In the past, Dabo Swinney would wear his Clemson Orange blazer just once a year, every time he and his staff brought in a brand new group of Tigers. It signifies a time to celebrate in the Clemson football program.

“It is Orange Jacket Day,” Swinney said smiling when a reporter asked him about it on Wednesday. “Now it’s twice a year. It is moving to twice a year.”

While some coaches in college football have been very vocal with their displeasures in regards to the new early signing period in college football, Swinney is not one of them.

Though Alabama head coach Nick Saban has expressed to the media in the last week how he does not like the new signing period because it fringes on a team’s bowl preparations, forces more work on the coaches and adds extra pressure to a young man’s decision … Clemson’s head coach does not see it that way.

“I don’t understand that. It is no different than it has always been,” Swinney said. “We have always been recruiting in bowl games and all of that stuff. Nothing has changed. The only thing that has changed, there is a date in December when guys can sign a piece of paper. Nothing has changed.”

Swinney says if there was no early signing period on Wednesday, nothing in his life would have changed in the last three weeks. He and his staff would have still been on the road recruiting. They still would have been doing home visits. They still would have been at high schools. They still would have been preparing for the Sugar Bowl. They still would have been bowl practicing.

“Nothing would have changed,” he said as a matter of fact. “The only thing that is different is all these guys that have been committed to us, and guys that wanted to make a decision now, had the opportunity to do that.

“So it is hundred percent to the benefit of the player in my opinion because they don’t have to sign. Nobody has to sign, they can wait. There are lots of guys not signing out there today. But for the guys that have been a part of your class that want to go ahead and have that opportunity to be done with it, it is great. But nothing would have changed for me, zero.”

Swinney loves the early signing period and says it has been long overdue in college football. Until Wednesday, college football was the only NCAA sanctioned sport that did not have two signing days. The Clemson coach presented the early signing period in the head coaches meeting at the coaches’ convention four years ago.

In fact, if Swinney had his way, the early signing period would have been before Dec. 20.

“I wish we did it on August 1, to be honest with you,” he said. “There are so many of these guys. You don’t have to change anything. All of these guys that committed and know what they want to do, but if a coach is fired and then a coach leaves, then they have the opportunity to get out of that in December if there is a change.

“An earlier signing period is just that. It is an opportunity for these young people that know what they want to do to go ahead and formalize the process and not have to sit around and deal with all the drama any longer.”

On Wednesday, Clemson signed 15 players, and all but three of those players, were already committed to Clemson, including the nation’s No. 1 player—according to the 24/7 Composite Rankings—quarterback Trevor Lawrence and the nation’s No. 3 player, defensive end Xavier Thomas.

“Trevor Lawrence has been committed since last December,” Swinney said. “He would have signed in the summer if he would have been allowed to. That is what this is for. It is not a day that everybody has to sign. We have February, now that is a day when you have to make a decision on what you are going to do. But this is a day that is really intended for guys that know what they want to do.

“I love it, because again, it cleans the whole process up for guys that have been committed for a long time. Mike Jones has been committed for two years. Pretty much this whole class has been committed pretty much forever. Again, it allows those guys to check that box and get their eyes focused on what’s next and not have to spend January dealing with grown men still calling them and trying to talk them out of something.”