The man with a plan

When Dabo Swinney was named interim head coach on October 13 I was one of the many who questioned the choice. A WR coach with no coordinator experience chosen over two former head coaches? A guy who was working in real estate development just 5 years prior? This is the guy Terry Don Phillips chose to lead this dysfunctional, underperforming group of misfits that had the team on the brink of collapse?

Shortly thereafter though I began hearing positive things about Swinney. Very positive things. He was universally lauded for his handling of the AARC fiasco in 2006 as the athletic department's representative during those meetings and this appears to be the setting from which Terry Don Phillips first became aware of Swinney's leadership.

Swinney's first move upon being hired as interim? Canning Rob Spence. Bingo. Spence was a good man and may end up as a good OC at Syracuse, but his time at Clemson had come and gone. The players had lost confidence in his play calling and nothing positive would have come of his continued employment.

In his initial press conference that day Swinney said the Tigers would be the toughest team on the field under his leadership. In 5 of the 6 games under his leadership he proved correct.

He's allowed his players to play, his stars, especially C.J. Spiller, to shine and infused an air of confidence, toughness and responsibility in the team. In fact, they've become a team again.

There are those that will shrug off the 4-2 record under Swinney saying things like "We would have had the same record under Bowden". Really? When did Tommy Bowden beat Boston College? My guess is that this team would have gone 2-4 in the same six games under Bowden, maybe even 1-5. I don't think this team beats BC on the road under Bowden/Spence. I doubt this team wins at Virginia under Bowden/Spence. I question whether this team would have beaten SC under Bowden/Spence. Yes, Bowden had a nice record against SC (7-2), but remember under my scenario Clemson would have been 4-7 and had no shot at a bowl game at this point. My guess is they would have folded and ended 4-8.

But Swinney wouldn't let that happen. Instead this team crushed SC and is now 7-5 and playing on New Years Day in the Gator Bowl. Nothing short of remarkable.

Swinney also presented Phillips with a master plan on how to resurrect Clemson football. It's clear that Swinney had been preparing to be a head coach for some time.

Swinney's plan?

· Take less salary as the head coach to surround himself with proven, veteran assistants. It's laughable how the media chides Clemson for 'saving money' by hiring Swinney on the cheap, when in fact it was Swinney who requested much less money as part of his plan.

· Establish a strong administrative support aspect of the football program. As part of his research Swinney came across the fact that Alabama had a 20 person strong administrative support team for football. Clemson had a 6 person support team. Swinney hired Woody McCorvey as Director of Football Operations, a position that didn't exist previously. This is an area of the program that will continue to be developed and improved.

· Paying top dollar ($400K plus) for a defensive coordinator that is interested in playing Swinney's preferred attacking, blitzing style.

· Embraced the history, traditions and faces of the Clemson program. From putting Jeff Davis on the staff, to reaching out to Danny Ford, to rubbing the rock and creating the Tiger Walk, Dabo has done the right things to generate excitement around the program.

With each loss, questionable play call or strategy move "message board guy" and "national media guy" will be howling for Swinney's head and deriding Phillips' decision to hire him. It's more predictable than death and taxes.

I'm not privy to Swinney's entire plan, but it's apparent that he knows what he is doing and has a plan to bring championships to Clemson.

Upon being named permanent head coach on December 1 Swinney was asked if he thought Clemson was taking a chance on him. "No. I've never failed at anything in my life." "Failing" in college football is in the eye of the beholder, but my guess is Swinney doesn't fail.

In that same first press conference Swinney was asked when he thought Clemson could expect to win a championship. "Next year. It'll always be next year as long as I'm the coach". Bingo again.

He's young, energetic, passionate about Clemson football, a good recruiter and pays attention to detail. We've seen how he handles adversity.

Whether Phillips made the right decision or not won't be known for some time, but I for one believe he chose the best man for the job.