Clemson coach Dabo Swinney says he has “zero doubt” that the 2020 college football season will start on time, despite the coronavirus.
Swinney was asked about how the coronavirus might affect college sports, and he replied that he is not all that worried about it and is only prepared to focus on the players preparing to report for August training camp.
“My preference is let’s get to work and go play,” Swinney told ESPN. “That’s the best-case scenario, and I think that’s what’s going to happen. I don’t have any doubt. I have zero doubt that we’re going to be playing, and the stands are going to be packed.”
The two-time NCAA national champion said he recently created an acronym to help students and faculty to get through this crisis. Swinny explained that he uses the saying T.I.G.E.R.S., which he says stands for “This Is Gonna End Real Soon.” He says he is confident that the crisis will be in the rearview mirror by the time football season is upon us.
“That’s just my mindset. I’ve got one plan, and that’s to get the Tigers ready to play in late August, early September,” Swinney said. “I’ll leave it to the smart people to figure out the doomsday scenarios. We’ve got one scenario, and that’s to run down that hill and kick it off in the valley.”
Swinney even feels that students may also be able to return to their universities sometime next month.
It also appears that the country can rely on American ingenuity to get through this crisis.
“This is America, man. We’ve stormed the beaches of Normandy. We’ve sent a rover out on Mars and walked on the moon,” Swinney insisted. “This is the greatest country. We’ve created an iPhone where I can sit here and talk to people in all these different places. We’ve got the smartest people in the world. We’re going to rise up and kick this thing in the teeth and get back to our lives.”
Technology and ingenuity may indeed help. Recently Alabama coach Nick Saban his players, are using Apple Watches to help them train while away from school. But Swinney did not feel that his staff should use technology to follow what Clemson players are doing in this time away from training.
“We have to … think about what’s ahead of us, what the future is, what we want to happen, and try to do the things correctly today so we can have the best chance to get the outcome in the future,” he responded. “And I think that’s everybody’s responsibility.”
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