Clemson Players Saved College Football
North Carolina head coach Mack Brown was interviewed Saturday prior to the Tar Heels' game against Syracuse and stated that his players told him that it was only once they arrived at game week they believed they would actually play this season.
Tuesday, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney was asked when his team felt that they would play and how he managed the ups and downs of an offseason the likes of which few people have ever seen.
"(The offseason) was tiresome. But, you know, tried to try to just keep our guys focused on what they control, and they did a great job with that," Swinney said. "Our guys really prepared, have been they fully expected to play. You know, once we got into our walkthroughs. I think they fully expected to play."
His response to how he managed the tumultuous offseason was simple: he challenged his players to save college football.
"It was a Saturday practice, literally right before I went to practice I had gotten an email, kind of a heads up about I guess the Big 10 or whoever they were talking about canceling," Swinney recalled. "So you know, I actually challenged our guys I just said, 'Hey, you guys want to play. You're gonna have to change the narrative from a player's perspective, because the narrative is we're making everybody play, you know, that's just not reality. You know, everybody here's a volunteer we all, nobody has to be no coach, no player.'
"And, you know, our plus our players came out and fought for their season. And that was the only time, to me, that our players— that Saturday, Sunday Monday Tuesday—that kind of a few days there were I felt like... nobody really knew."
And change the narrative they did.
Leading the charge was quarterback Trevor Lawrence. In a time when the sport is in dire need of a unifying voice, Lawrence has spent much of the preseason tweeting about his desire to play, and in an essence being that person.
"I don't know about y'all, but we want to play," Lawrence tweeted.
Lawrence did not stop there. The Tigers star quarterback went on to push back hard against what is thought to be growing support behind the scenes for canceling the season.
"Let’s work together to create a situation where we can play the game that all of us love," Lawrence tweeted. "Not divide and argue. There is a way forward."
In a time when there appears to have been a lack of leadership across the board at the administrative level, Lawrence is once again proving himself capable of being the voice of reason and the face that the sport so desperately needs.
He would go on to lay out what he thinks are valid reasons to go ahead with a season.
"People are at just as much, if not more risk, if we don’t play," Lawrence tweeted. "Players will all be sent home to their own communities where social distancing is highly unlikely and medical care and expenses will be placed on the families if they were to contract Covid19."
"Not to mention the players coming from situations that are not good for them/ their future and having to go back to that. Football is a safe haven for so many people. We are more likely to get the virus in everyday life than playing football.
"Having a season also incentivizes players being safe and taking all of the right precautions to try to avoid contracting covid because the season/ teammates safety is on the line. Without the season, as we’ve seen already, people will not social distance or wear masks and take the proper precautions."
Swinney stated that once the Tigers actually got into fall camp, those fears were alleviated and his players believed they would play the sport they love this fall. But even after the Tigers played their first game last weekend at Wake Forest and emerged with a dominant victory, Swinney still understands that this season will be taken one game at a time.
"We just focus on what we control," Swinney said. "And again, that's why I told them from the very beginning, here's what we got we got today. And we're on the field, we got today, right yesterday's gone, tomorrow may never come, today is the gift right. That's why they call it the present. So let's win the day, it's the best of one. Let's just get the best of today and that's been a mentality that our guys have embraced.
"They may call us tomorrow tells can't play anymore. But man, we get to play today. And so, let's, let's enjoy it. So that's really kind of been our mindset, the whole time."
