Dabo Swinney explains decision to limit media appearances for Clemson coordinators

For the first time in years, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney is making a major change to his media policy.

Swinney has typically made coordinators available twice a week during football season. However, in 2023, coordinators are only speaking with the media four times the entire season.

Swinney explained the decision during his press conference on Tuesday.

“Just, you know, one of those things I hadn’t looked at in a long time. I think the last time we had any type of media change was maybe 2010 or ’11,” Swinney said. “And just one of those things in the offseason you’re looking at, and it was kind of eye-opening to me that we were very different from most of our peers, if you will. Maybe a way to take a little bit off our staff and help them a little bit – not take some time away here and there. So that’s really it.”

Georgia and Alabama are among the programs that do not regularly make coordinators available during the season.

In the past, Clemson coordinators have met with the media every Monday, as well as after every game. However, Clemson offensive coordinator Garrett Riley and Tigers defensive coordinator Wes Goodwin will not be doing that in 2023.

The four days Clemson coordinators will be available during this season are — Aug. 28 to preview Duke, Sept. 18 to preview Florida State, the open week Oct. 9 and Nov. 6 to preview Georgia Tech.

“I think we’re still, even with the little tweak we made, I think we’re still probably more accessible than most,” Swinney said. “But it was just something I felt like looking at our competitors, from a national standpoint all across the board, just felt like it was a good change.”

Dabo Swinney updates status of Tre Williams, Troy Stellato

In addition to discussing the media availability change, Dabo Swinney also covered a number of other topics on Thursday. That includes the status of defensive tackle Tre Williams and receiver Troy Stellato for the opener against Duke.

Williams isn’t back and available to play yet, but he is making progress. Williams is practicing in a green non-contact jersey after being fully sidelined for months.

The redshirt junior has battled injuries throughout his career and has undergone multiple surgeries.

“He’s doing good. He’s not ready to play. He’s doing really good, though. He’s going to be ready to play. We’re going to kind of see how it goes with him,” Swinney said. “As y’all know, I mean lord have mercy, he’s had shoulders. He’s had knees. He’s had a little bit of everything on his body. … So we’re really kind of trying to take it slow.”

While Williams isn’t ready to play yet, it does sound like Troy Stellato will be available for the Tigers opener against Duke.

The redshirt sophomore missed all of last season with a torn ACL and got banged up again this summer, but he is back practicing full-go.

“He missed all of camp, basically, but he’s ready to roll. He actually practiced for about the past week, I guess. And he looks good. He was having a great summer. Everything was going well there and he hurt his hamstring running a deep post route one day in skills and drills and it really just set him back,” Swinney said. “It was bad timing for him. He was working his way back to full progression, obviously coming off the ACL last year.”