney was not surprised by this new rule change.

“I think everybody knew that was coming. I think there’s still some order. Guys still have to sit a year, but go wherever they want to go. That’s kind of what was coming down the pipeline,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to have much of an impact. In the past, there were a few restrictions. You might have 10 schools or something like that or schools on your schedule for that year, that was kind of the standard process. But that’s really the only change. They don’t have to come and ask you, they just go. But usually they don’t ask anyway. They already know where they’re going before they get to that point. But I don’t have a problem with it at all. It is what it is. I just focus on the ones here.”

This story was originally published June 26, 2018 at 5:23 PM with the headline "What Dabo Swinney thinks of the new college football rules changes."