Coach Dabo Swinney and Clemson have received criticism for his response to current events, especially after a former player said an assistant coach once used a racial slur in a practice in 2017. Sports Illustrated host Robin Lundberg discussed Swinney's reaction with Zach Lentz of AllClemson and Chaunte'l Powell of Gamecock Digest to get their thoughts on how Swinney and the school have handled the situation, as well as the impact. 

Read below for full video transcript: 

Robin Lundberg: Many in college sports have been criticized for their response to current events. Perhaps none more so than Dabo Swinney and Clemson. For more, I'm joined by Zach Lentz of AllClemson and Chaunte'l Powell of Gamecock Digest. Zach, we start with you. Dabo had his statement and it was revealed that an assistant coach said a slur on the field, reportedly. How has the school responded to that?

Zach Lentz: Yeah, well actually, surprisingly enough, the school has had no response, which I found a little bit shocking. Dabo Swinney has not responded to the latest incident and the school is not responding, nor has Dan Radakovich, the athletic director. So for me, I'm looking for the answers to this. I want to know what happened. How is it addressed with the team? And those questions really haven't been answered yet by the university.

Robin Lundberg: Chaunte'l, you and I talked about this previously, but, you know, you're of the belief that if people are going to say something, obviously they should stand behind and actually believe what they say. So what does this reveal to you?

Chaunte'l Powell: You know, I feel like it also needs to be a space where athletes feel comfortable saying their truth and speaking to what they know and what we're seeing is a couple of the tweets got deleted, a couple of people started, "Oh, well, Dabo is still a great guy. I still have utmost respect for him." So it goes back to if you know your head coach and the person in power is not really for this cause, there's some risk there that comes with speaking out against him. So I think that's kind of what we're seeing here, where players kind of want to, you know, start a conversation, but the space there isn't exactly the most welcoming to really speak that truth.

Robin Lundberg: And how tough does that make it, Chaunte'l? Because, you know, you have Dabo saying stuff like football unites us, but he is in a position of power in many of these people's lives.

Chaunte'l Powell: Right. And it makes it very difficult because when you're saying that but only one voice is allowed to speak, and that's the voice that agrees with what he's saying, then it kind of makes it hard to move forward because what I was saying on Twitter and things, like people were asking questions, but it was an accusatory manner. And so that's why you see some of the tweets getting deleted and some of the people kind of putting out statements to try and put out the fire because you don't want all of that backlash, especially if the person in the position of power isn't going to go to bat for you because this isn't their viewpoint.

Robin Lundberg: Zach, have you felt any frustration from the players as a result of the type of situation Chaunte'l's describing?

Zach Lentz: Yes, actually, I have. I spent most of yesterday reaching out to former players and current players trying to get their reaction to this, and while they said it was a one time incident, they are very frustrated with Dabo Swinney and his lack of transparency on the subject. I mean, it goes back to what Chaunte'l said, it kind of breaks of the utopian atmosphere the program has built. So for me, it's about transparency, it's about doing the right thing. At no time should anyone ever use that kind of language. For me, it's a bad look for Clemson, a bad look for Dabo Swinney. So something needs to happen immediately.