Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney says that senior defensive tackle Vic Burley “paid the price” for his off-the-field actions.

Burley was recently reinstated from his indefinite suspension following his late August arrest on public disorderly conduct charges, and Swinney went into further detail about the reinstatement of Burley.

During his Tuesday press conference ahead of Clemson’s Week 3 matchup vs. North Carolina on Saturday, Swinney was asked how Burley has shown that he deserved to rejoin the team. Swinney stated that “he was stupid, but I’m not going to kick him off [the team] for being stupid.”

Swinney said that Burley took full ownership of his mistake and accountability for his behavior, faced the consequences and handled the situation the right way, doing everything the program asked him to do in order to come back.

“I mean, a dumb decision on his part,” Swinney said. “He’s a kid working on his MBA. He’s already got his degree. He’s about to get an MBA from Clemson. Vic’s — I mean, he took ownership of it, and we held him accountable. A lot of places would have just said, keep playing, but we’ve got some standards around here that we believe in.”

On Saturday, Aug. 22, Burley was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. He was released the following day, and after the arrest, Swinney announced Burley was suspended indefinitely. Three weeks ago, Burley pleaded guilty to public disorderly conduct and was granted a conditional discharge by Judge Lindsey Simmons. Burley made a public apology following the arrest.

Swinney noted that Burley also wrote an apology letter to both Swinney and the entire team, and he took a hit financially in addition to the program discipline and his time away from the team.

“He handled it. He took ownership of it,” Swinney said. “Shoot, he wrote me a personal letter. He wrote the team a letter. I mean, he took — you know, he didn’t run away from it. It cost him some money, too. It’s pretty big consequences, when you get suspended. So, he paid the price. He’s more than probably most. So, he’s back, and hopefully we can get him going.”

With this being his fourth season in the program, Burley was expected to take on a much larger role this season. However, he missed a significant amount of time during fall camp, even before the arrest.

Over his first three seasons, Burley is credited with 24 tackles, 0.5 tackles for loss and a pass breakup, having logged 267 snaps over 21 games.

Swinney added that he felt Burley “needed a wake-up call” but has earned his opportunity to rejoin the team by fully answering for his actions.

“He’s got some other things, too, that he’s had to deal with off the field that have been hard on him,” Swinney said. “He’s got a lot going on. So, we just are trying to help him through it. So, we’ll see where he is and how he does.”

Burley missed the season opener at LSU on Sept. 5 while serving his suspension and did not play in last Saturday’s game vs. Georgia Southern, but he is expected to be available for the Tigers’ matchup against North Carolina this Saturday at Memorial Stadium (12 p.m., ESPN).