Clemson enter ‘submarine mentality’ as camp starts

It’s time to go to work for Clemson’s Tigers, and a rite of passage each August is the pre-camp social media ban.

There’s one ingredient in the recipe, Clemson has averaged 11 wins and two losses since eliminating the distraction in 2012.

Swinney recalled that move recently on an ESPN interview.

“That’s one of the things I’m most proud of my players,” he said. “A couple years ago, my seniors come to me and they talked about it. We didn’t want the distraction. That’s been one of the best things. We sign off August 3rd. You’ll see a lot of Clemson football players signing off to all their ‘followers’ – whatever that means. ‘Hey, see in you in January after the bowl game.’”

It’s just another team activity that aids in the final goals.

“It’s that submarine mentality if you will,” Swinney said. “We’re going to work because sometimes you’re dealing with young people – and even some older people, you say some things you wish hadn’t of said. ... It follows you and it doesn’t go away. We just kind of eliminate that from the equation at Clemson.”

As for Swinney himself, he admits to being a ‘Twitter-quitter’ but also recognizes the importance in the recruiting and branding of his program (he also has a hand in some of it).

“It’s a huge part of our program, social media,” he said. “We have a very active social media department, if you will. Our staff does a great job. Right now, Twitter for the coaches has been a way to communicate with the players. That’s been very helpful.

“I think the texting (NCAA rule) is probably going to change at some point here in the near future, which will probably alleviate some of the need to have to use the Twitter. Really doesn’t make much sense right now. You can tweet ’em, but you can’t text ’em.

“I don’t really participate too much in that. But we do as a program. There’s a lot of things that I’ll suggest from time to time, ‘Hey, let’s send this out,’ (and) so forth.”