Swinney Recalls Message from Spurrier after a loss to Georgia - South Carolina's former head coach had a funny message after Clemson's loss to the Bulldogs in 2014

CLEMSON — Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney had a message for athletic director Graham Neff on Tuesday.

When asked about how crazy it is that most of Clemson’s season openers under Swinney have come on the road or at a neutral site, he joked, “That sounds like an AD problem, @grahamneff.com.”

Clemson has not had a home opener since 2019, a 52-14 win over Georgia Tech. In 2020, the Tigers opened the season at Wake Forest, played Georgia in Charlotte in 2021, were at Georgia Tech in the Aflac Kickoff Classic in 2022 and last year opened at Duke.

On Saturday (Noon/ABC), No. 14 Clemson kicks off the year against top-ranked Georgia in the Aflac Kickoff Classic at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

In all, this will be the Tigers’ fifth straight opener away from Memorial Stadium and eighth overall since Swinney became the full-time head coach in 2009. Clemson is 4-3 in the previous seven openers away from Death Valley.

“Not only that, but you look around the country and you say, ‘It sure would be nice open with a home game,'” Swinney said.

One of the Tigers’ three losses was a 45-21 loss at Georgia in 2014. The Tigers trailed just 24-21 going into the fourth quarter, but the Bulldogs pulled away with three fourth-quarter touchdowns.

Swinney remembers how former Duke, Florida and South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier called him later that week after the 2014 Georgia game and left a voicemail that Swinney still has on his phone.

That same weekend, Spurrier and the Gamecocks opened the year at Texas A&M and got run out of the stadium.

“It was classic Spurrier…,” Swinney said. “He was just like, ‘Yeah, I don’t know why we schedule these games. I tell you, I just don’t know. We go play this game over here, (at home), and get that win and everybody is happy and you get to work out some of these problems, because you know there are going to be some problems.

“‘I don’t know why we schedule these games like this right out of the gate.’ He was like, ‘Yeah, I am just calling you. It looked like y’all got your [butt] kicked for one quarter. We got ours kicked for four quarters. I just wanted to tell you to keep your head up and we will keep moving.’ It was classic Spurrier.”

Swinney went on to talk about the Tigers’ road schedule from the past and then added a comical moment himself about next year’s opener.

“Maybe one of those days we can have one of those (games) where we can make some mistakes, still win and go and get better,” Swinney said. “This is not one of them. If you make some mistakes you will get beat.

“That is the one thing I can say about Georgia. They do not make a lot of mistakes. They don’t beat themselves. They are a well-coached team, so we will have our hands full. One of these days, we will get a home game. I think we have a home game next year. We have another one of those easy ones. I think we have LSU right here. We run it back next year in the Valley, but it will be nice to finally have a home game.”