Dabo Swinney has become synonymous with the Clemson Tigers’ college football head coaching position, but it nearly wasn’t this way, as he made a stunning confession about quitting the post in a recent press conference.
Speaking to Clemson journalists, Swinney was very candid and honest as he highlighted the time he put his papers in and what finally resulted in him taking the resignation back and continuing with the Tigers.
“I quit 2 days after I got the job. Literally quit. Packed my office up, we had the Sunday after the South Carolina game, that was a great moment, and I came in and it was him and Billy D and I laid out the whole program and the plan and kind of how I wanted to run this thing.
“I’m 38 years old I don’t even know what I’m doing I just know what I want to do and I know what needs to be done in the moment that I was in…there were still some walls in Clemson that were challenges. And so you know I had kind of laid all that out and everything was good on Sunday and but a couple days later, you know, it was like well we’re not going to be able do that.
“Well and it was kind of a big blow up and I packed my office up and I hadn’t even hardly unpacked in the office, but I got my I was like packed my boxes and packed the office up, called Kath and I’m like, “Hey, I’m just letting you know I I just quit.” And she’s like, “What?” And I’m like, “Yeah.” I said, ‘I can’t stay here.”
What Caused the U-Turn for Dabo Swinney?
Dabo Swinney went on to credit Clemson AD Terry Don Phillips for cooling off and talking some sense into him.
“I don’t know hour and a half later or so, you know, Terry Don walks back in. He kind of cooled off and he just he starts yelling at me. He said, “Sit down. I just come over here and sit down.” And uh it’s the maddest I’d ever seen him too.
“They had like an emergency board meeting and you know I think by 4:00 that day everything we needed you know was done but it was a that was a tough day.”
