The ACC Huddle Special with Dabo Swinney and Bill Belichick premiered Wednesday on ACC Network, featuring a one-hour conversation with the two legendary coaches, hosted by ESPN’s Rece Davis.
During the special, Belichick asked Swinney about the origins of his famous “Bring Your Own Guts” speech.
That wasn’t the only question that the six-time Super Bowl winning head coach, now in his first year at North Carolina, had for Clemson’s longtime head man.
“What about ROY?” Belichick asked Swinney.
Of course, Belichick was referring to the “ROY Bus” phrase that Swinney coined during the dominance of Alabama and Nick Saban. “ROY” stands for “Rest of Y’all,” and Swinney used the phrase to describe Clemson as being in the group of underdog teams, as opposed to Alabama and others perceived as top contenders.
Explaining to Belichick where the phrase came from, Swinney said “the ROY thing has stuck with me for a long time” since his days as a walk-on at Alabama.
“When I was coming up, it was very simple. You had the bus and then you had the ROY Bus – ‘the rest of y’all go over here.’ When I first went to Alabama, we had the ROY walk-on locker room,” Swinney recalled.
“So you had the team here, and then the ROYs were all over here. And if you ever got promoted like I did, from the ROY locker room, it was a party and it was an amazing moment to go into the other locker room.”
Now, as he heads into his 17th full season as Clemson’s head coach, Swinney told Belichick that the Tigers remain on the “ROY Bus.”
“You say things, and especially in college football, people are very passionate and they hang onto stuff, and next thing you know with social media, the ROY Bus became a thing,” Swinney said.
“We’ve been on the ROY bus for 16 years. We’re still on it.”
Belichick and the rest of the ACC are on the “ROY Bus” too, Swinney added.
“The ACC, we’re the ROY Bus, so welcome to the ACC. But [we’ve got] a pretty good driver right here of the ACC ROY Bus,” Swinney said to Belichick.
“The SEC, the Big Ten and the rest of y’all, here we are.”