ACC Media Days are here and Clemson football fans had to wait until the final day to hear Dabo Swinney and the team's four representatives to take the stage.
It didn't take long to realize that Dabo's opening statement was a way for him to temper some expectations heading into the season and make sure that no one gets ahead of themselves in terms of national title or even ACC title talk.
While Clemson is coming off yet another ACC title under Dabo and a playoff appearance while also returning the most production in the Power Four and arguably 5-6 first-round NFL draft prospects, Dabo isn't ready to call this team anything more than a work in progress.
It's this mindset that has made him one of the best to ever do it.
"(I'm) just excited about getting going and look forward to getting on the field with them next week. It's been a good off-season. The guys have put the work in. We've been around a lot of good teams, and this team has the ingredients to be a really good team, but we've got to go do the work. We can't talk about it or predict our way into it. Y'all can't predict our way into it. We've got to go do it and do the work.Dabo Swinney at ACC Media Days
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That's the type of mindset that most coaches should adopt heading into a season with massive expectations. Obviously some fans will want the rah-rah type of candid quotes that could fire up the fanbase, but saying that his team still has to do the work before anyone can predict how good they are is exactly what is going to make this team special.
Dabo knows that he has one of his best rosters ever and he knows what the expectations are, but he's not ready to bury his team in positive headlines but rather make them work to earn them.
This man just knows the process of winning big, and this is step one.