Chizik, Dabo ... and a Danny Ford Story

Jun 9, 2012, 3:33 PM

I had the privilege of introducing Coach Danny Ford at the Savannah Quarterback Club this past year. Coach Ford always has lots of great memories to share which he does in his no B.S. style.

He told one story about recruiting a kid from Florida in the late 90's. He said the kid played Defense and had skills. Clemson was recruiting the young man and his H.S. head coach told Coach Ford he had a young asst. coach who was very tight with the kid and had aspirations of coaching in college. The asst's name was Gene Chizik. He was hired as a graduate asst at Clemson, and for Auburn the rest is history. (As a side note, check out the video of Clemson beating Oklahoma in the Citrus Bowl 1/04/89, Switzer's last game at OK. Young asst Chizik jumps up as time expires slapping Danny Ford on the back like he had just won the lottery. Ford looks like he has gall stones after the narrow win.)

A lot of folks on T-Net, including Low Country lately, routinely question Coach Dabo's pedigree. Frequent criticisms are he is not an "X's and O's" coach and his accomplishments have been watered down due to the relative weakness of the ACC.

Well guess what folks - no one should confuse Coach Swinney with Nick Saban, Urban Meyer or even Coach Spurrier who has regrettably willed Chicken University to an impressive string of wins against our Tigers. But there is more than one way to develop into an effective coach, and we are seeing Coach Dabo evolve into one. One step at a time.

There is more than one way to coach a team to a national championship. Chizik had his way (Cam Newton) - Les Miles, Danny Ford, Mack Brown, Larry Coker, Philip Fulmer - they all won in their way. What did they all have in common? Damm good players and damm good asst coaches. Coach Dabo is finding his way just like all those coaches did before they won the big one. He has fearlessly hired two of the most talented coordinators in the country. He is one of best recruiting HC's in the country. And he has obviously put his heart into Clemson Football.

Forgive this analogy, but it is pertinent. On 4/09/90 Coach Tark and the UNLV Runnin' Rebels beat Duke and their jacka$$ Coach K 103-73. It was the most lopsided national title game ever, and it could have been worse. You know the story. The next year Duke beat the same UNLV team 79-77 and won the national championship. They bashed Coach K a bit, but they got better. No one quit.

I am far from ready to throw in the towel. Clemson Football is on an upward trajectory. If you can't see it, you are not paying attention. Sammy, Nuk, Tajh, "L-Train" Ellington on Offense and Stephone Anthony and the other LB's we have recruited on Defense have the skill sets to take this team to another level. Coach Morris and Coach Venables are for real. Sure we can lament that WVU kicked our behinds all over Miami in last year's bowl, and they did. But we can also ask was Clemson Football better in 2012 than 2011? Yes, it was. And will Clemson be better still in 2012? We have a great chance. Most prognosticators and polls rank us #13 going into the season.

I expect us to get better and I am far from satisfied with our play over the past twenty years. My expectations for Clemson Football are very high ... for me a year-in-year-out Top 10 program should be our goal and is again within our reach. And I am far from ready to write Coach Swinney off based on last year's inconsistent but improved play. Still there are no free passes. Chizik was able to make it happen at Auburn, and I believe Dabo can make it happen at Clemson.

In closing, Coach Ford had a message for the Savannah State Head Coach during his visit to Savannah last year. He told Coach Steve Davenport (a GaT grad but impressive nonetheless) that coaches either find a way to improve year-to-year and win consistently, or they find another way to make a living. Coach Dabo understands this message very well. I will be supporting Coach Dabo and our team with high expectations as we see how the rest of the story plays out. Go Tigers!

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opinion is that Clemson is not the kind of program to be providing on the job training. We should be hiring qualified, experienced, & successful coaches.

For those that love to compare Dabo to Ford, you are ignoring a few important facts. First, Ford is a rarity. Very few successful coaches make the jump from position coach to head coach at a major program. It was more common years ago, but over the past 30 years there have been very very few successful head coaches that didn't work their way up, either as a coordinator or head coach at a smaller program. In fact, to my knowledge, over the past 30 years only Les Miles made that jump and won a national championship.

More importantly, college football is a different world now than when Ford was promoted. Ford got the job in '78 when Pell left. We built the first upper deck in '78 and the Gator bowl in '77 was our first bowl since 1959. The expectations were completely different.

Not only that, but when Ford was promoted coaches weren't paid millions. There was no ESPN, no internet, no sports radio, and no pre-season magazines. There were only a handful of college games broadcasted each weekend. Clemson's athletic budget was a mere fraction of what it is today.

The expectations were totally different then. Kids were true student-athletes. College football was still pretty much just a game. Today, however, college football is big business! The stakes are infinitely higher today. Tens of millions of dollars at stake. Making a mistake now can cost you millions! Athletic directors, even presidents, can lose their jobs over a bad decision and programs can be set back for years.

Every coaching hire is a gamble, but as with any gamble, steps can be taken to even the odds and increase the probability of success.

Chizik, Dabo ... and a Danny Ford Story

Re: Chizik, Dabo ... and a Danny Ford Story

Re: Chizik, Dabo ... and a Danny Ford Story

Well thought post. Good read!***

Re: Chizik, Dabo ... and a Danny Ford Story

Re: Chizik, Dabo ... and a Danny Ford Story

Re: Chizik, Dabo ... and a Danny Ford Story

Right. Chizik started coaching career at Clemson in late 80s***

So right...Point***

For the record, I never said Dabo didn't have potential, my

Re: For the record, I never said Dabo didn't have potential, my

Re: For the record, I never said Dabo didn't have potential, my

Thank you for proving my point!!! .............

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