The Atlantic Coast Conference has issued a public reprimand of Dabo Swinney for his postgame comments on the officiating in Clemson football’s loss to Duke on Saturday, Nov. 1.
The Tigers were additionally given a $10,000 fine by the ACC for Swinney’s comments in ‘direct violation’ of the ACC Sportsmanship policy, according to the conference’s news release. The fine is to be paid to the ACC’s Weaver-James-Corrigan-Swofford Postgraduate Scholarship account.
The punishment comes less than 24 hours after Swinney called out the officials in his postgame conference for giving Clemson a defensive pass interference penalty on fourth-and-10 on Duke’s final drive of the game that led to an eventual game-winning touchdown and two-point conversion.
The penalty was assessed to Avieon Terrell on an incomplete pass from Duke quarterback Darian Mensah to wide receiver Que’Sean Brown with 49 seconds remaining in the game. As noted by the Greenville News’ Derrian Carter, Swinney believed a flag should’ve been thrown for offensive pass interference on Duke instead of defensive pass interference on Clemson.
‘It shouldn’t come down to that. We had plenty of opportunity to win the game, but that’s one of the worst calls I’ve ever seen in my entire coaching career. Ever,’ Swinney said of the penalty on Nov. 1.
Here’s a clip of the play:
Up next for Swinney and Clemson will be a Week 11 home game against Florida State at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday, Nov. 8 at Memorial Stadium, where the Tigers will look to win back-to-back games against the Seminoles.
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