Wake head coach says Dabo Swinney has sent in musical requests for Saturday

Swinney is obviously a fan of the legendary Marvin Gaye.

by Nikki Hood - Staff Writer - Wed Sep 09 08:01:03 GMT-04:00 2020

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney has eclectic musical tastes, but it’s obvious he is a big fan of the late Marvin Gaye. In other words, Let’s Get It On.

Truist Field at Wake Forest will be devoid of fans for Saturday’s matchup between Wake Forest and Clemson, and crowd noise and music will have to be piped in. Wake head coach Dave Clawson, in the manner of a good host, has inadvertently taken musical requests Swinney and Swinney has responded with a few of his favorites.

According to the Atlantic Coast Conference, home teams can use music or artificial crowd noise but not at a level that “prohibits a team from hearing its signals once the offensive team breaks its huddle or, if no huddle, when the center addresses the ball.”

On-field officials will have the power to enforce the policy and violations could result in delay-of-game or unsportsmanlike conduct penalties against the home team. Teams have started to prepare for games, and Clawson said during his press conference this week that he has spoken with Swinney about the music.

“I talked to Dabo yesterday. I think he wants us to play, ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ continuously for four hours. He had a whole playlist he wanted us to play, but I don’t know if we’re going to exactly accommodate him,” Clawson said. “We’re still working that out. The ACC has policies. We are going to have some ambient crowd noise. The source of it, the volume level, all of those details have to be worked out.”

Clawson said Swinney brought up a playlist during a conversation about the piped-in noise.

“Before the game, Dabo and I will meet on the field and we’ll go through the levels and make sure we’re both good with it and that we agree on it,” Clawson said. “I asked Dabo about the background noise and he brought up a whole bunch of songs he wanted to play. I said, ‘That’s not exactly what I was talking about,’ but I did agree with his taste in music although he didn’t have Talking Heads on there. I’d say he had good taste, but not the taste that I have.”

Swinney was asked about it during his press conference Tuesday, and he laughed and said he really doesn’t care – he is just ready to play the game.

“I really don't care. I'm just excited to play. They can pipe in Marvin Gaye or whatever they want, man. Let's crank it up,” Swinney said. “I'm just excited that we get the opportunity to play. I know there's a policy and levels and all that stuff, but we're just looking forward to it — fans, no fans. We're just trying to win the opener and move on from there and we look forward to it.”

The top-ranked Tigers and the Demon Deacons start the season with a 7:44 pm kickoff Saturday (ABC). The Tigers are 32.5-point favorites in the game and have won 11 in a row in the series, the last two by a combined score of 115-6.