Swinney keeps surprising, proving he still has the fire to win

Swinney now has the challenge of replacing two of his coaches.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Fri Dec 01 07:00:05 GMT-04:00 2023

Dabo Swinney still has the ability to surprise people.

A familiar refrain over the last few years has been that Swinney absolutely hates and refuses to use the transfer portal, hates NIL, and simply wants to hire friends and family and will ride those hires into his own firing.

Swinney and staff offered an offensive lineman out of the portal this week (and it won’t be the last), and the head coach parted ways with two of his assistants Thursday afternoon in offensive line coach Thomas Austin and defensive ends coach Lemanski Hall.

Austin is, of course, a Clemson man and played for Swinney. Hall is a former teammate of Swinney’s at Alabama.

I’ve heard from plenty of fans and couch coaches over the last three seasons that Swinney was complacent, was happy with his fat contract, and had lost the fire that propelled Clemson to six consecutive College Football Playoff berths, appearances in four National Championship Games, and the right to hoist to two National Championship trophies.

But when Swinney fired Brandon Streeter last season – another Clemson man and Swinney friend – it marked the first time that Swinney had fired one of his assistants since letting Kevin Steele go after the Orange Bowl debacle against West Virginia in early 2012. And Swinney didn’t hire someone within the family, he went out and got Garrett Riley, one of the hottest names in the business.

I’ve been told on more than one occasion that Swinney has torn into his coaches the last few years and let them all know that jobs have been on the line. That has never been more evident than after the loss to NC State, when Swinney once again held a staff meeting and reiterated that things needed to change. That is when he told everyone that they had 25 days to prove why they deserved to be at Clemson next season, and he included players and support personnel in that statement.

Tyler from Spartanburg, the now infamous caller that inspired another Swinney rant ahead of the Notre Dame game, wasn’t the spark that lit the fuse. As I’ve said before, he merely got in the way of an already angry coach. It was interesting going to a few other message boards across the country and reading the reactions of fans from other fan bases. "Swinney understands you have to move forward to win." "He is acting like a true CEO." "Our coach is afraid of hurting someone's feelings at Christmas." "Clemson keeps proving that winning is important."

As for the portal, we know that it's hard to be loyal in this age of constant roster turnover and players leaving on a whim. For coaches and players. And Swinney has been loyal to the players that he’s recruited, even if they never play a significant down. I don’t know if Swinney would just out and out yank a scholarship, but I do believe a few have been told it would be best if they moved on.

A college coach told me recently that when they told players it was time to move on, the conversation was (and we will say the team’s mascot is a Rabbit), “You will always be a Rabbit, and you will always have a home here. You will always be welcomed back here, and you will be a Rabbit for life. But there is no longer a path to playing time for you here, and we will be glad to help you find another spot.”

With NIL, Swinney hired CD Davies out of the financial world to help facilitate the move into the NIL era, and Swinney recommended Davies to take over the 110 Society. Why? Because he knows that NIL, as much as some hate it and feel like it’s ruining the game, is the cost of doing business these days.

Dabo firing coaches, using the portal, and embracing NIL. Maybe he hasn’t lost that fire after all.