Dabo Swinney on Clemson’s Reset, Chad Morris’s Return & College Football’s New Era

Brian Fisher here at ACC Media Days with Sports Illustrated joined by Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney.

Debo, I'm gonna use your own words.

You, you guys said, you said you stunk last year.

I, I'm curious how you, how you process that throughout the course of the offseason.

It's a lot in the process, uh, just study what happened and, you know, uh, like you do every year, even when you have a great year , there's always things that, that you, you, you needed to do better and you look at it and you go, boy, I'm glad, I'm glad, I'm glad we made that one more play.

Uh, but this particular year, past year, we, we, uh, You know, we didn't and, uh, so a lot to, a lot to, uh, you know, go to work on and fix, but whether you're coming off a great year, you're coming off a, a tough year, you start over and, uh, you, you have a process that you believe in on how you, uh, you know, start over and, and get back to work and that's, that's what we focus on.

How's that process changed from year one to now?

Uh, not a lot.

I mean, you know, it's a lot of similarities.

You're always, again, it starts with your self-scout, uh, you know, as far as what went right, uh, what went great, what went good, what went bad, what was a disaster, and, uh, and you kind of study all those things and, And then you study other people and, and then you're always evaluating your personnel, your staff, all of those things.

So that, that part has never changed.

Uh, that's pretty much, you know, gonna always be the case.

Uh, again, whether you have a good year or a bad year, that's just a process that you, that you have to, to kind of reinstall, you know, just offensively, you reinstall your offense every year, you reinstall your defense every year, you reinstall all your fundamentals, techniques from a program standpoint, it's the same thing.

You got to reinstall your program.

You have to reinstall the core values and all those things.

So that part is, uh, has never changed, and you're quite literally reinstalling an offensive coordinator in Chad Morris.

What, what's that process been like and how good is it to have Chad back?

It's been great, um, and, you know, he's, he's, um, the timing was good.

Um, same reason I hired him in '11 is the exact reason I'm hiring.

We, we, we came off a really, our worst season in 2010 , and, uh, I just felt like, um, you know, he was the right guy at the right time.

And we're coming off our second-worst season here 15 years later and, and once again , he's the right guy at the right time.

And so I'm excited about, um, you know, the energy and, and passion that he has brought, um, the guys that bought in.

Um, you know, nobody wants to hear us talk about it and all that stuff.

Uh, we got to go do it and, and get the , get the results we want, but, um, it's been great, you know, uh, we, we have a lot of synergy and alignment.

We have 4 years of history together.

Uh, so that part's been great.

s systematically.

What, what's changed from, from Chad in terms of how he runs his offense from back in, in 2010 versus now?

Yeah, well, there's, there are a lot, uh, there's a lot that's the same, um, you know, from a foundational standpoint, but, you know, the game has evolved a lot since 2011 to now 20206, and, and he's not a guy that's been stuck in a closet somewhere, you know, just doing nothing.

I mean, his, his son's a high-level player too , so he's, he's always been a stu a student of the game and Um, so there's been, there's been several things that, that, uh, are, that are different from when we were, uh, worked together the first time.

There's been things about our program that's different from when he got there.

I mean, we're in a new facility, there's a lot of different things.

So, Um, but , uh, mostly, uh, it's, it's, it's very familiar and similar to me.

Uh, now it's been very new and different for our players, uh, but as far as, you know, the core values of being able to run the football and having complimentary plays off of that and, and creating explosive one on ones through the run game.

Uh, that part hasn't changed.

You certainly are known for your development in terms of keeping guys, retaining guys.

How does the, the upcoming eligibility changes, you know, kind of impact how you view your roster and where it could go moving forward?

Oh man, I love it, uh, because, you know, it just eliminates having to manage that part of it, and it, it, it opens up more bodies for special teams, um, and then, you know, I think it's just, it gives these guys another year to have a chance to make some money.

Uh, but it, but it, you know, it gives, there's, it's just another year of development for these guys.

But it also, um, you know, just allows you to, uh, you know, have a little bit more of a pool of players to choose from, um, you know, what, you know, from, from a recruiting standpoint.

So, I think it's, I think it's great for college football and then hopefully, It'll eliminate guys sitting out, not playing and all that type of stuff because they're trying to save a year.

Now they, now they're not saving a year.

They all get the same amount of years and then hopefully too, it'll eliminate some of the, Lawsuits, you know, that have come about, uh, hopefully that stuff will be minimized as well.

I mean, you've seen a lot of change in college football over these last two decades.

Are, are you still still wrapping your mind around, you know, guys getting paid and especially, especially the amounts that you're getting spending on your roster?

Yeah, well, I mean, the rev share has been great for us.

Uh, that, that has been, you know, kind of a game changer.

We were only 1 year into that.

It just came about last July 1.

The NIL was really hard, uh, because the NIL was just raised money.

Uh, the rev share, you can share the money that you have.

Um, and so that part has been good for us because it's kind of leveled the playing field a little bit because we, we, we have that money.

Uh, we don't have to go raise it, we have it and we can share that.

Uh, so I think that's been good.

Now, how you do it is there's no transparency in that.

Uh, and then with, you know, the, the tampering, uh, it just kind of creates some, some craziness.

Uh, but for us, you know, our process isn't different.

We've created a lot of value in the place and there's a lot of value in the people that you do football life with.

That's why we lead the nation in retention.

The fewest players, we, we, we have some guys leave, but we have the fewest players leave our program than any, any place out there in, in the power group.

So, um, you know, in an era where they can leave anytime they want.

So it, it's, um, uh, it's, it's worked out good for us.

I mean, we're, we're in a good spot.

We've been affected like everybody else, but, you know, we're probably a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10, um, as far as all that stuff.

So we're, we're, we're, uh, I like where we're at.

Uh, we have a, a process that we believe in, uh, when it comes to how we build our roster.

And, uh, that's worked well for us.

You mentioned tampering.

You, you were very public, you know, back in January about that involving one of your players.

Why, why don't coaches say more publicly about that?

You have to ask them, uh, you know, but, you know, if we have, if we have people tamper on our roster and I find out about it, I'm going to turn it in.

So, um, you know, it's just, hopefully we won't have a lot of that, you know, there's nothing wrong with, if kids won't, but let's do it the right way, you know, and, uh, but, Yeah, it's, um, there's not a lot of fear of consequences.

Talking a lot about, uh, a lot of your players here at me today.

Who's somebody that, uh, maybe we, we haven't been talking about a whole lot this summer, the spring, uh, that this fall we will be knowing, uh, from that type of roster.

Yeah, I mean, I mean, there's always, you know, guys , this and that.

I, if I, if I probably, if I had to say one guy, I'd probably say Chris Johnson just because nobody knows much about him and he runs like a 4-2, uh, so, He's one of those guys that if somebody slips down or he breaks a tackle, he's probably gonna score, uh , because nobody's gonna catch him.

So we hadn't really talked much about him.

Um, he really hadn't earned a lot for us to talk about him, but I think that, um, you know, he's, he's got a chance to be, And explosive player force.

I mean, with some of the guys you have come back at, at White, what can, what can we expect out of that position group in particular?

Yeah, that, that's, that's, uh, that's one of our deepest positions.

Uh, we've got, you know, uh , Bryant Westco, Junior, TJ Moore Junior.

Those are, those are, you know, guys gonna be drafted.

We got Tyler Brown.

Uh, we, we went and signed, you know, 3 really good, uh, freshmen and a couple of, uh, other guys that we added late in the process that, that we really like.

Cole Turner's back.

We got Tristan Smith back.

So it's a deep group, um, and a bunch of playmakers that, that, um, got a chance to make some plays.

Regardless of who's a quarterback.

We got, we got some guys that will go make some plays.

We will certainly have an eye on that, uh, in the opener against LSU.

s.

Thank you so much for stopping by here at ACC Media Days.