When you see Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney doing the “Whip” or the “Dab” in the locker room while celebrating with his players that’s just Dabo Swinney.  When you see him pick up ESPN reporter Jeannie Edward and spin her around after a big win or yell B.Y.O.G. (Bring Your Own Guts) following a dramatic win over Notre Dame… that’s Dabo Swinney.

Those things are not an act. Those things are not done intentionally in hopes to bring more attention to himself or his team. This is who he has always been, going back to when he was in high school. Swinney was known as the guy who painted his face in high school, went to all the sporting events that he did not play in and yelled and screamed at the top of his lungs for his classmates.

He is the same guy when he played football, basketball and baseball at Pelham High School in Alabama that yelled and pulled for his teammates or got in their face to encourage them when things were not going well.

He is the same guy that walked on to the football team at the University of Alabama and beat out several scholarship players to become a starter. He is the same guy that became a graduate assistant and eventually worked his way up to wide receivers coach.

“I’m not any different than I was when I was coaching receivers at the University of Alabama. I’m not. I’m not any different,” Swinney said. “With social media and all that, other people want to make it about me and create a story. My story has never changed. It is the same as it always has been.”

When Swinney became the wide receivers coach at Clemson in 2003, he was still that same youthful and vibrant coach who ripped his players’ head off if they  did not do what they were coached to do and would put his arm around them and hug them when things weren’t going right and they were doing all they could.

He still said and did the same whacky things he does now as the head coach at Clemson, just nobody saw it back then.

“I don’t do anything different than I ever have. You can talk to Jacoby Ford and Aaron Kelly,” Swinney said. “They have a book called Dabo-isms. I did not even know that until Aaron Kelly’s senior year and he had pages of stuff.”

And now there is even more stuff to be added to the great book of Dabo-isms, and that’s okay with Dabo because as he says, “the fun is in the winning.”

“What I enjoy is winning. What I enjoy is seeing our program be successful,” he said. “This is not about me. This is about our program. Only other people try to make it about me. That is just the world we live in. I hate that.”

Swinney says he is truly a simple guy or tries to mind his own business. There is truth to what he is saying. Though he is the head coach of the No. 1 ranked team in the country, and he makes more than $3 million a year, you can’t tell it.

The house where he and his wife Kathleen raise their three sons—Will, Drew and Clay—is the same one he built when he was the wide receivers coach at Clemson. It is snug in the bottom of a cul-de-sac in a simple sub-division.

“I just kind of like to mind my own (business). I’m a simple guy. I like a simple life and I don’t like to complicate things,” Swinney said. “Sometimes that stuff complicates (things), but I understand. I get it. It comes with the territory. I have a job to do and one of my jobs is to be the face and the voice of this program.

“I take pride in that. I try to represent Clemson and build our brand. That’s been a goal from Day 1. I have to build this brand. I think we have built our Paw, that brand, nationwide. That’s a beautiful thing because it does not say our name. When they see the Paw, people now know it’s Clemson. We don’t have to put Clemson on there. A lot of these schools out there, their brand is whatever … their initials.  Not at Clemson. You throw that Paw out there, they know. We don’t have to tell them. They know that it is Clemson. I take great pride in that.”

And he takes a lot of pride in winning. Swinney has always liked to celebrate and dance following a win. He did it as a player. He did it as an assistant coach and he is doing it and will continue to do it as a head coach.

Why? The fun in the winning, and right now Clemson is winning them all, and Dabo, who is just being Dabo, has won everybody over at the same time.

“It’s a lot of fun to be a part of a program where success is expected. Winning is expected and you have a group of guys that are about the right things,” Swinney said. “So yeah, why would you not enjoy it? Why would you not have fun with it?

“But I want it to be about the players. Everything we do in our program is about the players. That’s what it is all about and as long as I’m here, that’s what it is always going to be about. Giving these guys an opportunity to grow and develop into the best men possible and reach their potential as players and people. I think we have done a good job of that.”