CLEMSON, S.C. — Dabo Swinney appears destined for the College Football Hall of Fame.
He has won eight Atlantic Coast Conference championships in the last 10 years and two national championships, and now his fourth-ranked Clemson Tigers look poised for another run at glory as they kick off the 2025 season at home against No. 9 LSU.
Swinney is first to admit it’s been one heck of a ride — and he’s been “blessed” beyond words.
But it wasn’t all trophies and celebrations for the Birmingham, Alabama, native when he took over the Tigers 17 years ago as an interim head coach.
There were tense moments for Swinney early on, none more so than in the moments following the Tigers’ lopsided 29-7 defeat to in-state rival South Carolina in November 2010 in front of more than 81,000 mostly dejected fans at Clemson’s Memorial Stadium. The loss dropped the Tigers to 6-6 in the regular season and Swinney to 19-14 since taking over as head coach.
As he emerged that day from his news conference, Swinney found his wife, Kathleen, in tears in the hallway.
“I walk out and she’s crying and I just thought she was just sad, you know, that she feel bad for me,” Swinney recalled.
He gave her a hug and assured her everything was going to be all right.
That’s when she looked at him in the eyes and told him that Terry Don Phillips, Clemson’s athletic director at the time, was waiting to see him in his office.
“Oh,” is the only thing Swinney could muster, and the tension in his body mounted.
“I mean, I think I’m getting fired — and my wife thinks I’m getting fired,” Swinney recalled at the Atlantic Coast Conference championship media days.
Knocked back by the news, Swinney took a few minutes to gather his thoughts before reminding himself that “God’s got me.”
He walk down the hallway to find the door cracked open. He peered inside and found Phillips sitting on the couch.
So this is how it ends, Swinney thought to himself.
He entered the room.
But the pink slip never came.
Swinney wasn’t fired that day.
Instead, he was surprised when Phillips offered his wholehearted, unconditional support.
“I go from thinking I’m getting fired to Terry Don Phillips telling me how much he believes in me,” Swinney said. “He said to me, ‘Hey there’s going to be a lot of criticism and there’s going to be a lot of this and that, (but) I want you to keep doing what you’re doing. I want you to know that I’ve got your back. I believe in you more now than even when I hired you.’”
With that, Phillips got up from the couch and prepared to walk out of his office before turning back to Swinney and saying “and if it doesn’t work you can come help me pack — and I’ll come help you pack.”
Phillips then hugged Swinney on his way out.
“Terry Don Phillips is not a man of a lot of words, but he had a lot of conviction in his words and he meant what he said,” Swinney said.
Swinney sat in stunned silence for a few minutes before his wife walked into his office, worried about her husband’s job security.
“I told her didn’t get fired, and she’s like, ‘What?’” Swinney said.
Tim Bourret, who was Clemson’s sports information director, witnessed the event unfolding. He said it was tense time given the way the regular season had ended. But he felt that Swinney had earned some stock from Phillips by leading the Tigers to the ACC championship game in 2009 before losing to Georgia Tech.
“Terry Don just had a sixth sense about Dabo and his ability to lead the program,” Bourret said. “I didn’t think he was going to get fired, but then again I had been around long enough to know that people make decisions based off what happens against South Carolina.”
Bourret said Phillips had come to admire Swinney’s tireless work as an assistant coach at Clemson before hiring him as the interim head coach in 2008. He said Phillips took notice of how players, even those who played positions other than the one Swinney coached, could be found hanging out in Swinney’s office between practices.
“He had a way with players — and he was a great recruiter,” Bourret said. “And Terry Don took notice of that.”
Swinney, of course, never did have to pack up his things at Clemson.
The Tigers bounced back to go 10-4 the following season, earning a trip to the Orange Bowl. It was the first of 13 double-digit win seasons over the next 14 years for Swinney, who has built the Tigers into one of the most successful and consistent programs in college football.
Since 2011, the Tigers have won a remarkable 84.3% percent of their games (161-30) under Swinney, including nine ACC championships. He is the winningest coach in ACC history with 180 victories.
The lessons Swinney learned that day have shaped his coaching career.
Two years ago after Clemson failed to win 10 games, Swinney had a decision to make when it came to struggling young quarterback Cade Klubnik. Like Swinney, Klubnik had found himself under intense scrutiny and many Tigers fans were urging the him to explore the transfer portal and find a replacement.
But Swinney showed the same faith in Klubnik that Phillips once showed in him.
Klubnik responded last season by leading the Tigers to a second straight ACC championship and a return to the College Football Playoff after a two-year absence. Klubnik enters this season as a first-team Associated Press preseason All-American and is viewed as one of the favorites to win the Heisman Trophy. He’s s projected first-round NFL draft pick.
All because Swinney believed in him.
“I experienced that too, right?’” said Swinney, a three-time winner of the Paul “Bear” Bryant Award given to college football’s best head coach. “I know what it means to have someone believe in you.”
Bourret, who worked at Clemson until 2017, said it’s hard to imagine where the program might be had Phillips not kept Swinney.
“There could not be a better fit for this program,” Bourret said. “Dabo would probably be successful at any program, but it is amazing what he has done at Clemson. He’ll be in the Hall of Fame someday, no doubt. Terry Don’s sixth sense certainly proved right.”
