CLEMSON — Prior to Clemson beating SMU in the ACC Championship Game on Dec. 7, most critics proclaimed that game would determine if Dabo Swinney’s way of building a roster is better than the way a lot of schools these days are building rosters in college football.

Swinney’s way, of course, is through high school recruiting and retaining the majority of his core players, while building a program whose strength is developing young men on and off the football field. Others, such as teams like SMU and Florida State, rely on getting their core players in the transfer portal and building their roster on a year-to-year bases.

This year, Swinney’s way got the Tigers (10-3) back to the College Football Playoff, yet some are still critical of his philosophy and why he refuses to run his Clemson program like everyone else.

“I have been taking shots since I got this job. What’s changed? Since the day I got this job, I have been taking shots,” Swinney said. “Taking shots…I have been taking shots for sixteen years.”

Clemson’s head coach is not wrong. When he got hired in 2009 after leading Clemson to a 4-2 record following Tommy Bowden’s dismissal, Swinney was called the “Coupon Coach.” ESPN later gave Clemson a “D” grade on the hire, while others said he would not last two years.

In his first full season, Swinney took the Tigers to the ACC Championship Game for the first time and he has not stopped winning since.

“We just keep winning,” he said. “We just keep going about our business and being purpose driven. I really don’t pay attention to any of that stuff.”

In his 16-plus seasons as Clemson’s head football coach, Swinney has posted a 180-46 record (.796). He has won 2 national championships, played for it two other times, won 9 ACC championships and played for it another time.

He has won more games than any other coach in ACC history, and his teams have posted 13 ten-win seasons in the last 14 years. Yet, he keeps having to take on critics who constantly say he can’t do something or his way is wrong.

“I really don’t (care). I know some coaches may say that, but I really don’t,” Swinney said. “I just pay attention to what is important and what matters, that’s these guys, that’s our program. What is best for Clemson and so forth.”

And despite taking those shots throughout the years, he has the Tigers back in the College Football Playoff for a seventh time, second only to Alabama’s Nick Saban, who did it eight times.

The Tigers, the No. 12 seed, take on No. 5 Texas in the first-round of the CFP on Saturday (4 p.m., TNT).