Clemson, Swinney belong among nation’s elite programs, coaches

At the College Football Awards Show on Thursday in Atlanta, coaches from all four playoff teams spoke at a news conference.

The three coaches of teams with a loss this season were asked how they got their squads to bounce back and ultimately advance to the College Football Playoffs.

“You’re out, Dabo,” Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops joked.

Swinney is also on the outside as far as experience when it comes to Stoops, Alabama’s Nick Saban and Michigan State’s Mark Dantonio.

The three have a combined 49 years of head coaching experience, compared to Swinney’s seven.

Saban began coaching in the 70s, while Dantonio and Stoops started as assistants in the early 80s.

The trio goes back decades as far as familiarity. Saban recruited Dantonio when Dantonio was a high school player, and Saban has known the Stoops family since he was 25-years-old.

Then there’s Swinney, who coached from 1993-2000 before taking a break and resuming his coaching career at Clemson in 2003.

Swinney may not have the resume or pedigree of the coaches from Oklahoma, Alabama or Michigan State, but good luck finding another coach in the country who has done a better job recently.

He took over a 3-3 team during the 2008 season and won four of the final seven games.

Since becoming Clemson’s full-time coach in 2009, the Tigers have won nine games or more in six of seven years. Clemson has finished with double-digit wins every year since 2011, and the Tigers are the only remaining undefeated team in the country.

“I think seven years ago when I got this job, the biggest goal for me was just to become a consistent program. Not really be a great team, but have a great program. A program that’s consistent. It’s been a long time since Clemson was relevant in that top 10, top 15 area,” Swinney said. “That really was our goal, and our objective was to build a program, to not take any shortcuts, and you do that in a lot of ways… We’ve been able to become very, very consistent.”

Swinney has won several national coach of the year awards this year, proving that he belongs among the elite coaches. And while Clemson is not recognized as an elite program the way an Alabama or Oklahoma is, the Tigers have continued to gain more respect each year.

“There is no question Clemson belongs. I mean, we’ve been as consistent as anybody out there in the country. You’ve got to be able to step out of your conference and win big-time games, and we’ve been able to do that,” Swinney said. “We’re kind of that redneck that moved into the nice neighborhood, and everybody’s going, ‘Where’d you come from?’ But these guys belong right where they are, and they’ve earned it.”

Stoops, whose Oklahoma team went 11-1 to earn a No. 4 seed, is not surprised to see Clemson 13-0 and the No. 1 team in the country. The Tigers beat the Sooners 40-6 in last year’s Russell Athletic Bowl.

“I know they lost a fair amount of guys, but they beat the heck out of us without Deshaun Watson,” Stoops said. “You talk about a smooth, great athlete throwing the football, running it, all of it, you know? So it didn’t surprise me that they continue to have another great year the way they have.”