CLEMSON in the NFL

Swinney and Watson hope to keep the offensive rolling along
Swinney and Watson hope to keep the offensive rolling along

Swinney discusses passing attacks in CFB, NFL


by - Assoc. Editor -

Dabo Swinney Dabo Swinney
Head Coach
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has used a high-octane spread offense with skill athletes in space during most of his tenure as head coach at Clemson.

Swinney thinks that the college game has changed and its becoming more of of a 7-on-7 passing game with the best athletes getting a lot of touches.

“Football used to be trickle down,” Swinney said on WJOX in Birmingham, Ala. “Things would start in the NFL and trickle to college. Now, it’s all reversed, and I think a lot of it is because of the competition for the athletes. When we were coming up, you didn’t have year-round basketball, year-round baseball, lacrosse, all that kind of stuff. Now, you’ve got these high school coaches that are having to fight and compete for athletes. The times have changed.

Offenses have changed drastically since Swinney played high school football in Alabama.

“I played in the I-formation in high school. That’s what we did and what we knew. A lot of the best athletes played running back or receiver or DB. Now, a lot of those guys are quarterbacks, and it’s become more of a passing game with 7-on-7 and all that type of stuff. That has affected the recruiting pool at college. Over the last seven, eight years, you’ve seen this big change in college."

The Patriots and other teams go shotgun for most of the game in the NFL.

“You look at the pros, everybody talks about having a guy under center, but how many times is Tom Brady under center?” Swinney said. “You see these guys in shotgun. It really has trickled up, and I think you’re going to continue to see that."

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