Dabo Swinney: Coaching career started because he was ‘afraid’ of Alabama legend Gene Stallings

As a walk-on out of tiny Pelham, Ala., Dabo Swinney never expected football — let alone coaching it — to be his way out of poverty. That is until legendary Alabama head coach Gene Stallings didn’t give him a choice in the matter.

Swinney’s story from unheralded walk-on receiver to multi-year letterwinner and national champion — both as a player and, eventually, head coach — is what Disney movies are made of. Ahead of his 17th season at Clemson, the 55-year-old Swinney has become the most decorated coach in program history with an all-time record of 180-47 to go along with two national championships in 2016 and 2018.

Of course, things might have gone a lot differently if not for Stallings.

Swinney touched on a variety of topics in a wide-ranging interview with ESPN College GameDay host Rece Davis at last month’s ACC Spring Meetings. That included Swinney fondly reminiscing about the “game-changing” impact the now-90-year-old Stallings had on his own life.

“I never once in my entire life thought of coaching. It was never anything I wanted to do. I never dreamed of it,” Swinney recalled during a recent episode of the College GameDay Podcast with Davis and ESPN insider Pete Thamel. “I wanted to get a job, make some money. I wanted to help my mom. It was a challenging time.”

After helping the Crimson Tide to the 1992 National Championship as a senior, Swinney was all set to move on from football. He had a job lined up in Birmingham that would’ve paid him $35,000 a year and a bride-to-be waiting to get married. Of course, Stallings had other ideas.

“(Stallings) was like, ‘You need a Masters (degree) and I need a GA, (so) you start in July, and what do you not understand about that?’” Swinney recalled. “And I’m kind of mad, like ‘who does he think he is telling me what to do with my life?’ But … I was more afraid of Coach Stallings than the guy I took the job with that I was going to start in June.

“But within a week of coaching, it was almost like a clarity of life. And that’s what coaching has done for me. It’s what the game has done for me. The game created opportunities, the games created confidence and belief and just skills that turned my liabilities in life into my greatest assets in life. … It really, truly led to my purpose in life.”

Now, with Clemson once again expected to be in the College Football Playoff national championship conversation in 2025, Swinney and Tigers fans everywhere are forever grateful for Stallings’ intervention.