First, he was an enthusiastic interim head football coach at Clemson.
Then — after picking up the pieces of a shattered season in 2008 — the interim tag was lifted and Dabo Swinney became the enthusiastic, “permanent” head coach at Clemson.
Yet for all the “rah rah” stuff there exists the heart of a businessman, and Swinney is becoming quite adept at that whole firing and hiring thing.
With the announcement that Brent Venables is the new defensive coordinator of the Tigers, CEO Swinney has pretty much restocked his company’s personnel.
Assistant coaches are a nomadic bunch by nature, of course, so seeing one man go and another man take his place is just another day at the office.
But Swinney — and his school — make sure all the comings and goings are high stakes, high drama affairs.
First it was the offense that seemed to be the problem. So Rob Spence was replaced by Billy Napier as coordinator, and next thing you know the Tigers are on top of the ACC Atlantic Division.
But a year after playing for the league title CU sputtered to a 6-7 mark in 2010, and Napier was out the door.
So was special teams coordinator Andre Powell.
In comes Chad Morris, who was greeted by everything short of a parade when he arrived in Pickens County. He was hailed as an offensive genius and Swinney put all of his offense eggs into Morris’ basket.
Good move.
Morris proved himself to be even better than advertised, and for the most part the Tigers were able to move the markers and keep the scoreboard numbers flickering.
Unfortunately for the citizens of Solid Orange Nation, Clemson’s foes kept the scorekeeper busy, too.
And after West Virginia slapped the Tigers with 70 big ones on Jan. 4, someone had to pay for it with his job.
That someone was defensive coordinator Kevin Steele. He was either fired, or asked to leave, or — to steal a line from Raising Arizona — found the institution no longer had anything to offer so he left on his own recognizance.
Regardless, he’s gone, and once again Swinney was tasked with hiring a new manager for his shop.
So now it’s up to Venables to make sure Clemson’s defense has fewer offensive performances than it did a year ago.
The hiring of the former Oklahoma DC (who was caught in a squeeze after Sooners boss Bob Stoops brought in his brother Mike), is a gamble, only because all coaching hires are gambles.
Morris gained fame as a prep coach and had just one season of college experience before coming to Clemson.
Now he’s a highly paid Football Bowl Subdivision head coach in waiting; it just depends on what FBS school might be waiting on him.
And Venables’ last two defenses in Norman were average, but he’s also had some rock solid units in a league known much more for offense than defense.
If he can whip the Tiger “D” into shape, then Memorial Stadium will once again be home to an extremely dangerous football team.
The bottom line is that Swinney, as CEO, has filled in all the seats at the corporate table. And they are occupied by the men he handpicked.
Going forward, this enthusiastic coach has to make sure the fans remain enthusiastic.
And that means he is the one that must answer for the success of his business — or lack of it.
Article source: http://www.orangeandwhite.com/news/2012/jan/21/clemson-football-ceo-dabo-swinney-moves-forward-ha/?partner=yahoo_feeds