Dabo Swinney has some opinions on the game-day setup at Miami. While addressing the media this week, the Clemson coach added some explanation as to why the Tigers gathered on the field for team meetings at halftime before heading in for a quick breather.
It turns out that the pregame "bickering" between Clemson and Miami players caused Dabo to avoid allowing the two teams to occupy the same tunnel in between halves. Clemson has recruited the state of Florida well, so several Tigers and Hurricanes have played with and against each other since high school. That "bickering," according to Dabo, is a distraction that he was hoping to avoid.
"Anything that you do nowadays, everyone has a camera around, and first of all, it’s a terrible setup down there … it’s bush league. They shouldn’t have two teams going out [on the field] from the same place," Swinney said.
“You’ve got bickering and all this stuff going on and there’s a distraction before the game that I wasn’t out there to address it early, and then you’ve got all this stuff in the game, and then we all have to go back through the same [tunnel]…it’s just, it’s not smart."
Joe Galbraith, Clemson's assistant athletic director for Communications, also noted that "the ability to circle the team rather than use the smaller locker room set up was also a factor" in the team deciding to start halftime on the field.
There was likely no issues after the game, as a 58-0 victory was good enough to silence Miami's players and eventually resulted in the dismissal of Al Golden.
