Shane Beamer and Dabo Swinney share more insight on why this year's Palmetto Bowl won't be on Black Friday
For this year’s Palmetto Bowl, the ACC and ESPN approached Clemson’s Dabo Swinney and South Carolina’s Shane Beamer inquiring to move the rivalry game to Black Friday.
For Swinney, the decision was simple. Swinney believes that keeping the game on Saturday Nov. 30, which will be played at Memorial Stadium, will benefit the town and university the most.
“Well, it’s what’s best for Clemson. It’s what’s best for the community here. This is a small town. This is not some big city,” Swinney said. “This is a small town, and we have a lot of businesses that depend on these game days. And then it affects your recruiting, opportunity for people to get here, and it affects our students. There’s a lot of reasons. And that’s really the biggest thing.”
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Due to players and staff traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday, playing on Saturday allows for more time for both teams to travel back to South Carolina. It’s the same situation for the fans. Spending time with family is important to both coaches.
“I mean, our kids go home for Thanksgiving, and so they get a chance to travel back on Friday and create a great environment and atmosphere for us on Saturday, as opposed to having to leave on Thanksgiving Day and not be with their families if they want to come back and go to the game,” Swinney said. “So, there’s a lot of reasons, but one of the main reasons to me is it’s what’s best for this community and it’s what’s best for our program when it comes to recruiting and getting people here and all those things.”
In addition, many recruits will be playing in high school games on Friday. The intensity and history surrounding the Palmetto Bowl rivalry is something that attracts the interest of top recruits for both teams.
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“There’s a lot of kids that we’re recruiting that they’re playing on Friday,” Swinney said. “They’re playing in playoff games, so now they can’t come to our game. So, we want them to have the opportunity to come to one of the biggest games going on in the country, and they can’t come to it if they’re playing in their game as well.”
For Beamer, the decision was a group effort.
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“We were approached about it,” Beamer said. “I talked to Coach (Ray) Tanner about it, I think Coach Tanner talked to Graham Neff about it. I talked to Dabo about it. We’re all grown-ups here and we had conversations with both sides and ended up deciding to play it on Saturday.”
In regard to moving it to Black Friday in future seasons, the verdict remains unknown from both sides. However, Beamer and the Gamecocks are focused on Saturday’s game and not the future.
“As far as the future, I don’t know. We’ll worry about 2024 and whatnot. It’s a great rivalry,” Beamer said. “There’s pros and cons to playing it on Friday, there’s pros and cons to playing it on Saturday. Whenever you play, it’s going to be a great rivalry that a lot of people will be paying attention to. And this year it’s on Saturday at 12 noon and that’s all I’m worried about.”
