Clemson Football: Dabo Swinney gets 6-year extension, hefty buyout
Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney got a new six-year contract extension.
After leading the Clemson Tigers to the National Championship Game last year, Dabo Swinney has been rewarded with a six-year contract extension and a salary that will place him in the top 10 highest-paid coaches.
Swinney’s new six-year deal will pay him $31.25 million, according to Brett McMurphy of ESPN.com. His deal will pay him $4.55 million this year, up from $3.3 million, and makes him the eighth-highest paid coach in college football.
He is the second-highest paid coach in the ACC, trailing Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher.
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“I’m excited and thankful for the opportunity to do what I love at such a great institution,” Swinney said in a statement. “We’ve built a solid foundation of success and will continue to work toward our goals of preparing young men for their future and being successful in everything we do.”
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Swinney has been the head coach at Clemson since 2009 and has a 71-24 record but has risen to the ranks of the elite coaches over the last four years, compiling a 46-8 record in that time.
The new contract pays Swinney accordingly for what he’s done and what he will do for Clemson over the length of the contract and his huge buyout numbers are worth watching in case his alma mater comes calling.
Swinney is a former Alabama player who has been mentioned frequently as the successor to Nick Saban in Tuscaloosa, but if Saban decides to retire in the next few years, there will be a hefty buyout attached.
Swinney has a $20 million buyout the next two years, $18 million buyout in 2018, $14 in 2019, $9 million in 2020 and a $5 million buyout in 2021.
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But Saban doesn’t have any plans on retiring in the near future, saying “he’s not interested in getting out.”
So Clemson should rest easy knowing they have one of the best coaches in college football locked up for the next six years as he can continue to build the program into a consistent national championship contender.