Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney on the ACC, Cade Klubnik, NIL, & the upcoming season

And I have Dabo Swinney here, the head coach of the Clemson Tigers. 142 wins in the last 12 years. You've got four 14 plus win seasons. There are programs in the ACC that have none. Welcome back to the Adam Gold Show.

Dennis Cox. And I have Dabo Swinney here, the head coach of the Clemson Tigers. 142 wins in the last 12 years. You've got four 14 plus win seasons.

There are programs in the ACC that have none. None of those. So my first question to you, sir. How do you bounce back from a season, dreadful season, where you went 8-0 in the league, won the league? How do you bounce back? We just keep showing up, man. We just keep showing up. We start over and evaluate everything and get back to work. That's really it.

No different than any other year. Mike Tomlin, the coach of the Steelers, likes to say the standard is the standard. But that's the standard you set. When you're not in the national championship game, when you're not in the college football playoff, people say, what's wrong?

Yeah. But that's what you've done, so it's your own fault. Well, I mean, I think my biggest job these days is to try to make sure we keep good perspective. You know, the reality is about 128 years of football at Clemson, we won three national championships. The problem is we won two of them in seven years. But my answer is, man, it's important to not let outside expectations become greater than the purpose of what you're doing. Because then you lose perspective, and when you lose perspective, you're miserable even when you win. Right.

And you have no joy. And so, you know, I think that's important when you've had the amount of consistent success that we've had. Yeah, I mean, we want to win the national championship every single year, but, you know, that's just not realistic.

You fight for it. Sometimes you're good enough. Reality for us is we've had 12 10-plus win seasons, and we've had 12 really good- In a row. We've had 12 really good years and a few great, great years. And there's a lot that goes into that. You know, luck's involved. You've got to be a little lucky along the way.

Sure. You know, injuries and things like that. But schedule needs to break for you. Yeah, and then, you know, we had a great year last year, man. I mean, you'll get back on top of the league and probably played our best game in the championship game. I was really proud of that team. So, I mean, we've had eight 11-plus wins seasons, I think, in the last 11 years.

Sure. Consistency is what I'm most proud of. And honestly, that's what it takes.

You know, I don't think you can be great at anything unless you're really, really good for a long period of time. And it takes consistency and continuity to be able to have a special program. And, you know, so, you know, I evaluate every team based on their commitment to our standard, which is to be our best, to do our best, not to be the best. You know, it's to do our best, to be our best.

Sure. Because if we're committed to that and we're consistently right there, we're going to have those special years. There's 133 teams, I think, fighting for the same thing.

So, it's hard. Right. Well, you said yourself, though, that that number is probably a lot smaller, teams that are fighting for the ultimate trophy. I mean, last year when we talked about expanded playoffs, how many teams are really fighting for that? Well, now it's more with the transfer portal and NIL and all that stuff. We'll talk about that. It's certainly more teams now that can get into that mix from year to year.

Right. But, you know, I want to be a program that always has a shot. I'm going to get to the portal. I think we've got a shot.

I'm going to get to the portal with you in a second. But you said something that I'm intrigued by because Steve Logan, former coach at ECU, is a friend. We've talked a lot about coaching and what the losses do to you versus what the wins do for you. So, are you somebody that can find enough joy in the wins to counteract? You don't lose a lot. Yeah. But I think the losses cost more in terms of maybe a physical and emotional toll.

How do you balance that? Well, yeah, I try to. I mean, I really try to be the same person no matter what. And the old saying, you know, when you win, you learn and when you lose, you teach.

You know, type of deal. And so, you know, I just try not to be defined by the scoreboard. I know other people define me and my program and all that stuff. But I try to just stay focused for me on my purpose as a man and our purpose as a program. And if I stay focused on those things, then when we have that great moment, I don't lose my balance. And when we have a bad day, same thing. I can stay grounded and centered on what's most important and just keep learning, keep growing. I mean, failure is a part of everything that we do.

And as I said earlier, you know, it's important to keep the right perspective, you know, when you're in a situation like this. Because if you don't, yeah, when you win, you're miserable. And, you know, and that's just never, that's never how I want to be, man.

I want to enjoy the journey. Certainly hurts, losses are tough because we work really, really hard. But at the end of the day, it's all good. It's all a part of our journey. I look back on my career and like I said, we've won two national championships in the past 14 years since I've been the head coach. But man, we've had some great years and we didn't win the national championship, but I had a ball.

Sure. You know, and guess what? We had some tough days along the way. And man, I've made some amazing relationships. I've seen transformation in young people's lives. We got a 98% graduation rate. I mean, it's been awesome to be a part of it.

And I never want to lose sight of that again, just because other people expect certain things from us. I want to be able to get a couple of things in here before I know, because this is one of those days where you're everywhere. Bobo Sweeney Clemson head coach is joining us. Tell me the difference between Cade Club Nick now and Cade six, eight months ago. Well, he six, eight months ago, he didn't know what he didn't know. Right now he knows what he didn't know. You know, so he's, he's, he's 25 pounds heavier than when he showed up at Clemson. Wow. You know, he's about 179.

So am I. And now he's about, he'd probably be about 205 when the season starts and he's just more experienced. I mean, he's incredibly confident. He's had some success. He's had some disappointment. And man, he's now the unquestioned guy and leader. So he's just, he's just in a whole different place than he was at that point.

And I'm excited to see him take the next step. All right. You mentioned portal Florida State, maybe the chief rival for you guys this year, although there's a lot of good teams in the league and I'm not trying to disrespect anybody. But they have extensively used the portal.

This is not what you like. This is, this is, we're, we're far away from the college football landscape that I think is your ideal. Just what are your thoughts on the portal and where that's going? Well, I mean, we've used the portal as we've needed it. And, you know, we've signed a couple of quarterbacks to kind of be a bridge guy for us better and older guys to give us some depth. We've done that. That's really, I'm not against the portal. It's just where our programs, we haven't really had been forced into it yet.

You know, what puts you in the portal? Well, I mean, you're Mike Norvell. You take over a program, you got guys leaving, you got to change the roster. He's done an amazing job.

If I had gotten the Florida State job, I'd have had to do the same thing. Okay. So you're not fundamentally against it. No, no. You haven't needed it. Everybody has to do. Yeah, I mean, so we, we've used it when we've needed it.

What puts you in the portal? Well, okay. Two things. One, you have starters pack up and leave. We've not had a single starter leave Clemson, not one. Right. Uh, the second thing is, is, is you're not signing the best high school kids.

Well, we've been able to sign, you know, the best of the best out there. And then the third thing is you have a mass exodus after spring practice. We've had two kids leave Clemson in the past two years after spring practice, and both were graduates and one was the sixth DN and the other one was the sixth corner. So if you had 10 guys pack up and leave after spring, well, you got to go to the portal, right?

There's no high school kids. So we just haven't been put into it yet at a, at a big rate, but you know, we tried, we tried, and then sometimes you might have a gap in a position and we, we tried on a couple of linemen, uh, didn't get them a couple of years ago. So, you know, uh, and we loved our guys there, you know, I mean, so it's just, that's just kind of where we are, but I'm, but I'm, I'm going to my 15th year and, uh, and again, we've not had any starters leave. Uh, if you're taking over a program, you have no choice, right? Because again, it's free agency and kids are leaving, they're gone and you can't replace that.

And so now you, you can't have just all freshmen, you have to have some experience. And so, uh, I think Mike has done as good a job as anybody in, uh, putting his roster together. All right. A couple of quick things and I'm gonna let you go.

Uh, first hornet's nest night one for you, Wallace Wade stadium. Yeah, man. It's a good football team with some talented players and a great coach and a great coach. Yeah. I think Mike, I think their staff has done an amazing job and they're most all their team is back.

Obviously the quarterback did not get impacted by the portal. And I think that upset, that's an upset for a lot of people. Yeah.

They thought people would raid that roster. Those guys say that it's just shows that, you know, they're committed to what they're trying to do there. And man, that's going to be a, that's going to be an enormous teams, nine, one, nine games. The four losses, I think we're by a total of 14 points. So you know, this is a really, really, really good football team and we're going to be a good football team.

That'd be a heck of a ball game. All right. Now the landscape of the sport, your thoughts on first where the ACC sits in it, how we change the perspective. And then if we have time, we can get into the, uh, the finances of college football and how that impacts everything. But, uh, how do we change the ACC perspective, the perspective on it from the outside? Yeah. I mean, listen, we're the second winningest team in the country the last, you know, however, 12 plus years, you know, I don't, if that doesn't change it, I don't know what's going to, we've beaten the best of the best on the, yeah, but, but we're, but, but the other conferences get the same opportunity, right? Right. They might have three teams, 14 and the rest of them aren't very good, you know?

And so, but yet, so sometimes there's just these narratives that get fueled. So the answer is we just gotta, just gotta focus on what we're doing and you got to win, you know, I mean, you gotta, you gotta win on the biggest stages and in those games and at times we've done well at times we haven't, but you know, I, I, I just, honestly, I just focus on what we try to do at Clemson. I don't, I don't, I mean, we're, geez, I mean, there's so many good things. I mean, I think we're, you can go all the way back to oh five. I think we're second in draft picks. You can go back to 2013, we're second in draft picks. So this is a great league with great coaches and great players, the best of the best. That's why we're second in draft picks.

I think last year where we had 12 starting quarterbacks from the ACC and NFL, most of any league. Yeah. So, you know, you're, you, so we're, we're, you know, you're pumping them in there too. We're, we're, yeah. I mean, we're, we're right there. But I do think that, you know, certain programs have to make a little bit more of a commitment and things like that, but at the end of the day, man, I, I focus on our program, you know, and, you know, that's, that's, that's what my job is.

Proud to be a part of the ACC and, and, man, as far as I know, they're still gonna hand a trophy out right here in Charlotte in December and I'm gonna try to do everything I can to help our team lift it up. You have, you have done that. All right. So you, I know you have to go, but you'd be as short on this as you want the NIL portal, all of this thing, the money that is involved in the game and where the players stand in it.

I know there's federal, there's four different drafts of bills. What are your thoughts on where we are as a sport? It's incredibly disconnected, you know, unorganized, chaotic, net good. Uh, for sure, but, uh, you know, just, just some things that it's just not being used in the right way and in certain situations and things like that, and just think that, uh, you know, just the overall, not, not like NIL, but just the governance of, of, of college football. Um, we just need some restructuring there and, and, but the good news is I honestly, I think, I think the more chaotic, chaotic it gets, the better it gets because it kind of pushes us a little bit further along where people can finally say, okay, look, let's, let's, let's, let's create a little bit of order here because right now there's really no order. And that's, it's crazy when you're in a competitive situation and, and you just, you really don't have rules, you know, and, and what rules have, don't get enforced.

Laws are different. And so, uh, but I think we're heading in a good place and again, I think it's been a really overall net good. Um, and I think, uh, it might be two or three, four years, but I think, uh, college football has never been better as far as for the player.

I think obviously, obviously the fans are excited and so forth, but, uh, structurally and things like that, you know, there's definitely work to be done. Thank you very much. We'll see you back here in December, lifting a trophy. You got it. If you can handle Duke. If you can handle Duke. Okay.