Swinney Loves a Noon Game, Even if the Fans Don't
CLEMSON — While the Clemson fan base does not relish noon games at home, many of them are excited about their last home game of the season being at noon because it is in Columbia against the South Carolina Gamecocks.
A noon game is less likely to draw as rowdy of a crowd, especially considering the Gamecocks enter next week's game at 4-7, but head coach Dabo Swinney likes road noon games for another reason — he gets home earlier.
“I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it. Just tell us when to play and we are going to be ready to play,” Swinney said. “I always love a noon game on the road because you get home earlier. When you play those night games on the road, you get home at 5 a.m. or 5:30 a.m. Our days are the same as coaches on Sunday and it takes a couple of days to recover from that. I always love a noon game on the road. I guess we've had one noon game on the road this year, maybe Louisville. We're going to be excited and ready to go."
Even though Swinney is excited about playing the Tigers' second noon game this season in two week, in all actuality, Swinney does not waste his time or his energy thinking about the time of the game.
In fact, Swinney is not anxiously waiting the ACC's Monday emails announcing the time of the upcoming games.
“Clemson fans don't want to hear my say it. I don't care (when we play),” Swinney said. “Just tell me when to show up. I know from a fan standpoint it's difficult ... Why am I going to worry about something I have zero control over? That is a waste of my time. I have zero control."
Instead of worrying about what time his Tigers are slated to play, Swinney is just thankful that his team is being showcased on television because there was a time in the not-so-recent past the Tigers were not a marquee game.
"My job is to get us ready to play. I don't want my team worried about this stuff,” Swinney said. “When I got this job, I heard that, ’Oh my gosh, it's going to rain today.' 'Oh my gosh, it's a night game.' Who cares? Let's just go play. I'm thankful that we're on television. I'm thankful that they want to put us on television. It's ESPN national and the whole country will see us. Let's go play."
