Eric Mac Lain explains what it was like being recruited by Dabo Swinney
When Eric Mac Lain arrived at Clemson in 2011, Dabo Swinney was two full seasons into his first head coaching job. The Tigers were coming off a 6-7 season, but that didn’t stop Swinney from showing his recruiting prowess on the trail.
Mac Lain had some high praise for Swinney as a recruiter when he joined On3’s J.D. PicKell on The Hard Count this week.
Mac Lain played on the offensive line at Clemson from 2011-15 and currently works for the ACC Network as an analyst. His first season with the Tigers kicked off a stretch of 10-win seasons that continued into last season, and he finished out his college career with a national championship victory in 2015.
But even as a recruit, he didn’t see Clemson’s success coming. That’s why he said Swinney’s recruiting pitch was so impressive.
“He’s one of the best,” Mac Lain said. “He truly is. And the crazy part about it is it’s not a facade, it’s nothing crazy. It’s not the jets and the crazy photo shoots, which they do that a little bit now. But back then, man, it was just him selling the dream of what he wanted Clemson to be, where he thought it could go. I’d be lying if I told you right now that back then, we thought it would be this … that a 10-win season would be a disappointment.
“But it was just incredible to see his passion and to see his belief in the program and really, a guy that had done nothing to that point as a head coach. I mean, he was literally a one-year head coach at the time when I first met him. It was something you wanted to be a part of, it really was. It was just so contagious. The positivity, the excitement, the vision, the dream, the all-in. Back then, that was the first time we had ever heard that. It was something that I wanted to be a part of.”