Dabo Swinney calls for ‘accountability’ for referees in college football
By Rolando Rosa
Published:
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney has already been fined once for criticizing the ACC’s officials after a 46-45 loss to Duke last weekend. He made more comments about referees during his press conference on Tuesday.
During his most recent press conference, Swinney slammed the condition of college football officiating, while also pointing out concerns with the legalization of sports gambling.
“In the meantime we got gambling issues going on and people are being suspended … refs are people too,” Swinney said. “If they are a part of the game, then by God, they ought to be part of the game They ought to be a part of the accountability and they ought to be a part of the consequences. Not just behind some shadowy curtain. They ought to have to answer for it.
“There’s judgement calls and all that. We just have to disagree to disagree. But there’s also absolute, flat-out misses with no consequences.”
Swinney was livid at a controversial pass interference call on a 4th-and-10 from Clemson‘s 18-yard-line with under a minute remaining. Duke went on to score a touchdown on the next play, and the ensuing two-point conversion ended up as the game-winner.
“That’s one of the worst calls I’ve ever seen in a game ever in my entire coaching career. Ever,” Swinney said in his post-game press conference after the Duke game.
Swinney was fined $10,000 by the ACC for his comments.
Typically Clemson is a perennial ACC power. However, the Tigers are 3-5 overall and currently 12th place in the ACC. Clemson will aim to get back on track with a home game vs. Florida State on Saturday (7 p.m. ET/ACC Network).
