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College Football Playoff: How an underdog life prepared Clemson's Dabo Swinney for this

 
Will we be calling Clemson coach Dabo Swinney a dynasty killer after Monday night’s championship against his alma mater?
Will we be calling Clemson coach Dabo Swinney a dynasty killer after Monday night’s championship against his alma mater?
Published Jan. 8, 2017

TAMPA — Maybe Alabama can't be beaten in Monday's national championship game.

But don't count out Clemson. Or its head coach.

The man has already beaten the odds.

William Christopher Swinney, dubbed "Dabo" as a child (his older brother's pronunciation of "That boy") is a grown, chatty and fun-loving man of 47 whose dreams always have been limitless despite many painful family moments earlier in his life.

They're the dreams that carried a kid from Pelham, Ala., from a walk-on to the scout team to a scholarship on his beloved Crimson Tide football team. Swinney and his teammates upset top-ranked Miami in the Sugar Bowl to win the 1992 national championship.

Dabo, dynasty killer.

Can he do it again?

Swinney is in his eighth full season as head coach at Clemson. He has made Tigers football important, elite. Only one school has won more games over the past six seasons than Clemson. It's the same school that stands in the way again in the title game rematch. Swinney's alma mater. Swinney, a religious man, thinks God has a good sense of humor.

No matter. Swinney wants this rematch.

Beat the best to be the best. That's Dabo's deal.

"My entire life, nothing has been easy and this is the way it ought to be," Swinney said.

Thad Turnipseed, Clemson's director of recruiting and external affairs, was Swinney's teammate at Alabama.

"Dabo has always been an underdog," Turnipseed said.

Woody McCorvey is Clemson's associate athletic director for football administration. He also was Swinney's position coach at Alabama, handling the receivers. There was always something about Swinney, walk-on or no.

"If somebody had asked me back when I was coaching all those guys if there was anybody in the room who would be a head coach, I would have said Dabo," McCorvey said. "Just because he was so meticulous about things. You always saw him taking notes. Even though he was a walk-on, he was a guy who worked hard. He would do something at practice every day that caught your eye, being an effort guy, a detail guy."

It went beyond statistics. Good thing, since Swinney had just seven career catches for Alabama.

"But there was something about Dabo that was so infectious," Turnipseed said. "He'd come in a room and everybody would come to him. Both sides of the ball. If you were in the dining hall, everybody was at Dabo's table."

At the time, they didn't know all of his story. They didn't know about Swinney's father, Ervil, who battled alcoholism as his business failed. Dabo was 13. It was a painful time.

Swinney's parents divorced when he was in 11th grade and they lost their home. Swinney spent his senior year at Pelham High, sleeping at the homes of family and friends. It didn't stop him. He was a three-sport star and an honor student.

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At Alabama, Swinney's mother, Carol, roomed with him in a Tuscaloosa apartment as she scrambled for work. So did Swinney, who cleaned gutters to make some money.

"What did I learn cleaning gutters?" Swinney said with a grin. "Man, I'm the best gutter cleaner out there. … I still, even now, to this day, I ride around and look at people's gutters. Man, I should go knock on their door and clean it up.

"You know, I had some challenges growing up, but I had a great family. My dad was a great man. Loved my dad. But he had some demons he fought and it was tough to see some of those things as a kid. But those are all the things that … I just believe that God doesn't save you from things — he saves you through them."

His players talk about a coach who can connect with them.

"A hundred percent," Clemson sophomore receiver Hunter Renfrow said. "Some of the guys here have gone through the same troubles. So he can relate to guys like that. And to guys like me. I was a walk-on.

"Coach is so special because of all of those walks of life he went through."

Swinney never stopped loving his father. Ervil lived in his son's basement two summers ago, when he was undergoing chemotherapy for lung cancer. He passed in August 2015.

"I think that everything I dealt with, especially once I became a coach, I kind of had great clarity on what the purpose of my life was," Swinney said.

"I am very thankful for my upbringing, my family, my dad. Miss my dad. Wish he was here. He would just have a ball with this, man. I know he's watching, just going, 'Man, look at this.'"

Hard to beat Dabo's story.

Hard to beat Dabo — period.

Contact Martin Fennelly at mfennelly@tampabay.com or (813) 731-8029. Follow: @mjfennelly