Swinney on What He’s ‘Most Proud Of’ About His Program

When the Gator Bowl kicks off Friday, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney and Kentucky’s Mark Stoops will face off in a matchup of two of the seven longest-tenured head coaches in the FBS.

In a video courtesy of Clemson Athletic Communications, Swinney was asked how he (the sixth longest-tenured head coach) and Stoops (seventh) have been able to create consistency at their respective programs.

“Just keep showing up. I’m sure Coach Stoops would probably tell you the same thing – just keep showing up,” Swinney said. “To have that type of consistency, you’ve got to have some substance to what you do. It can’t be a smoke and mirrors, it can’t be something that you’re up one year, down another year. The only other program out there that has been as consistent as us the last 13 years is Alabama.”

In its most recent game, a 16-7 victory over South Carolina on Nov. 25, Clemson (150-28) earned its 150th win since the start of the 2011 season to join Alabama as the only programs to win 150 games since 2011.

Not only has Swinney’s program piled up wins on the field, but the Tigers have experienced plenty of success off the field in the classroom as well.

The Clemson football program set a new program record for Graduation Success Rate of 99 percent, which leads all of Division I. That 99 percent mark is the highest GSR score for any Power Five football program since the 2018-19 release, and the highest everrecorded among public Power Five football programs in the 19 years the NCAA has tracked the metric.

“We’ve been incredibly consistent academically,” Swinney said. “We just had 87 guys make a 3.0. That’s the second-most in school history. What we’ve done with our graduation success rate is the best in the Power Five. So, I’m just really proud of the overall consistency.”

After facing adversity and challenges amid a 4-4 start this season, Clemson (8-4) bounced back to go beaten in the month of November, a stretch that included multiple wins against ranked opponents.

Though Clemson’s streak of consecutive 10-win seasons concluded this year at a dozen (the third-longest streak in FBS history), the 22nd-ranked Tigers can still extend their streak of consecutive nine-win seasons with another victory.

A win over Kentucky in the Gator Bowl would extend that streak to 13 seasons (dating to 2011) and tie Yale (1886-98) for the fourth-longest streak of consecutive nine-win seasons in major college football history.

“I know our record this year wasn’t quite what we want it to be, but still, we’ve been a really consistent team,” Swinney said. “But we’ve built this program on belief. We’ve built it on integrity, we’ve built it on toughness and we’ve built it on people. So, you’ve just got to have the right people. You’ve got to get the right people involved, and then you’ve got to have a foundation that is built to last, and that’s what we’ve had here. And honestly that’s been our goal from the moment I got this job is to build a program of consistency – one that has always got a chance. Some years are going to be better than others, but we’ve been able to do that.”

Swinney — who’s led the Tigers to eight ACC titles, six College Football Playoff berths and a pair of national titles since taking over as Clemson’s full-time head coach in 2009 – added that what he’s “most proud of is just the overall consistency of what we’ve been able to do.”

“When I got the job, we hadn’t won a league title in a long time. I think we’ve won it eight times in the last 12 years now, so we’re consistently competing for championships,” he said. “Our recruiting, we’re pretty much eight to 15 (in the rankings). I think we’ve had 13 top-15 recruiting classes in a row… I think we’re second in wins since 2011. So, that’s really what we want to be. Because if you can be consistent, you’ve always got a chance.”

To honor Clemson’s special senior class Dear Old Clemson is selling footballs signed by 7 of Clemson’s Avengers for only $100.  These limited edition footballs are signed by Thomas, Orhorhoro, Davis, Mascoll, Henry, Murphy and Williams.  Get one while supplies last.