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The caller did not question the coach, not the way you would if you were sincerely interested in answers for a season gone wrong. No, no, no. The caller insulted the coach, personally, pointedly and repeatedly.

Any debate about the great Dabo Swinney vs. Tyler from Spartanburg call-in show confrontation has to start there. Nowhere in the coach’s lucrative contract, an investment that his performance has earned and returned many times over, does it require him to serve as anyone’s punching bag.

Swinney had every right to punch back Monday night, even if he was punching down.

Those seven minutes of radio gold have since generated hours and hours of discussion. Should the call screener have known better? Should the show host have cut off Tyler long before Dabo did? Should Dabo have turned the other cheek and spit out some old-school coachspeak?

Interesting propositions, but they obscure the overall. A better question would be the one Nick Saban once asked but in a different, more existential context. Is this what we want college football to be?