Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney has given anyone doing their last-minute Christmas Shopping a fair warning.
“I’m a binge shopper so watch out,” the Clemson coach said following Monday’s practice.
Swinney says he goes to the same stores every year to buy his gifts – Dick’s Sporting Goods, Wal-Mart, Hibettes Sports and Lowes.
“If I can’t find it there, then I am not getting it,” he said
The coach of the No. 1 in the country uses the same checklist for his three sons—Will, Drew and Clay. That list includes a new football, which they get every year whether they want one or not, a basketball and a wiffle ball. He also gets other stuff as well.
Santa Clause, according to Swinney, will come to the Swinney household in the morning, and then the family will head to Alabama for a few days to spend the Christmas season with all of his family. During these next four days, Swinney says there is no football for himself, the coaches or the players.
“Everybody does whatever they want to do Christmas wise and then we will come back sometime on Christmas Day,” he said. “Then we will get locked in, packed up, meetings the morning of the 26th—team meeting at nine (in the morning) and then we will practice a little bit later that day. Then we will get on the buses and head down.”
Clemson will be in Miami Dec. 26-Jan. 1. The Tigers will play No. 4 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl as part of the College Football Playoffs on Dec. 31. The winner will play the winner of No. 2 Alabama vs. No. 3 Michigan State, which will be played in the Cotton Bowl, on Jan. 11 in Glendale, Ariz.
The Orange Bowl will kickoff at 4 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, and the Cotton Bowl is scheduled to follow at 8 p.m.