Dabo Swinney takes offense to reporter’s question: ‘Did you play football?’

SportsDabo Swinney suffered the worst loss of his head coaching career against LSU. (AP Photo/Jacob Kupferman)APBy Matt Connolly | mconnolly@pennlive.comClemson coach Dabo Swinney held his weekly press conference on Tuesday, two days after suffering the most lopsided loss of his career at LSU.Swinney was asked by The State’s Chapel Fowler during the press conference, “Do you regret anything about your offseason roster construction right now?”Swinney made the controversial decision this offseason not to go to the transfer portal for help at multiple positions, most notably quarterback.It’s fair to say the two-time national champion head coach was not a fan of the question.“Chapel, you come with all these questions. I tell ya, you’re the ‘gotcha’ guy,” Swinney said. “No I don’t. I don’t, man. I regret being 0-1 right now. I regret that. ... Can you ask me that at the end of the season, you know? The season isn’t over. I mean, we’ve got one game. We’ve got 11 more. What if we go 11-1? You promise me you’ll ask me that then?”Fowler responded that he would ask Swinney the same question after the season if the Tigers went 11-1. “OK good. I’ll answer it, alright? But I’m not answering questions like that, you know, Chapel. I know that’s your role in this environment, to be the guy that wants to create all the controversy and ask the controversial questions,” Swinney said. “If that’s who you are that’s fine. I get it. But I’ll answer that at the end of the season.”Swinney continued, asking Fowler if he played football. Fowler said he did not.“We’ve played one game. One game, alright? Did you play football? OK. Well they give you 12 games, and at the end of the year you count them up, alright? And, you know, that’s when those types of questions are fair, to me,” Swinney said. “You know, not after one game to maybe the best team in the country. Maybe the best team in the country, alright? Now, other people have good teams and coaches and things like that, too. So I give them credit. We’ve got 11 more games to go battle, and we’ll count them up. Then you can ask me whatever question you want.”Matt Connolly is a Sports Trending Reporter for PennLive, writing about the NFL, college sports and other topics. He has covered college football and college basketball since 2010 and was on the Clemson beat...