The Clemson Tigers suffered a crushing defeat to the Duke Blue Devils over the weekend — a game marked by several questionable calls from the referees. Head coach Dabo Swinney made it clear he wasn’t just upset about the officiating in that matchup, but about the state of officiating across college football as a whole.
During his press conference this week, Swinney didn’t hold back, ripping into what he sees as a broken system and a glaring lack of accountability among officials in the sport.
“It’s impactful. So, you know, as opposed to just getting a report on Monday, you turn in 10 (plays) and we had a game … I ain’t gonna tell you the game. I’m not gonna say the game, but we’re only allowed to turn in, you know, there’s a system of accountability, but y’all don’t know anything about it,” Swinney said via On3. “It’s behind a curtain. ‘How dare we have accountability?’”
Swinney also pointed to the growing influence of gambling in college sports as a reason why the lack of transparency is especially concerning.
“In the meantime, we got gambling issues going on, people being suspended, all that kind of stuff, right? Yep. I mean, refs are people too. It ain’t just coaches and players. And if they’re a part of the game, then by God, they ought to be a part of the game, and they ought to be a part of the accountability, and they ought to be a part of the consequences, not just behind some shadowy curtain like no, they ought to have to answer for it,” Swinney said.
The longtime Clemson coach went on to call for college football to employ full-time officials, arguing that too many mistakes go unchecked.
“And listen, there’s judgment calls and all that,” Swinney said. “And, I mean, we just have to disagree to disagree. But there’s also absolute flat out misses with no consequences. We’re allowed to turn in 10 calls, alright? And so we had a game earlier this year that we lost. I had 14 I wanted to turn in, but I could only turn in 10. I thought eight were wrong, but got back: ‘Yep, missed it.’ Five of the 10 were wrong. And I mean, these are game-changing calls, obvious pass interference, not called that takes you off the field. But yeah, we just get: ‘this will be addressed with the crew’ and yada yada yada, okay, yeah … there’s no public accountability.”
Swinney made it clear that he believes the entire system needs a major overhaul.
“So that’s the system,” Swinney said. “The system needs to change. It needs to be changed. There needs to be challenge opportunity and we need full time officials. If you’re going to have this type of stakes, needs be full time officials.”
Needless to say, Swinney’s comments led to a lot of reactions on social media.
“He beat Ohio State in 2019 with a ref whose now banned in the SEC. He should prob shut up,” one fan wrote in a post on X.
“He wasn’t calling for an investigation when they were winning national titles,” someone else added.
“This seems like a good time to remind Dabo that the ref from the 2019 fiesta bowl who handed them the game has been permanently suspended by the SEC. Given this new found information I would wonder what he thinks about that funble that was overturned,” someone else pointed out.
“Dabo ain’t it anymore and he’s flailing to cast blame. Just mail it in. The world ain’t going back to pre-NIL, under the table hustle and referees aren’t your whipping boys. I want refs to be full-time so they can be held accountable. Until then: stfu you coaching dinosaur,” another fan added.
“Dabo wants everybody to get fired with him,” someone else joked.
It’s safe to say Swinney isn’t holding back — and he’s made his frustration with college football officiating loud and clear.
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