ESPN analyst defends Dabo Swinney from national media

If you ask Eric Mac Lain what the national media gets wrong about his former head coach, he might ask you how much time you have. A former offensive lineman and Clemson captain, Mac Lain has carved out a career for himself at ESPN (and the ACC Network) and has done so while giving valuable insights into the Clemson Tigers football program, as well as what it’s like playing for Dabo Swinney.

Taking a quick look across the media landscape, Mac Lain is one of the few — if any — who holds that distinction. Of course, a former player will go to bat for their head coach, but it’s different to the ACC Network football personality. He knows Swinney better than anyone, so when certain narratives about the 54-year-old Swinney or his program are being perpetrated, he takes issue with that .

“How much time we got? I’m just kidding; I’m joking,” Mac Lain quipped during a conversation with Awful Announcing. “A lot, quite frankly — for a lot of different reasons. I think, No. 1, it’s hard for the world to understand unworldly viewpoints, unworldly things. And I think when you look at a guy like him, who’s extremely strong and confident in his faith — and does a lot of things for that reason — people question it. And people don’t understand motives, and people don’t understand the different values, and things of that nature.

“I think with NIL, I’m sure that’s the biggest one right now that you can see that, ‘Dabo doesn’t like NIL.’ Listen, I played for the man for five years. He did everything in his power within the rules that wasn’t cheating or not illegal to make sure that we had the best opportunities as players to make money, whether that was camps or, like I said, other legal ways of the time.

“The quote that he says, when they start paying players, like employees, like the NFL, he’ll probably have to move on and find something else. Now, that was again an emotional thing, probably, and who knows where that’s going and changing. But at the end of the day, he always is going to make sure his players have everything they can to the max of the ability within the rules to be successful.”

But Mac Lain’s defense of Dabo Swinney extends beyond the coach’s personality; he also takes issue with the portrayal of the Clemson football program itself.

“I’ve been to every place in the ACC, seen every facility, every support facility, and things of that nature. Clemson is by far and away the leader in the clubhouse,” Mac Lain continued. “They spend money to give their athletes everything they need, whether that’s recovery, weight room, massive player-only facilities, all those different things. The kind of narrative of how people want to show him is interesting to me.

“And then the transfer portal about how ‘Dabo is so against the transfer portal.’ He’s not. He doesn’t A) have to use the transfer portal of where he is and B) if he wanted to, he can’t because no one leaves. The biggest difference to me between him and a lot of people — and listen, I haven’t been coached for five years by all these other head coaches, but I see how people react and how they go about things.

“Dabo Swinney is not kicking anyone off the team because they’re not good enough or they’re not what he thought they were in recruiting. If he missed in recruiting, if they mis-evaluate, or if a person gets hurt or isn’t what they thought, he’s not going to him and saying, ‘You need to leave. I need to make room for somebody else.’ There are other programs that will do that. If he makes a promise to you and tells your parents and your family, ‘Hey, I’m gonna take care of this young man,’ he’s doing it ’til you graduate.

“Obviously, that’s gonna limit roster spots. That’s gonna limit his ability to bring in different transfers. It is funny to me how it is portrayed or tried to paint him in this kind of villain spotlight at times. But if you just got to know him, if you just talked to him instead of using partial quotes or whatever it is, I think you’d come away a lot differently, again, not just being national writers, or whatever.”

The post ACC Network’s Eric Mac Lain on what the national media gets wrong about Dabo Swinney appeared first on Awful Announcing .