Dabo Swinney addresses how he’s changed as coach in new era

Few in the sport have enjoyed as much success for as long as Clemson coach Dabo Swinney has. The Tigers might not currently be on top of the college football mountain, but they’re never far away.

Why is that? Well, Swinney explained on the College GameDay Podcast that it’s all about adaptability.

“I think to be a great leader you’ve got to be a lifelong learner,” Swinney said. “That’s just something that you do all the time. In fact someone was asking me about that in an earlier interview with coach (Bill Belichick) here, and I was like, ‘He’s been successful because he’s a lifelong learner.’ And I think we all are. If you’ve had any type of consistency you have to constantly learn and grow.”

Swinney has been in charge at Clemson since 2008. Read a list of his accolades and you’ll quickly get lost in the sheer quantity of quality seasons he’s had.

Clemson had a streak of winning 10 or more games that spanned 12 years. Two national titles were won in that timeframe.

Ask Swinney and he’ll tell you his my-way-or-the-highway approach has paid dividends. Even if he has sometimes taken public flack for it.

“I also think you’ve got to have some conviction,” Swinney said. “And you can lead with conviction or you can lead with compromise. I think there’s two different ways to do it. And I believe what I believe. I don’t apologize for being me. And we’ve won consistently. But I think our purpose is exactly the same as it was 16 years ago. As a college football coach it hasn’t changed one bit. How you go about achieving the purpose, then those things change. Rules change, there’s lots of things that we can do now that 16 years ago they’d put you in jail for. Things evolve and I think you change.”

In the transfer portal and NIL era, Clemson has sometimes been criticized for its approach when it comes to taking in players from other programs. The Tigers don’t dive into the transfer portal to supplement the roster very often.

But there’s another side to that same coin. The Tigers don’t lose many players, either.

“As far as like my personal approach and philosophy and how we build our team at Clemson, it hasn’t changed a bit,” Swinney said. “We’re purpose-driven, we’re relationship-driven, it’s exactly the same. People love to talk about the portal. We’ve signed five portal guys in five years. This isn’t the first time I’ve used the portal, we just use it as we need it.

“Like coach (Belichick) said, I want to do what’s best for my team. I want to do what’s best for Clemson. I want to do what’s best for our staff. I’m not worried about what’s best for other people. I want to do what’s best for our group. And everybody’s situation is different, and I’ve said this many times: If I left today and took a job somewhere else in college football, half the team would leave. So you have to build your roster. You can’t go sign 50 high school kids. You’ve got to build your roster.”

Again, Clemson has handled things differently under Swinney. And given a return to the College Football Playoff in 2024 and a rosy outlook for 2025, it’s hard to argue against the results.

“Our situation is different, and the craziest time in the history of college football in the last three years we’re top in the country in retention,” Swinney said. “And we also have the highest graduation rate. And we’ve been to the playoffs seven times in 10 years and we’ve won the league eight times in 10 years. But it’s all been driven by a purpose. And that’s what we stay committed to. That’s our North Star. How we go about achieving the purpose certainly changes. And you learn and you grow constantly.”

Finally, Swinney pointed to Belichick, who was sitting next to him as ESPN’s Rece Davis conducted the interview for the College GameDay Podcast, as an example of constant adaptation.

It’ll be interesting to see how quickly Belichick can become competitive at the top level in college, given the majority of his experience is at the NFL level. But Swinney sees the skill set translating just fine.

“When I grow up I want to be just like coach. I mean he’s a wealth of knowledge,” Swinney said. “But here he is, I’m watching, I’m looking at Bill Belichick in our coaches meeting and he’s asking questions. This guy’s won more games than any of us are ever going to probably coach in, at the highest level of football, and he’s sitting in the ACC coaches meeting very humbly asking some questions because he’s like, ‘Now, let’s talk about this portal. I thought we set the portal window here and we’re going to move it again.’ And we’re talking about a calendar and these things because he’s inquisitive. And I want to understand.”

That, Swinney said, will carry you pretty far. It has certainly worked for Clemson over the years.