TAMPA, Fla. — When he became Clemson’s head football coach in 2009, Dabo Swinney said he dreamed he would win a national championship at Clemson. In that dream, he had a vision it happened against Alabama.
Does that dream come true tonight? For the second year in a row, Swinney and his Tigers will have a chance to make it come true when they play the Crimson Tide in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game beginning at 8 p.m. from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.
For Swinney, the dream come true would just add to his tale, which saw him go from a walk-on at Alabama 28 years ago to being one of the top head coaches in college football.
“I always tell everybody, I was a crawl-on. I was one notch below a walk-on,” Swinney joked. “I crawled on the field out there. They didn’t invite me to come out. I had to go through Rich Wingo’s weight room program. But it was an unbelievable experience for me.”
As everyone knows, Swinney grew up an Alabama fan in his hometown of Pelham, Alabama, which is just outside of Birmingham. He listened to every game on the radio and watched the Bear Bryant Show after church every Sunday.
“Every time Alabama was on or on the radio, I was listening. I would fight you in school if you talked bad about them,” Swinney said.
So you could imagine what it was like for Swinney when he walked on to the Alabama football team his freshman year, and then eventually made it.
“It was surreal for me to finally be in the room and to be introduced to the team, guys that I went on to be teammates with and great friends with to this day,” he said. “So at the time I just wanted to be on the team, and then it was – I just wanted to gain some respect. Then I wanted them to learn my name. Then it was, ‘Okay, I want to play.’ Then I want to get a scholarship. So it just kind of went from there. It was an incredible journey for me to be a national champion my senior year and to be a part of an incredible senior class.”
But it was not easy.
As a player at Alabama he said he went through a weight program that would put him in jail today if he did the same in his Clemson program. Swinney survived it and eventually became a player on special teams and then a starter at wide receiver.
Ultimately, he became a national champion.
“At that time, Alabama hadn’t won a National Championship – it’s not like now, they win it like every year or every other year with Coach (Nick) Saban,” Swinney said. “It had been a long time since Alabama had won a National Championship. And so for my last game, to be the National Championship Game and to do it against Miami was just an incredible moment and something that kind of bonded that group together forever.
“It’s amazing. A few of those guys on my staff were my teammates, and a couple of the coaches that were on that staff. So it’s special even to this day.”
After he graduated, Swinney became a graduate assistant coach at Alabama under Gene Stallings and a few years later he was asked by Stallings to join his staff.
“I went to Alabama as an 18-year-old kid and I left when I was 31. “It was just an incredible experience,” Swinney said.
But all good things come to an end. Swinney was part of the Mike DuBose staff in 2000 that was fired, and suddenly he found himself out of football and about to leave the only thing he knew as a fan, player and then as a coach.
“I wasn’t happy to leave. I was mad at the time. I was not happy,” he said. “But God had a plan for me, and he knew what I needed. You know, I needed to go. I had never really been anywhere but the state of Alabama, and to have to pack up my family and move to South Carolina, to Clemson, it was great for my family. The grandparents didn’t like me very much, taking all the kids away, but it was a great opportunity to kind of have a new chapter and learn different things and be exposed to different things.”
After tonight, Swinney will finish his 14th year in Clemson. And he has a chance to finish it with a national championship win over Alabama. After tonight we really know if dreams do come true.