Swinney says he was 'lucky to get out alive' of postgame scrum, will talk to Beamer

Swinney said he will speak with Shane Beamer about what happened (Photo by Merrell Mann).

David Hood - Senior Writer - Sunday, December 01 2024

Head coach Dabo Swinney called the scrum between Clemson players and fans and South Carolina players and fans following Saturday’s rivalry game dangerous, and he will discuss what happened with Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer.

South Carolina players or fans attempted to plant the flag at the paw logo, and it was followed by fans tearing up the grass and even a few fans taking off belts and “whipping” the logo as other Gamecock fans cheered them on. A few Clemson players and fans responded, and it was eventually broken up.

It looks like South Carolina tried to plant the flag on the #Clemson logo, but the scrum denies it.

Looks like a mesh of Clemson students and players. pic.twitter.com/a0ETygLKUk
— Grayson Mann (@gray_mann21) November 30, 2024

Swinney was asked on the ACC Championship media call if he was aware of the happenings, considering he wasn’t in the middle of the fray. Swinney said he was lucky to get out alive.

“How do you know I wasn't directly in the middle of it? You obviously don't know. I was dead in the middle of it and lucky to get out alive,” Swinney said. “It was dangerous. It was scary, and it was dangerous. And we've got to make sure that doesn't happen anymore. And we can't be hypocrites, either. And listen, honestly, but that was something that happened here a couple of years ago. And then last year we went down there, and we had a player go plant a flag. I didn't know about that until after it happened, and I was disappointed in that. And then again, this year that seems to be a thing. And listen, it just shouldn't happen.”

Swinney said he would have a conversation with Beamer about the antics.

“And Shane and I, we'll talk about that and make sure that that doesn't happen moving forward because it’s dangerous and people could have gotten hurt,” Swinney said. “I mean, it could have been bad. I know you saw a lot worse at some other places, the same thing. But Shane and I both have to do a better job in that, and we will. I promise you. We win down there next year or whenever we win there. Again, that's not something we're going to do. I'm going to make sure of that.

“And you win, you have bragging rights. You certainly want to celebrate that and be excited about that as you should, but just can't happen. But it could have really gotten out of hand yesterday. There's a lot of people down there. And so, I think we can all be better there. And we're in that, too, because I know that we had a player do that last year down there and it's not something that we need to really be involved in. Let's win the game. Let's celebrate with our team and shake hands and let's move on. That's what we need to do. So I think there's a lot that everybody across college football can learn from yesterday. That was a bad look for college football.”