After smelling the outhouse, Swinney was ready for the penthouse

Swinney sits down with the media at Pinehurst in 2011.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Sun Jul 17 08:00:05 GMT-04:00 2022

Dabo Swinney told the media back in 2011 that his team had a good whiff of the outhouse and preferred the sweeter smells of the penthouse.

The Atlantic Coast Conference will hold its annual ACC Football Kickoff in Charlotte next week, and as I was planning on the trip and looking back through some of my memories from those earlier days, I came across a nugget from Swinney that not only made my day but made me think of those simpler days when just a few media gathered around the Tigers head coach.

Back in 2011, Swinney was one of the younger coaches in the league. I was looking back through my photos from those two days – held at Pinehurst – and the other head coaches in attendance were Jim Grobe at Wake Forest, Tom O’Brien at NC State, Randy Edsall at Maryland, Jimbo Fisher at FSU, Frank Spaziani at Boston College, David Cutcliffe at Duke, Paul Johnson at Georgia Tech, Al Golden at Miami, Butch Davis at UNC, Mike London at Virginia, and Frank Beamer at Virginia Tech.

Swinney was still trying to find his way coming off a 6-7 season and a loss to South Florida in the bowl game in Charlotte. To many, Swinney was still just an experiment, but 150 wins and two national championships later, he now stands alone as the dean of ACC coaches.

On top of the national titles in 2016 and 2018, the Tigers have seven ACC titles under Swinney's watch and six College Football Playoff appearances, becoming one of the sport's premier powers in the second half of the 2010s. Clemson, remarkably, has won at least 10 games every season dating back to 2011 and will look to continue that stretch in 2022 after Swinney and Co. failed to win the ACC for the first time since 2014 this past fall.

Heading into that ACC Kickoff at Pinehurst, the talk was more about playing one of the courses at the famed golf club than the coaches and players. Sure, there was a good-sized group of media, but the coaches walked about freely (as did the players), the coaches ate their meals with the media, and everyone played a round of golf together.

When Swinney meets with the media this week in Charlotte, he will be wearing a suit and he’ll stand on a stage with a a hundred TV cameras aimed his way. There will be a multimedia presentation prior to his taking the stage, and close to 200 media members will be there to ask him questions. He will then be taken into one of the media rooms and another 30-40 media members will crowd around for another 40 minutes, asking question after question.

Back in 2011, Swinney wore a purple Clemson polo and sat down at a round table. All of the coaches were in the room at the same time and the bigger crowds were around Davis, Fisher, Johnson, and Beamer.

Note: Dalton Freeman and Brandon Thompson were the player representatives that year.

Swinney was told that both Freeman and Thompson had each spoken about the disappointment of 2010 after finding some success in 2009. Swinney said he hoped the Tigers could take the next step in 2011.

“The reason a lot of people talk about us is because we did not play very well last year,” Swinney said. “We did not win enough games. We probably have a lot of questions, which is understandable. I like our football team. I like our chances. I like our chemistry, and I have a lot of faith in myself and my staff and a lot of faith in these players.

“I think that we have a great opportunity to compete for our division. If you win this division, you play for this championship, and if you win it you have the opportunity to play for a national championship or the Orange Bowl. Those are our goals at Clemson.”

Swinney then went on to say that the players had smelled the outhouse and preferred the cleaner air of the penthouse and he hoped that making a change at offensive coordinator (Chad Morris) would provide a spark.

“That is how they have been since the start of the off-season,” Swinney said. “Starting in January they just went back to work. They embraced the changes that we made. Coming out of spring practice, once everyone got to see what we were doing and how we address certain problems, there was real enthusiasm and excitement coming out of spring ball that carried right over into the summer.

“Any competitor is anxious to get back to work and have that next opportunity. It doesn’t matter if it is a baseball, basketball or football player… A lot of these guys have had a good glance at the penthouse and a good smell of the outhouse in two years. They have seen both extremes and I don’t think there is any question on what they like better.”

Swinney made that same analogy last season, in a way, when the Tigers started 2-2. He said that the distance from the penthouse to the outhouse wasn’t very far, and he hoped to get the Tigers back on track. Since 2011, the Tigers have lived in rarified air, and even though there are questions heading into 2022, they will likely be the favorites to once again claim their place atop the ACC.

Times have changed, for sure, but some things stay the same, and Swinney coming up with a great quote is one of those constants of the ACC Kickoff.