The Clemson Tigers suffered a devastating loss to the Duke Blue Devils over the weekend in a game where there were several controversial calls from the referees. Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney was clearly not happy with the officials on Saturday, and he wasn’t happy about officiating in college football generally, either.
During his press conference this week, Swinney did not hold back as he absolutely blasted officiating all across college football and the general lack of accountability for referees 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 is especially concerned about the lack of accountability given the proliferation of gambling in the sport.
“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.
Swinney called for college football to move to full-time officials.
“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 thinks that the whole system needs to be overhauled.
“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.”
Clearly, the head coach is not at all happy with the state of officiating in college football.
About Dave Kelsey
Contributing author to The Comeback.