For Dabo Swinney, the Clemson football building isn’t just an office. It’s home base for a family business, built on loyalty, sweat, and a whole lot of Tiger pride.
"We brought about ninety people on staff. There is about twenty-eight of them that are former players," Swinney revealed on Chip Munn's podcast Coffee with Cool People.
This "inside out" philosophy is what Swinney believes creates the "sauce" of the program.
“I think it's really cool that you have a lot of players. I have players that are coaching. In the NFL, all throughout the Power Four, Group of Five, lower levels, high school—I got coaches all over that. That you know young people that have played here—that. I think it's really cool that they're like, you know, what I'd like to do that. That as opposed to, you know, they hate their coaches and they're like, man i I would never want to do that job. And so, I think that's really cool, but it always starts from the inside out for me. I think we're supposed to build our life from the inside out as a person of faith.”
Just look at Tony Elliott. Dabo didn’t care what the critics said—he trusted his gut and his guys.
“Like Tony Elliott, who was my first captain at Clemson, my receiver for me when I hired Tony Elliott—not a very popular hire,” Swinney said. “Chad Morris leaves to go to SMU. And I make a guy who's never called a play a day in his life as the offensive coordinator. And you know, We won more games fifteen and nineteen than any any five year stretch in the history of college football. It may never be broken.
"And with a guy that's never called a play a day in his life, so you know I've always caught a lot of criticism from that, but I think. It's a breakdown in culture when you have somebody that you believe is ready, you believe has earned it. And you don't give them that opportunity now. It's not always feasible, you know. It doesn't always work that way, and I've hired so many people from outside. But if I have somebody here who's ready, then I think it starts there.”
And let’s not forget C.J. Spiller. Dabo knows just how much C.J. has meant to this program—and to him personally.
“One thing I am not outcome driven. Never have been. I am not expectation driven. I am not criticism driven. I am driven by purpose, and you know my purpose is greater than all of that stuff,” Swinney said. “When that stuff becomes greater than your purpose, then you lose perspective, then you lose your joy. And then it's just in a job like this that's very public, there is a lot of people that probably should have gone into coaching. They missed an opportunity to go do something that they're passionate about, because they like to criticize a lot, something that they didn't choose to do.
“But I just think that it's important that you keep the right perspective as you go through this thing. But the former players, like I think it starts from the inside for me. Like it's awesome that C J Spiller can come and be. I am not here without C J Spiller with you later on in life after he's done all these things.
Dabo’s belief in promoting from within? That comes straight from his own story, thanks to Terry Don Phillips taking a chance on him.
"I am only here because Terry Don Phillips promoted a guy from within that he believed in... without that belief and that conviction, I am not here."
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