By Will Vandervort.
On the eve of his first training camp as Clemson’s head coach, the then 39-year old Dabo Swinney walked into the team meeting room at the WestZone inside Memorial Stadium and addressed his first football team.
Swinney told his players, “This is the first day of what I think is going to be a great year and the beginning of what I think is going to be a special time in Clemson history.”
Five years later, on the eve of starting his sixth training camp as the Tigers’ head coach, Swinney reflected back to that night of August 3, 2009. He pulled out his old notes from that first meeting and he shared what he said on that faithful night to his current team.
He told this year’s team how much he believed in those former Tigers. He told them how he believed that team was going to do something special. He shared his vision on how he believed the Clemson football program would one day be the best in the country and how it would not only win football games, but its players would win in life.
“Reflecting back and knowing what I felt that day – it’s awesome because we have built a really good program,” Swinney said on Friday as Clemson opened up training camp for the 2014 football season. “We have a great program that we can all be proud of. We are winning at a high level. We graduate our players. Our guys try and do the right things. We put a bunch of guys in the NFL.”
Clemson has put 24 players in the NFL since Swinney took over the program – the eighth best figure in the country.
“We are doing a lot of positive things within our program,” he said. “Certainly we are not perfect and there are some other things we want to accomplish, but it has been a lot of fun.”
It’s been a lot of fun because Swinney and his coaching staff have made it a lot of fun. Wide receiver Adam Humphries says Swinney has grown up a lot as a head coach and part of the reason why the program has grown so much is because Swinney has grown with it.
“We all know how he is a great leader and is very enthusiastic, but he has really learned how to handle things like practice a whole lot better,” the senior said. “As he has grown, he understands we are a veteran group so he knows we know how to practice. Like today we had a very fast tempo practice. We weren’t out there for too long.
“Our freshmen year we were out there longer because we needed to learn the offense better and we needed more time. That is something over the years he has transitioned to and he really knows how to handle practice.”
Swinney also knows how to send a message. And he let it be known that this year’s team—just like the ones before them—has a standard to live up to.
“My message to the team is ‘That there has been a lot of work done before you – you are the ones that are carrying the torch now,’” he said. “’I can’t bring Jacoby Ford back to play. I can’t bring (C.J.) Spiller back to play. Tajh Boyd can’t play anymore. Spencer Shuey can’t play anymore. You have the torch so appreciate it and take advantage of your opportunity. Build on the foundation. Keep the commitment. Protect our culture.
“’To do that, you have to start over every year and you have to have that same type of pride and commitment like those other players that came before you.’”
Message received.
Clemson safety Robert Smith says Swinney’s message got the team fired up and let them understand they have a whole lot to live up to and they don’t want to let their head coach down.
“I could barely sleep last night,” Smith said. “I woke up and just thought about today, went to breakfast – I was just wishing we could just go straight to practice.
“The energy around here is crazy and the atmosphere is very positive. Everybody just wants to come out here and go to work.”