Clemson Tigers Recall 'Emotional' Team Meeting Led By Dabo Swinney

The Clemson Tigers are in uncharted territory under head coach Dabo Swinney, being the first team to go 1-3 or worse inside the first four games of the season in his tenure.

While it’s easy to sulk and go over all of the bad things that are occurring over the season, Clemson players have recalled a powerful team meeting that Swinney led to try to rally the team on Monday.

It fixed the minds of many around the room, including safety Khalil Barnes, who went into detail about what occurred. It wasn’t football talk that was happening; it was a bigger message.

“The thing I respect the most about him is, in that situation, he could have just came in there and brought up all the bad plays in the first four games and said like ‘We got to get this fixed,’ and all that,” Barnes said on Tuesday. “We didn’t talk about any football at all. He came in there, and the first thing that he told us was Scripture, and he went from Scripture to Scripture; he kind of turned it into a sermon a little bit.”

Offensive lineman Collin Sadler called it a “personal moment”, with only Swinney and his players making up the room on Monday. With the Tigers in a bye week this weekend, Sadler thought that it was important for the team to come together to reconnect.

“I think having that direct line of communication, especially when everyone in there feels like they can be vulnerable and real with each other,” Sadler said. “I think that’s really what’s going to bring our team together. I think he knows that, I think our players know that, and it was really special to just kind of have a big reset, especially going into a bye week, just bear our hearts to each other, but it was awesome.”

It’s not only the players and the community that are affected by the skid. Former Tiger R.J. Mickens is a close friend of Barnes and told him on Sunday that in the NFL, if their school loses, jokes are made around the team filled with other players from different schools.

The safety reinforces the idea of Swinney being 100% genuine in all of his actions, even the ones viewers see on TV.

“It’s not an act; he’s truly going in there, and his foundation is his faith,” Barnes said. “That, for me, was emotional in there just because he truly does feel what we feel, but times three because he’s not just feeling it as a current player, he’s feeling it as a coach, he’s feeling it for his former players.”

Defensive tackle Peter Woods took away a message of response. The junior saw the same progress in his senior year of high school, where Thompson High School began its season 0-2 before responding and winning the state championship.

With many members of the team fighting adversity before, it’s a calling to go back to what they did at those times.

“I’ve been here before, I know Coach Swinney has been here before, and some of our leadership has been here before, so we’re not going to flinch,” Woods said. “So, that’s what the message was.”

The open week will serve as a springboard for the rest of the team’s eight games, and the team will look to use the extra amount of motivation gained from Monday to finish the season strong.

Barnes says that the coaching staff has put the team in the right places; it’s been execution that’s been the issue.

“He’s feeling it from all of that, and he’s feeling it, obviously, for the community, so I think more than anything, it wasn’t frustration, it was just his emotions and letting us know he’s sorry, but at the end of the day, he’s our coach, and yes, he technically has to take the blame, but it’s not him,” the junior said. “They put us in the right spots, and we just genuinely have to go do it. We’ve got to go execute.”

Clemson is off to its worst start since 2004, and this team does not want to get even worse. From this emotional meeting led by Swinney, Barnes believes that those who wanted to be here, regardless of preseason expectations, will shine through in the latter half of the season.

“As bad as it has been and as hard as it has been for us, I think that’s a good thing,” Barnes said. “It’s made us have to refocus, and like now, if you’re ready to quit, your real life didn’t care about what you were doing before in the beginning, so, for me personally, I think it was a good reset.”