Notebook: Swinney Shoots Down Practice 'Narrative'; Pinckney 'Limited'

Rumors were flying Saturday as to the reasons why the LSU Tigers had the opportunity to practice in the New Orleans Saints' indoor facility, and the Clemson Tigers were "forced" to practice in a ballroom at the team's hotel as severe weather battered the area.

NEW ORLEANS — Rumors were flying Saturday as to the reasons why the LSU Tigers had the opportunity to practice in the New Orleans Saints' indoor facility, and the Clemson Tigers were "forced" to practice in a ballroom at the team's hotel as severe weather battered the area.

Those rumors ranged from the committee not wanting Clemson to be back-to-back national champions to LSU getting the first choice of location due to their No. 1 ranking.

But any rumor that could be concocted is false, according to head coach Dabo Swinney.

"We might have had the best practice we had all year. We had the same opportunity to go to the palatial Saints facility," Swinney said. "It's just crazy how people put these narratives out there right away. We had the same exact opportunity to go there, but we were going to have to change our schedule and just didn't want to do that, and obviously the weather was nasty, so it was great. I mean, it's massive, and this was — it was a Thursday practice for us, and our Thursday practices are kind of jog-through anyway, and this was practice nine, day 10 in a row that we've been together, so it was even lighter than that, it was a lot of fun, it was great energy."

Swinney reiterated the fact that all of the preparation and real "practice" was over before the Tigers took to the ballroom Saturday, and he fully expects that both teams are ready for Monday's championship game.

"I mean, listen, both these teams are ready to play. You can only practice so much," Swinney said. "It was a great practice. It was a great day. Thankful that we had a really good facility, and again, we could have done the exact same thing. I just chose not to change our schedule up and stay on course, and it's great."

Defensive will play, but will be limited:

Clemson will be dealing with a major challenge in stopping the LSU offense Monday night if the Tigers were fully healthy. But Swinney told the media Sunday that the Tigers are not fully healthy.

In fact, the Tigers' starting defensive tackle Nyles Pinckney is questionable ahead of Monday's championship game.

"Nyles, we're hopeful, but if he plays, he'll be limited. He's still battling an ankle," Swinney said.