By Ed McGranahan.

By Ed McGranahan

This isn’t a Halloween tale, but bad things happen when Clemson and Wake Forest play Thursday nights in October.

Nobody remembers that better than Dabo Swinney.

“It was a nightmare,” Swinney said. “We couldn’t do anything right.”

Clemson owns Wake Forest. The 59 wins are second only to the 65 over South Carolina.  The most dominant victory in Clemson history was an 82-24 thrashing of Wake Forest in 1981, a school-record 756 yards.

There’s a perception – not unfounded – that Wake Forest can be the pea under the blanket, the burr under the saddle, the fly in the soup. The last three coaches fired at Clemson lost to Wake Forest in their final seasons including Ken Hatfield who lost only 13 games in four seasons, twice to the Deacons. Jim Grobe has helped perpetuate the perception with an ACC championship and three wins over Clemson in seven seasons including that 12-7 victory Thursday night four years ago.

It was the sixth game in a year that began with high optimism. Clemson was coming off a 9-4 record and second place in the ACC Atlantic Division.

Ranked No. 9 by AP in preseason, Clemson was favored against Alabama in the opener at the Georgia Dome. Staggered by a punch to the mouth by the Crimson Tide, Clemson never fully recovered. After wins over The Citadel, N.C. State and S.C. State, things began to unravel against Maryland, which served as precursor to the implosion the following week.

“It was kind of a culmination of how we played that year,” Swinney said. “We hadn’t played well all season, and that night was the epitome.”

Tommy Bowden had pegged Swinney, his receivers coach, as a prospect with a high ceiling. When Nick Saban was looking for help at Alabama a year earlier, Bowden offered Swinney a substantial raise and the additional title assistant head coach.

Morning after the Wake game Bowden announced Willy Korn would replace Cullen Harper as the starter the next week against Georgia Tech. At the time it was a curious decision, but it was evident something needed to be done.

“We weren’t together,” Swinney said. “We weren’t a team.”

Harper was angry. His father traveled back from suburban Atlanta on Saturday to confront Bowden. Jeff Harper said the coach seemed on the verge of tears.

But the issues apparently extended beyond quarterback. Rumors of a divided locker room had begun to trickle under the door. Yet when he and Billy Napier went recruiting the next night, Swinney said there was nothing in the wind.

Monday morning Swinney was in a meeting of the offensive staff when they received word that Bowden wanted to see them. Bowden told them he had resigned. He walked out of the room and athletic director Terry Don Phillips entered. Swinney said he remembered Phillips talking about moving forward in a difficult situation then delivering the words that changed his life. “Dabo, you’re now the head coach. You call the shots. See me in my office in five minutes.”

The week was a blur. “All In” became part of the culture instead of a catchy phrase. Swinney didn’t sleep. He had fired Rob Spence and reshuffled the offensive staff because “it was going to be different, and I had to be in control.”

Control and attention to detail have marked Swinney’s tenure, details that drive a less exact person batty. Swinney has a loose-leaf binder as thick as a New York City phone directory that he carried to his interview with Phillips. It includes everything from his resume to his philosophies to the structure of a staff with job descriptions and his broad-stroke concepts for offensive and defensive schemes.

He tries to leave little to a chance, which is why the sudden change after the sixth game of the 2008 season might not seem as farfetched as some imagined. Why something good often follows the bad.

“I am blown away by how quickly life can change,” Swinney said. “It’s been that way my whole life as far as just trying to stay focused on the things you believe in and things that are important, trying to prepare yourself for opportunities even if they don’t ever come.

“You never know when your opportunity will come or how it will come. You never know who is paying attention.

“We’ve come a long way.”