With Clemson exiting a bye week, some fans and pundits wondered if a shake-up was coming. Swinney’s answer: no.
“No. It’s not time for that,” he said flatly when asked about staffing adjustments. “We have good people. It’s a result business. When you’re in the out house, everything stinks. When you’re in the penthouse, you still have a pile of crap on the floor but you don’t notice it.”
Swinney said the key is not firing assistants but bringing out the best in the players.
“Our job is to bring out the best in our players. And we haven’t done that. And again, I’m pointing the thumb at me. I make the decision on who runs the rooms. We’ve got good coaches but we haven’t done it at this point,” he said.
While he left the door open to changes down the line, Swinney made it clear his focus is on execution and decision-making.
“It’s football stuff. It’s making a third down catch. It’s the proper angle, playing over the top instead of underneath. It’s decision-making. The read tells me to give it, I give it. When it’s not happening, it’s on us as coaches. We can coach our way out of it like we coached our way into it,” he explained.
Looking Ahead to UNC
Swinney said Clemson must regroup quickly against a dangerous Tar Heel team.
“This week is about execution. We’ve got good players. We’re just not playing like it. We’ve practiced well, but it hasn’t shown up on game day. Now it’s about confidence and coaching our way through it.”
And he closed with conviction in the process—even if it means joking about “changing underwear” instead of schemes:
“I believe in what we do. We’ve won 10 championships in 10 years. Nobody’s done that. It’s not broken. But with this team, this moment, we’ve done a poor job as coaches. That’s on me.”
Faith, Accountability, and Perspective
Despite the rough start, Swinney leaned on his faith for perspective.
“Oh, man upstairs, that’s the only advice I need. God’s good all the time. He’s not just good when it goes your way. I’m grateful for the crap, too. I’m grateful for this bad moment that we’re in. We’ll come out of it better.”
He told his staff to use adversity as a teaching moment:
“We’re in the valley of disappointment right now, but the soil is fertile in the valley. We have an opportunity to help nurture and grow these kids into the type of men we want them to be.”