WATCH: Dabo Swinney drills a fadeway jumper over three-star football prospect
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney has always been one of the more relatable head coaches in college football. On Sunday afternoon, he took to the basketball court and had a little fun with Robert Billings, a three-star safety from Alpharetta, Georgia. Check it out below as Swinney shows off his moves, going through the legs, and then draining a fadeaway jumper on the baseline.
The celebration after the shot is the best.
According to the On3 Consensus Rankings for the 2023 cycle, Billings is currently rated as the No. 48 safety prospect in America. It’s not surprising to see Dabo Swinney playing basketball with a recruit, after all plenty of other coaches across college football have danced with prospects (Nick Saban), climbed trees (Jim Harbaugh), there’s really no limit on what coaches will do to land a prospect. Those are just a few small examples. Of course, with NIL and the transfer portal, the landscape of college football recruiting has changed pretty drastically.
Dabo Swinney sounds off on NIL legislation, state of college football
The Clemson head coach has not been shy about sounding off about NIL in the past year and the numerous problems that college athletics currently faces. A few months ago, Swinney spoke with ESPN’s Chris Low about the changing NIL landscape and college football. He talked candidly about the lack of control across the game with NIL legislation lacking across the country.
“There’s no rules, no guidance, no nothing,” Swinney said. “It’s out of control, it’s not sustainable. It’s an absolute mess and a train wreck, and the kids are going to be the ones who suffer in the end. There are going to be a lot of kids that end up with no degrees and make decisions based on the wrong things.”
After allowing students to profit from name, image and likeness deals, the NCAA largely bowed out of the regulation side of things while allowing individual states to determine those finer details. However, although some states quickly implemented strict guidelines, many later repealed the laws and opened things up.
On3’s Nick Schultz also contributed to this article.