By Will Vandervort.
The first time Dabo Swinney went to Sanford Stadium was in 1990 as a player at Alabama. It was head coach Gene Stallings first year in Tuscaloosa.
The Crimson Tide were up 10 points with about nine minutes to go, but Ray Goff’s Georgia Bulldogs rallied and found a way to win the game in the end.
“We started out 0-3 that year,” Swinney said on Tuesday. “That’s not exactly how you want to start your coaching career at Alabama. That was a rough start. That was my sophomore year. I remember it will.”
Just like his mentor, Swinney will be taking a winless team as well into Georgia when he coaches in his first game “Between the Hedges” this Saturday at 5:30 p.m. The difference is, Swinney’s 16th-ranked Clemson team doesn’t have a loss either and enters the game coming off a second straight 11-win season and an Orange Bowl victory over Ohio State.
“I’m just excited to see our team play and see where we are,” Swinney said. “You can only get so far from an evaluation standpoint in practice. At some point you have to go play and take that next step. You got to find out who you are, where you have grown and make adjustments.”
Swinney’s Alabama team in 1990 unfortunately did not know who they were at that time and left Georgia with a heartbreaking loss.
“We stopped them on third down one time, but we had twelve men on the field and they got a new set of downs and scored,” Swinney said. “We had some critical mistakes in that game.”
The next time Swinney went to Athens was in 1995 as an assistant coach and the Crimson Tide walked out of Sanford Stadium with a victory. He again made a trip to Athens when he was out of coaching in 2001 when he went to support his old position coach Woody McCorvey—now his operations director—at Tennessee.
“This is one of the best teams in the country in Georgia. Seeing how we match up against them, this early in the season is going to be something that I’m anxious to see,” Swinney said.
The 12th-ranked Bulldogs are considered to be one of the favorites to win the SEC East this year. Though they have to replace quarterback Aaron Murray and have injuries at wide receiver, they are considered to have the best running game in the country, which is led by all-everything back Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall.
“We all know what they have in the backfield,” Swinney said. “These are some big-time NFL players that are playing in college that play in that backfield. They do a good job of mixing in the run and the pass and creating a balance which I think allows them to be successful.”
The Tigers will try to counter that with an experienced defense that is led by All-American defensive end Vic Beasley, linebacker Stephone Anthony and defensive tackle Grady Jarrett.
“If we can stop those running backs, we have a real good chance to win,” Jarrett said. “That’s our goal going into the game. We have to stop those running backs.”
And if they do that then maybe Swinney’s trip to Athens this time around will be more like it was in 1995 when he was an assistant coach at Alabama instead of when he was a player there.