CLEMSON — Do not ever tell Dabo Swinney he cannot do something.
Why?
He will prove you wrong.
Such was the case when everyone told a young Dabo Swinney not to walk on to the Alabama football team when he was a freshman in college. They said he was not good enough to play for Alabama. He proved them wrong.
Such was the case when those same people told him, after he made the Alabama team, he would never play in a game. He proved them wrong.
Such was the case when, again, those same people told him he would never be a starter on the Alabama football team. Again, he proved them wrong.
Years later, when Clemson University hired Dabo Swinney to be its new head football coach in December of 2008, again, his detractors said he would not succeed at Clemson.
As we all know, he again proved them wrong.
One of those detractors was ESPN, who graded Swinney’s hire as a D-plus that year.
“I am almost a C-minus,” Swinney said jokingly. “I am moving up.”
As we know, Swinney turned out to be the greatest head coach Clemson has ever had. He has already led the Tigers to two national championships, while winning eight ACC Championships along the way.
In his 15 years at Clemson, he has turned the football program into one of the elite in college football.
This year, Swinney will likely pass Legendary Clemson coach Frank Howard as the program’s all-time winningest coach. At 161 wins, he is just four wins shy of tying Howard’s 165 victories.
If everything goes according to plan, Swinney also has an opportunity to pass Florida State Legend Bobby Bowden for the most ACC wins of all-time.
To the right of Swinney’s desk, just before he turns the corner to go out of his office door, sits the D-Plus article from 2008. Beside it is the Bible verse from the Book of Proverbs, chapter 23:7, “As man thinketh, so I am.”
Both serve as motivation and as a reminder. One is not allowing outside expectations to influence what can be accomplished, the other is a reminder that what you believe in your heart is all that matters in the end.
“That is a foundational principle for everybody, to live your life from the inside out,” Swinney said. “We limit ourselves in life by how we think and by living our life from the outside in.
“I know who I am, and I am thankful to still be here.”
Clemson is too.
Besides winning two national championships, Swinney has led the Tigers to two other national championship game appearances and six College Football Playoff berths overall.
His last 12 teams have won at least 10 games every year, including a 15-0 campaign in 2018, the first major college team in more than 100 years to post a 15-0 record.
In all, Swinney’s teams have a 161-39 record at Clemson. That is a win percentage of .805.
Not bad for a coach who got a D-plus grade from ESPN.
“It is just a good reminder to me, to live my life from the inside out and to make sure to never let outside expectations, outside noise, become greater than your inside purpose and your inside beliefs,” he said. “Stay focused on what you can control and what matters.
“So, it is a good reminder to me every single day to remember where I came from.”
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