Swinney Recalls Getting Clemson Job

In an interview with Jon Gordon, Dabo Swinney recalled the process that led him to become the head coach of the Clemson Tigers.

Instead of adding to Swinney's words, we decided to let his words speak for themselves.

But really, you know, I got the job as an interim coach. You know, I was just kind of, you know, here and there was a change made the leadership, the AD came in and said, "Hey, you know, what should be the head coach for next six, seven weeks." And you know he really empowered me because I went into the meeting thinking that it was going to be just, you know, do the best you can. But he really empowered me in that, "Hey, listen, you know I think you can do this job."

And so then I ended up getting a job, and so now I'm in a board meeting and my first board meeting and I didn't really know any of the gentleman in there are the ladies. And you know, there was just a comment made, I'm just gonna everybody was coming you know, just wishing me well and all that type of stuff. But there was a comment made by one of the board members that still just kind of rings in my mind right now and to me it was a, a clear indication of where we were. Just more emphasis to me of where we needed to go. But it was just kind of small talk and but he said, he said, "Coach, you know, listen, we, we hear on the board, sometimes we get a bad rap and, you know, we want you to know that, that we support athletics greatly, not just academics. We just want to be great academically and athletically like Florida like Georgia, like Michigan," and he started naming some schools.

And I my first inclination in my mind was keep your mouth shut. Don't say anything. Just smile grant and let's get the heck out of here and but then Alabama, and we started coming out and blowing up and I'm just like, I couldn't take it. I just said, "Sir, I really, you know, I don't want to I don't want I don't mean any disrespect at all. But that is just absolutely not my vision for Clemson at all. You know, my vision for Clemson is for those schools don't want to be like Clemson, you know, to build the model program in college football. And here's how I think we need to do that."

And so that's kind of was a one of those, I think there's I think you have defining moments along your journey in anything that you do. Whether it's a building a team or a company or whatever, because there's always those those moments where you can look back as a leader and say, whew,

Man, that was, that was a that was a defining moment. And you're like, wow, hey, you know, had you not done that? Or had it gone the other way? Or, or had you sometimes had you won that battle that you lost? You know, you might not be warriors, because failure is part of it, too. But, but that was a big moment. And, you know, something that I share from time to time because now, you know, here we are, and I really believe we have built a program that can that can be a model for a lot of people.