In Swinney We Trust, or at Least We Should

There is no reason to doubt Clemson's head coach.

A lot has happened at Clemson since the Tigers last played a football game.

The last time we saw Clemson play a football game, the Tigers were coming off another dominating performance over rival South Carolina. It was their seventh straight victory in the rivalry, cementing their dominance in what has traditionally been a one-sided series.

But as Clemson and its fans were celebrating a fifth straight victory in what had been a turbulent 2021 football season the first seven weeks, the continuity within its coaching staff was about to take its biggest hit since Dabo Swinney took over as head coach in 2009.

It is amazing how quickly things can change.

It all got started when Lincoln Riley decided to leave Oklahoma for Southern Cal on Nov. 28. A week later, Clemson lost perhaps its greatest defensive coordinator in history. Five days later, perhaps the greatest offensive mind the program has had, was also gone.

Brent Venables was named the new head coach at Oklahoma on Dec. 5, while Tony Elliott was named the new coach at the University of Virginia this past Friday. By the way, athletic director Dan Radakovich decided to leave too, leaving Clemson for the same job, and a hefty raise, at Miami.

The news got worse when several high-end recruits decommitted after the news of Venables was leaving Clemson. Also, five more players entered the transfer portal since the regular season ended on Nov. 27 in Columbia.

For the first time in more than a decade instability hit the Clemson program, or so it seems.

In reality, that is not the case at all. Dabo Swinney has a plan. He always does.

Swinney understood as a young head coach that you have to have succession plans in place, especially when your program is considered one of the best in college football.

People want a piece of what Clemson has done over the last decade. They want to emulate it.

How do you do those things? You pluck from the coaching staff that helped make it great.

Nick Saban and Alabama has been dealing with this issue for years.

“What people don’t understand is that what has happened for the last 10 years at Clemson is not the norm,” I was told by one of my sources at Clemson. “You just don’t see people, especially of the caliber of Brent and Tony, stay as long as some of the coaches we have had stay here. It was inevitable this was going to happen. I am just surprised it has taken this long.”

But because it has taken so long, Swinney was able to have a plan in place.

A lot of people wonder why Swinney will not bring in a new offensive and defensive coordinator, instead of hiring from within. But why fix what is not broken?

Swinney has had Venables, and Elliott, groom their replacements. This way, he is still running the same offense and same defense. He is keeping the continuity of both units intact.

Wesley Goodwin, who is a defensive genius and has been helping Venables draw up plays for years, is moving up from his analyst position to join safeties coach Mickey Conn as co-defensive coordinators. On the offensive side, analyst Kyle Richardson is getting his shot, too. He will get promoted to a position coach role and will likely help quarterbacks coach Brandon Streeter coordinate the offense.

These are moves Swinney has been waiting to execute. Much like in the athletic director’s chair, where it appears Graham Neff, the acting athletic director at Clemson, will succeed Radakovich, a position Radakovich has been grooming him for.

In other words, Clemson is going to be just fine. You just have to trust Swinney. And given his track record, why would you not?