Dabo Swinney does not need to coach another down to be a college football coaching legend. He is approaching 200 career wins at Clemson, a program where he has won two national championships, been to seven College Football Playoffs, and won the ACC outright nine times. However, massive changes to college athletics over the last half-decade have not been kind to Swinney or his program.
When asked by On3's Chris Low on if he plans on retiring soon, the 56-year-old was flabbergasted.
“Hell no. I mean, I’m just getting going. I’m right about the same age Nick (Saban) was when he got to Alabama. So I’m just getting going, man. I love a challenge, and again, all we’ve done is win."
After putting himself on the same pedestal as Nick Saban, he downplayed Kirby Smart's successes.
"Sometimes, people want me to be like this guy or that guy, and I’m like, ‘What’s that guy done? How many championships has that guy won?’ I’ve got 11 championships. The next closest is Kirby, who’s got six. I’ve got seven playoff appearances. There ain’t another coach still coaching with seven playoff appearances.”
Saban may have been 56 when he took over at Alabama in 2007. His return to the college game came after a forgettable two-year run leading the Miami Dolphins. What is jaw-dropping about Swinney's comments is his failure to recognize how quickly the game is passing him by. Six of Clemson's seven playoff berths came over a six-year span from 2015 to 2020. They have only made it back once since.
After turning 56, Saban won six national titles at Alabama, nine SEC championships, and made the playoff eight times. Of those six national championships, the first three predated the advent of the College Football Playoff. Saban did not even coach in his first College Football Playoff until he was 63 years old. There are levels to this, but Swinney comes up painfully short to Saban across the board.
There are two things Swinney has working for him to approach Saban: Time and coaching in the ACC.
Nick Saban never lived on his past successes like Dabo Swinney is doing
Saban may be the undisputed GOAT in college football coaching, but what made him so great is the undeniable separating factor that firmly keeps Swinney in the rearview mirror. That would be his adaptability. The game changed multiple times over throughout Saban's illustrious coaching career. How he approached things at Alabama when compared to his Michigan State days shows evolution.
Swinney has been at Clemson for just as long as Saban was at Alabama, even longer if we go back to his days as a position coach. Some coaching legends stay at one place forever, while others leave for various reasons. Swinney may be an Alabama alum, but how he has built Clemson in his name, image, and likeness is a far cry from what Saban did up until the end, as well as what Kalen DeBoer is doing now.
Outside of the service academies, which cannot entertain NIL concepts for future servitude reasons, Clemson was arguably the last school to arrive to the NIL. Swinney is frustratingly old-school. His way of doing business worked out tremendously in the late 2000s through the 2010s. Too bad the 2020s are unlike anything we have ever seen. Even Saban tried his best to keep up with the times with NIL.
Read more: Alabama can be buoyed by QB play, but another position group may totally unravel Tide
Overall, if Swinney wants to be mentioned in the same breath as Saban when all is said and done, he needs to win more championships out of his much easier conference. If he plans to coach into his early 70s, Swinney should have plenty of runway to make the playoff a handful of more times, as well as get back to a national championship at least once or twice. Otherwise, he will just be Mack Brown.
Ultimately, we hold Saban in rarified air as a college football head coach because he won in different ways at every stop. His first Alabama team to win it all in 2009 was vastly different from the offensive juggernaut that won it all during COVID. Saban's willingness to bring in depreciated coaching assets to help him win is why he became a legend in this sport. Swinney is iconic, but he is not on his level.
Time is all relative, but Swinney might not have as much time left at Clemson as he thinks he does.
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