When Clemson football promoted Dabo Swinney to interim head coach during the 2008 season, Swinney was a complete unknown around the ranks of the sport.
Flash-forward nine years later, and Swinney is regarded as one of the top coaches in all of college football.
For the third consecutive season, Swinney has the Tigers in the College Football Playoff after capturing a third straight Atlantic Coast Conference championship. Last year, Clemson won the national title, besting Alabama in a rematch of the 2015-16 title contest.
After seeing the likes of Deshaun Watson, Mike Williams, Wayne Gallman and others depart for the NFL, many believed the Tigers would see their run in the ACC come to a halt.
That didn’t happen. And Swinney is the reason for it.
The 48-year-old former Alabama wide receiver has posted a career record of 101-29, including seven bowl victories, four ACC titles and one national title. He’ll once again lead Clemson into battle against his former school, with the third meeting coming a round earlier in the semifinal.
Swinney went right to work in the coaching ranks following his final season on the gridiron, working from 1993-95 as a graduate assistant at Alabama. He turned that into a job as the wide receiver/tight end coach in some capacity from 1996-2003 before becoming the assistant head coach/receiver coach at Clemson.
When the Tigers fired Tommy Bowden, Swinney was handed control of the program and immediately made a difference. He started the “Tiger Walk,” which features coaches and players going through Memorial Stadium’s parking lot as a team prior to final preparations for the game. His first win snapped a six-game losing streak to Boston College by Clemson and he got the team to bowl eligibility that season with a 31-14 victory over South Carolina.
Since a 6-7 season in 2010, the Tigers have won at least 10 games every year under Swinney, including a 40-3 record the last three seasons.
Here are three reasons Swinney should be named the 2017-18 Coach of the Year: