Why Clemson’s Dabo Swinney remains the most consistent force in college football amid sweeping changes

CLEMSON, S.C. — Dabo Swinney’s massive office is clean and tidy, but along the walls, the shelf space is noticeably tight.  Not many coaches stick around at a job this long — 17 years — and the trophies, plaques, framed pictures and championship rings he has accumulated as Clemson’s head coach have piled up, and the collection is beginning to melt into the shadows of the nooks and crannies.

Outside these four walls, the college football world continues to evolve, challenging Swinney’s touchstones. Yet, he remains steadfast in the storm, winning the ACC last season, his eighth title in 10 years, after a slight lull that coincided with the legalization of the portal and NIL payments to players. The two-time national champion has often criticized the transfer portal, high-paying NIL deals and the slow march toward professionalization of the sport, but he is downright giddy on this day in late April. 

“I’m probably having more fun these past few years than I’ve had in a long time because I like the challenge,” Swinney told CBS Sports. “Challenge is fun. I don’t think there’s ever been a better time to lead in college football than right now.”

Fun? No better time for college football? Are we sure this is the same Dabo who famously said 10 years ago he would leave the sport if college athletics were professionalized?

“We’ve been affected, but we’re probably a three on a scale of 10,” Swinney said. “I feel bad for a lot of places and a lot of people out there, I really do. But I’m thankful and grateful for what we have here.”

What this small program with seemingly unlimited potential has accomplished in Swinney’s 17 years (and counting) is remarkable and somewhat flies in the face of what is expected at a program like Clemson. As cynics and rivals mock Clemson’s “family” atmosphere, Swinney’s long-winded, genuine and unfiltered opinions, the Tigers just keep winning with his three pillars: education, discipline and accountability. 

“I know the fit here,” Swinney said. “We’re looking for people who align with who we are and what we’re about.”

The formula has worked, and it may have Clemson on the cusp of an incredible rebound as Swinney approaches 20 years on the job. After a three-year downturn in production and wins, Clemson is primed to begin next fall ranked in the top five, with some voters expected to slot the Tigers at No. 1. Clemson returns the nation’s most productive roster that won the ACC and reached the College Football Playoff last season, a rebound from a 2023 season that saw the lowest win total in 13 years.

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“We still have the pain of two years ago in us,” said Cade Klubnik, who heads into his third year as the starting quarterback. “We keep living off of that every day.”

The Tigers are in this position because they never wavered from Swinney’s “old-school” thinking. They don’t depend on transfer portal stars (five signees in four years). They don’t pay freshmen millions of dollars in NIL contracts. “We’re never going to outbid anybody for a freshman,” Swinney said. They don’t throw a wide net on the recruiting trail like most programs that offer hundreds of scholarships to players. The Tigers have offered only 70 scholarships this year, by far the lowest total in the country.

“A lot of times people have the skill set, but they don’t have the mindset or the heart to match the skill set,” he said. “That, to me, is the secret sauce, and that’s what we’ve done better than anything is connecting those things.”

Swinney isn’t necessarily reluctant to change. After all, he did relent and sign three players from the portal in the offseason. The NIL program here is healthy, too, though upperclassmen are paid much more than their younger teammates.  “Reward performance as opposed to potential,” he said.

Again, not every player values development over a fast payday, so Swinney is selective in who he recruits.

“Who cares about money?” said Klubnik. “Just love the process, love the game, and if you’re good at your job, they’ll repay you for that. But you’ve got to love the job, you can’t just love everything else. That’s what it comes down to.”

The math checks out. For all the criticism and cynicism outside Clemson, Swinney has managed to win despite the analytics and recruiting rankings — 13th nationally on average — by identifying talent that fits his “family” atmosphere. More importantly, he keeps players on campus and develops them over the span of three to four years in an era when more than 20% of rosters are filled with players from the portal.

“If 2 plus 2 equals 4 at Clemson, we ain’t winning,” Swinney loves to say. “2 plus 2 has got to equal 10 here. The only way that happens is if you get it yoked together. You’ve gotta have alignment, true belief and appreciation for each other.”

Klubnik is undoubtedly an example. Pressure mounted on Swinney to bench DJ Uiagalelei in 2022, but he stuck with the veteran while Klubnik, a five-star quarterback, remained silent even as his time off the bench proved more productive than Uiagalelei’s inconsistent performances. Sensing frustration, programs attempted to coax Klubnik to enter the transfer portal.

“I didn’t even entertain it,” he said. “I put my nose in the dirt, sacrificed a lot, gave up a lot, cut out everything else and just went to work. That was it. I took a big step.”

When Klubnik finally got his shot in 2023, the Tigers won nine games, the lowest total in 13 years. His passer rating ranked 10th in the ACC, second-to-last among full-time starting quarterbacks in the league. Clemson won nine games — a high watermark for most programs, but not at Clemson, which advanced to the CFP six straight times and won it twice before a three-year lull.

“This time last year, everybody wanted me to fire him and go get a hot shot out of the portal,” Swinney said. “Now they say he’s a first-rounder and Heisman guy. It’s amazing.”

No doubt, Klubnik improved last season, just as highly touted receivers Antonio Williams, Bryant Wesco, Jr. and T.J. Moore broke through as freshmen and sophomores, erasing several seasons of frustration with since-departed upperclassmen. Klubnik threw 36 touchdowns, second only to Miami‘s Cam Ward in the ACC, and was picked off only six times.

Clemson defeated SMU with a walk-off field goal in the ACC title game, handing the Mustangs their first and only loss against an ACC opponent. The Tigers advanced to play Texas in the CFP, losing 38-24 in the first round. Klubnik, an Austin, Texas, native, returned home after the game to spend time with family and disconnect from football. There was just one problem: Austin was abuzz about the Longhorns’ trip to the CFP’s quarterfinals, and everywhere he turned in town was a burnt orange reminder of the loss.

“I didn’t really want to go home. I was pissed,” Klubnik said. “I’m an ultra competitor. I hate to lose more than anything.”

Swinney knows the feeling but also what can transpire after a team falls short of its goals. He points to Clemson’s first playoff appearance in 2015, when the undefeated Tigers advanced to the championship game, only to lose a thrilling shootout against Alabama. Clemson returned the favor a year later, winning the program’s first national title since 1981. The Tigers won it again two years later.

“Your core players, your best players, your leaders, have all felt it. They’ve smelled it,” Swinney said. “They didn’t quite get to the top, but they got to see it and that experience is palpable. It’s one thing to think you’re good enough, it’s another thing to know that you are. If anything, they know they’re good enough.”

Sixteen starters return on offense and defense, which means anything less than an ACC title — the Tigers are currently favorites to win the league (+155), according to DraftKings Sportsbook — and appearance in the CFP will be marked as a failure by critics who have labeled Swinney an easy target in this new era. Those naysayers have decided to tie the program’s slight slide over the last four years to Swinney’s reluctance to lean into the portal. The Tigers have won an average of 11.9 games in the previous 10 years but have lost three or more games in each of the last four years. The dip has coincided with the advent of NIL and the portal.

“Even these past few years, I just kinda laugh at it,” Swinney said. “All these narratives and all these things, and all we do is we won eight ACC titles in 10 years and been to the playoffs seven times in the past 10 years.”

The fast-talking, long-winded good ol’ boy from Alabama always has a lengthy list of stats, facts and figures on the ready to prove a point. No active coach has produced more first-round picks in the NFL Draft (18) than he has, he reminds a reporter. The Tigers’ graduation success rate (99%) last year was the sport’s highest in 20 years. Clemson is also the second-winningest program over the previous 16 years behind only Alabama.

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“The more complicated and chaotic, the more you lean on your core values, the more you lean on your fundamentals, and you go back to the basics,” Swinney said. “That’s what we’ve done here. We’ve got a special place with special kids. I know people write a lot of narratives. Everybody can have their own opinions, but they can’t have their own facts, and the facts are well documented.”

As for the portal? Well, Swinney doesn’t depend on it because he doesn’t need it. As some teams lose 30-plus transfers in the offseason, Clemson thrives. Only eight players departed this year. 

“There’s a line between conviction and stubbornness, but he’s adaptable and changeable to the times that are required,” Clemson athletics director Graham Neff said. “He threads that needle better than any coach I’ve seen.”

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Swinney’s staff has remained steady most years as well. He quickly points out that every coordinator he has hired has won at least one championship. However, he made the difficult decision to fire defensive coordinator Wes Goodwin in the offseason, replacing him with Penn State‘s Tom Allen, after the Tigers struggled on run defense and gave up too many explosive plays despite winning an ACC title.

“He’s morally grounded and his priorities are different,” said senior left tackle Tristan Leigh. “He doesn’t look at us like we’re football machines. I hear the same things at 22 that I heard from coach when I was 16. He preaches holistic development and he stands on it. That’s what makes him different.”

The 55-year-old Swinney, who walked on as a receiver at Alabama in 1989, has been at Clemson for 23 years. He spent six years as an assistant before he was promoted from receivers coach to head coach when Tommy Bowden resigned in the middle of the 2008 season. Swinney’s vision hasn’t changed much since then, and he sees no reason to slow down with Clemson on the rise again. 

“Most people don’t even get to be a head coach until they get in their 50s,” Swinney said. “Heck, I think I’m younger right now than when coach (Nick) Saban took the Alabama job, and he coached 17 years. I love what I do, I love coaching, I love teaching, I love developing and I love seeing young people change their lives.”