Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney roasts Miami’s clock management issues
Count Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney among the many people puzzled by Miami’s clock management issues two weeks ago against Georgia Tech.
More to the point: If I try to do that, “just punch me.”
Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal drew national criticism when he chose to run the ball instead of taking a knee while leading Georgia Tech 20-17 with 33 seconds left in the fourth quarter of an Oct. 7 home game.
Miami’s running back fumbled the ball, Georgia Tech recovered it and the Yellow Jackets went 74 yards in 25 seconds to stun then-No. 7 Miami with a long touchdown pass and win 23-20.
Swinney, whose Tigers travel to Miami for a game this Saturday (8 p.m., ACC Network), was asked on his weekly radio show how Clemson handles clock management “in the heat of the battle” and avoids situations like Miami’s.
“Obviously, Miami caught a lot of flak week before last for not taking a knee when they should have and we saw how they lost that game,” a caller identified as Michael from Swansea said Monday on Swinney’s “Tiger Calls” radio show, going on to ask how the team manages the clock “when you guys are going a million miles an hour there at the end of the game.”
“Yeah, well, I mean, that’s a situation where hopefully somebody’ll just punch me,” Swinney said. “We have all that stuff charted. And you just gotta make a decision if you want to do what the chart says or do your own thing, you know?”
How Clemson football manages the clock
Swinney said he uses a clock management chart on the sidelines that shows him “exactly what you can take off the clock if they’ve got zero, one, two or three timeouts” and the team also has analysts on the field and in the coaches’ box consulting that chart late in games.
Sometimes, he said, the chart isn’t perfect because it doesn’t account for a situation where, say, Clemson is up 21 points in the final minutes of a game but wants to give its younger players some reps and keeps running plays instead of kneeling it out.
“But if you’re in a situation with a one score game, you’ve gotta end the game right there,” Swinney said. “So I have a chart on the sideline, we have a chart up in the box and we’ve got a couple of guys also on the sideline that have a clock management chart as well.”
Cristobal, Miami’s second-year coach, accepted the blame for the decision postgame and the following week, telling reporters Oct. 9: “I made the wrong call. I take full ownership in not taking a knee and giving them the opportunity to have a couple extra plays and preventing us from sealing the win.”
Swinney, Clemson’s longtime coach, said the Tigers practice clock management weekly and finish every week of practice in their “victory formation” or kneel-down formation, in which the quarterback snaps the ball and takes a knee with every other offensive player blocking.
“That’s the last thing we do every Friday,” Swinney said.
Next Clemson football game
Who: Clemson (4-2, 2-2 ACC) at Miami (4-2, 0-2 ACC)
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla.
TV: ACC Network
Line: Clemson by 3
