Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney downplayed his very short postgame handshake with North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick following the Tigers’ 28-20 comeback victory last Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
Much was made of the hasty handshake that occurred just moments after Clemson sealed the win, with Belichick quickly turning away after the rapid exchange. But Swinney doesn’t have a problem with it.
During his press conference Tuesday, Swinney asked people to cut Belichick some slack because it was a tough, long loss for his team after a game that Swinney says felt like it took “22 hours” due to a lengthy weather delay.
Swinney defended Belichick by pointing out the chaotic postgame environment at Memorial Stadium, noting that fans rushing onto the field is “not really normal for him.”
“It’s chaos. I mean, he’s Bill Belichick. That’s a tough loss. I’ve been on both sides of it,” Swinney said. “You’ve got fans on the field. That’s not really normal for him. I don’t know how many places he’s been. This guy’s been coaching a long time. I’m not sure he’s been on many fields where he’s got like some random person right here, and you don’t even know who he is and he just came out of the bleachers … So, I don’t know that that was a normal experience for him, so let’s give him a little bit of slack here. And then I was way over on the other side, kind of coming at him.”
Swinney reiterated his respect for the six-time Super Bowl champion head coach, who is now in his second season as UNC’s head man.
“But Coach Belichick is great, man,” Swinney added. “It was just kind of a drive-by moment. I mean, the game went for 22 hours, you know. So, yeah.”
In contrast to the brief interaction after the game, Swinney and Belichick had the opportunity to spend some time together before the contest and chop it up a little bit.
On Tuesday, Swinney shared some of what Belichick told him about Clemson and how Belichick was highly complimentary of Clemson’s unique gameday experience.
“He did say something that was pretty cool to me, before the game,” Swinney said. “I got a chance to really visit with him for a little bit before the game. He’s very smart, obviously, but he’s very insightful and he’s very intuitive. I’ve enjoyed conversations with him.
“But he was just telling me, he’d never been here — on a gameday. He’d been to Clemson, but he was like, ‘This is really amazing.’ And he said, ‘I could not get over driving in.’ He said, ‘We’re like eight miles, and there’s tailgates going on, and 10 miles and you see people tailgating.’ He said, ‘I just could not get over that.’ And he said, ‘What an amazing thing y’all have here.’
“But that was just something that resonated with him. This guy’s been around football forever. He’s been to a million stadiums, and he was like, ‘It’s not like that everywhere.’ … But that’s Clemson. And we all know that, but he hadn’t really ever experienced that, so I thought that was a good perspective from him.”
