re: Dabo Swinney scheduled to be in Bryant-Denny on Saturday night

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Dabo is a clown.

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I don't know why people would think this, but as a Clemson fan I certainly wouldn't mind for people to go on believing it.

Lots of people characterize Dabo as a "CEO-type" head coach, as if that were some kind of pejorative. It definitely sells him short as far as on-field coaching ability, in which he's certainly not been deficient. There's nothing wrong with hiring & keeping great assistant coaches & then letting them do their jobs. This is a big reason why Clemson been able to develop the talent it has & turn good players into great players, & turn great players into future NFL Pro Bowlers.

Dabo has proved himself as one of the best recruiters in college football. We first learned this when he was our WR coach on Tommy Bowden's staff, & then again as a head coach. He took a middle-of-the-pack ACC program that was widely regarded as an underachiever & turned it into what appears now to be a perennial title contender. Not so long ago Clemson was an also-ran in its conference & an afterthought to most highly sought-after recruits, but nowadays we recruit nationally & sign cream-of-the-crop players from all over the U.S.A.

Dabo is one of the great motivators of college football today. His teams always show up ready to play & aren't intimidated by tough road environments. His players are always dialed in mentally, & his teams are always disciplined & well coached. They tend to play their best in the clutch, & there's never been an iota of quit in any of his teams.

As a program leader Dabo has shown himself to be absolutely visionary. He took a good recruiting destination & turned it into a great one. Amid all the national attention we've received these past few years, Dabo has never wasted an opportunity to sell Clemson & elevate our brand. For all the elite talent of his signing classes, his players always turn out to be even better young men. We all know about all the players he's put into the NFL, but fewer people know about his success in graduating his players & helping them to lead successful lives. His program annually posts graduation rates & APR scores that are the highest or among the highest of all Top 25 teams. His players seldom ever make headlines for the wrong reasons.

On top of all this, Dabo has always upheld high standards of personal & professional integrity. Even with the cutthroat nature of recruiting, he's highly respected among his coaching peers. He's been exceptionally loyal - to Alabama & then Clemson, to his coaches & to his players. And oh yeah, he's a national championship coach & a future Hall of Fame coach as well. All in all, not a bad resume for a guy whom so many people once laughed at & dismissed as some arse-clown cheerleader who can't coach.