Dancing to His Own Beat: How Dabo Swinney Made Clemson a Contender

No one knew for sure what that "dance" really was. The only thing anyone in the room knew for certain was that it was the definition of Dabo Swinney. This was a locker room full of young men—the Clemson football team—celebrating, and then their coach, Swinney, joined in, and, well…    

"When he first did it, it was absolutely terrible," said Eric Mac Lain, starting offensive tackle and leader of the team, who had to witness it. "We were embarrassed that he would do it on national TV.

"But he's gotten better at it each week. That's all we can ask of him, I guess. We have high expectations here at Clemson."

Some coaches have Gatorade dumped on them. Dabo Swinney does the Whip and the Nae Nae. Sort of. He is willing to make a fool of himself in front of his players, and they are willing to take the opportunity to make fun of him publicly for it.

It is not exactly the relationship Alabama players have with Nick Saban or Ohio State players with Urban Meyer, where business is business. But it's leadership, Swinney-style. He dances, makes goofy speeches, invents acronyms, defends his team to the death. It's a weirdness, and blended with the facts that he has rebuilt Clemson and his Tigers are now ranked No. 1 in the nation going into Saturday's game against Florida State, it just leads you to ask:

Who on earth is Dabo Swinney, anyway?

"He loves us being able to pick on him," Mac Lain said. "It just shows him how comfortable we are with him as our coach and how much of a family this is.

"He's just a charismatic, enthusiasm-filled, loving guy. He's very strong on trying to implement being good people. People fall in love with him right away. I just feel like Dabo is Dabo."

The thumbnail of Swinney's background is this: He was a walk-on wide receiver at Alabama in 1989 and had earned a scholarship and played for the 1992 national championship team. His mother fought off serious health issues through most of her early childhood, and his father had issues with alcohol. Swinney grew up without money.

And all of that is part of Dabo being Dabo, but it does nothing to explain where his eternal optimism came from.

"The one thing I observed about him right away was that even though he was a walk-on, when he was in the room with all those scholarship players, they all liked him," said Woody McCorvey, an associate athletic director at Clemson. McCorvey was Swinney's position coach all those years ago at Alabama, and then the offensive coordinator when Swinney got his coaching career started there.

"He was a leader from day one," McCorvey said. "He was focused and prepared, and he was one of those guys who was always an avid note-taker. This guy's always been upbeat. The vision he has is incredible. He repeats it all the time that he wants this to be the best era of Clemson football. He's the perfect fit for Clemson."

You might note a hint of loyalty since McCorvey is working with Swinney now. And McCorvey says that during summer camps, you'll find two dozen of Swinney's former teammates showing up, hanging around Clemson rather than at their own alma maters.

But what about Swinney's personality?

Rex Brown/Getty Images

"He's very transparent," McCorvey said. "Always has been."

Transparent. Yes, that's a good word. Better than goofy. Also better than a bit awkward. Emotional. Open. And willing to be vulnerable.

All of those things together are not typically the way to get college men on your side, following you rather than ridiculing you (though fierce loyalty helps). They all made Swinney easy fodder for Steve Spurrier's professional-level jabs from South Carolina.

But Spurrier is retired now, and Swinney, two weeks from his 46th birthday, is No. 1 in the state, while his team is No. 1 nationally in the College Football Playoff rankings.

And all those little goofy things he does are actually part of his management style, sort of a blend of the free-flowing and the obsessive note-taking. That, and the fact that whatever it means to be Dabo, he's not going to hold it in.

You stand up for who you are.

"It's very strategic the way he does this," Mac Lain said. "It's prepared with great purpose."

It didn't seem that way after the Notre Dame game, when Swinney was a little excitable on the postgame interview on TV.

"What I told them tonight was, 'Listen, we give you scholarships. We give you stipends and meals and a place to live. We give you nice uniforms. I can't give you guts. And I can't give you heart. And tonight, it was BYOG, bring your own guts..."

It went on and on. And on.

And that was a combination of two of Swinney's staples: speeches and acronyms.

"He's the king of acronyms," Mac Lain said. "Like PAW—Passionate About Winning. I'm just overwhelmed trying to think of all of them."

And speeches?

"When we came back this Monday, he had two more of them for us. One had something to do with BEST."

Mac Lain also pointed to when Swinney "lost his mind" when a reporter recently asked him about the term "Clemsoning":

The term refers to Clemson's habit over the past 20 years of getting to the big game, then losing it inexplicably. Just two years ago, Clemson was undefeated going into the Florida State game, then lost by 37 points.

Swinney went on a rant that included the word "bullcrap" at least three times.

Year	W-L	Bowl
2008	4-3	Gator Bowl-L
2009	9-5	Music City Bowl-W
2010	6-7	Meineke Car Care Bowl-L
2011	10-4	Orange Bowl-L
2012	11-2	Chick-fil-A Bowl-W
2013	11-2	Orange Bowl-W
2014	10-3	Russell Athletic Bowl-W
2015	8-0

"If you haven't seen it, you have to look it up," Mac Lain said. "But that showed to us that he truly cared about us. He wants people to respect the things we've done, not what past teams have done.

"He has so much appreciation for the team that it just makes us want to play that much harder for the man. You just want to go that much harder in a game for him. It's something that's truly special."

Mac Lain said his favorite Dabo story was when Mac Lain was a high school kid. He showed up at Clemson's football offices to surprise Swinney by telling him he was coming to play for him.

"He gets back on the elevator," Mac Lain said, "and we could still hear him, and he screams out 'Yes! We got him!'"

All part of the cool, calculated plan. Every last detail.

Just like those moves in the Nae Nae.

Greg Couch covers college football for Bleacher Report.