CLEMSON — When Clemson visits North Carolina this Saturday at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, N.C., Dabo Swinney will hit a milestone that just two others have reached before at Clemson – he will coach in his 300th game as either the head coach or as an assistant.
What is crazy, it almost never happened.
Swinney first came to Clemson in 2003, when he joined Tommy Bowden’s staff as his wide receivers coach. But before any of that happened, Swinney almost went back to his beloved Alabama, where he played and coached there from 1988-2001.
At the time, Swinney was working in commercial real estate where he was doing well. However, he was never content there and was looking for an opportunity to coach again after being out of the business for 18 months.
That is when former Alabama athletic director Mal Moore reached out to Swinney and told him them new head coach Mike Price was looking for a new tight ends coach.
“He wanted me to come down, so I drove to down while Mike Price was doing the press conference and Mal said he was going to hire me,” Swinney remembered.
Swinney jumped in his car and headed towards Tuscaloosa, and on the way, he called his wife Kathleen Swinney about the good news.
“I was so excited,” he said.
Price, who was coming from his introductory press conference, met Swinney and told him he wanted him to join his staff after he got done coaching his then Washington State team in the Rose Bowl.
Swinney was thrilled. He was getting back into coaching.
“I was on cloud nine driving back,” Swinney said. “I was excited to watch the Rose Bowl. I have never been so into Washington State football in my life. I was watching every play.”
Price scheduled to talk Swinney after the game, but instead he went to the National Coaches Convention. Not hearing from him, Swinney called Moore and was curious as to what was up.
Moore told him to be patient, and Price would call him when he got back to Tuscaloosa on Friday.
“I could tell something was not right here,” Swinney said.
Swinney’s instinct was correct.
When Price got home on Friday, he called Swinney. And Swinney worse fear came true.
“Both of my sons are young, and you are young, and I just need to hire a veteran SEC guy, so I am going to hire Sparky Woods to coach my tight ends,” Swinney recalled Price saying to him.
Woods, of course, was the head coach at South Carolina from 1989-’92.
“I will never forget it. I almost felt nauseous. I was so disappointed,” Swinney remembered. “I was devastated. I told Kath that it was not meant to be. It is not going to happen. It is not going to work out. I was at peace with it.”
That was in January, and a few weeks later, out of the blue, Swinney got a call from Tommy Bowden. The rest is history, of course.
Now he embarks on his 300th game.
“That is pretty cool – 300 games,” Swinney said.
Swinney, who coached 68 games at Clemson as an assistant and 231 as its head coach, joins Legend Frank Howard and Howard’s longtime assistant coach Bob Jones, as the only football coaches to coach 300 games at Clemson.
Howard coached 380 career games (85 as an assistant, 295 as a head coach) at Clemson, not including an additional 44 games he served in Clemson’s athletic administration. Jones, served at Clemson for 343 games from 1931-’69, minus four years of decorated service in World War II.