Clemson is the Model Program in College Football

Swinney has Built Clemson ‘the Clemson Way’, Why Doubt Him?

When Chad Morris left to be the head coach at SMU in 2014, Dabo Swinney heard the talk, especially when he promoted Jeff Scott and Tony Elliott to replace him as Clemson’s offensive coordinator.

“When I hired Chad (in 2011) there were not a lot of people that were happy. They said I lost my mind. He had been in (college coaching) seven months,” Swinney said. “Then when he was leaving, they said we will never get a first down again.”

The Tigers not only got a first down, they won 89 games after that and a couple of national championships, too. Now, here is Swinney, again. This time he is replacing, not only Tony Elliott as offensive coordinator, but defensive coordinator Brent Venables as well.

Elliott is off to be the next head coach at Virginia, while Venables went back to Oklahoma to be the Sooners’ new head coach. How did Swinney replace the two highest paid coordinators in the country? Well, he hired from within, of course.

Like in 2014, when Swinney hired Scott and Elliott as co-offensive coordinators, his decision this week to hire senior defensive assistant Wesley Goodwin and safeties coach Mickey Conn as co-defensive coordinators, as well as quarterbacks coach Brandon Streeter as offensive coordinator and analyst Kyle Richardson as his new tight ends coach, has come with some scrutiny.

Clemson fans wanted to see Swinney go outside the program and bring in new blood. Swinney feels that was not necessary at this time, which has caused some to speculate if the veteran head coach made the right decisions.

“I know it is out there… But I don’t pay attention to any of that,” Swinney said. “That is the last thing that I have time for. Again, as I said earlier, this is what I do for a living. Since 1993, I have been coaching football.”

Since he became the head coach at Clemson in 2009, being questioned has been par for the course.

“All I can tell you, is that when I got this job in ’09, Clemson had not won an ACC Championship in twenty years. I was not a real popular hire,” Swinney said. “When I got the job in ’09… Clemson had not won ten games in twenty years. When I got the job in ’09, Clemson had not won a national championship since 1981.

“So, all I can say, is if people do not believe in me after thirteen years of what they have experienced at Clemson, then they are not ever going to believe in me. So, I have never worried with trying to please, and I will not say the masses, the minority. I have never worried about that. The only thing I worry about is what is right and loving my players and developing great men through the game.”

Swinney said his vision for his program will not change. He has never been a coach to chase championships. Instead, he just tries to build great men through the game.

“If we can do that, then championships will come. That has not changed. That will never change. That is the purpose of what we do,” he said. “So, that is what I have to say. If people don’t believe in me. If I have not demonstrated enough good decision making over thirteen years, we are going for our eleventh ten-plus-win season in a row. That had not happened in twenty years. We have won seven conference titles in the last 10 years or whatever it is. We have won two national championships and we are an onside kick away from a third, and we beat the best of the best of the best to do it. And we have done it the Clemson Way. We, in my opinion, are the model program in College Football. There is no one out there that has had the type of consistency we have had on and off the field.”