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Nick Saban revisits trying to hire Dabo Swinney as an assistant
By Andrew Olson
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You don’t have to be the closest follower of Clemson football to know that it was a long process for Dabo Swinney to turn the Tigers into a program regularly contending for national championships.
When Clemson fired Tommy Bowden in October of 2008, Swinney (who had not yet turned 40) was promoted to head coach. After a 24-15 start through two-plus seasons, Swinney has managed to reach double-digit wins every season since 2011. The rest is history, but Swinney could have gone down a different path.
A former Alabama player (1989-1992) and assistant (1993-2000), Swinney had the opportunity to return to Alabama as part of Nick Saban’s staff. During Monday’s media availability, Saban revisited trying to hire Swinney.
Q. Obviously you were talking about what a great job Dabo has done at Clemson. He tells the story about when Tommy Bowden was fired and he was coming into coach, he kind of regretted that he hadn’t taken the job with you that you had offered him. Then he talks about after his second year where he thought he was going to be fired but then he wasn’t and said it was going to be the best decade in Clemson football. Can you tell me what you saw in him as a young coach, obviously, other than being an Alabama alumnus, and just the job that he has done and coming through with their problems and having the best decade in Clemson football?
NICK SABAN: Right. Well, I think everybody here at Alabama, because Dabo was a player here and a coach here, has a tremendous amount of respect for him. He’s really a personal friend that I personally have a tremendous amount of respect for, as a coach, as well. They’ve done just as good a job as anybody in the country when it comes to what they’ve been able to accomplish over the last decade in terms of consistency and performance each and every year. They do a great job in recruiting. They do a great job of developing players. It’s just a really, really good program.
We have a lot of respect for him, and that’s why we tried to hire him years ago, but things worked out extremely well for him, and we’re happy for him and his family.
The friendly foes will face off for a fourth time in the College Football Playoff era on Jan. 7 for the national championship.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
