Swinney’s media lockout good and bad, but why?

By now many of you have heard of Dabo Swinney's new media policy. Among its tenets are...

1. Swinney will no longer do one-on-one interviews with local media, including radio.
2. No media access to assistant coaches.
3. Only the coordinators will be available to media.
4. Freshman players won’t be available for interviews until week of the first game
5. No media access to grad assistants, strength coaches, player development coaches, and so on.

Now, I’m told by my bullshit “sources close to the situation” this isn’t the brainchild of athletics director Terry Don Phillips, nor SID Tim Bourret. This is all Swinney.

I can understand a few of them. The ban on assistant coaches is a good one, I think. Assistants are way way way too busy recruiting and coaching to worry about media access. If I were a head coach, I’d rather them focus on recruiting than half-and-half between that and interviews. Sure, former running backs coach André Powell had a foot-in-mouth moment when he said that backs André Ellington and Jamie Harper decided who would play and when during games, and that was beyond stupid and irresponsible as a coach. But there is a bigger issue I think.

Same thing with the grad assistants, strength coaches, development coaches, and so on. They’re so far down the totem pole I’m not sure there would be any meat on that interview’s bones.

I do think the restriction of access to incoming freshmen is a good idea, too. Those youngsters are too busy acclimating to a new life, independence, an academic environment and so on, in addition to football responsibilities mind you, to have to worry about media interviews and what to say and how to say it and when. I’m sure many of them would love an interview; they’re in the spotlight. What campus celebrity wouldn’t love that? But there are more important things for them to be concerned with initially. And, this access is only temporary. After their cherry is busted during that first game, they’re open to the media.

I’m guessing those freshmen’s parents like that too.

What’s baffling, though, is that Swinney is self-imposing a ban on the media, and stranger it’s only the local media.

After coming off Clemson’s first losing season in over a decade, first back-to-back losses to the South Carolina Gamecocks in 40 years and him scolding the fanbase multiple times during this past season (quacking ducks, crazy five percenters, message board fans being irrelevant), the timing of this can’t be considered as mere coincidence. Swinney utterly failed Clemson in 2010, and this particular media restriction smacks of humiliation and unwillingness to face the music.

Sure he's admitted failure, that it's all on him. But it's easy to take full responsibility when there are no real consequences, isn't it? As long as Phillips is there, Swinney's job is safe wins and losses be damed. So Swinney's mea culpa is light and airy at best. He's also doing this in the comforts of a press conference, where he's not being thrown fastballs and the questions pretty much controlled. Throw in there that Clemson's local beat media has been a rather nutless bunch ever since I can remember, and it makes for situation that's an all-out joke.

Furthermore, if his scoldings of the fans have alienated him from them, this only alienates him more. No radio interviews translates into no call-ins from fans during the broadcast, I’d think, which means even more disconnection from the fans.

One thing that suckered many fans in to him was his likeability and openness. After all the hideous “accomplishments” he’s achieved this past season, it’s easy to think that Swinney is now skulking into a corner hoping that time will pass and fans will forget the atrocities he’s committed in light of the program's top-10 recruiting class. As if Swinney can actually coach and develop these fine athletes to be better than they are. Please. And don’t think that fans are letting him off the hook. Swinney's enemies in the fanbase seem to be on the rise.

Not only is Swinney alienating himself further from the fans, but now he’s alienating himself from the local media. Not the national media, mind you. Probably because he feels the national humps don’t know (nor care) about Clemson enough because their livelihood doesn’t depend on the school and therefore they’ll likely be more distant, and thus nicer, to him in interviews. The local media knows him all too well, warts and all, and Swinney doesn’t want anyone with a mirror holding it up in front of him.

A while back I saw ESPN’s “30 For 30” on Southern Methodist's glory years back in the 1980s, a time the Mustangs were hell on wheels but were brought down by scandal and were subsequently put on probation, including the death penalty. During that segment legendary announcer Brent Musberger said something like “when the local beat media turn on you, you’re finished as a coach”.

If that’s true, then Swinney has indeed laid the groundwork to be skewered by everyone from Bart Wright to Travis Sawchik to Larry Williams. The only way out of it is to have a humongous season this year, and humongous doesn't mean nine goddamn wins; it means at least 10 regular season wins, an ACC title and an Orange Bowl win. If he loses or continues on with Tommy Bowden's 8-win tradition with all that talent, the media will have a field day. I know I will.

And after inexplicably driving a 10-win talented team head on into 6-7 last year, what do you think will happen in ’11?

Swinney proves he’s immature

First it was the “quacking like ducks” insult, where he basically told fans to shut up about their complaints of a noon kickoff. Okay, fine. We’ll let that slide.

Then came the recent comments where Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said that there’s about five percent of Clemson’s fans who are just crazy because they expect more than they’re willing to give (huh?) and expect this team to show up each week and win every game.

The nerve!

If he thinks that’s crazy, wait’ll he stumbles across one of those nutjobs who demand a full-blown ACC championship.

I could be overlooking one, but by my count that’s twice since the season started that Swinney has lashed out at fans.

So let’s get this straight:

1. His offenses are predictable...at the line of scrimmage by opposing defenses,

2. His defenses have largely been inconsistent since the beginning of the year,

3. He’s hellbent on starting an injured quarterback who’s head is more in Major League Baseball and won’t be here next year instead of a highly-talented guy who has gotten zero meaningful snaps this year and can change the complexity of a game by his mere presence,

4. He neglected to give the rock enough to his top producer (coincidentally the ACC’s top running back) the first part of the year while giving it to a back that dances the night away or throws it to receivers who can’t catch...

But it’s the fans who are crazy?

Well, maybe they are crazy. But unlike Clemson’s head coach, they aren’t stupid.

Regardless, the question in my head about this whole thing is this: who exactly does Swinney think he is, that he has somehow earned the right to scold the fanbase? What heights has Clemson ascended under him to justify his arrogance and condescension?

Atlantic Division title last year? Is that the mountainous ‘height’ you’re referring to? The title he not so much won but rather he fell ass-backward into because of a shitty division and he wouldn’t have been able to do that had it not been for C.J. Spiller? You talking about those lofty heights?

If he was a winning coach, I can understand the ego. But he's a loser.

Here’s a fact - Swinney hasn’t done squat to justify mouthing off to a very justified fanbase who is about as equally pissed with him as they are with Terry Don Phillips and James Barker. Yeah, Phillips and Barker are the core culprits but Swinney is screwing up in his own right. Alienating a rabid fanbase who pays your salary is always asking to get canned.

But maybe he won’t get sacked. It is my belief that Swinney’s job is safe and secure as long as TDP is there, and Swinney knows this. He knows that the fans can’t fire him; only TDP can do that. So perhaps that’s why Swinney feels comfortable lashing out at fans; there are simply no consequences.

Just as a pre-emptive measure, no apology from Swinney, should it be forthcoming, should be accepted. Keep in mind this isn’t he first time he’s been snarky at fans. He'll do it again.

No, he gets no forgiveness. Not for his attitude, and not for his failing the football team, the university and most importantly, the fans who pay hard-earned money in this deplorable economy to pay his unjustified salary. Inexcusable behavior should never be forgiven.

SHUT UP ALREADY ABOUT DANNY FORD!

It’s like clockwork. Or the rising and setting sun. Or the cultural dwarfism of the Tea Party.

“When Danny was coach...”

“Danny would have...”

“DF didn’t have any blah blah blah either...”

“Just like Danny,...”

It’s like the legend of Clemson’s greatest coach ever has become this cloud that hangs over the entire university and an obsession among too many fans.

While Ford was indeed a legend and should not have been fired back in ’90, the fact is he’s been gone for 20 years. He’s not coming back, ever.

Let it go.

Move forward with your life and fandom.

Quit trying to draw extraneous comparisons between some ill-experienced head coach that should have never been hired to begin with and Ford.

Yes, both Ford and Dabo Swinney played at Alabama.

Yes, neither had head coaching nor coordinator experience prior to taking Clemson’s top spot.

Yes, they both seem to have that kuntree-ham-and-cornbread persona that connects with fans.

Eh, well, maybe. Swinney does appear to be burning some bridges with fans now. But I’ll let that one slide, for now.

Yes, they both were successful position coaches who could develop players before taking the head job.

Oh...wait. Oops. That last part isn’t true. Sorry.

Yes, both coached under championship predecessors, so successful in fact that both went on to bigger and better things after Clemson.

Uh, sorry. Oops again. My bad.

Yes, Ford and Swinney have publicly taken jabs at fans for voicing their frustrations.

Damn! Another mea culpa!

Wow, it appears the superficial comparisons that fans make between Swinney and Ford get derailed when a little more digging is done and more facts brought to light.

I can understand Ford being the benchmark for Clemson football. There was never any better a time to be a Clemson fan than there was in the ‘80s. Hell, I’ll throw in 1978 and 1979 out for good measure.

I was there during the 80s. During that time Ford cussed up the officials when that Maryland receiver (or tight end) flubbed a pass in the end zone in Death Valley and dropped it yet the refs called it a touchdown anyway.

And that time when that record-breaking balloon launch occurred.

And that time when the Fridge barreled through North Carolina’s offensive line like it was made of Legos and sacked a Tar Heel receiver during an attempted reverse. Or was it a double-reverse?

And the tie with Boston College in ’82 and remembered thinking “what’s this crap? The NFL has overtimes, why not college?”

And traveling to Blacksburg for an away game with my family and upon arriving at the stadium thinking “this place is too sterile.”

And the win over Stanford in the Gator Bowl where the Stanford band was in trouble for mooning the crowd during its last week’s game or something.

I even remember watching the Clemson-South Carolina game in ’81 in Littlejohn Coliseum with my family and aunts and uncles on closed-circuit TV, as Chuck McSwain ran amok in Columbia that night en route to the win and a shot at the National Championship in Miami.

It’s been a long time and my memory isn’t what it used to be but yeah, I remember all that shit.

So fuck you if you dare question what I know about the endangered species that is the championship Clemson football teams. Any of you 17-30-year-old ignorant suckholes who only think you know what a championship team looks like, shut up and listen to the wise old farts like me who’ve actually seen them, and seen them wearing a paw.

But those days are gone now. Never to return. And neither is Ford.

As sentimental as a stroll down memory lane is, the fact is that does nothing for Clemson’s problems today. Football, in many ways, is still the same basic game it always was. But it has also evolved in many other ways, to the point that it’s time to consider that Ford’s winning strategies may not work in today’s climate.

Some things from yesteryear would work, but others won’t. The fact that players are much bigger and faster mandates a more modern approach.

In short, don’t think for a minute that it’s a lock that Ford’s strategies would work just like it did back then. We don’t know that, and there’s no way we’d ever know that. SO what do we do?

Move on. And let the past go.