Clemson Football: Dabo Dabo Does!

Dabo Swinney is the head football coach at Clemson, and he has taken the country by storm. His YouTube videos get thousands of hits from football purists who enjoy a good pregame speech and his game day emotion has catapulted his team into the the top ten.

Whether you're eating a country steak at Pixie Bill's, fishing at Lake Hartwell or having a cold one at the Esso Club, the conversation in the Clemson area is all about football and Dabo.

Wins can do that.  

Especially three consecutive wins over ranked teams, an accomplishment by the 2011 Tigers and a feat never accomplished before in the Atlantic Cost Conference.  Saturday night, Clemson took it to Virginia Tech and won 23-3.  The Tigers dominated the Hokies physically and scored 20 unanswered points after the game was tied early at 3-3.

"The thing I'm most proud of is that physically we won the battle," Swinney told reporters Sunday night during his teleconference visit.  "Our offensive line just really did a good job.  We had some slip ups but they answered the call, especially late in the game when we were able to get that big drive going."

“Same thing with our defensive line, they just really physically won at the line of scrimmage."

And the football world is buying what Dabo is selling. Clemson has moved from an unranked team to No. 8 in the country...the first top 10 entry for the Tigers in five years.  However, he tells his team all the right things:  We're not that good, don't read the message boards, don't believe that stuff...all messages every day to his team.

"Rankings mean zilch until December," Dabo said. "I thought we had a good team last year, but I was able to see some things that helped me a lot. "Two things that are often overrated on a football team are chemistry and leadership and we are very good in both areas.  That's why we're 5 and 0 right now."

That and Clemson is faster, running a streamlined offense under offensive coordinator Chad Morris, getting great play from quarterback Taj Boyd, and becoming believers in the locker room.

Clemson has been hungry for a winner for a long time.  Coach Tommy Bowden followed Tommy West in 1999 and began winning games and going to bowl games, but the Tigers could never get over the season-collapse mentality.  

During Bowden's tenure, the Tigers were bowl eligible every year but never won an ACC title.  In 2000, Clemson began the year 8-0, climbed to No. 5 in the polls but faded losing three of their last four games.

In 2006 a 7-1 start turned into the same kind of finish as they lost three out of four again. When Bowden resigned in 2008 following a 3-3 start the door swung wide open for "Dabo Ball." Swinney's first team in '08 recovered and finished 7-6, and the next year, Clemson reached the ACC Championship game losing to Georgia Tech 39-34.  

Dabo, who got his nickname from his older brother who at 15 months couldn't pronounce "that boy" when referring to his sibling, has taken the Clemson nation by storm.  Ever since he proclaimed a year ago that ACC stands for "another Clemson championship" the former Alabama walk-on is living the dream.  

However, Clemson fans are holding their breath.  They have seen this act before. 

Dabo is trying to rewrite the script.

Mac McDonald is a Contributor for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained first-hand.