Swinney's 'aha' moment leads to a life-changing decision

Swinney reached 150 career wins with the win over Iowa State.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Mon Feb 07 08:00:06 GMT-04:00 2022

Clemson’s win over Iowa State in the Cheez-It Bowl was the 150th win of head coach Dabo Swinney’s career, and his path to coaching came about because of an ‘aha’ moment on Alabama’s practice field.

Swinney’s coaching record speaks for itself – in just over a decade, he’s led the Tigers to two National Championships, nine ACC Atlantic Division titles, seven ACC Championships, six appearances in the College Football Playoff, and three times he’s been named as the Paul “Bear” Bryant National Coach of the Year.

But Swinney didn’t always dream of coaching. He dreamed of playing and then becoming a doctor.

"I can honestly say I never ever thought about coaching, dreamed about coaching," Swinney said on Darien Rencher’s Player’s Podcast recently. "I only ever thought about playing. I was gonna play in the NBA. I'm gonna play in the NFL. I was going to the Braves. I mean, that's all I really thought about. And then I was gonna go be a doctor and that was it.

"I went to college as 18-year-old thinking I'm gonna be a pediatrician. I was a pre-med major, biology major for three years. And then I just had this like moment of like, 'God, this isn't what I want to do.' You know, I was doing it for the wrong reasons. I didn't love it. I'm just starting. I got 10 more years of school."

Swinney switched his major in an effort to find his path, but it was a call from Alabama head coach Gene Stallings that changed his life.

"I switched into hospital administration, in the business school, getting a business degree," Swinney said. "That brought me back for a fifth year because I had lost some hours transferring over. I go out to spring practice to just watch practice. First time I've never been a part of a team in my life. Next thing I know Coach Stallings, he's like, 'Hey, you need to get a master's degree, I'm gonna pay for it, and I need a graduate assistant coach, and you start in July.' I had never even thought about coaching a day in my life.

"I tried to get out of that. I kind of talked myself into it really because I was scared to tell Coach Stallings no. I just didn't want to deal with it, you know? He's just relentless and he'll hound you."

Swinney didn’t tell Stallings no. Instead, he donned a whistle and made his way to practice, and it wasn’t long before he had an ‘aha’ moment.

“Honestly, within a week of becoming a coach, it was like, bam, like this 'aha' moment of clarity in my life," Swinney said. "Like, all of a sudden for me, there were lots of things that happened. One, I'm still part of the team. I still love to compete. I realized I had way more knowledge than I even knew I had. You just don't even know what you know. And I had all this knowledge.

"Then the other thing that really spoke to me, that I really think God revealed to me clearly, was everything that I had experienced in my life up to that point, all of a sudden, made perfect sense to me. Like things that I hated, things that I wouldn't want to go through again, things that were like, the liabilities in life now are all of a sudden my greatest assets. And I realized that I had a lot to offer."

He had found his calling, something that Clemson fans are thankful for.

"I just instantly fell in love with coaching," Swinney said. "And immediately I knew this is what I'm supposed to do. Like, this is what I'm called to do. And so, you know, I literally started right then planning to be a head coach one day, I didn't know if it would ever happen. But, you know, 15 years later it did."