Alabama Football: Why Dabo Swinney is not the new Pat Dye
By Ronald Evans
There has been a suggestion that to Alabama football, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney is the modern version of Pat Dye. Why that is not correct.
Offseasons are tough for Alabama football fans. We scour message boards and Twitter, soak up podcasts, relive old Crimson Tide memories – basically anything to make it until the next football season.
Another good use of offseason intervals is to ask questions, no one would devote time to in the regular season. We ran across some conjecture recently that begs the question is Dabo Swinney today, loosely equivalent to Pat Dye in 1982? It is a good question. Like many good questions, it can have more than one plausible answer.
We will consider why the question deserves being asked. Then we will offer a conclusion that Dabo Swinney in 2019 is not the same for Alabama football as Pat Dye was in 1982.
Some Alabama football history must be reviewed first. Pat Dye, former Crimson Tide assistant under Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant, left Wyoming after the 1980 season to become the Auburn head coach. When Dye took the Auburn job, the Tigers had lost to the Crimson Tide, nine out of the most recent ten games.
In his first press conference as Auburn head man, Dye was asked how long it would take to beat Alabama. The planted question had already been answered by Dye when he interviewed for the job. Both times, he boldly answered, 60 minutes.
He did not get the job done in his first 60-minute test against the Bear. But he did the next season, in 1982, in what soon after turned into Bear Bryant’s final season. The 1982 Iron Bowl loss did not topple Bryant. His health was the major factor, but there was more.
In the fall of 1982, Bryant recruited state of Alabama linemen, Ben Tamburello. Tamburello had always been a Crimson Tide fan so when Bryant called on the young man, it was immediately assumed Tamburello to the Capstone was automatic. For two decades, Bryant had a reputation of never failing to close a recruit from the state of Alabama.
Several weeks later, Tamburello chose to play for Pat Dye at Auburn. A few years after Bryant’s death it became known the Tamburello reversal stunned the Bear. Some close to the great coach, believe losing Tamburello to Dye convinced the Bear it was time to retire.
The question posed now, is Dabo to Saban, the same as Dye to the Bear? Again, it is a worthy question. We say no. First, recruiting on a national level is so much more competitive today than it was in 1982. Saban, Dabo and every coach fail to close players. The top programs are chasing so many of the same players, more recruiting battles will be lost than won.
Dabo has also not supplanted Nick in national championship achievements. No amount of spin can make two equal to six. It is not even close.
And there are the not comparable physical and mental capabilities of Bryant and Saban. The Bear was an old 68, tired, worn down and ill. Nick Saban is a young 67, healthy even if some bionic help was recently needed. Saban relishes more battles. Bryant, for all his greatness, was done.
No! Dabo Swinney is not to Nick Saban as Pat Dye was to Paul Bryant. Nothing about the comparison rings true.