I got a chance to interview the head coach of the Clemson Tigers, mister Dabo Sweeney.

Now, the cool part about this interview is that Dabbo doesn't do a lot of interviews, and so I asked him why did he choose to come on the On Fraid Show And he was like, well, a lot of people ask me about football, a lot of people asked me about faith, but never really both in the same interview.

And you know, here we are faith, family, fatherhood, food and sports.

So it was really interesting to see the dynamic in the locker room, the dynamic with the players, the dynamic with everybody on staff.

They are all bought into Dabo's vision, and just the fact that he has so many former players on staff.

And I just loved it.

And the coolest part about it is their Paul Journey pa W Journey and it's their program that they turn young men or boys who come into their program.

And put out men at the end.

And the fact that they don't.

Push a lot of players to the well, sorry excuse me, that they don't push players to the portal, and that they are all about development makes them a very unique program.

And I did come in with some preconceived notions about Dabbo Sweeney, but I left a full believer in what he's doing, so much so that I would send my son to go play for this man.

I hopefully you guys enjoyed this interview.

Hopefully you love it and make sure that you guys like to subscribe, Tell a friend about the Unafraid Show and up share.

I mean, I think there's two ways to be successful.

You can do what everybody else does and just try to outwork them, out smart on this and that.

Or you can be unique and different.

We've been unique and different for sixteen years.

People see this version of me.

I've never forgotten where I've come from.

I know who I am, and I always said if I got a chance to be a head coach, I wanted to do it in a different way, and that's what we've been able to do here.

I was really to be successful.

I never chased money.

I just chased my happiness and my passion.

You don't hear anything bad about Clemson from inside Clemson.

It's always from people on the outside of our program that don't know me.

They don't know our program.

We've won the most games, got the most national championships, most conference championships, most draft picks, most first round picks, highest graduation rate.

I think our process is fulfilling our purpose.

If it's not fulfilling somebody else's purpose, well I'm not trying to fulfill somebody else's purpose.

Fourteen consecutive years with a postseason win, that's never been done in college football history.

But we've beaten Alabama and two out of three national championships.

We've been to seven out of ten playoffs, we've been to won the league.

Eight out of the last ten years.

So why do I want to be like everybody else?

And now we are on with the head coach of the Clemson Tigers, mister Davos Sweeney, a man who has won nine ACC championships, who national championships.

Welcome to the show.

Thank you, good to be on with it.

That's not too bad for a D plus higher.

Right, that's right, that's right.

That's a good thing that the plus was across.

Right, that's exactly you've done your homework.

So in this era of college football, right, you have so many people who are concerned about wins and losses, and I think that you get lost, like the just being proud of putting a good product on the field and being.

Proud of what it is.

So how are you dealing with that in terms of the noise on the outside of Oh, how come we haven't won another national championship yet when you're graduating ninety eight percent of your players you are, you know, the highest retention in college football.

Well, I don't listen to it.

So it's really that simple.

I think we all have a choice every day.

You know.

First of all, you know, the attitude we think that we choose to have that kind of drives your habits.

And we also have a choice on what we let in.

We always tell our players all the time, you know, ships don't sink because of the water around them.

They sink because the water gets in them.

And you know, that's kind of how it is in life, you know.

And we live in a world now where.

There's a lot of noise and you have a decision every day on what you're going to listen to.

And unfortunately, a lot of times we wake up the first thing we do is we start taking buckets of water and just throwing it in our ship.

With those phones and with other people's opinions and other people's thoughts and and and things like that, and then we wonder why we're dragging through life.

So I don't really I just I block all that out.

But how I deal with it is perspective, you know.

I think that's very important.

And you know, I stay focused on the main thing, you know, and that's that's my fate, number one.

But the purpose, my purpose as a man, and then the purpose of this program.

And yeah, I mean it's a it's an interesting thing, you know, to kind of you know, kind of be on the inside and kind of you know, see you know some of the narratives that people put out there.

But in the reaction is we've won three national championships in one hundred and thirty years.

So if winning a national championship is simple, and I.

Mean, who else has done that exactly?

But we've been We've been to the playoffs seven times in ten years.

You know, we're the only team to go to six final fours.

We've won our lead eight out of the last ten years.

So we didn't go to the playoff ten out of ten years.

But nobody else has been seven out of ten years.

I think maybe Alabama.

Nobody's won eight out.

Of ten years.

In their league championship.

I think the last five years we're fifth in the country and wins.

But we are fulfilling the purpose that we talk about here.

So when I got the job here sixteen years ago, you know, first staff meeting, what's that going to be like?

It's a big meeting.

It's your first staff meeting, a group of people.

Okay, what's what we're gonna be about?

And you know, literally sixteen and a half years ago, walk in that meeting room and and my message was simple, as long as I'm the head coach, this is what this program's gonna be about.

But then I also told them, and we're gonna graduate our players, We're gonna equip them as men.

We're gonna we've now created this Paul Journey in our program.

It's a curriculum.

It's it's we've been doing this for a long time.

It's we're gonna make sure they have a great experience.

And I want everybody to win a championship.

And as long as I'm the head coach, it's what we're gonna be about.

Everything we're gonna do is and we'll be about that.

But we're never gonna put winning ahead of those other things.

So if that's your purpose, and you say your purpose driven, and you've got sixteen years, shouldn't the results reflect that.

Yes, Well, we.

Just posted the highest graduation success rate posted in twenty years of college football.

We've got ninety eight percent graduation rate.

I mean three hundred and ninety something seniors, three hundred and eighty nine graduates, you know.

So, so we're fulfilling the graduate Thirteen out of the last fourteen years, we've been top ten academically, Clinton Duke in Northwestern and I don't think they've won national championships or conference championships.

And then you sit there and you say, Okay, you know graduation, that's the number one thing in your program.

Well, we're the only team in America one hundred and thirty five schools fourteen years in a row, top twenty five in football and academics.

So we've kept the main thing the main thing, and then equipping them as men.

Paul Journey's a curriculum.

You'll see that college experience.

We're topping the country in retention the past two years in this crazy free free agency world, topping the country and retention.

So that means they're having an experience and then oh, by the way, winning a championship when I got the job, all right, Clemson hadn't won the ACC in twenty years, and that was an eight to ten team league.

It's a seventeen team league.

Now we've won it eight out of ten years.

We've won it nine times.

We're nine and won the championship game we had.

Clempton hadn't won ten games in twenty years.

We've won ten games thirteen out of the last fourteen years.

But we've done it by being purpose driven.

So can you talk about you obviously set the purpose for the but how do you help the young men set their own purpose for their life to create not just great football players, but great husbands, great fathers, great sons, and everything else that they'll be in their life.

That's what we do best, and that is a part of the purpose.

That is equipping them as men and not just being a guy that can run around, throw a ball, sack a quarterback.

You know, teach them the proper place for football.

We teach them that football can't be the foundation of your life.

You know, we're faith based here.

We talk about that there's opportunity for them to grow, but we truly through Paul Journey, our Paul Journey program.

It is a curriculum.

It's what we do for freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors.

This is how we teach them, you know, how to be great men, how to be great husbands.

It's financial literacy, it's tax education, it's micro internships across the world.

It's service abroad trips to Cape Town, South Africa, to Thailand, to Costa Rica.

They're going to Positano, Italy in May.

It's BusinessWeek, been in La the past couple of years.

They're going to Vegas next week.

You know.

We we invest in them holistically.

So that's it's how we meet.

It's it's how we meet.

There's there's not a meeting.

There's not a meeting that we have ever where we're not sowing in the seeds of competitive greatness to life, not just football.

So it's just a holistic approach.

It's what we do daily, every single day.

And we try to transform them through their Paul Journey because they all come into a certain spot and it's our job to figure out where they are, meet them where they are, and then and then transform their lives.

So we we like to say We're a leadership development organization.

We just happen to play football doing it.

That's that's what we do best.

So when you're when they're on that Paul journey and you're looking at what they're going to be out out in life, I look at your journey right.

And it's funny because I think that you can understand people once you understand their backstory in life.

You were a kid who was dirt poor, Ye, parents divorced, all that.

So how did all of those things shape your life to be the man of purpose that you are now?

Yeah, We're all shaped by our circumstances, by the things we experienced, people in our life, mentors, all those things.

And I'm no different.

But you know my I did.

I just thought my life was normal until I knew it wasn't normal.

But my family was simple.

My mom and dad married at eighteen.

My mom was pregnant with my oldest brother.

Mom cut hair, Dad was an appliance man.

Picks Washington drivers.

That's what I grew up doing, you know, addiction in the home, divorce, you know, on the move, just staying here, staying there.

But I had great coaches, I had great mentors in my life.

You know, I was involved in a lot of things, you know, and you know, played three sports and did a lot of things that kind of kept me focused.

But the main thing that happened to me is I got saved when I was sixteen, and that that created a found to life for me.

You know, so many people they.

Don't have a foundation to life, and I got a foundation to life when I was sixteen, and I've been building on it ever since.

And whether and as storms have come, as they come for all of us, you know, that foundation has allowed me to stay anchored.

And storms are not always bad things too.

Storms are good stuff too.

There's a lot of times sometimes the storms, the worst storms are the good stuff that happens.

In your life.

You can get really off course and distracted by that.

That's been my journey and that shaped me, that equip me when I now, when I look back, people see this version of me.

But I've never forgotten where I've come from.

I know who I am, I know who the people who've helped me get where I am.

Most importantly, I know my savior.

And I look back and a lot of people say we serve a god you can't see, but I see him when I look back, and I'm just thankful that, you know, I've been able to have peace and whatever I've dealt with in life, and that served me as I've gone.

But as I look back, the things that I hated most in life, the things that were the liabilities, things that I was embarrassed by.

What are my greatest assets?

What are some of those things that you were mean?

You know, you know, when you're a kid and your father shows up and you know, everybody knows he's an alcoholic, and or they nobody's there to see you score twenty four points in a game or score a touchdown, nobody's there, or you know, you have you're living with a friend sleeping on the floor and your girlfriend's got to come decorate his door because that's where.

You don't have a home, or you don't have a car.

You know, So those are things that as when you're going through those things as a kid, you know, you can you can be hardened by those things, you can be embarrassed by those things, you know, whatever, But those those are my greatest assets today because it gave me perspective, and that's it goes back to your original question, you know, on how I deal with all everything, whether it's good bad.

Yeah, it's perspective.

It's keeping perspective.

And the way I keep perspective is keeping my eyes on the Good Lord in the good and the bad.

So you've been married for over thirty years now, going on thirty one.

Yeah, first of all, congratulates it.

In this business of college football, how do you stay married for this long and and how has your wife been a part of the program.

Yeah, well, I think it's got to be.

It's got to you got to be team.

It's got to be a partnership, and you gotta you gotta you know, I don't.

I don't think it should be work and home.

I think you you've got to involve your family and everything that you do.

And that's been the best part about being the head coach, honestly, is I've been able to create what I always envisioned it should be.

And I've been able to do that for my staff too.

But you know, kath and I we met in the first grade and we started going together other than the sixth grade, and then.

We started dating in high school when I.

Could drive, so I'd drive her car, and then were you know, all through college and been married going on thirty one years.

So you know, we just have been together.

We're a team, and I think you've got to have everybody on the same page in this profession.

And so she was with me my whole life.

She comes from a different Everybody in her family's you know, PhDs, masters, their teachers.

Cath was a teacher, or dad as a professor.

And you know, that's why I always knew she was the right one, because she never judged me or or you know, she saw the potential in me.

I'm the first college graduate in my family.

Nobody in my family had a college degree, parents, grandparents, great great grandparents, and so that was a game changer for me, which is why I'm passionate about education.

I went to Alabama when I was eighteen.

I left when I was thirty one, and so who does that.

So I saw a lot of guys that I played with, and I was still there when I was twenty eight, and now all of a sudden, you know, I saw the game use a lot of guys they didn't have to.

And I always said, if I got a chance to be a head coach, and I really wanted to, I wanted to do it in a different way, and that's what we've been able to do here and that's why our purpose is what it is.

But you have to have someone in life to do life with, and you know, Cas been that person for me.

And so she's been there from.

When I was a ga, you know and getting my MBA and never at home for two and a half years because I was either you know, at the office or in a classroom or whatever.

To you know, watch just this journey that we've been on.

Coached eight years at Alabama, head coach gets fired.

Now I'm out of coaching for eighteen months.

And then you know, when Clemson called and said, hey, you're interested in getting back and coaching, she was like she knew my heart and she said, let's go.

Never lived any lived anywhere else at Alabama.

So here we came in February three thinking well I would be here for a year or two and now I'm on my twenty third season.

But it was God's plan.

So that how much well, because I because I know that as a man, one of the greatest things that that gives me pride and joys to be able to take care of my my family, provide for my family.

How does that make you feel that cath believed in you.

Her family, I don't know whether they supported it or didn't at the time, but you made good on on.

That for for her and for your family.

Yeah.

Well, our relationship was built on the right stuff, and I think that's that's, you know, the way it always was.

And then as I went to college, and honestly, we made I never dreamed of coaching.

I didn't have any desire to coach.

I wanted to go make money, you know, and I'm gonna I had all these great plans and because I'd never made any money, and I had all these great plans.

And her dad was so helpful to me.

And you know, when we first got married, he would send us a check every month so that I could pay for my mom's rent because my mom lived with me, yeah, with me for three years of college.

And then then we got married at two, and you know, he helped me.

He'd give me a check every month to help me pay for my mom's rent.

And so I was really driven to be successful.

And when I say be successful, it's it's to be able to provide for my family, to be able to have a good job, to be able to have a great relationship, you know, with the Lord, and to be a good father, to be a good husband, and to whatever platform God was going to give me, to use it to goify him.

And so, you know, all of a sudden, next thing, I know, coach McCorvey, coach Stars, you know, asked me if I want to be a GA, and I'm like, well, so I'll get my NBA yeah, because I wanted to go run a hospital.

I've got my degree in hospital administration and that was my plan.

And so a week into coaching, it was like clarity of life, all of a sudden.

I still love to play, I still love to compete.

I love the game.

The first time I had never been a part of team, we won the national championship my senior year and that spring I'm like, man, next thing, I know, I'm coaching, And so it was awesome.

But the other thing that.

And I tell people all the time, especially young coaches today, getting into coaching, because coaching wasn't that way in nineteen ninety three the way it is now.

In nineteen ninety three, you know, you had nine full time coaches and two gas and.

Nobody made any money.

The head coach made a little money, but you But we made a conscious decision, Kathy and I.

She was going to teach school.

She was a teacher, and I'm on coach football.

And we knew we would make a good living, but we were never gonna you know, but we were so at peace with doing what we love to do.

And I felt like it was what God called me to do.

I really felt that, and I had that clarity.

So I didn't get into coaching to make money.

I got into coaching because it's what I love to do and I felt like I could impact people's lives and that was the best way to do it, and I wanted to be a part of team.

Everything great in my life had come through team.

Never.

In fact, I took a big pay cut to come to Clemson from the job I had in the business world, and so I just I never chased money.

I just chased, you know, my happiness and my passion.

And you know, this just God's.

Favor that we are where we are now.

Say, I'm glad you brought that up, because that's something I think that people get confused about at times, right, because you're one of the highest paid head coaches in college football, and people and you know, people have their opinions about oh, well, he say he doesn't do it for the money, but he's one of the highest paid coaches.

But when you talk about your purpose, like, that's the thing that clicks for me.

But then there was some comments that you made a few years ago about you know, if players, if they get get paid, I'll go do something else.

And in understanding your backstory, I feel like I have a better understanding of what you meant by that.

But can you.

Elaborate What I said was they if they professionalize college athletics, yeah, it doesn't become scholastic anymore.

Okay, that's because I'm passionate about education.

That's what I said.

People have taken and they right.

Ever, I have no problem with these guys.

You know, they're basically their their rev share, the scholarship being enhanced, all those things, and it's never made sense to me that a kid can't go to his own camp or stuff like that.

I worked all through college.

I mean, I've cleaning gunters, cutting grass.

I mean, you know, I probably wasn't supposed to, but I wouldn't have made it impiring.

There was never a time that I wasn't working but what I know is we have a responsibility to educate our young people.

Ninety eight percent of college players do not play in the NFL.

Football is not a game of longevity, all right, and we have to emphasize and incentivize education.

People make up their own stuff.

And you know it's say whatever they want.

But these are people that don't know me, They don't know our program.

All you got, dudes, look at our program.

Judge me by my fruit, you know, Judge me by the fruit of this program and the kids that have come through here and the graduates and the live that have been changed.

So we've lived out our purpose.

My main thing about college football is, you know, we have to keep it scholastic.

We have to.

We have to keep it scholastic, and we have to help these kids.

You know, seventy eight percent, almost seventy eight percent of NFL players within two years of being out a league or bankrupt.

Yep, you know that bankrupt and most of them right.

So I've never wanted my guys to be a statistic like that.

You think we're gonna get those are mid twenties to thirty year olds.

You think we're going to get a different result with an eighteen nineteen twenty year old.

Now it's gonna be worse, especially if we don't have the right structure that emphasizes education.

And we have to graduate these players.

And if we do it right, it's the greatest time in the history of football to go to college because we have a chance to educate and equip these young people, teach them financial literacy, tax education.

They don't have to wait until they get to the Pros to know with a W two or ten ninety nine or anything kindie is we can truly equip them, so, you know, and then also when they come out of college.

You know a lot of these kids in the past that might leave early, they'll stay now and they'll graduate.

And then if and then and then when they come out of college, if we do it right, they whether they make the Pros or not, they've got a great foundation financially for life to set them up on a great head.

Start for life.

No matter how much money you make in college, it's not it's not going to last forever.

And so there's this perception out there and so we have to we just have to.

We just have to do it in a scholastic way and not get away from that.

And that's what I've always believed.

And the reason I believe that is because I know that if, if, if, if these young people get their degree, then they have it's not and you don't have to have a degree to be successful in life.

There's a lot of things.

There's there's there's trades, there's a lot of things that you can do to be very successful.

But the statistics and the odds and the data says that you have a better opportunity and that you will make more money in the course of your life if you do have an education.

I think that's important.

I mean, like, I love Deon Sanders.

He's one of my heroes growing up.

You know, what a shame if he couldn't go do that job.

He couldn't be the head coach he didn't have his degree.

Rights yep.

And he's not coaching for money.

He's coaching because he loves to teach.

He knows and he sees where he can impact people's lives, especially for you.

Know, for the kingdom.

He sees that, he knows that he's called to that, and man, what a shame if he didn't have that degree.

Wouldn't matter how many Hall of fames he was in.

How many of this stuff he wouldn't be qualified to go do that?

And so I think that's important.

And that's that's what I think sometimes gets lost that you're playing football at twenty seven, twenty.

Eight year old.

Yes, yeah, I finished it right before I turned thirty, and I remember coming out and trying to figure out what I was going to do.

And it's a journey TI to have that sort of mentorship leadership with you guys as this platform, I think.

Is there's a transition.

And what we try to teach in paul journey is we teach these guys to transition from football before they ever have to transition from football.

And you know what that does.

That frees them up just to go play.

But coach, I thought, I thought that that if you're focusing or you're paying attention to anything except football, then you're not focused on the main thing.

Now, football is not the main thing.

It's it's it's it's the type of young men that were developed.

It's the thirty year old version of these men.

That's the main thing.

What are we doing?

How are we serving their heart?

If football is the main thing, you.

Just serving their talent We're here to serve their heart, not their talent.

All right, We're here to We're here here truly to build transformational leaders through the through the platform of football.

That's that's Football is important, but it's but it needs to be right here with the risks above the elbow and six points and five points of pressure and the offhand with that six point of pressure right there.

It's not it's not.

Shouldn't be the foundation, and it is for somebody, for a lot of people, and that's fine.

Everybody has to do things the way they want to do them.

I'm not judging.

I don't judge anybody.

Yeah, I just focus on what we do and what's best for Clemson and fulfilling the purpose that I've been called to live out.

So as we get to like this era of college football, there's the transfer portal, which I've noticed the statistics say that less and less players.

Are graduating now because of the transfer portal.

And one of the things that you've been criticized about is not taking enough transfer portal players.

And initially I was in that camp, but then I thought about it.

I would say, hold up, hold up.

This feels like.

A coach who's to use a term that people use now standing on business, that you hold your coaches to a higher calling of Listen, you got to get your recruiting right and you got to develop these players.

Is that what the mentality or the coaching of you know what you're coaching your coaches or the expectation for your coaches is.

I mean, I think there's two ways to be successful.

You can do what everybody else does and just try to outwork them out smart on this and that, or you can be unique and different.

We've been unique and different for sixteen years.

I mean, just like again, everybody's got a lot of opinions, but anybody ever talks about facts.

The facts are now that Nick.

Saban's gone, We've won more games than sixteen years than anybody in the country.

And I got the most draft picks, got the most first round picks in the past sixteen years, never had a number one recruiting class.

We're like usually average about thirteen.

But we've beaten Alabama in two out of three national championships.

We've been to seven out of ten playoffs, we've been to won the league eight out of the last ten years.

So why do I want to be like everybody else.

We got the highest graduation rate in America.

We got the best retention in the country.

So why do I feel this need.

I'm not against the portal, but when you have the highest retention rates in the country, that means kids in highest graduation rates, kids are staying.

So this is not a release Probram.

This is not a place where we're gonna run guys off.

We're at the bottom in the class of twenty six and offers right now, fewest offers, but we've offered like sixty one guys and at the top will be like five hundred and something.

Whoever's first up there, I've got a list of it.

You know, we don't offer many guys.

We don't offer freshmen and sophomores.

I won't offer anybody that won't come here.

You know, like we value who we know exactly what we're looking for.

We're unique and we're different in our approach.

But that's not to judge other people.

That's what's worked for us.

Who's won more national championships, who's been to more playoffs, who's won more conference championship, and who's had more draft picks and first round picks.

Nobody in the past.

Now the Knick's gone nobody nobody, So who's got graduate who?

We're fulfilling our purpose and we're not worried about what other people do.

We're just trying to be the best version of Clemson and do what's best for Clemson.

And that's what we've done, and so we're not against the portal.

We've used the portal three out of four years.

Nobody wants to talk about it that we've used it for.

It's a great tool.

It's a great tool.

If I left today and took a job somewhere, half the team would leaves.

Yeah, well, you can't go sign forty freshmen.

You got to go build a team.

I don't judge anybody.

Everybody's situation is different, but our retention is pretty unique.

And the reason it's so high is our process on the front end, and so we're getting the best high school kids that we think.

So again, if we're if.

Our Alabama, they've been number one about every year in recruiting, but we beat them in two out of three national championships, and if it wasn't for an on side kick, would have beat them three out of three forty five forty So I mean the last one we won.

They had eighteen first rounders.

We had eight and we beat them forty four to sixteen.

You win with people, you win with synergy close to two plus two weekals ten.

So you got to get the people part right.

So portal wise, you know, we just as long as we're getting the best high school kids.

So like this past year we signed three, but we didn't have a choice.

And everybody has to use the portal now because if you have kids even the spring, and that hasn't been the case for us.

Yeah, if you have kids leave in the spring, who you gonna go get in made?

There's no high school kids yep.

But it just hasn't been our situation.

And that's just goes back to our process, our relationship.

So what what is that process of finding Clemsing men or they what will be Clemson men.

Yeah, so you've got to be a lot more just good football players, a lot of good football players.

You got to you know, we're looking for your character, your academics, We're looking for those intangibles as a guy love football, you know, and then again we want to force semester transcript.

Can you play a couple of years of varsity football?

Is that too much to ask?

You know, like the reason you see all these these you know, some of the schools signing thirty guys a year, but look how many guys are leaving their program.

So it's it's just kind of catching release or it's just you know, transactional, and that's not who we are.

We're there's a transaction in today's football, but kids aren't coming here because of that.

They're coming here because they really align with who we are and they're staying here.

You don't think Peter was and TJ.

Parker and Katy you don't think these guys could go in the portal and get sure, they could, but they're happy.

And so you know that's.

What people You don't hear anything bad about Clemson from inside Clemson.

It's always from people on the outside of our program.

They don't know me, they don't know our program.

So you know, again, we've won the most games, got the most national championships, most conference championships, most draft picks, most first round picks, highest graduation rate.

So I think our process.

Is fulfilling our purpose.

If it's not fulfilling somebody else's purpose, well I'm not trying to fulfill somebody else's purpose.

You've had a lot of continuity of coaches as well.

And I remember when I went to Oregon it was kind of like.

That with Mike Bellotti until Mark Helfrid was fired.

Then everybody like you had Don Pelham who was on the staff for a long time, Coach Campbell, all of these coaches.

How is it important for you know, a guy like Woody who you was your wide receiver coach and has now been with you this entire time.

It's nineteen ninety, uh, you know, and then ironically he came from Clemson to be my receiver coach at Alabama and you know, he's he's been one of the top two or three mentors in my life.

I mean, he's like a father to me.

He's been with me from you know, day one that I got this job, and uh, you know, just just one of the great blessings.

You know, God puts people in our lives along the way that that are, you know, just rocks in your life, and that's who he's been.

So it's been awesome, I mean, to do life with coach mccorby has been you know.

Just amazing.

To meet him when I was twenty, you know as a young red shirt sophomore at Alabama, and and you know, I don't get a scholarship if it's not for him.

He believed in me as a young at a young age and mentored me and had a great experience playing for him, and then and then I was a GA for him, and then when he became the offensive coordinator.

You know, I'm twenty six years old coaching receivers and tight ends at Alabama's.

Youngest assistant in the SEC.

I mean, twenty six And that doesn't happen if it's not for coach mccorby and coach Stallings, who really believed in me and gave me that opportunity.

So you know, I had no idea what was down the road, but man to going on my seventeenth year as the head coach here and for Woody to be right by my side.

It's been It's been awesome to do life with him.

You mentioned Jene Stallings, and that reminds me of a story that I heard about you, is that when you were playing at Alabama that he was calling for more physicality in practice.

And there is a famous crackback blocking by by mister Devils.

Can you tell us about that.

Yeah, we were just scrimmaging, and you know, I mean the game was different then.

Yeah, I mean that.

Was like if you didn't do that in those days, you know, you were going to the you're getting to you're going to the bench, and uh you know, and as a receiver, you you sought those type of opportunities out, you know, but they've taken blind side blocks and back backs.

That's all out of the game now.

But in those days, that was just it was just part of it.

Yeah.

Yeah, we were having a scrimmage my sophomore year, actually it was my junior year ninety one, and just we ran a reverse with Kevin Lee.

Uh and so I was the X and he was the Z.

And we ran a reverse and so you know, everything was flowing and and uh man, we had a safety and I mean, I'm coming full speed and I got I got a beat on him, and I mean as soon as he recognized this reverse and he starts, and I mean, just it was it was it was a pretty explosive hit.

And you know, of course, you know back in those days, that's where again everybody went crazy and it was this and that was a part of the game and so yeah, that was.

It was like the headline of the news the next day, so it was it was a physical scrimmage.

Yeah, that reminds me of a play that when I was in college, when I was at Oregon, Wesley Mallard hit Michael Jolivette when we were playing again.

We were playing in onto the Stadium against Arizona Punk return and Keenan out of Keeny Howery starts one way, breaks back the other way, going towards the right.

I'm standing on the sideline at about the fifty yard line and Wesley hit some helmet pops off areas, probably the hardest hit I've ever seen in my whole life.

And I was like, oh, he'd be throwing to jail right now.

Oh yeah is that where?

Yeah you'd be gone?

Yeah, yeah for sure.

And in college football now right.

Like you talk about education and graduating players, one of the things that I found problems with and other coaches have as well, is the calendar is that the transfer portal opens up in December, but then if you play for a national championship this year, you didn't finish until January twentieth, so classes are already started again.

What's the fix to it, like, should the season in January first?

Should what's your idea on that?

Yeah, I mean I think we definitely need to compress the calendar a little bit.

I mean, there's a lot of a lot of things.

That's a that's a deep conversation.

Having lived it for a long time and having been in seven playoffs, six final fours, yeah, and four national championships, it's a long time to play, and it's a lot of games, and so you know, to play a potential of seventeen games.

It's a lot in college football because it is scholastic and what you mentioned earlier graduation rates with the portal because what's happening is as these kids transferred, that doesn't mean your hours don't all of a sudden transfer.

So you might be twenty hours away from graduating when you transfer and you go somewhere else and now you're forty five hours.

You know.

So there's a lot of things to consider there.

I think, first of all, you know, I'm all for the kids being able to go.

Great.

We need a new government structure, number one.

Yes, it's you know, one of the reasons that we have such a chaotic time a mess right now is you know, forever and ever and ever, we've tried to make it all.

The same and it's just not the same, you know.

I mean at Clemson as it is.

Some of these a small group of five or even a one double a because division one is division one and it's not and it's not the same sport to sport either.

And I think we're finally at a place where people have realized that.

And I think we're going to get a new government structure which can bring more autonomy, which which then you have like minded problems and people that can solve the problems that are relevant to them in.

Their world, because we do need that.

So I think that's part of it.

And then I think the next thing is we need to we need to look at the calendar.

There's some adjustments that we need to make there.

But you know, you know, having done it many times to ask these kids to start earlier and to play later and to practice more, play more games, it's a lot.

And so man, it's lad that they're having opportunities with the rev share and all of that stuff is great.

We just have to have some structure and that's.

Coming, like we're about to enter in I think one of the best errors ever in college football.

You know, because there is going to be some order, there is a cap, there is it's got to make sense.

I think that all that's going to be good.

I think the kids should be able to leave.

But we don't need free agency right in the middle of the season.

Nobody does that like it makes ero sense at all, and it puts the kids in a bad situation.

I think we need five years for five years.

Number one.

Okay, we got all these waivers, we got all this stuff.

I just think you should be able to play five years.

Play five years that way, because when they put in the play four year, four games and you can keep it, well, the unintended consequence of that is now, all of a sudden, here comes the portal.

Here's in il Well.

Now kids are playing four games and they're saying, hey, I'm out.

You know, I don't want to lose my eligibility.

I'm going well, a lot of these kids would play if they're if it's five for five, and you know, if you played four games, you played seven, you played them all.

It doesn't matter five years.

And especially with the financial opportunity now, a lot of these kids that are in a hurry to go pro would stay in college and they would graduate.

So now we've been centivized education.

We've been centivized graduation because why you make more money in college than going to be in a fifth or sixth rounder in the pros, and and and it's more guaranteed, and you're fin you're developing, you're playing, you're getting your degrees, all those things.

I think that's a part of it.

But we need one portal window.

I don't care where it is.

There's a lot of debate.

Is it January, is it February, is it March?

Whatever?

All right?

I mean personally, I think, you know, we should give these kids the opportunity.

Like every if you look at the final four the past few everybody's had kids opt out because they feel this pressure.

And you shouldn't.

Yeah, you feel this pressure because kids are like, oh, I got to get there in January.

So I think one fix for that is we need to change how spring practice is done.

Spring practice is important, though all this chatter and chit chat.

These guys have played all these yeah, some guys have, but most of these kids have it.

Yep.

In college is developmental, Like if you get to the pros.

Yeah, you can have a bunch of OTA's and it's that.

But y'all got four preseason games to figure it out to go play some football.

We don't get that in college.

When we play, we play LSU, and so we don't we don't get preseason games.

We don't get jamborees, we don't get.

It's the only level of football that you know, we don't get a practice against anybody else.

We only have each other to compete against each other.

And so college, I like, when we get kids at Clemson, it's the first time in their life that they've had a peer.

Like my left tackle Brandon Jacob's son, Braden Jacobs just got here, who's six seven three and thirty pounds.

Let me just tell you something.

He's never had a peer at practice or on Friday night maybe every blue moon, he might play against somebody.

So now he's got Peter Woods and teach every day TJ.

Parker, and he's got dudes every day, and so he needs to develop.

He needs to learn how his stance and fund how do you pull on a counter?

How do we do those things?

At this level at the pros, it's not developmental.

If you don't know how to win on a slant versus inside leverage.

At the next level, they just bring somebody.

In who can.

If you don't know how to pull on the counter that you don't know how to spill a guy, they bring somebody in who can.

You're a pro.

And these kids have spent their career playing college ball at a high level.

All right, So the kids, we get what what received?

What corner has walked up on westco TJ.

Moore and like me and you all night on Friday night.

Never all right?

So now he's got Abon Terrell, he's got Ashton Hampton, He's got he's got.

So college has to be developmental.

So my point in that is, I think we need to look at spring practice.

We just need to say, you know what, everybody gets twenty days.

Everybody's calendar is different.

Some re quarters, some are semesters.

Some people start earlier in January, some people start later in January.

Some people are out early May, some people are out mid May.

Whatever, why don't we just some people don't sign a lot of portal guys.

Some people sign all portal guys.

And the portal problem is okay, well, they want them there for spring ball kids want to get there, So why don't we just say, you know what, you get twenty days from March one or whatever, late February through June.

Do it however you want.

So that way, if you want to sign a bunch of portal guys, if we're going to make the window in April or whatever, then you get a bunch of kids in May.

Well, those kids have an op they can they'll stay in school, they can continue their academic course, they can make a good decision, and then they can they can get there and they can have spring practice in May and June to get acclimated, to get ready.

And so I think, you know you can.

There's a lot of things we can do to fix it, but we definitely need one portal window for sure, and we need to create an opportunity for these kids to be able to finish.

Now, you got some coaches out there, they're like, well, I don't want these guys around for a semester.

I don't think that's the right mentality.

But to each his own, you know.

That's why I was like, why don't we make it end of January first of February, And so what if we got some guys that are going for at least they can finish school, yep, and we know what our roster is in the off season, in the spring practice, and then we can address that, you know, with kids in May, and then we can do our spring practice.

Hey, I'm gonna save these practices in May, these practice in Junie.

We can get on the field with these kids.

So it feels like there's been a return to, like players talking about their face right and being more open about it.

You saw this year with Ohio State with some of their players and some of the fans were like, stop talking about God, like focus on football.

And I believe that those things are interconnected like that you talked about.

Why do you think that?

Is it just a feeling that it is a more return to people being more vocal about whatever their faith is, or do you believe that that it's.

Been going on the exact same the whole time.

I mean, I think it's a fate's a personal decision.

I think it's always been a part of certainly always been a part of my life and what I've done, And I mean probably for most I just think you probably have seen people be more vocal about it.

You know, we live in a world now that where there's constant you know, and kids see things or whatever, and so I mean, I love it though, I mean it's great.

I mean, but for me, I mean, it's always been a part of what we do.

I've never shot away from that.

Again, I've always said, it's not my job to save people, you know, my job is to win football games.

I get that.

But I do think it's my responsibility as a Christian and as a person of fate to live my life in a way and hopefully be a great example and be a light, you know.

And that's that's really what I try to do.

And I know I get judged by that by other people, but you know, that's just part of it comes with it.

Thirteen out of the last fourteen years, Clemson has won at least ten football games.

A lot of twelve win football games along the way, which is very difficult to do because in the era of the college football playoff eleven years, there's only been six teams to win at least six games every single year, and Clemson is one of them.

Why do you schedule the way that you do when other people are trying to get as many easy games as possible this year.

You start out with LSU, you could put anybody else on the schedule and then still have your South Carolina game.

Why are you doing that when other people are shying away from that.

Yeah, that's that's how we built the program.

That's what I've done from day one.

When I got this job, again, we had won ten games in twenty years.

We hadn't won the ACC in twenty years.

Much let's think about a national championship.

And I met with the ad and I'm like, look, here's what I think we need to do.

The only way.

I mean, I spent thirteen years at Alabama, so you know, that was my background.

I've only been at two schools, and so that was my background of you know, how do you how do you you need?

We need to compete and I need to teach these guys.

And the only way I'm going to teach these guys and prepare these guys is, man, we got to go play people.

And yeah, you know, and I've had a lot of conversations about that over the years.

Yeah, I mean, like, you know, you played George last year six nothing at the half of the battle, didn't have a great third quarter.

Those games are hard.

They're great when you win, but they're hard.

But I just believe in totality, you know, for what's right for the long term of your program and teaching.

Guys, we only play this game six percent of the time.

The other ninety four percent, you're preparing, you're practicing your training, you're lifting weights, you're doing football life with each other.

And that's what I've always believed is an advantage for us.

Here is who we practice against every day, iron sharpened and iron like.

It's prepared us for those moments.

But there's nothing that prepares you more than from feeling it, breathing the air, you know, seeing it.

And so I've just always believed that we got to play ten.

Let's play ten power five opponents.

And that's been my philosophy from day one.

Let's play ten all ends, all right, and then let's play one group of five.

And you know, like we we scheduled at last year, I'm like, why are we scheduled?

And this year I got Troy, I'm like, why are we can we not find somebody in Troy is like the two of the best group of fives.

But but we we played.

Ten all ends a group of five and then I've always believed in playing one FCS school in our state.

It's great for the state, it's great for everybody.

So that's been our philosophy from day one, and that's how we've built our program.

And if you look at the trajectory of our Clemson again, we've nobody's won more games.

I mean, Alabama has won more games in the past sixteen years, but Nick's gone.

So let's just let's just start it right there.

Clemson most wins, most championships, and I think a big part of that is who you practice against every day, how you practice, how you meet, how you recruit, how you Again, we averaged thirteen point six in my recruiting classes, all right, but we got the most draft picks, most first round picks.

So we've evaluated well, we've developed well, we've retained well, and we've played the best of the best in the playoff air.

I mean, we've beaten Auburn four in a row.

We've beaten Texas A and M two in a row.

We've beaten Oklahoma two in a row.

We were three and one against Ohio State since I've been the head coach, was four and two against Notre Dame and Notre Dame prints their own money, makes their own rules, got their own world right, and one of those losses was double overtime at their place without Trevor Lawrence.

All Right, we've beaten Alabama.

We're two and one in national championships against Alabama.

You know, we've played all these people.

We've beaten Georgia, We've beaten LSU.

We've lost to them too.

We've I don't know, we've won eight out of the last ten against South Carolina.

We have.

We've played a lot of people, and I think that's healthy.

Obviously we've played in the championship games.

But we just set a record this year.

We actually broke wrong record fourteen consecutive years with a postseason win.

That's never been done in college football history.

Nobody's even close.

The next closest team is I think they got six postseason wins.

We've had fourteen consecutive years where they postseason win and with our trajectory, that means you're in championship games, you're in playoffs, big bowl games.

I mean, we've played a lot of people.

That's incredible.

And you mentioned the ten with fourteen straight years, we've had nine plus wins and everybody goes, oh, nine plus wins, Well, that's happened four times in one hundred and sixty years of football.

Nebraska with coach Osbond in the eighties, Alabama with Nick Saban, Florida State with coach Bowden in the late eighties and nineties, and now Clemson nine plus wins fourteen years.

The consistency is our calling card at Clemson.

We're not perfect, we don't do everything right, we don't make all the right decisions, but we're consistent and that's what drives everything in this program.

And I was going to ask you why Clemson, but you answered that question right there, you guys.

He is the head coach of the Clemson Tigers.

Mister Dabo Sweeney, thank you so much for joining the show.

I appreciate it.