Don’t get me wrong, Dabo Swinney loves the sound of his own voice. However, the head college football coach at Clemson does not have to share his voice with reporters beyond what is asked of him.
He chooses to do so!
The 55-year-old deserves to be recognized for his willingness to speak during press conference. It presents a stark contrast to the rest of college football, including his upcoming opponent.
Brent Key barely talked at all.
Clemson will travel to Georgia Tech on Saturday. The undefeated Yellow Jackets will host the one-loss Tigers for a crucial ACC matchup at 12:00 p.m. local time.
Both teams need this win if they are going to be in the mix for the College Football Playoff.
The home team must pull the upset to compete for a conference title. The visitors must avoid a second loss in three weeks to give itself some leeway for the rest of the season.
This is one of the biggest games on the Atlantic Coast Conference schedule.
And yet, Brent Key does not have much to say! Georgia Tech’s head coach spoke to the media for only five minutes on Tuesday.
His opening statement lasted only 20 seconds. He answered 15 total questions with an average answer of only nine seconds. He spent nine seconds each on both Cade Klubnik and Dabo Swinney.
The press conference was so unusual that one reporter felt it was necessary to ask if the Yellow Jackets had a good practice. Something was off.
To be fair — coaches are not required to talk at length. His press conference on Thursday was much longer than Tuesday. By almost 10 minutes. It is what it is!
Dabo Swinney talks a lot.
In contrast to Key, Swinney’s press conference on Tuesday lasted more than 45 minutes.
His opening statement lasted nearly three minutes. He answered 29 total questions and spoke more than seven minutes on one of the 29.
Part of this discrepancy in length of press conference stems from a difference of personality. Brent Key is very reserved. Dabo Swinney is very outgoing.
Part of this discrepancy also stems from a difference in status. Clemson is a top-15 opponent with a lot of questions to be asked. Georgia Tech is hoping to play the spoiler as a more silent killer.
Regardless of the reason, Swinney deserves his flowers. He stood at the podium to speak in depth with reporters for most of an hour. He could’ve kept things short like Key but he chose to keep talking!