UNC coaching change an example of why Clemson coach wants fans to appreciate winning
Dabo Swinney was not happy with the small portion of Clemson fans that were disappointed after the Tigers’ 56-35 victory against South Carolina Saturday night, and he made his feelings known during the ACC championship game teleconference on Sunday.
“I just want to win by one more point,” Swinney said. “If that ever gets to where that’s not enough, then it’s time for me to move on somewhere else.”
Swinney was asked to clarify his comments during his weekly news conference on Tuesday, and Clemson’s head coach once again made his feelings clear.
Swinney, who has Clemson playing for its fourth consecutive ACC title this weekend, pointed to the North Carolina football program as a reason why fans, players, coaches and everyone associated with Clemson’s program should not take winning for granted. UNC coach Larry Fedora was fired over the weekend after the Tar Heels finished 2-9 in 2018.
“I mean it’s hard to win. And to win consistently is almost impossible. And that’s a perfect example,” Swinney said. “Here’s a program that three years ago is in the ACC championship game and played us to the wire. We didn’t blow them out. We were really happy to win. And now you’re out of a job in three years. It’s hard.”
Swinney then referenced former Auburn coach Gene Chizik, who led Auburn to the 2010 national championship. Chizik was fired in 2012 after the Tigers finished 3-9.
There were certainly plenty of mistakes made in Clemson’s victory against rival South Carolina, but Swinney did not see the problems as a reason for even a small portion of the fans to panic or state that the win “felt like a loss.”
“Our fans are amazing – 98 percent. There’s always a small percentage in anything that are just completely out of touch with reality. The big thing for me is I don’t want – fans can have whatever mindset they want to have. But I don’t want anything to creep into the culture of our program because our players, they get stuff pushed at them, social media,” Swinney said. “I don’t want our players to ever walk off the field – ever – with a win and it so called ‘feel like a loss.’ How sad is that? The objective is to win the game.”
Swinney acknowledged that there are college football programs where winning is everything, and he doesn’t want that to ever become the case in Clemson.
“I’m miserable when we lose. I ain’t going to be miserable when we win. I hate to lose. Work too hard. But I do understand that sometimes losing’s a part of your success, it’s a part of your growth,” Swinney said. “But I don’t want to ever be a part of anything where players don’t appreciate winning, and all of a sudden your culture is winning ain’t enough. It’s not enough. Now you gotta win by a certain amount of points and all this type of stuff. I just wanna win by one point. If you win by more than one point, and you win by 60 points, you’re just 1-0.”
This story was originally published November 27, 2018 at 6:06 PM.