CLEMSON, S.C. -- Dabo Swinney fired back at Dave Doeren on Tuesday after the NC State coach had insinuated that Clemson may have been cheating by having a laptop on its sideline during Saturday's game, a 38-31 Tigers win.
"It's disappointing because that was kind of a challenge to our integrity," Swinney said.
Doeren suggested in his postgame news conference that Clemson should be investigated for the laptop on its sideline, which he believed violated the NCAA's rule against technology being used on the field.
Clemson identified the laptop as belonging to a student worker assigned to handle social media for the school, and the ACC ruled that there was no wrongdoing since coaches were not utilizing the laptop.
On Tuesday, Swinney was asked if he had received a phone call from Doeren to address the situation. Swinney took the opportunity to tweak the NC State coach and star defensive end Bradley Chubb, who repeatedly swiped towels from Clemson quarterback Kelly Bryant during Saturday's game.
"No, no, he did not [call]," Swinney said. "I had no clue. I knew it wasn't anything to do with football. But I did investigate. I did. I followed instructions to do some investigation. And it turns out, there was just a major crisis going on. A young guy trying to help a team in need. And I think trying to be helpful in a situation, trying to get in touch with Amazon, we had a crisis -- a dire need of towels. We were trying to get one of them drones to come in and drop some towels on the sideline, and it just didn't work out. But I want to launch an investigation, too. What do they do with those towels? Is it a towel wall thing?"
Swinney also noted the repeated issues his team has had with NC State, including a situation in 2015 when assistant Des Kitchings appeared to shove Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson after Watson ran out of bounds, and again Saturday when another Wolfpack assistant appeared to take a swipe at Clemson safety K'Von Wallace, who was returning an interception near the end of the game.
"You watch the tape and, two years ago, we go up there and one of the coaches pushes Deshaun Watson," Swinney said. "This year, we got some guy take a swipe at K'Von. What if he breaks a finger? I think the investigation needs to be watching his sideline and not worrying about ours. So no, didn't get a call."