Swinney Asked About ACC’s Response to Hits on Shipley
By: Gavin Oliver November 12, 2023

Head coach Dabo Swinney said Sunday evening that Clemson submits all the officiating calls it disagrees with to the ACC league office for review.

That’s including the hits against star running back Will Shipley in the NC State and Georgia Tech games. It appeared as if targeting could or should have been called on those hits, but no flag was thrown in either case.

After missing the Notre Dame game on Nov. 4 with a concussion following the hit he took against NC State on Oct. 28, Shipley returned for Saturday’s game against Georgia Tech and took a blow to the head from a Yellow Jackets defender. Shipley left the game and was visibly angry on the sideline following the hit, though he did end up returning to the game.

“We send everything in that we disagree with, and we do get a response,” Swinney said when asked if Clemson turned those hits in to the league office and what the response was. “But that’s kind of confidential what those responses are. That’s really not something that we’re supposed to get into.”

Swinney added that Al Riveron, the ACC Supervisor of Football Officials, is “very forthright and calls it like it is, whether he agrees with you or not.”

Swinney appreciates that and the accountability involved in the process.

“But yeah, we turn everything in, whether it’s something like that or a missed hold or a PI or whatever,” Swinney said. “We’ve had several things over the course of the year that we turn in that yeah, they agree with that they missed, and it’s frustrating. And then other things that we’ve turned in that they don’t agree with. So, at least you’ve got good communication, and you use it to learn and educate yourself and your team.

“But then also things that they do agree with that you turn in, that Al uses it to try to hold his guys accountable. So, there is some accountability. It doesn’t help in the moment or the day after, but at least there is a process of accountability on the other side. Because it affects those guys as far as games and postseason and all that type of stuff. So, I think he’s doing a good job of trying to have transparency and accountability.”

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