Dabo Swinney: NIL has not made impact on Clemson locker room

Dabo Swinney has spent more than a decade building one of the premier college football programs in the country. As the calendar turns to October and the Clemson Tigers are already seemingly out of College Football Playoff contention, it’s natural for fans, media and outsiders to reach for answers to why Swinney’s 2021 group has struggled.

The Tigers’ head coach has been candid about his team’s inconsistent start, but shut down the notion that the new NIL rules have created a distraction in the Clemson locker room.

In his weekly press conference, the Clemson head coach was asked if the NIL changes have impacted the 2021 Tigers.

“I get probably 8-10 questions a day from people asking ‘do you think the NIL is hurting college football and locker rooms,” David Hood from Tigernet.com asked Swinney. “Would it have hurt you back when you were playing and how do you think Clemson’s locker room has responded to this?”

Dabo Swinney was firm in his response.

“I mean it’s the same for everybody,” Swinney said of the new NIL rules. “I don’t know of any issues with that.”

Swinney then honed in on how this year’s group does everything right when it comes to effort, focus and striving to improve.

“Our guys are great, this a fun team to coach,” Swinney added. This is an easy team to coach. They are focused, they show up every day, they respond, they take ownership of things. They got a will to win that’s really special. Their effort is really tremendous.”

Dabo Swinney explains why NIL has no correlation with Clemson’s on-field struggles

It’s difficult to determine how many current Clemson players have reached NIL deals, but quarterback DJ Uiagalelei signed with Bojangles before the season and has also picked up a major endorsement from Dr. Pepper.

Earlier in the week, Swinney gave an honest assessment of his young quarterback not meeting expectations. He followed that statement up by calling Uiagalelei one of the best talents to ever play at Clemson, and continues to praise his quarterback’s work ethic, focus and desire to improve.

“He’s one of the most talented kids we’ve ever had come through this program,” Swinney said. “He’s going to be unbelievable, truly unbelievable. He’s doing a lot of good things he’s just inconsistent, just like pretty much everyone else on our offense.

While naysayers and trolls may use Uiagalelei’s NIL endorsements as fuel to bash the Clemson signal caller’s inconsistent play, Swinney shuts down the notion that these deals have had any impact on the field for his quarterback or anyone else in the program.

“These guys are playing incredibly hard,” Swinney reiterated. “I don’t think that [potential NIL distractions] have anything to do with us jumping offsides, dropping a ball, not stepping with the correct foot, not running the correct routes and things like that.”

Dabo Swinney took heat for offhand comments that were taken out of context from back in 2014, but Clemson players told ESPN their head coach was fully supportive and excited about NIL opportunities for his student athletes when the rules changed in July.

Swinney has been one of the top college football coaches in the country for a long time and revamped a built a powerhouse at Clemson. It’s safe to assume he knows his team better than anyone.