Dabo Swinney has won a couple of national championships during his time at Clemson, but the Tigers’ football coach isn’t the only one in the state that can make that claim.
Down the road at Clemson’s rival school, Dawn Staley has turned South Carolina’s women’s basketball program into one of the sport’s elite. Most recently, Staley led the Gamecocks to an SEC regular-season title and this year’s national title, the second of her coaching career.
Swinney said recently during Clemson’s Prowl & Growl Tour that he’s yet to meet Staley but “would love to” in the future. He said he’s watched Staley’s program from afar, including taking in a couple of Carolina’s NCAA Tournament games, and admires the job she’s done with it.
“She’s amazing,” Swinney said. “You can just tell she has great respect from her team. You can tell she is very relational and culture-driven with her players, which is awesome. You can tell she really cares, and she’s passionate about it.
“You don’t have the type of success she’s had and the consistency she’s had unless you are very smart. Those are kind of the people that I study not only in athletics but business people or whatever. People that can consistently achieve at a high level. To me, that’s unique.”
Staley’s success story parallels Swinney’s: two coaches who took over middling programs and turned them into juggernauts. Swinney has been Clemson’s head coach on a full-time basis since 2009, just one year after Staley got the job at Carolina. Since then, Swinney has led the Tigers to eight ACC championship game appearances, seven conference championships, six trips to the College Football Playoff and a pair of national titles.
Meanwhile, Staley has turned Carolina into the premier women’s hoops program in the SEC. The Gamecocks have made nine Sweet Sixteens, five Elite Eights and four Final Fours in Staley’s 14 years at the helm. Both national championships have come in the last six years.
“Some people may catch a little success here or there, but to consistently achieve at a high level is very, very hard to do,” Swinney said. “Nobody has done it better than here. She’s been amazing. She built a program and has now kind of created a tradition there. It doesn’t come easy.
“I wouldn’t say they were a blueblood of women’s basketball. Tennessee, Connecticut and maybe Louisiana Tech back in the day. Those were kind of it. I’m sure I’m missing some, but she’s done it right there. And I think she’s a great example to a lot of people.”
