Dabo Swinney, Colin Cowherd clear air over ‘fraud’ feud

CLEMSON — Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney appeared on Fox Sports Radio host Colin Cowherd’s podcast earlier this month and recalled the time he had a little fun at the expense of Cowherd after Clemson won the 2016 national title over Alabama.

Cowherd called Clemson a “fraud” earlier that season and said the Tigers didn’t deserve to make the College Football Playoff.

After Clemson not only made the playoff but won the national title, Swinney fired back.

“The guy that called us a fraud, ask Alabama if we’re a fraud. What’s his name? Colin Cowherd?” Swinney said at the time. “Never met him, don’t know him. Ask Alabama if we’re a fraud, ask Ohio State if we’re a fraud, ask Oklahoma if we’re a fraud. The only fraud is that guy, because he didn’t do his homework. I hope y’all print that.”

Swinney said on Cowherd’s podcast that he genuinely didn’t know who Cowherd was when he came across the clip back in 2016, but he was happy to use it as motivation for his club leading up to the national title game.

“I did not know who you were, to be honest with you. I really didn’t. In fact, that’s how I found out who you were, was somebody sent me your clip, and listen, I’m thankful for you. Somebody sent me your clip. I think you called us a fraud or something. And I’m like, ‘Who the heck is this guy?’ I didn’t know who he was. But I had a lot of fun with our team,” Swinney said.

“It was great. It was one of those cool moments. We were getting ready to play Alabama, and I don’t know, somebody had gotten me this clip. And I was like, ‘This is perfect, save that.’”

Swinney told his team at the time that if the Tigers won, he would fire back in the postgame press conference.

After Clemson beat Alabama 35-31, he did just that.

“It was one of those deals where I said, ‘Hey boys, just get me to the press conference. Just get me there and we’ll have some fun with this,” Swinney recalled.

“To be honest with you, I had forgotten about it. You know, you just win a national championship, you know, you’ve got a lot going on. And one of the players reminded me, ‘Hey, don’t forget about that.’ I’m like, ‘Oh no, that’s right. That’s right.’ So anyway, we had a little fun at your expense.”

Cowherd led his show the next morning with Swinney’s response and talked about it for much of that day.

Cowherd said at the time and maintains now that he has no issue with what Swinney said.

“I watched you twice early, and you struggled a little bit offensively. And you couldn’t put away N.C. State. And I said, ‘How did these guys get…’ but it was classic I saw you early, but I didn’t catch you late,” Cowherd said.

“Boy, that was a team that got much better in the last six weeks of the season.”