Ahead of their Week 1 matchup in the college football season, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney blasted his opponent’s tactic of recruiting NFL players back to school.
In a matchup between ‘Tigers’ who play at ‘Death Valley,’ Clemson will play LSU on Saturday in a rematch of a game they played in South Carolina last year.
Of course, this matchup will see LSU with a new coach, Lane Kiffin. But Kiffin’s recent penchant for recruiting NFL players is drawing criticism from his colleagues.
As the NCAA continues to try and legally prevent pros from coming back to school, Swinney publicly rebuked Kiffin for his attempts.
‘Rarely am I at a loss for words,’ Swinney said. ‘But I’m at kind of a loss of words. I would just say it’s kind of embarrassing. I mean, honestly, it’s just embarrassing that that’s where we are.
‘I don’t blame the kids and people trying to take advantage of the system. I just think it’s embarrassing where we are with college football.’
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney started a war of words with his Week 1 opponent, LSU
LSU coach Lane Kiffin is under fire for his attempts to bring NFL players back to college
Two players who signed NFL deals – Dae’Quan Wright (L) and Zxavian Harris (R) – are set to join LSU as an appeals process against the NCAA has allowed them to sign with the team
Kiffin has attempted to bring tight end Dae’Quan Wright and defensive tackle Zxavian Harris, two athletes who played under the coach at Mississippi, back to college after they agreed to pro deals in training camp. Other players rumored to be considering a switch to LSU include former Utah cornerback Blake Cotton.
Wright signed deals with the Philadelphia Eagles and Cleveland Browns while Harris spent time with the New Orleans Saints. Meanwhile, Cotton played previously with the Denver Broncos.
Swinney noted that coaches typically study transfer players from Week 1 opponents based on how they played at prior schools. He joked that with Wright and Harris, he needed to change tack.
‘Been spending this last week or so studying the Browns, the Cowboys, the Saints and the Bucs trying to get ready,’ Swinney said.
‘I actually got to go watch practice in early June for the Browns. So I’m probably going to get turned in for tampering, I don’t know. I wish I’d have known. I’d have paid a little more attention. Yeah, it’s crazy. It’s hard.’
Swinney says he isn’t tempted to go down the path of recruiting professionals and threw a jab at Kiffin in the process.
‘That outside stuff, we just kind of — no pun intended — we just stay in our “lane” here at Clemson. Try to. Every now and then, someone will ram into us. But we just try and handle our business here.
‘But it’s embarrassing; it really is. We have no rules. There’s no governance. It’s a joke. There’s zero rules. When you enforce rules, someone just goes and finds a judge to say, “no, you can’t enforce that rule.” Never did I think I’d be living in an era like this. But that’s where we are.’
