Danny Ford led Clemson to the national championship in 1981. It was their only one and it seems like a life time ago.
Ford had a few great years at Clemson outside of 1981 with three 10 win seasons in a row in 1987 through 1989.
The 1989 season also happened to be his last year at Clemson and the Tigers never repeated the success that Ford had.
At least they never repeated that success until now.
Through Ken Hatfield, Tommy West and then Tommy Bowden the Tigers were pretty average.
Bowden stepped down in the middle of the 2008 season and was replaced by a position coach, Dabo Swinney.
Normally, when a head guy steps down he is replaced by one of his coordinators. But, Clemson promoted Swinney who was the Wide Receivers coach.
Swinney finished Bowden’s season with a 4-3 record and then he coached the Tigers to a 9-5 record in 2009.
I would think most Clemson fans were coming unglued in 2010 when the Tigers finished with a rather uninspiring 6-7 record. They were probably thinking Swinney was a mistake and they should have gone after somebody else for their head coach.
But, then, Dabo Swinney and his Clemson Tigers’ went on a tear like the program had never done before starting with a 10-4 season in 2011 and an ACC Championship.
2012 and 2013 were back to back 11-2 seasons and then a 10-3 season in 2014 and the Tigers were on totally new ground as a football program. 42 wins in 4 season was impressive and an all time best for the Clemson Tigers.
But, it would only get better.
Dabo Swinney is a humble, down to earth guy. But, the man can recruit. He can recruit about as well as anyone in the country and that includes Nick Saban and Urban Meyer.
Today’s Clemson teams are just simply loaded at every position. They have talent at the skill positions and they have talent in the lines. It’s just across the board and any time the Tigers lose players to the NFL, they are replaced with little drop off.
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when they lost Sammy Watkins, but along came Mike Williams and Artivus Scott.
They lost Tajh Boyd at Quarterback that same season and along came Deshaun Watson.
After the 2014 season, the Tigers lost defensive players Stephone Anthony, Grady Jarrett, Vic Beasley and everyone thought another drop off on defense. Then 2015 saw, Shaq Lawson, BJ Goodson, Kevin Dodd and others step up.
Dabo Swinney and the Tigers performed at an all time high, finishing 14-1 and coming really close to running the table and winning a national title.
After the 14 win season, the Tigers again lost a bunch of bodies leaving early for the NFL with Lawson and Dodd and a good portion of the defense leaving.
Joining returner Ben Boulware is Dexter Lawrence, Van Smith, Dorian O’Daniel and many others.
Dabo Swinney and staff just keep recruiting them and developing them.
The Clemson Tigers are 7-0 so far this season and they have a possible shot at another playoff spot.
No matter how the rest of this season turns out, this Clemson team will reload and go at it again next
season. Deshaun Watson will likely leave for the NFL, and they will lose others. But, they will be back and strong again in 2017.
Dabo Swinney has taken this program to another level altogether. He has taken a good program and put it on the same level as the elite schools of the nation. They will need to win the national title to be on the same level as Alabama and Ohio State. But, they are right there and Dabo Swinney will keep recruiting and working hard at getting them back year after year.
The next few years will determine whether Swinney is a very good coach, or a legend.