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CLEMSON, S.C. — Dabo Swinney insists he does not care about correcting the report, but when he is being requested, then sure, the narratives he is heard all offseason are — to make use of essentially the most colourful phrasing he is apt to supply — bull crap.
After practically a decade of unparalleled stability on his teaching workers, Clemson waved goodbye to 4 assistants this offseason, together with each coordinators. There was a time when Swinney was praised as a coach who knew the right way to encompass himself with the most effective individuals, however when he changed Tony Elliott (now head coach at Virginia) and Brent Venables (now head coach at Oklahoma) with two inner candidates, that narrative shifted into one thing extra akin to “Swinney is afraid of outdoor concepts.”
Bull crap.
There was the time, in 2019, when he offhandedly recommended that, ought to school soccer shift towards knowledgeable mannequin, maybe he’d simply stop and head to the NFL. That remark has turn out to be shorthand for each out-of-touch coach unwilling to let gamers revenue off their potential, regardless of Swinney’s repeated insistence he merely did not need the school sport to lose sight of its instructional mission.
In different phrases, the narrative is bull crap.
Swinney hates the switch portal.
Swinney cashes $10 million checks whereas opposing gamers getting paid.
Swinney would quite lose doing issues his means than win by adapting to the trendy facilities of the sport.
Swinney is egocentric, cussed, hypocritical.
It is all bull crap, he says, devoid of context and nuance and intent. And but, journey exterior Upstate South Carolina, and the identical coach who, only a few years in the past, was a fan favourite — the goofy, fun-loving, BYOG-ing different to Nick Saban’s joyless course of — is much extra prone to be forged because the villain.
“Folks have already got their tales written,” Swinney stated. “Folks hear what they wish to hear they usually cannot wait to get some form of massive click on. No person cared what I stated 13 years in the past, however now I assume there’s a possibility to get some form of drama. However I’ve by no means modified.”
Maybe that is the issue. Swinney stays rooted within the deserves of a system that allowed a poor child from Pelham, Alabama, to earn a scholarship with the Crimson Tide, to teach for Gene Stallings, to turn out to be a head coach with out serving as a coordinator, to thumb his nostril at each pundit who promised Swinney would fail, solely to show “little previous Clemson” into probably the most dominant forces within the sport.
Folks love an underdog story, and Swinney nonetheless needs to forged himself in that function. However he is not an underdog anymore. He is on the mountaintop. Or, at the very least, he was.
Final yr, Clemson went 10-3 and missed the School Soccer Playoff for the primary time in six years. After a decade with Venables teaching its vaunted protection, Clemson’s biggest asset is in new arms. Saban has supplemented his championship-caliber roster with a number of the greatest expertise to step by way of the switch portal, whereas Swinney insists he can win along with his personal guys — together with maligned QB D.J. Uiagalelei — quite than juice his depth chart with outsiders.
For the primary time in a very long time, there aren’t merely critics. There are doubters. And for Swinney, that doubt is like gasoline on a fireplace. As a result of if there’s one factor that is still steadfastly true about Swinney in spite of everything these years, it is that he loves nothing greater than doing one thing everybody says cannot be finished, and doing it his means.
IN THE OLD days — earlier than his $90 million contract and two nationwide championships at Clemson — Swinney was the closest factor big-time school soccer needed to a mean Joe. At Christmas, he’d costume up as Santa and invite people over to his home to see all of the lights strung throughout the garden, up the partitions and across the roof. Earlier than fall camp kicked off every year, he welcomed the staff’s beat reporters to his home for dinner, sometimes retaining the get together going late into the night time so they may all shoot hoops. When Clemson completed the 2015 common season ranked No. 1, Swinney threw a pizza party for the entire city.
However as his “aw, shucks” strategy waded into extra fraught subjects, a large contingent discovered it much less quaint than dismissive.
In 2016, Swinney was requested about then-NFL QB Colin Kaepernick’s choice to kneel in the course of the nationwide anthem. Swinney responded by saying, partially, “I do not assume it is good to be a distraction to your staff.”
“I feel a variety of the issues on this world, not every thing is so unhealthy,” he said. “‘This world is falling aside?’ A few of these individuals want to maneuver to a different nation.”
4 years later, amid the outrage following the homicide of George Floyd by a police officer, Swinney acknowledged the error, calling his Kaepernick feedback “a harsh statement.” By then, although, he was embroiled in additional controversy.
His response to COVID-19 shutdowns in April 2020 (“We have a saying – T.I.G.E.R.S – this is all gonna end real soon“) appeared tone deaf amid rising mortality charges nationwide. It continued into the autumn, when he criticized Florida State for canceling a game as a result of Clemson traveled with a participant who examined constructive for the virus, saying “COVID was simply an excuse to cancel the sport.”
Whereas protestors took to the streets in Might 2020 underneath the mantra of “Black Lives Matter,” Swinney confirmed up in a photograph on a fan’s Instagram feed carrying a t-shirt that learn “Soccer Issues.” He was lambasted for insensitivity, although Swinney insisted there was no sick intent. To his thoughts, the shirt was only a freebie picked up years in the past and thrown on earlier than heading to the pool that day. For Swinney, the shirt really represented an necessary ethos, that soccer can save lives, can elevate children out of poverty, because it had finished for him, and ship a greater future by way of competitors and training. However on the time, Swinney’s constructive vibes have been interpreted as the last word instance of white privilege.
Within the aftermath, he acknowledged help for “Black Lives Matter” but in addition known as the criticism “an assault on my character.” Regardless of that help, he later recommended social justice patches on Clemson’s uniforms have been an inappropriate aesthetic.
As Swinney’s longtime coach and adviser Woody McCorvey advised The Washington Put up in 2020: “Typically I feel he says some issues that, I do not assume I’d’ve stated that. I’ve tried to coach him, however he has not lived that like I’ve and different Black children on this soccer staff have and their mother and father.”
Away from the cameras, nonetheless, Swinney hasn’t shied away from the grim actuality of racism. Every year, he invitations the staff’s seniors to his residence for dinner, and in 2020, that assembly morphed right into a form of group remedy session. Swinney listened to tales from his gamers who’d endured the worst of America, who raged in opposition to a system that might by no means afford them the identical alternatives as Swinney had, simply because he’s white and they don’t seem to be.
“It was essentially the most highly effective second I had at Clemson,” stated Darien Rencher, a former Clemson working again who helped organize social justice protests that year.
Swinney spoke at a rally on campus organized by Rencher and several other teammates, together with star quarterback Trevor Lawrence. It was a symbolic second. It was a reminder, Rencher stated, that even when Swinney did not all the time have the suitable phrases, he would by no means let his gamers stroll alone.
“We have been all conscious of the backlash he received,” Rencher stated. “In his intent to not be generic, to be genuine, it generally backfired due to some phrases he stated that weren’t, on the time, applicable. However his coronary heart has all the time been gold. You may’t defend every thing however I am going to vouch for his character and who he’s as an individual. I might go play for him 10 instances over due to who he’s.”
WHEN ELLIOTT AND Venables every took head-coaching jobs on the conclusion of the 2021 season, Swinney knew precisely who he wished to exchange them. He made two calls — one to his QB coach Brandon Streeter and one other to Clemson defensive analyst Wes Goodwin.
“He known as me the day Brent left and stated this was what we have been doing,” Goodwin stated, “and we have been rolling ever since.”
No interviews. No calls to exterior candidates. Swinney had his guys.
Of Clemson’s 10 assistant coaches, simply two had served in an on-field capability at some other school or NFL job exterior of Clemson. It is a shut circle, and after a 10-3 season that stirred fear amongst Tigers followers for the primary time in years, there was a honest concern that maybe a number of new voices have been wanted.
“‘Greatest is the usual, ‘All in’ — it is these issues we hear so many instances,” fifth-year senior K.J. Henry stated of the Dabo-isms repeated each day round Clemson. “The issue final yr is that they could possibly be in a single ear and out the opposite.”
However Swinney wasn’t fascinated about a brand new message. He wished individuals who may promote the previous message with a brand new vitality.
Return to February 2001, and Swinney had been fired at Alabama. He had no paycheck, two children and a mortgage. He wanted a job.
Wealthy Wingo had one to supply.
Wingo performed for Alabama within the Seventies underneath Bear Bryant and served as a power coach for Invoice Curry when Swinney first walked on for the Crimson Tide in 1989. On the time, Swinney was sharing a bed room along with his mother. It was all they may afford. However Wingo did not know all that again then. He simply noticed a hard-nosed child who desperately wished an opportunity to show himself.
“I beloved his work ethic and the way he competed and you will by no means see Dabo on a down day,” Wingo stated.
Wingo ultimately moved on from soccer and started a profession in business actual property gross sales. He nonetheless went to the identical church as Swinney, nonetheless, and the 2 saved in contact. When Swinney discovered himself with out a teaching gig, Wingo thought he’d make an ideal salesman.
“I am going to always remember, I advised him, ‘Wealthy, I do not know something about business actual property,'” Swinney stated.
Wingo grinned. He wasn’t hiring Swinney for his expertise.
“I can educate you all that,” Wingo stated. “I am hiring you since you’ve received the work ethic, the integrity, the aptitude. You present up and also you get the job finished.”
Two years later, Tommy Bowden employed Swinney as his receivers coach at Clemson. A couple of years after that, Bowden resigned, Swinney was named interim coach, then ultimately received the job full time. He received, after which he received extra and ultimately, he received all of it. Then he did it once more.
None of it is smart. Swinney by no means had the suitable credentials or pedigree, and but right here he’s, a powerful success story. What number of others can observe that path, too, if somebody simply gave them a shot?
“Hope is a giant a part of this program,” Streeter stated. “Anyone needed to consider in Coach Swinney to get the place he’s. They noticed one thing in him, and that is what he is finished with this workers. Give guys alternatives, and you will be stunned what they’ll do with it.”
Swinney rattled off an inventory of fellows he recruited who had no enterprise enjoying at Clemson: Hunter Renfrow, Grady Jarrett, Deshawn Williams, Adam Humphries, Nolan Turner. They helped construct Clemson then discovered a house within the NFL. That was solely doable as a result of Swinney did not hearken to anybody exterior the partitions of his program — heck, he most likely tuned out a number of people inside it, too — and relied on the identical truths that had carried him this far. Learn your Bible, Swinney stated. Ecclesiastes, chapter 4, verse 9: “Two can accomplish greater than twice as a lot as one.” Discovering the suitable individuals is much extra necessary than discovering individuals with the suitable résumé.
“All of it comes again to chemistry and tradition and a gaggle of individuals working collectively,” Swinney stated. “That is a really ignored factor.”
SWINNEY WAS AT ACC Kickoff this summer time, fortunately chatting about one of many development tasks taking place round Clemson’s soccer constructing. The job will add a number of hundred sq. ft to his workplace, and he is already received massive plans for it. There are all the time massive plans.
“In case you’re not flattening a wall yearly,” he stated, “you are most likely falling behind.”
See, Swinney is not actually averse to alter. He’d simply favor to handle it his means.
One other of the massive tasks at Clemson is a brand new media facility, a spot the place recruits can take pleasure in photograph shoots and gamers can work on identify, picture and likeness tasks. Oh, proper — NIL. Swinney’s massive on that, regardless of a persistent notion that he sours the second cash reaches the arms of his gamers.
Clemson employed an NIL coordinator, C.D. Davies, a former CEO at Citi Mortgage and Lending Tree. (“He is so overqualified for the job, it is unbelievable,” Swinney stated.) Clemson has two NIL collectives that Swinney stated are aligned with this system’s values, with a give attention to charity and giving again to the neighborhood. There’s the brand new “100 yards of wellness” facility centered on well being and diet, this system’s utilized sciences division and the P.A.W. Journey program that gives life expertise and internship alternatives.
“We have addressed all these areas,” Swinney stated, “however the objective of this system has by no means modified.”
And possibly this stays some extent of rivalry with the athlete empowerment crowd. Swinney can roll out all of the bells and whistles he likes, however on the finish of the day, he stays staunchly in opposition to paying athletes instantly for his or her efficiency. This, too, is the place he sees flaws with NIL.
“I’ve all the time stated, NIL, to me, is part of training,” Swinney stated. “It is enhancing the scholarship alternatives and equipping them much more for actual life. The intentions are good and that outweighs the unintended penalties. It isn’t meant as a recruiting incentive. Then you definately throw within the greater concern of tampering and transfers as a result of there is not any barrier. … There’s not many individuals going into the portal with out a plan. However how did they get a plan?”
Add in all that context, and out of the blue Swinney’s avid help for NIL at Clemson might be seen extra as a tepid acceptance of the inevitable.
Oh, after which there’s the switch portal. Swinney’s been among the many most conservative coaches within the nation in relation to bringing in transfers. Since 2020, he is seen 19 scholarship gamers depart through the portal, whereas only one has arrived — senior QB Hunter Johnson, who can be third on the staff’s depth chart and who, sarcastically, started his profession at Clemson earlier than transferring to Northwestern.
“My switch portal is correct there in that locker room,” Swinney told ESPN this spring, “as a result of if I am consistently going out yearly and including guys from the switch portal, I am telling all these guys in that locker room that I do not consider in them, that I do not assume they’ll play.”
Swinney stated he did provide two different gamers within the portal this offseason — offensive linemen with spectacular credentials, he stated — however each landed elsewhere. Somewhat than decrease his requirements, he determined to play with what he has. These are Swinney’s guys, in spite of everything. Trip or die.
“We have all the time been inside-out pushed, and nothing’s modified,” Swinney stated. “I could make no matter choice and persons are nonetheless going to not like me, they’re nonetheless going to criticize me. That comes with successful.”
The game has modified dramatically over the previous few years, and Swinney is prepared to adapt. However whether or not he steps cautiously into the long run or marches headlong into a brand new struggle — that half is sophisticated. NIL, the switch portal, athlete advantages — it is good, he stated, but it surely’s not all good. Swinney got here up in a time lengthy earlier than NIL, again when, as he joked, “when you gave a man a sweet bar, you went to jail,” and but school soccer saved Swinney. He’s who he’s at present due to it. And he is frightened — genuinely — that every one this variation, all of the glitz and the cash and the calls for, would possibly finally overwhelm the issues that helped him and his household climb out of poverty and into the penthouse.
“I am in opposition to something that devalues training,” he stated.
Exterior Clemson, the dialog is usually easier. Gamers should be paid. Open and shut. Even Huge Ten commissioner Kevin Warren seems to be leaning that way recently. And so all of Swinney’s caveats are met with incredulity.
Contained in the partitions of Clemson’s soccer facility, nonetheless, his message resonates.
“He has no drawback taking the warmth,” defensive finish Ok.J. Henry stated. “The love he has for his gamers, the best way he simply needs everybody to achieve success — he talks about it, however to be part of it’s one thing nobody else will ever perceive.”
UIAGALELEI WAS SEATED on a stage, simply to Swinney’s proper, after the 2021 Cheez-It Bowl. Clemson wasn’t alleged to be right here however the offense struggled, and Uiagalelei struggled, and so the Tigers missed the School Soccer Playoff for the primary time since 2014. Nonetheless, they’d completed on a excessive observe, winners of six straight, and Swinney chalked up a variety of that success to how his QB dealt with an onslaught of criticism all through his first yr because the starter.
“This man has the center of a champion,” Swinney stated, sounding as if he was holding again tears. “He is been in a frying pan all season, and I have been proper there with him. And he by no means flinched.”
Ah, that frying pan. Swinney lives in it. Uiagalelei was simply attempting to outlive.
“I’ve stated to him,” Uiagalelei stated, “‘Man, I simply do not know the way you do it. You’ve got received individuals coming at you on a regular basis.'”
There was somebody coming for Uiagalelei, too. Clemson welcomed a hot-shot recruit — blue-chipper Cade Klubnik — onto campus this spring, and but Swinney’s help for the incumbent by no means wavered. Uiagalelei was his man, Clemson’s starter. No debate.
9 months later, Uiagalelei remains to be replaying that speech in his head as a result of, after a fraught yr of on- and off-field turmoil, it was precisely what he wanted to listen to.
“It means every thing,” Uiagalelei stated. “He is been a father determine to me, and for him to go on the market and say that publicly, on the report, it has been superb.”
It is the duality of Swinney’s unrelenting optimism — by no means a down day, as Wingo stated — that is each endearing for his gamers and coaches and but, in moments just like the Floyd protests or COVID-19 shutdowns, fodder for many who really feel he is dismissive of significant issues. In the end, Swinney might be incapable of approaching the world in some other means.
“I do know my objective in life,” he stated. “It is arduous to remain someplace 20 years when you’re a foul individual. I’ve identified my spouse since first grade. I used to be in Tuscaloosa for 13 years. I have been at Clemson for 20. I do know who I’m. I am purpose-driven, so I do not fear about any of that different stuff. I’ve received thick pores and skin, and I am centered on what I can management.”
Swinney likes to have his gamers discover a phrase that defines their season — a mantra of types, that gives a by way of line between the arduous instances and the top purpose. This yr, Uiagalelei got here up with “Roll the cube.” The thought, Uiagalelei stated, is to take an opportunity on himself, to tune out all of the noise telling him one thing cannot be finished and to wager that it might probably.
It is an apt metaphor for Swinney’s season, too.
No transfers. No exterior hires. No must reinvent himself. Swinney is betting massive on the identical blueprint that introduced him right here.
“Every little thing we want, we already had right here,” Henry stated. “Coach Swinney, he sees it earlier than we ever may.”
Swinney’s ft are planted, at the same time as the remainder of the world whizzes previous in frenetic upheaval. It would not be honest to recommend Clemson’s 2022 season is about something greater than this specific staff’s success or failure, however Swinney’s picture has all the time existed in an area past the wins and losses. And so this yr, too, carries with it a bigger context, one that can both arm Swinney with all of the “I advised you so” ammunition he must fend off his critics or will stoke the embers of a brand new refrain of Dabo haters.
So, he’ll roll the cube, and he likes his odds.