Dabo Swinney has long been a proponent of changing the format of the spring game.

Clemson’s coach also wouldn’t mind seeing an alteration to preseason camp.

Years ago, Swinney became one of the first vocal advocates for college football programs being able to end their springs by scrimmaging another team. Spring games have traditionally been intrasquad scrimmages where teams divide their roster up and play each other, something Clemson will do once again Saturday in the annual Orange & White game at Memorial Stadium.

Swinney hasn’t changed his tune for obvious reasons.

“We’re the only sport at any level of football and the only level of football that doesn’t get a chance to scrimmage somebody,” Swinney said last week after his team’s second spring scrimmage. “Look at the pros. It’d be nice to bring somebody in and do some one-on-ones against someone else. I’ve said that for years.

“Every time you take a snap on a day like this, you’re 100% invested. If anyone grabs an ankle, they’re yours. You’ve got 22 on the field every single snap.”

Swinney took things a step further during his most recent comments on the matter. While he acknowledged an intersquad scrimmage would draw interest in the spring, Swinney said he’d rather have his team work against another in August.

“Even if it’s just being able to practice against somebody and do some inside drills against somebody else,” Swinney said. “Do some one-on-ones. Do some seven on seven like you see in high school. They go and work against each other and practice against each other. You see it in the pros. So maybe have a day of camp embedded with somebody. I think that would be great.”

Swinney mentioned how monotonous year-long preparation for a season can get when constantly practicing against teammates as another reason he’d like to see eventual change.

“All we have is each other for 350 days,” he said. “If everything is perfect in our world, you get 15 days to play. So it’s the 350 that makes the difference, and we’ve only got each other. That’s all we’ve got, which is good because we’ve got a great group to work with all of that. But it’d be nice to have that opportunity somewhere along the calendar.”

Clemson will hold one more practice Wednesday before Saturday’s game.

Dear Old Clemson has added the Tiger Sack Pack to our online store.  Save by getting the Two Pack of signed cards from two of the nation’s top defensive ends, Myles Murphy and Xavier Thomas.

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Dear Old Clemson is doing NIL the ‘Clemson way’, but we need your help to make sure we build a sustainable, repeatable model that will help keep Clemson competitive with the other top programs around the nation.

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