At home with the Swinneys: ROY Bus garage is spic and span

Swinney has spent quality time with his family.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Thu Apr 09 08:01:03 GMT-04:00 2020

The garage that houses the ROY Bus is spic and span and ready for another season.

The COVID-19 epidemic has forced busy lifestyles to take pause, and many families are spending quality time with each other for the first time in years. Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney and his wife Kathleen and sons Will, Drew, and Clay are enjoying quality family time for the first time in ages.

I asked Swinney recently if this is the most time he’s spent with Kathleen since they were married, and he broke out in laughter.

“Yeah. Oh my Lord. Are you kidding? Yes! Never, ever, ever, ever in my life have we spent this much time together,” Swinney said. “We are always so busy. So busy doing life. And even the same thing with our kids. We have kind of been working out of the house, and I've never been busier. It's unbelievable.”

Swinney has had to change the way he works, and that means doing everything from the comfort of his home.

“I've done a lot of different things professionally,” he said. “Talking to a lot of NFL people and I've talked to some NBA people. I've talked to our players and I'm recruiting and we're having staff meetings and team meetings and segment meetings. There is just a lot going on. I will have our exit meetings and that will take some time because we have 108 guys. So we have a lot going on, but we are all here together and that is very unique.”

Swinney called the family time a blessing and detailed some of their activities.

“And there are lots of positives that will come out of this. These are strange times for all of us but we are going to come out of it better,” Swinney said. “For me personally, it has been a huge blessing to just have some very unexpected family time with my kids and certainly with Kath and to just be able to watch old home videos. We have played tons of cards. It's just been awesome to have this unique time. We have had a lot of great talks. We've done karaoke. A lot of things we would normally not have the opportunity to do. It's been great.”

Swinney has said in the past that the Tigers drive the ROY – Rest of Y’all – Bus into the playoffs each season, and last year said the mythical bus stays in his garage until he’s ready to use it. That garage is now clean.

“And I will you this, my garage is spotless and my attic is clean. My closet is cleaned out,” Swinney said. “I have gotten a lot of the to-do list done that has been on the to-do list for a while. There has been a lot of home stuff I've gotten done, and from that standpoint, it's been good. I think that is a positive. We have had a chance to be more connected, hopefully spiritually but also with our families through all of this.”