During his press conference Tuesday evening, Dabo Swinney had a message for those who are doubting him amid the changes on his coaching staff.
Swinney says if people don’t believe in him right now, in his 13th season as Clemson’s head coach – a tenure which has seen him lead the Tigers to two national championships, seven ACC Championships and 10 consecutive 10-plus-win seasons entering this year – then those people aren’t ever going to believe in him.
“I don’t pay attention to any of that. That’s the last thing I got time for,” Swinney said of those doubting him and the Tigers. “Again, as I said earlier, this is what I do for a living. Since 1993, I’ve been coaching football. I mean, all I can tell you – when I got this job in ’09, Clemson had not won an ACC Championship in 20 years. And I wasn’t a real popular hire. … When I got the job in ’09, Clemson hadn’t won 10 games in 20 years. When I got the job in ’09, Clemson hadn’t won a national championship since 1981.
“So, all I can say is if people don’t believe in me after 13 years of what they’ve experienced at Clemson, they ain’t ever going to believe in me. So, I have never worried about trying to please whatever – I wouldn’t even say the masses – the minority, I’ve never worried about that.”
Swinney says the only thing he worries about is doing what’s right for his program, loving his players and developing great men through the game of football.
“Our vision of this program has never changed,” he added. “I’ve never been one to chase championships – I just chase hearts and just try to build great men through the game, and if we can do that, championships will come. And that’s never changed, never going to change. That’s the purpose of what we do.”
Swinney went on to say he feels Clemson is “the model program in college football” and reiterated that if people don’t have faith in him after everything the Tigers have accomplished during his time as head coach, then they never will.
“We’re going for our 11th 10-plus-win season in a row, and hadn’t had one in 20 years,” Swinney said. “And we’ve won seven conference titles in the last, what, 10 years or whatever it is. We’ve won two national championships and we’re an onside kick away from a third, and we beat the best of the best of the best of the best to do it, and we’ve done it the Clemson way.
“We, in my opinion, are the model program in college football. There’s nobody out there having the type of consistency that we’ve had, on and off the field — academically, and success on the field. So, I don’t really know what else to say. Again, if people don’t believe in me, they ain’t never going to believe.”
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