May 12, 2021 • 45 mins
On this episode of The Colin Cowherd Podcast, Colin kicks things off by explaining why Tim Tebow's attempted NFL comeback shows a lack of self-awareness (1:00). His guest is 2-time national championship winning Clemson Football Head Coach Dabo Swinney, who discusses surviving a slow start to his Clemson run (5:00), if it's harder building a winner or maintaining one (8:00), how he overcame childhood adversity (13:00), the behind the scenes story of why he called Colin a 'fraud' after winning the 2016 national title (19:00), what makes Trevor Lawrence a potentially generational talent (23:00), why he passes on high level recruits if they don't fit the program culture (29:00). He also answers some rapid fire questions to wrap things up (34:00)!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. The Colin Cowherd Podcast brought to you by
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Duel more ways to win. Hi, everybody, and welcome to
(00:31):
the Wednesday Morning Podcast. Dabbo Sweeney. I mean he's on that,
He's on that list, that short list of the two
or three best coaches in college football. He Wonce called
me a fraud, very painful. He'll be joining us in
a couple of minutes. People of the guy don't like
Tim Tebow. Urban Meyers announced the Jags have signed him
to a one year contract. He's a tight end. It's
(00:54):
not that I don't like Tebow, but he's selling that
he's selfless, and I actually think he's kind of selfish.
At some point, the Mets acknowledged Sandy Alderson said this
is a gimmick. Sandy Alderson admitted that running the Mets
(01:15):
and I don't know if this is a gimmick, but
if somebody would have called me and offered me a
one year contract for the Jags, knowing I had been
out of the league for eight years, knowing the last
two teams I was on couldn't figure out how to
use me. Knowing I was going to try and to
learn a position in the National Football League, I would
(01:36):
have passed. And I can sometimes be with my career selfish.
I think Tebow can too. It's not all on the Jags.
In urban Meyer, Tim Tebow's not dumb. He knows he's
potentially taking a job from somebody, like we knew in
Major League Baseball, maybe he'd be a quick September call up,
(01:58):
but nobody really reasonably thought Tebow couldn't make the major leagues.
Therefore he wouldn't take somebody's job. But he will sell
tickets in Jacksonville, and it's a franchise that has struggled
to fill seats. And urban Meyer does consider him like
a son. If my dad would have run a company
(02:21):
and try to elevate me out of a junior college
to a vice president, and I knew deep down I
wasn't the most qualified and somebody else was more qualified,
but I was my dad's son, I would turn the
job down because I would ultimately want to earn the position,
and ultimately, my loyalty to my father would be higher
(02:45):
the best person, not your kid. Does Tim Tebow really
think he'll be a valuable member of the Jags. He's
a six two four seven forty tight end. At some
point of responsibility is on Tebow to acknowledge. Listen, Yes,
(03:06):
I'd sell tickets, Yes, Urban would always do me a solid,
But I know I'm taking a job from somebody who
needs it more and who's better equipped to help the
Jags win. Don't sell that you're self lists when you
also have a little selfish Well, he's a head football
(03:28):
coach at Clemson. He is a two time national champ
in a seven time ACC champ. He played at Alabama
and then he went to Clemson. And it's funny about
college sports. John Wooden got a job at UCLA in
the late forties. He didn't win a title until almost
the mid sixties. John Wooden would have been fired four
(03:50):
times today if he was a college basketball coach. And
Dabo Sweeney now joins me. And you know, Dabo, what's
funny about that is tend to defend coaches all the
time and say, you know, we we've we've entered a
time dabble, when it's ridiculous if you don't show signs
of winning by year two, the AD is already calling
(04:11):
Jimmy Sexton, Hey give me another who's the next coach
I gotta hire? You look at it today, it took
you three or four years to get your recruiting really rolling,
to to really put in your culture. Do you think
in the world we live in today, if you were
in the SEC trying to beat Saban, you'd you'd be
able to get to a fourth year today. Uh, you know,
(04:34):
that's a good question, And I don't know, probably not, um,
you know, fortunately, I mean for me, I mean, we
won the league my third year, and you know, but
but even though we won the league, we got destroyed
in the bowl game and it just you know, we
we had and then we lost our rival and so
we you know, the first year we won the Division
one nine. The second year we won six games, and
(04:56):
that was that was, you know good. But then the
next year we come back and won ten games, won
the league for the first time in twenty years. So
that was that was big because we would have had
back to back six games. I'm not sure I'd have
got a fourth year Simpson, to be honest with you,
But so you know, but that that second year with
(05:17):
the six wins, we lost five games by six points
or less, two of them in overtime, one of those
to Auburn and cam Newton. And I'm thankful that I
had an ad that believed in me and Terry down
Phillips and and in fact a true story. The second year,
we won six games, and we lost to South Carolina,
and it was a bad day. And I remember coming
(05:38):
up did the little press conference and I came out
and I was heading back to my office and my
wife met me outside and she just had this horrible
look on her face, and she was like, she said, maybe,
I'm so sorry, and she said, you know, mister Phillips
is in your office. And I just looked at her,
and you know, I said, well, hey, we did the
best we could. I mean, I really thought I was
(05:58):
about to be fired. I mean, this is my second season.
It's not like I was some sexy hire and so,
you know, we just won six games, we just lost
to South Carolina. It's it's not good. And so I'm
thinking I'm about to be fired. And I knew he
was under a lot of pressure. And I walk in,
I'll come around the corner and I look in the
(06:19):
doors kind of cracking. Terry Don sitting in there on
the couch and I walk in there and it's dark.
He didn't have the light on, and I walk in.
He just says, hey, come over here and sit down.
And I'm I'm fully prepared and you know, to tell
him thank you for the opportunity, and hey, you know,
sorry I let you down and it was just a
very bad moment and and you know, way, I sit
down and he looked at me and he said, and
(06:41):
this was a turning point for me too, emotionally and
just you name it, and he said, he said, dab
will listen to me. He said, I know this is
a tough game. And he said, look, there's gonna be
a lot of criticism for me and for you. He goes,
but here's what I want you to know. And he
looked at me then night and he said, I believe
in you more right now than when I did when
(07:01):
I hired you. And he said, you're gonna be a
great head football coach. And he said, he goes, I
wish want you to know that I got you back.
He said, if it don't work, you can help me
pack and I'll come help you pack. Said, I just
want you to know, I think you are a great
coach and you're gonna do You're gonna do a great
and he got up and left and and so so
(07:23):
my mindset was in one and and I was just
like wow. And from that point on, like I said,
the next year, we've had ten ten plus win seasons
in a road only US in Alabama. And you know,
but literally from that meeting forward, you know, just to
know that, you know, this guy was truly all in
and believed in me with all his heart. And so
(07:45):
I'm thankful because not everybody has a Terry Don Phillips
as an ad and I'm thankful that I had a
guy like him that that believed in me and saw
something in me, gave me a chance to be the
interim and then a chance to be the head coach.
Boy that sounded like a scene from good Fellas or Sopranos.
There for a second, I'm gonna get whacked. Um, you
(08:08):
know it is it harder. I read a business book
dabbled not long ago, and a CEO would remark, it's
harder stand there than getting there. Your thoughts on that, Yeah,
I think they're you know, there's it's they're both both hard.
But I don't, I just I think it's a mentality.
Like for me, I don't, I don't ever look at
(08:29):
it as staying there. Like to me, I'm always building,
you know. I think I try to have that mentality
every year. I'm I got an NBA. I was a
business school, and one of the things they teach you,
and you know the life cycle of of anything, a
business or whatever. You know, you got the birth, you've
got growth, you've got plateau, you got declined, you got death.
(08:52):
All right, So so the key is never plateau. And
so how do you do that? Well, you gotta always
you know, recommit, refocus, restart, recharge, reinvest all those things.
And that's just kind of how I've done it every year.
I mean, we start over every year as if we
all just landed from a planet and and we don't
(09:13):
even know each other, and reinstall the program, reinstall everything
we do. Why we do it that way. I do
the same thing with the team, you know, because I
just think that you know, if you don't, complacency sets in.
I mean, and and so we have a saying around
here that that that uh, you know, greatness is always
under construction, all right, like like like like our interstate
(09:35):
out here, it's you know, I eighty five. I don't
know how it is wherever you are, but I've been
here eighteen years and it's it's never not been under
constructive mentality that you have to have, and I think
anybody who's had consistent because if you're going to be
great at anything, and this is something I remember when
back in eleven we won that the ten games for
(09:56):
the first time in twenty years, you would have thought,
I mean, it was like, oh my god, in ten
games and everybody was all and I'm like, listen, now,
you gotta understand. I spent thirteen years at Alabama, so
I had I had a mentality when I came to Clemson.
A thirteen years at Alabama. Now I'm entering my nineteenth
at Clemson. My thirteenth is the head coach. And I
mean that really wasn't that big a deal to me,
(10:16):
you know, And my focus was, Okay, that's great, but
let's go put three, four or five six years of
these in a row together, because we're never going to
be considered great if we don't do something really really well.
For a long period of time, and that was really
my goal from day one was to build consistency. Consistency
on the field, consistency off the field. And you know,
(10:38):
nine out of the last ten years, you know, we
top ten academically, Clemson Duke in Northwestern the last ten
years were second in the country and wins, you know,
second in draft pick. Since I've been a head coach,
I mean, so we've built a model of consistency and
we've done it our way. We've done it in a
consistent way. And that's really what I'm more proud of
than anything is is the consistency. I had two hundred
(11:00):
and eighty nine seniors, two hundred and eighty four graduates,
so there's been a lot of consistency in what we do.
But I just don't ever look at that. I don't
ever feel look, you know, to me, when that's your mentality,
it's like you've arrived, and so now how do we
stay here? Oh? We don't ever stay there? So, like
you know, it's like climbing a mountain all over every year.
You don't get to stay on top of the mountain.
Every year, we're back at the bottom. You know, I
(11:22):
went and looked at your background. I had a discussion
with my sister one time. My dad was a doctor, divorced,
son of divorce. My mom British, moved over to the
States at fourteen years old, gotten a boat by herself,
ended up running the school lunch service program. But it
was a little bit different. It was isolated, it was rural.
(11:45):
I went through a lot of divorces. My dad was
an alcoholic, although it wasn't to me very noticeable until
he retired. Never abusive, but chaotic. And I read your
background and it was not a white picket fence background.
And I had a discussion with my sister one time
about this, and I said, you know, you can kind
of look at it two ways. I said, I could
(12:07):
look at it and be a victim, or I could
look at it and think, you know, I kind of
had to be resilient emotionally, and I've gone to enough therapy.
I haven't gone in a while. But you didn't have
your life dabbl wasn't always easy. I read your background,
and I wonder if that there's a resilience to you
(12:27):
that have you Maybe you did appreciate it in the moment.
I didn't, but have you looked back and gone, you know,
I'm pretty tough. I'm pretty resilient, and some of that
comes from a little bit of chaos when you're younger.
There's no question about that, you know, I mean, and
that that really resonated with me big time when I
became a coach, because I didn't go to college to
(12:49):
be a coach. And and you know, I guess if
I was growing up today, I would be considered an
at risk kid. You know how the world labels people.
You know, I would be at risk. I mean, so
no education in my family. My parents were married at eighteen.
My dad was just an appliant service man. My mom,
you know, worked at uh kmart, the mall, cut hair,
(13:12):
did whatever she could. Um, you know, I'm the baby
of three boys. Nobody in my family had been to college. Parents, grandparents,
great grandparents, great great I didn't even know any of
my great grandparents. So, but nobody had been no education,
you know, just hard working people. And um, you know,
you went to work in our family, that's just it's
(13:33):
just what you did. And you know, my father was
an alcoholic, a good man, a great heart, but had
a lot of demons and he was he was a
mean drunk when I mean, he was not anybody wanted
to be around. And you know, violence in the home, divorce,
uh you know, living here, living there, moving all over
(13:54):
the place. I mean, so you know I would I
would be considering an at risk kid for sure. Um
and uh you know, and you know what uh I was.
I was an Honor Society student. I was a three
sport guy. And you know, athletics was huge for me.
My teachers, my coaches, you know, small town. My now wife.
(14:18):
My wife and I have been together since the first grade.
We started going together in sixth grade and dated in
high school and all through college. And and her family
was the exact opposite. You know, she all everybody her
family's a PhD, a masters, teachers, you know all that,
and and uh, you know, so I just had some
I had a lot of people that really, uh you know,
(14:41):
just helped me. I mean my faith. You know, I
got led to the Lord when I was sixteen years old.
That was a huge, uh turning point for me. And
just creating hope and creating belief in something more than
what I had. And and and you're right, I mean
I think at the end of the day, you know,
I think and even to this day, I mean when
I meet with players, I mean sometimes guys will come
(15:03):
in and be like, well, you don't understand, you know,
I mean my dad this, my mom that, and I'm like, no,
I do understand. And here's what I do. Know. You're
either going to be part of the solution or part
of the problem. You're either going to create the change,
all right, or you're gonna or you're gonna continue to
have the same. So if that's what's been happening in
my family, somewhere along the line, somebody's got to change that.
(15:24):
And for me, all I knew was that if I
got a college education, I was going to have a
chance to be successful in life. That's all I knew.
And that's what I believed in. And you know, I
could have played some I wanted to go to the
University of Alabama, That's all I knew. And I wanted
to see if I could play ball. And I wanted
to be a doctor. I wanted to be a pediatrician.
(15:45):
I was a pre med major for three years major
and I just you know, next thing, you know, ended
up getting my degree in hospital administration. Once I realized
I wasn't gonna be able to go to med school
for ten more years. And and then I and when
I finished playing, I've made the team, got a scholarship
better than three years, won a national championship. And when
(16:06):
I finished playing, Coach Stallins I went out to spring practice.
I was graduating May of ninety three and getting ready
to start a job and getting married, and Coach Stallings
was like, hey, you need to get a master's degree.
And I'm like, Coach, I don't want. I'm done with school.
I'm going to work. And he's like, I said, you
need a master's degree and you start in July. And
(16:27):
so the next thing I know, I'm a grad assistant
for coach Stallins and Homer Smith and and you know
Woodie mccorby and those guys, and you know, within a
week of being a GA, I was it was like
clarity of my life, like like wow, like it just
all of a sudden. I just realized that God had
been equipping me to do this job. And I made
(16:50):
a decision this is what I saw. I went on
and got my NBA and I'm ready to coach. And
then Coach Stallins hired me full time at twenty six,
and so I stayed on there and and actually got
out of coach for two years and oh one and
O two, and then I came to Clemson in February
of O three, thinking I'd be here a year or two,
and now I'm starting my nineteenth season and and my
(17:10):
thirteenth is the head coach. So just like I was
an at risk kid, and I was an at risk
higher as a football coach here. I mean, it's one
of my you know, and I wake up every day
I see the same thing I mean to this. I
mean literally there's a graphic. I still I have that graphic.
ESPN had me listed as a D plus hire and
(17:31):
and and I'll never forget that. I mean, I still
got it. I got it printed out. Man. It's like
I was a D It was the Hires of two
thousand and nine. I was a D plus hire and
they basically said Clemson is crazy. And you know, so
I'm thankful for the plus. I can tell you that.
But you know, I was an at Shire. But those
(17:51):
same things that made me successful, you know, And and
what I learned in my life is to not let
other people, you know, the herman my worth and I
learned how to live inside out and on outside in.
And that's just how I've always gone about my business.
And you know, every day that I get up, I
don't I don't see what you know now people see
(18:14):
this a successful coach and and all these things, and
what people reading the paper. You know, I don't see that.
I really truly see the same kid from palam Alabama,
chasing his dream every single day. The Calling Coward Podcast
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(19:24):
me as a DP plus sportscaster a few years ago.
Now we're on good Now we're on good ground, and
at the end of the day, we left no doubt
tonight you know we wanted to play Alabama because now
y'all got to change your stories. You gotta change the narrative.
Y'all gotta mix it up. You know the guy that
(19:44):
called us a fraud, ask Alabama for a fraud? Was
it named Colin Coward? Asking All'm never met him, don't
know him. Ask him if if we're Alabama for a fraud,
Ask Ohio state if for a fraud, Ask Oklahoma if
for a fraud? The only fraud is that guy because
he didn't do his homework. I hope y'all print that. Yeah,
(20:06):
you know I I I didn't. I did not know
who you were. To be honest with you, I really didn't.
In fact, you That's how I found out who you were.
Uh was somebody, somebody sent me your clip, and I've listened.
I'm thankful for you. Somebody sent me your clip. I
think you called us a fraud or something, and I'm like,
who the heck is this guy. I didn't know it was,
but I had. I had a lot of fun with
(20:28):
our team. Uh, and it was great. It was one
of those cool moments. And we were getting ready to
play Alabama and and I and I don't know, somebody
had gotten me this clip and I was like, this
is perfect. Save that and I'm like, who is this?
And uh and so, uh, you know, I don't do
social media. I don't have all that stuff. I don't
I don't I've never done that stuff. So I didn't
(20:49):
really know. But but I'm thankful for you because it
was great and just one of those deals. I say, hey, boys,
just give me to the press conference. Just get me
there and and we'll have some fun with this. So so,
to be honestly, I had forgotten about it. And uh,
you know, you just went a national championship, you know, Yeah,
a lot going on and one of the players in mind,
and hey, don't forget about that. I'm like, oh no,
that's right, that's right, and uh so, anyway we had
(21:13):
we had a little fun at your expense. But anyway,
I love it. It's so funny. So so Dabo, I
come in and do about two hours of prep every morning.
So the game was over and we were all rooting
for you because we were getting tired of Alabama. So
you won. I went to bed because I have to
get up early. So, um, I didn't see the post game.
So I come in for my prep and I sit there. Okay,
(21:38):
so the prep starts about five fifty seven twenty seven.
The guy all the guys look at me and they go, well,
aren't you going to talk about what Dabbo said? And
I said, well, what the hell Dabbo say? Were you
talking about? And they played it and I went, guys,
this is the lead the show. What are we doing
for two hours? And by the way, we loved it.
(22:00):
I mean I went on the air and I'm like,
you know what I own it was because it's funny. Watch.
I watched you twice early because I love college football,
and you struggled a little bit offensively, and I think
it was you couldn't put away NC State and I said,
how did these guys get But it was classic. I
saw you early and I didn't catch you late. And boy,
(22:22):
by the time, you know, that was a team that
got much better in the last six weeks of the season.
But you know, to be honest with you, we we
loved it. I had a ball with it. And by
the way, I used to work at ESPN, so I
can tell you, Dabbo, they just hated you saying that
on the air. They hated it. So I want to
go to this. So I saw Trevor Lawrence in San
(22:45):
Diego his junior year. So a buddy of mine, Steve Clarkson, called,
he said, I'm having a camp down here. There's a
kid you need to look at. So I went down
and watched him. And I came back from that camp
and I went on the air and I said, I
just saw the best high school quarterback I I think
I've ever seen you. You see all the good ones.
(23:06):
The first reaction when you saw Trevor Lawrence? What was
your first reaction? You know, just I mean like a
sideboard man, I mean just unbelievable. Never really see anything
like it, you know, I what does it look like
when you see Steph Curry shoot a basketball? You know,
you just go wow, you know, like you just sit
there and watch him shoot a basketball all day, right,
(23:28):
And that's kind of how you feel when you watch Trevor.
And you know, the first time I met him was
in the ninth grade. He came into the office and
I was like, this, this is a man. I had
not watched any tape on him at that point. I
just met him and he was up here passing through
and uh, I told him I was gonna watch him
his sophomore year. I didn't offer him a scholarship. That's
that's probably one of the reasons we got him, is
he had like fifty offers. I said, I don't even
(23:50):
I just meet you. I haven't watched you your tape,
I said, but I'm gonna watch you this year. I
want to see you drive a car. I'd like to,
you know, maybe see you go to prim or something.
And let's let's when you're talking about the you want
to be the face of our program. And so I did.
I watched him in sophomore year every week, and I mean,
oh my goodness. So we offered him and then he
committed as a junior. But I remember, it's funny you
(24:12):
say that every year, we usually do a Nike trip
with about twenty coaches, and so he had committed his
junior year and we're on the Nike trip and we
go in February every year, and David Shaw is a
good friend of mine. I love David and David. David
and I were sitting there talking and he said, I'm
gonna tell you he said, he is exactly what he said.
(24:34):
And we had a bunch of good players at the time.
He goes, I don't know who your quarterback. He was
a junior in high school. And another year of high
school he said, I so, I know you've got a
couple of good guys committed this year, and I know
you got some good guys on the team, but I
can tell you who your quarterback's going to be next year.
And uh, he said, that kid you got committed out
of Georgia. He said, that's the best quarterback I have
(24:54):
ever seen in high school about and and you know
that and always up with me and and so so
you know, but you never really know until you start coming. Guy,
like you know, we've had lots of great high school
players and then all of a sudden you get them,
and you know the transition is different, you know how
the speed of the game, that the technical part of
(25:15):
the game, the the the transition from an installation and
verbiage and all those things. I mean, you never know,
you know how a guy's gonna adjust, and you know
he's just you know, Deshaun was special in that in
that way. I mean, you know, Deshaun just wasn't as
biggest Trevor, and but he was unique and that he
absorbed it and you knew right away, like this kid
(25:38):
is different, h and everything that I loved about Deshaun.
I didn't know that I would ever coach another guy
like Deshaun and everything I loved about Deshaun. Here, this
guy shows up except these six six and you know,
two hundred and fifteen pounds and and unbelievable arm talent
and so but you never really know where are they
going to be mentally, And he shows up here that
(26:00):
first spring and it was just I mean, like wow,
I mean you really would watch this kid and you
just knew, like as soon as he gets through Spring
and he kind of gets gets his feet on the
ground and really has the but the game never seemed
fast to him from day one, like he had been
doing it forever and and uh, you know, his first
pass at A and M in College station, touchdown to
(26:22):
Tee Higgins, his first pass on that stage, and so
you know, but he's just a he's just a very
very gifted player. And you know, I've I've there's not
anything if there's a hundred boxes that you want to
write down on a guy that you would want in
the ideal quarterback. He checks every box. There's not a
(26:44):
single box that that he checks in facts. He has
some things that you don't even really need. I mean,
he's just he's just he's just a generational type player
and and I'm super excited about it. I tell him,
we got a kid that that's gonna take his place.
That's looks like somebody went to a lab and you know,
birth between Trevor and DeShawn. You know, he's you know
(27:07):
this d he's a Yep, he's gonna be a great
one too. And uh, you know, has the same type
of physical gifts and aptitude just just unique in his
own way. Yeah, he's the best high school quarterback out
of California I've ever seen. So I saw him two
years ago a thirty minutes I live in California. Yeah.
(27:28):
So I saw him play in California and there were
two kids, Bryce Young and your quarterback, And I thought
your quarterback. M he's got a bigger arm He's a
bigger athlete. He needs to get a little tempo on
his ball. Sometimes he throws ninety eight miles an hour.
He needs a little tempo. But he's a he's a
special athlete. He came to camp. First time I saw
(27:49):
him throw live. I mean, I thought he was gonna
kill somebody. Uh. Got all these little high school kids,
you know, they're lined up and they all want to
go with DJ And I'm like, wait a minute, whoa
whoa whoa? You know, because they don't have helmets on.
I'm like, like she to get a broken nose or something,
because you're right, he's throwing a slant route like a
you know, deposed Uh. And but he's he's he's matured
(28:09):
a lot in that. But I think he wanted to
really show us what is what kind of army had
when he came into camp. He can know da boat.
Lou Holtz once said that he turned down a five
star recruit because he was in the house and he
was disrespectful to his mom and Lu said, I can't
sign him. You you get a lot of five star
(28:31):
kids that want to talk to you because you're Dabbo
and your Clemson. Have you ever, Um, you've created a
culture that's unique to you. It's it's it's an extension
of your personality. You don't have to mention names. I
wouldn't expect that. But you ever have you ever gone
on a recruiting trip, said fellas, I know he's talented,
but he's not us. It doesn't work. Oh many times,
(28:53):
many times. Listen, Um, I don't even have to go
on a trip. Uh, you know, I mean I can.
I can spend five minutes with a guy. I mean,
you know, And I think that's that's something that that
has led to our success. You know, I've never we
don't sign We've never signed transfers or junior college players.
Everything has been through the draft, if you will, and
(29:14):
I and to this point, and we may have to
change or adjust, who knows, But but that's been our
philosophy from day one. Uh, because it's it's just been
you know, we've been a developmental, relationship driven program. And
if that's your philosophy, you better be right on the
front end. You know, this is not a program. I mean,
nine out of ten years top ten academically. You know,
(29:34):
you can't have a lot of attrition and running guys
off and things like that. Our kids graduate. I mean
we're ninety eight percent graduation rate. Um. You know, since
I've been the head coach, that's the number one thing
in our program. You know, again, it all goes back
to my how I was shaped, you know. You know,
I've had a lot of great experiences, but walking across
that stage and getting my degree at Alabama made me
(29:55):
different from everybody else in my family. And it gave
me opportunities that my mom and dad, my brothers that
they didn't get in life because because of that. And
I also saw firsthand a lot of players teammates that
the band cheered loud for them and everybody was cheering
(30:15):
for him, and then all of a sudden, football's over
and they don't have because back in those days, you
just majored ineligibility. You know, there was a lot of
guys just stayed eligible every year and they were there
three four years and that weren't any closer to a
degree than they were when they walked in the door.
Thankfully all those rules have been changed, you know, And
and I just never wanted that for my players, you know.
(30:36):
And so the number one thing in our program is
value and education and equipping getting your degree. You know,
one point seven percent of college players playing in the NFL,
and it's a shame that we make it all about that,
and that's not what it's all about here. I love that,
I mean, I want Hey, we're I'm second in draft
picks as a head coach since I've been a head coach.
Second in first round pick, So that's great. But but
(30:59):
we're ninety eight percent graduation rate nine out of ten years,
top ten academically. Christian Wilkins won the Cambell Trophy. Trevor
Lawrence graduated in three years to sean two and a
half years. Though that means more to me than anything
is knowing that when when football goes away whenever that is,
whether it's in college or right after college, that they
(31:19):
that they're equipped and and you know, they've got they've
got they they've got that education to get a job
and to be able to have a career doing something
because there's so many places you can't get a job
if you don't if you're not qualified. And so that's
important to me. But but you know, when you when
your philosophy is what it is here, you got to
(31:40):
be right. And you know, early on, you know, had
to take a few more chances on some guys. You're
trying to build a program, and when you get a job,
nobody came there for you to be their head coach.
So the first thing you gotta do is you got
to recruit your team, and you got to have a vision,
and you got to articulate it, and you got to
get them to buy in. And that's why I'm forever
thankful for my first few teams, because they're the forefathers
(32:04):
of what we have today, you know, because those kids
had to make a decision to buy into the way
I wanted to do things and what we were going
to be about. And and now, you know, to protect
our program, it's all about you know, a limp, you know,
I mean, don't avoid red flags. You know, so many
people they they they just look the other way. And
(32:26):
you know, the philosophy of our program is to serve
their heart, not their talent. And and you know, so
that starts in the recruiting process to me. We're incredibly
transparent in the like brutally if you look at how
many I think we've had three D commitments in six years,
and that's because we're incredibly transparent. I hate the term
(32:47):
if sometimes people say, oh, we got to de recruit them,
If we got to de recruit somebody, then we weren't authentic,
we weren't genuine, We didn't tell them the truth. You know,
I don't want to de recruit nobody. I want them
to know this is the way it's going to be.
If you won't go to class here, you ain't playing.
If you're not gonna follow the rules, and you're not
gonna be a good citizen, you're gonna be out smoking dope,
whatever it is, you ain't playing. I mean, it's just
that symbol. Don't come here because we're not gonna use you.
(33:09):
You know, we're gonna empower you, we're gonna serve your
hard and that's been that way from day one. And
so that's not for everybody. But we got to get
the right guys. And there's been a ton of guys,
a ton that have all kind of offers that they
don't ever get an offer from Clemson. New fact and
you can. The last time I looked, it was about
a month ago or so. The Power sixty five teams,
(33:31):
I think we were third and fewest offers. So the
number one team had like four hundred and something offers
and we had like fifty. All right, So we just
don't offer many guys. But our offers mean something too.
You know, if you get an offer from us, it
you know it's a committable offer. There's no uncommittable offer
or whatever that means. And we're the second winningest team
(33:54):
in the country the last ten years, and we've not
had a single number one recruiting class. Alabama I think
has been number one in the country nine out of
the last ten years. We ain't had we ain't had
a number one class yet. I think we're an average
about ninth over the last ten years. But yet we've
we've won two national championships, and we want a bunch
of games. So you know, we do it with people,
(34:15):
we do it with a relationship, we do it with development,
and uh you know, hopefully, hopefully that's how we can
continue to do things here. So Dabbo, I want to
end this with what I call rapid fire. I'm going
to ask you a question and you give me a
sentence or maybe an explanation. And you're a good storyteller,
so that's not easy for you. You're a good storyteller.
(34:36):
So here we go. Best coach you've faced, who who
never gets mentioned among the great coaches? Best coach I've faced,
who never gets mentioned amongst the great coaches? Um, I
would say Dave Clawson at Wait Forest, think he think
(34:57):
he's I think he's a really good football coach, and
he has done a great job there. I mean he's
he is a he's at Dino, He's another one at Syracuse.
He's always a handful, you know. I think Bronco at
Virginia is a really good football coach. That would probably be,
you know something, just thinking about guys we play every
single year, right, those are some of the guys that
(35:20):
jump out. Toughest loss of your career, oh man, every
loss is tough. Uh. Probably the first National championship in fifteen.
You know, I thought we were the better team. We
really dominated the game, had the lead in the fourth quarter,
(35:41):
and you know, they had the one hundred yard kick
return and they had the on side kick, and that
was the difference in the game. Uh, it was a
forty was at five forty and you know, at thirty
five years since Clemson had been a national champion. And
here we are. You know, we've come from this our
beginnings in oh nine and now it's it's two thy
(36:02):
fifteen and six years later we're in a national championship.
We're playing Alabama and we really I mean, we put
up almost six hundred yards of offense, but you know,
we just made a couple too many mistakes and and
uh uh you know the kick return and their execution
on that own side kick. Uh, that was a that
(36:22):
was a really really tough I mean they're all tough,
but that was just gut wrenching because you just, you know,
you felt like you just let everybody down. And um,
it was a tough moment, you know, but you know,
just wast meant to be. But it was all part
of our journey. And then the very next year we
went it all with one second on the clock, you know,
(36:43):
and another epic, epic game. Last time on the headset
in a game an assistant coach talked to enter out
of something. Uh shoot, probably probably the last game we played.
That happens all the time. Man's that's every game. I mean,
(37:04):
we were very we communicate. Um, you know, well, again,
most of these guys played for me. Streeter, my quarterback coach,
was a GA for me, Tony my offensive coordinator, was
a receiver for me, and captain and you know so,
I mean I have great relationships with all these guys
and then we communicate constantly. So that's happened many times.
(37:26):
M true or false. Have you ever gone to your
athletic director and said, it's so dang hot here in September?
Can we just play night games? It's too hot to
stand in that sun at one one eastern h You're
talking to the wrong guy there, man, Mohata mo Betta.
That's my saying. I like it hot. Uh. You know,
I'm from Alabama, Man, I grew up in the heat.
(37:47):
I like it hot and sweaty, and it don't matter.
You don't play whenever. It just doesn't matter to me.
I love it. That's my mentality. Moha tell my team
at all time, Mohata Mobetta, let's go the recruit. Your
proudest of that. You sold your staff on, you sold
(38:07):
people on, and you got a little pushback and you
look back years later and you're like, boy, he was,
You're proud of that. Oh, that's easy, that's really easy.
That's Grady Jared, who was the thirty seventh highest paid
athlete in the world right now. He was a two
star recruit and he but he was the state wrestling
(38:29):
champ led the state of Georgia and sacks and he
was from down there at Rockdale, Georgia, and he came
to camp. All right, he comes to camp. I'll never
forget it. I go over to watch the oldl you know,
pass rush section and Dan Brooks like, he goes, you
need to watch this kid, And so I watched him,
and I mean, he was destroying everybody. He's only he's
(38:50):
barely six feet like on his tippy toes and doesn't
have any of the measurables that you want. You know,
if you met him to this day, you would never
know who he is. It's amazing. But I watched him,
and we already had a kid who was kind of
similar body type, and actually he plays for the Broncos now,
kid named DeShawn Williams. And uh and I and I'll
(39:13):
never get it. I'm watching, I'm watching, and I finally
I said, I'm watching his mom over there. As mom's
into she's old, and she's as much into it as
he is. And the kid would go every he would go,
and he'd go and get in line again, and he
didn't care who he went against. And I'm like, man,
this is what I want on my team. And this
would have been so eleven twelve thirty fourth, so his
first year here was eleven, and uh so this would
(39:36):
have been two thousand and ten. I'm like, so, I
tell his mom and this kid to come to my office.
And so the coaches, some of the coaches heard about it,
and I said, man, I'm gonna offer this kid. And
I had some of my coaches, man, we so we
had the staff meeting talk about it. I got the
mom and Grady coming to my office and I already
know I'm gonna of for him. And I get in
there and man, it was it was. It was one
(39:57):
of I listened. It was a come to Jesus. And
I had coaches like, Coach, we don't, we cannot do that,
we don't need another short guy, we don't, you know whatever,
and uh and I listened for a little while and
I said, I said finally, I said, well, I tell
you what, here's what we're gonna do. I've been doing
camp for a long time and I have yet to
see anybody like that guy. And I want that guy
(40:17):
on this team. And it's gonna put He's gonna be
a coach Sweeney signy if he stinks, and ain't nobody's fault.
I'm not gonna hold anybody accountable. All right, this is
one hundred percent on me. Nobody's accountable for this guy. Well,
we signed him, and it was some some you know,
hurt feelings and a little pouting and all that. And
so the next thing, you know, I got this kid
in my office and his momaia Lisa Jarrett, and she's
(40:41):
an amazing lady. And and I told him, I said, look,
I'm just telling you right now. You know what you
got we want on this team. And we had a
great talk. When he commits and we beat Buffalo University
of Buffalo to get this guy. He had no offers
and he comes in here and he ends up starting
as a true freshman, all right, And in his senior
(41:03):
year twenty fourteen, we were in the number one defense
in the country in every statistical category, every single one
of them. All right, and then so now it's time
to go to the draft. Well, the same things happens
in the draft. Guess what, he's too short, his arms
aren't long enough, he's not big enough, he's barely three
hundred pounds, and you know whatever. You know all this stuff.
(41:24):
And I sat in my office with Dan quinn and
and the GM because they wanted to go draft Vic Beasley,
all right, and I told him, I said, well, you're
gonna love Vick Beasley because he's a freaky dude. Man.
This guy can rush the passer. He's gonna make you better,
I said, But Grady Jarrett will change your locker room,
(41:46):
he'll change your community. He gonna make you better as coaches.
And that's the guy. And I literally to this day,
if you told me I could redraft my team, start
a program all over again, and draft from all the
kids that I've had in this program, he'd be in
my top three draft picks. And he was a fifth
round draft pick. And if you went back right now
(42:06):
and looked at all the de tackles that were drafted
in front of Grady Jared, it's embarrassing, all right, it's embarrassing.
Most of them made in the League no more. This
guy is unbelievable human being, one of the greatest leaders
I've ever been around, one of the one of the
He is like a foundational piece to what we enjoy today.
(42:28):
He didn't get a chance to win a national championship,
but you best believe we would never have won one
if it wasn't for Grady Jared and the impact that
he had while he was here. And so that's an
easy answer right there. And I got a bunch of
guys like that. Adam Humphreys, I think he makes nine
million dollars a year. He was a little wide out
only Division. One offer that he had was US, and
(42:51):
we called a lot of grief for signing him because
there was another kid there. Everybody's like oversigning him to
get this kid. And well, Adam was a great player
here and he was a tryout free agent for the
Bucks and ended up starting his first ever NFL game
as a tryout free agent. And you know it was
making nine million dollars a year last year for the
for the Titans, and now he's with red Skins. But
(43:14):
he's had an unbelievable career. So we've had a lot
of those type of guys and it's cool to see
the hunter Infro walk on. He's been good. He was
a he was a walk on his first National championship game.
He was a red shirt freshman walk on and had
ten catches and two touchdowns against Alabama out there in Arizona,
and then came back the next year a sophomore year
(43:35):
and had the game winner. He's one hundred and fifty
five pound. Dude, it looks like the you know the
you know the trainer. Uh, he never looks like even
if you met him today, you'd never think he plays
it starts for the Raiders. I'll tell you what, Davil,
this was such a pleasure. I can see. You know,
recruiting is so much about relationships. It's you. There is
(43:58):
no question. I look at you now and I think, oh, yeah,
of course, this is why you built a program. Your
story is great. You're a great communicator. You're a great storyteller.
And this was just a pleasure for me. And I
have a I don't know if you like a beer occasionally,
but if if we ever, that's one. See I'm from California.
(44:18):
I should love that stuff. I'd rite it ever beer.
It's great talking to your coach. Yep, enjoyed it. I
appreciate it. And uh, you know, we I don't know this.
Are we what are we on? Are we live? Are
we alive? No? No, we're um. We are on a
podcast and this will be out tomorrow, tomorrow morning, and
it'll be for the world to see tomorrow morning. Oh okay,
(44:39):
I was gonna tell you we got a big fundraiser
this weekend our foundation, but John Gruten's coming in gonna
spend Friday and Saturday with me, so I'm super excited
about that. It'll be pretty cool. Good luck to your coach,
all right, man, good be with you. Thank you all right, everybody,
Uh that was fun. See even Dabbo likes me. This
(45:02):
is why you need to get on the Volume sports
or Twitter and Instagram, rate review, subscribe. Even the people
you think don't like me like me. It's it's hard
to explain. I'm like Tebow with a microphone. Everybody likes me.
We'll see you soon. The Volume
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Duel more ways to win. Hi, everybody, and welcome to
(00:31):
the Wednesday Morning Podcast. Dabbo Sweeney. I mean he's on that,
He's on that list, that short list of the two
or three best coaches in college football. He Wonce called
me a fraud, very painful. He'll be joining us in
a couple of minutes. People of the guy don't like
Tim Tebow. Urban Meyers announced the Jags have signed him
to a one year contract. He's a tight end. It's
(00:54):
not that I don't like Tebow, but he's selling that
he's selfless, and I actually think he's kind of selfish.
At some point, the Mets acknowledged Sandy Alderson said this
is a gimmick. Sandy Alderson admitted that running the Mets
(01:15):
and I don't know if this is a gimmick, but
if somebody would have called me and offered me a
one year contract for the Jags, knowing I had been
out of the league for eight years, knowing the last
two teams I was on couldn't figure out how to
use me. Knowing I was going to try and to
learn a position in the National Football League, I would
(01:36):
have passed. And I can sometimes be with my career selfish.
I think Tebow can too. It's not all on the Jags.
In urban Meyer, Tim Tebow's not dumb. He knows he's
potentially taking a job from somebody, like we knew in
Major League Baseball, maybe he'd be a quick September call up,
(01:58):
but nobody really reasonably thought Tebow couldn't make the major leagues.
Therefore he wouldn't take somebody's job. But he will sell
tickets in Jacksonville, and it's a franchise that has struggled
to fill seats. And urban Meyer does consider him like
a son. If my dad would have run a company
(02:21):
and try to elevate me out of a junior college
to a vice president, and I knew deep down I
wasn't the most qualified and somebody else was more qualified,
but I was my dad's son, I would turn the
job down because I would ultimately want to earn the position,
and ultimately, my loyalty to my father would be higher
(02:45):
the best person, not your kid. Does Tim Tebow really
think he'll be a valuable member of the Jags. He's
a six two four seven forty tight end. At some
point of responsibility is on Tebow to acknowledge. Listen, Yes,
(03:06):
I'd sell tickets, Yes, Urban would always do me a solid,
But I know I'm taking a job from somebody who
needs it more and who's better equipped to help the
Jags win. Don't sell that you're self lists when you
also have a little selfish Well, he's a head football
(03:28):
coach at Clemson. He is a two time national champ
in a seven time ACC champ. He played at Alabama
and then he went to Clemson. And it's funny about
college sports. John Wooden got a job at UCLA in
the late forties. He didn't win a title until almost
the mid sixties. John Wooden would have been fired four
(03:50):
times today if he was a college basketball coach. And
Dabo Sweeney now joins me. And you know, Dabo, what's
funny about that is tend to defend coaches all the
time and say, you know, we we've we've entered a
time dabble, when it's ridiculous if you don't show signs
of winning by year two, the AD is already calling
(04:11):
Jimmy Sexton, Hey give me another who's the next coach
I gotta hire? You look at it today, it took
you three or four years to get your recruiting really rolling,
to to really put in your culture. Do you think
in the world we live in today, if you were
in the SEC trying to beat Saban, you'd you'd be
able to get to a fourth year today. Uh, you know,
(04:34):
that's a good question, And I don't know, probably not, um,
you know, fortunately, I mean for me, I mean, we
won the league my third year, and you know, but
but even though we won the league, we got destroyed
in the bowl game and it just you know, we
we had and then we lost our rival and so
we you know, the first year we won the Division
one nine. The second year we won six games, and
(04:56):
that was that was, you know good. But then the
next year we come back and won ten games, won
the league for the first time in twenty years. So
that was that was big because we would have had
back to back six games. I'm not sure I'd have
got a fourth year Simpson, to be honest with you,
But so you know, but that that second year with
(05:17):
the six wins, we lost five games by six points
or less, two of them in overtime, one of those
to Auburn and cam Newton. And I'm thankful that I
had an ad that believed in me and Terry down
Phillips and and in fact a true story. The second year,
we won six games, and we lost to South Carolina,
and it was a bad day. And I remember coming
(05:38):
up did the little press conference and I came out
and I was heading back to my office and my
wife met me outside and she just had this horrible
look on her face, and she was like, she said, maybe,
I'm so sorry, and she said, you know, mister Phillips
is in your office. And I just looked at her,
and you know, I said, well, hey, we did the
best we could. I mean, I really thought I was
(05:58):
about to be fired. I mean, this is my second season.
It's not like I was some sexy hire and so,
you know, we just won six games, we just lost
to South Carolina. It's it's not good. And so I'm
thinking I'm about to be fired. And I knew he
was under a lot of pressure. And I walk in,
I'll come around the corner and I look in the
(06:19):
doors kind of cracking. Terry Don sitting in there on
the couch and I walk in there and it's dark.
He didn't have the light on, and I walk in.
He just says, hey, come over here and sit down.
And I'm I'm fully prepared and you know, to tell
him thank you for the opportunity, and hey, you know,
sorry I let you down and it was just a
very bad moment and and you know, way, I sit
down and he looked at me and he said, and
(06:41):
this was a turning point for me too, emotionally and
just you name it, and he said, he said, dab
will listen to me. He said, I know this is
a tough game. And he said, look, there's gonna be
a lot of criticism for me and for you. He goes,
but here's what I want you to know. And he
looked at me then night and he said, I believe
in you more right now than when I did when
(07:01):
I hired you. And he said, you're gonna be a
great head football coach. And he said, he goes, I
wish want you to know that I got you back.
He said, if it don't work, you can help me
pack and I'll come help you pack. Said, I just
want you to know, I think you are a great
coach and you're gonna do You're gonna do a great
and he got up and left and and so so
(07:23):
my mindset was in one and and I was just
like wow. And from that point on, like I said,
the next year, we've had ten ten plus win seasons
in a road only US in Alabama. And you know,
but literally from that meeting forward, you know, just to
know that, you know, this guy was truly all in
and believed in me with all his heart. And so
(07:45):
I'm thankful because not everybody has a Terry Don Phillips
as an ad and I'm thankful that I had a
guy like him that that believed in me and saw
something in me, gave me a chance to be the
interim and then a chance to be the head coach.
Boy that sounded like a scene from good Fellas or Sopranos.
There for a second, I'm gonna get whacked. Um, you
(08:08):
know it is it harder. I read a business book
dabbled not long ago, and a CEO would remark, it's
harder stand there than getting there. Your thoughts on that, Yeah,
I think they're you know, there's it's they're both both hard.
But I don't, I just I think it's a mentality.
Like for me, I don't, I don't ever look at
(08:29):
it as staying there. Like to me, I'm always building,
you know. I think I try to have that mentality
every year. I'm I got an NBA. I was a
business school, and one of the things they teach you,
and you know the life cycle of of anything, a
business or whatever. You know, you got the birth, you've
got growth, you've got plateau, you got declined, you got death.
(08:52):
All right, So so the key is never plateau. And
so how do you do that? Well, you gotta always
you know, recommit, refocus, restart, recharge, reinvest all those things.
And that's just kind of how I've done it every year.
I mean, we start over every year as if we
all just landed from a planet and and we don't
(09:13):
even know each other, and reinstall the program, reinstall everything
we do. Why we do it that way. I do
the same thing with the team, you know, because I
just think that you know, if you don't, complacency sets in.
I mean, and and so we have a saying around
here that that that uh, you know, greatness is always
under construction, all right, like like like like our interstate
(09:35):
out here, it's you know, I eighty five. I don't
know how it is wherever you are, but I've been
here eighteen years and it's it's never not been under
constructive mentality that you have to have, and I think
anybody who's had consistent because if you're going to be
great at anything, and this is something I remember when
back in eleven we won that the ten games for
(09:56):
the first time in twenty years, you would have thought,
I mean, it was like, oh my god, in ten
games and everybody was all and I'm like, listen, now,
you gotta understand. I spent thirteen years at Alabama, so
I had I had a mentality when I came to Clemson.
A thirteen years at Alabama. Now I'm entering my nineteenth
at Clemson. My thirteenth is the head coach. And I
mean that really wasn't that big a deal to me,
(10:16):
you know, And my focus was, Okay, that's great, but
let's go put three, four or five six years of
these in a row together, because we're never going to
be considered great if we don't do something really really well.
For a long period of time, and that was really
my goal from day one was to build consistency. Consistency
on the field, consistency off the field. And you know,
(10:38):
nine out of the last ten years, you know, we
top ten academically, Clemson Duke in Northwestern the last ten
years were second in the country and wins, you know,
second in draft pick. Since I've been a head coach,
I mean, so we've built a model of consistency and
we've done it our way. We've done it in a
consistent way. And that's really what I'm more proud of
than anything is is the consistency. I had two hundred
(11:00):
and eighty nine seniors, two hundred and eighty four graduates,
so there's been a lot of consistency in what we do.
But I just don't ever look at that. I don't
ever feel look, you know, to me, when that's your mentality,
it's like you've arrived, and so now how do we
stay here? Oh? We don't ever stay there? So, like
you know, it's like climbing a mountain all over every year.
You don't get to stay on top of the mountain.
Every year, we're back at the bottom. You know, I
(11:22):
went and looked at your background. I had a discussion
with my sister one time. My dad was a doctor, divorced,
son of divorce. My mom British, moved over to the
States at fourteen years old, gotten a boat by herself,
ended up running the school lunch service program. But it
was a little bit different. It was isolated, it was rural.
(11:45):
I went through a lot of divorces. My dad was
an alcoholic, although it wasn't to me very noticeable until
he retired. Never abusive, but chaotic. And I read your
background and it was not a white picket fence background.
And I had a discussion with my sister one time
about this, and I said, you know, you can kind
of look at it two ways. I said, I could
(12:07):
look at it and be a victim, or I could
look at it and think, you know, I kind of
had to be resilient emotionally, and I've gone to enough therapy.
I haven't gone in a while. But you didn't have
your life dabbl wasn't always easy. I read your background,
and I wonder if that there's a resilience to you
(12:27):
that have you Maybe you did appreciate it in the moment.
I didn't, but have you looked back and gone, you know,
I'm pretty tough. I'm pretty resilient, and some of that
comes from a little bit of chaos when you're younger.
There's no question about that, you know, I mean, and
that that really resonated with me big time when I
became a coach, because I didn't go to college to
(12:49):
be a coach. And and you know, I guess if
I was growing up today, I would be considered an
at risk kid. You know how the world labels people.
You know, I would be at risk. I mean, so
no education in my family. My parents were married at eighteen.
My dad was just an appliant service man. My mom,
you know, worked at uh kmart, the mall, cut hair,
(13:12):
did whatever she could. Um, you know, I'm the baby
of three boys. Nobody in my family had been to college. Parents, grandparents,
great grandparents, great great I didn't even know any of
my great grandparents. So, but nobody had been no education,
you know, just hard working people. And um, you know,
you went to work in our family, that's just it's
(13:33):
just what you did. And you know, my father was
an alcoholic, a good man, a great heart, but had
a lot of demons and he was he was a
mean drunk when I mean, he was not anybody wanted
to be around. And you know, violence in the home, divorce,
uh you know, living here, living there, moving all over
(13:54):
the place. I mean, so you know I would I
would be considering an at risk kid for sure. Um
and uh you know, and you know what uh I was.
I was an Honor Society student. I was a three
sport guy. And you know, athletics was huge for me.
My teachers, my coaches, you know, small town. My now wife.
(14:18):
My wife and I have been together since the first grade.
We started going together in sixth grade and dated in
high school and all through college. And and her family
was the exact opposite. You know, she all everybody her
family's a PhD, a masters, teachers, you know all that,
and and uh, you know, so I just had some
I had a lot of people that really, uh you know,
(14:41):
just helped me. I mean my faith. You know, I
got led to the Lord when I was sixteen years old.
That was a huge, uh turning point for me. And
just creating hope and creating belief in something more than
what I had. And and and you're right, I mean
I think at the end of the day, you know,
I think and even to this day, I mean when
I meet with players, I mean sometimes guys will come
(15:03):
in and be like, well, you don't understand, you know,
I mean my dad this, my mom that, and I'm like, no,
I do understand. And here's what I do. Know. You're
either going to be part of the solution or part
of the problem. You're either going to create the change,
all right, or you're gonna or you're gonna continue to
have the same. So if that's what's been happening in
my family, somewhere along the line, somebody's got to change that.
(15:24):
And for me, all I knew was that if I
got a college education, I was going to have a
chance to be successful in life. That's all I knew.
And that's what I believed in. And you know, I
could have played some I wanted to go to the
University of Alabama, That's all I knew. And I wanted
to see if I could play ball. And I wanted
to be a doctor. I wanted to be a pediatrician.
(15:45):
I was a pre med major for three years major
and I just you know, next thing, you know, ended
up getting my degree in hospital administration. Once I realized
I wasn't gonna be able to go to med school
for ten more years. And and then I and when
I finished playing, I've made the team, got a scholarship
better than three years, won a national championship. And when
(16:06):
I finished playing, Coach Stallins I went out to spring practice.
I was graduating May of ninety three and getting ready
to start a job and getting married, and Coach Stallings
was like, hey, you need to get a master's degree.
And I'm like, Coach, I don't want. I'm done with school.
I'm going to work. And he's like, I said, you
need a master's degree and you start in July. And
(16:27):
so the next thing I know, I'm a grad assistant
for coach Stallins and Homer Smith and and you know
Woodie mccorby and those guys, and you know, within a
week of being a GA, I was it was like
clarity of my life, like like wow, like it just
all of a sudden. I just realized that God had
been equipping me to do this job. And I made
(16:50):
a decision this is what I saw. I went on
and got my NBA and I'm ready to coach. And
then Coach Stallins hired me full time at twenty six,
and so I stayed on there and and actually got
out of coach for two years and oh one and
O two, and then I came to Clemson in February
of O three, thinking I'd be here a year or two,
and now I'm starting my nineteenth season and and my
(17:10):
thirteenth is the head coach. So just like I was
an at risk kid, and I was an at risk
higher as a football coach here. I mean, it's one
of my you know, and I wake up every day
I see the same thing I mean to this. I
mean literally there's a graphic. I still I have that graphic.
ESPN had me listed as a D plus hire and
(17:31):
and and I'll never forget that. I mean, I still
got it. I got it printed out. Man. It's like
I was a D It was the Hires of two
thousand and nine. I was a D plus hire and
they basically said Clemson is crazy. And you know, so
I'm thankful for the plus. I can tell you that.
But you know, I was an at Shire. But those
(17:51):
same things that made me successful, you know, And and
what I learned in my life is to not let
other people, you know, the herman my worth and I
learned how to live inside out and on outside in.
And that's just how I've always gone about my business.
And you know, every day that I get up, I
don't I don't see what you know now people see
(18:14):
this a successful coach and and all these things, and
what people reading the paper. You know, I don't see that.
I really truly see the same kid from palam Alabama,
chasing his dream every single day. The Calling Coward Podcast
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(19:24):
me as a DP plus sportscaster a few years ago.
Now we're on good Now we're on good ground, and
at the end of the day, we left no doubt
tonight you know we wanted to play Alabama because now
y'all got to change your stories. You gotta change the narrative.
Y'all gotta mix it up. You know the guy that
(19:44):
called us a fraud, ask Alabama for a fraud? Was
it named Colin Coward? Asking All'm never met him, don't
know him. Ask him if if we're Alabama for a fraud,
Ask Ohio state if for a fraud, Ask Oklahoma if
for a fraud? The only fraud is that guy because
he didn't do his homework. I hope y'all print that. Yeah,
(20:06):
you know I I I didn't. I did not know
who you were. To be honest with you, I really didn't.
In fact, you That's how I found out who you were.
Uh was somebody, somebody sent me your clip, and I've listened.
I'm thankful for you. Somebody sent me your clip. I
think you called us a fraud or something, and I'm like,
who the heck is this guy. I didn't know it was,
but I had. I had a lot of fun with
(20:28):
our team. Uh, and it was great. It was one
of those cool moments. And we were getting ready to
play Alabama and and I and I don't know, somebody
had gotten me this clip and I was like, this
is perfect. Save that and I'm like, who is this?
And uh and so, uh, you know, I don't do
social media. I don't have all that stuff. I don't
I don't I've never done that stuff. So I didn't
(20:49):
really know. But but I'm thankful for you because it
was great and just one of those deals. I say, hey, boys,
just give me to the press conference. Just get me
there and and we'll have some fun with this. So so,
to be honestly, I had forgotten about it. And uh,
you know, you just went a national championship, you know, Yeah,
a lot going on and one of the players in mind,
and hey, don't forget about that. I'm like, oh no,
that's right, that's right, and uh so, anyway we had
(21:13):
we had a little fun at your expense. But anyway,
I love it. It's so funny. So so Dabo, I
come in and do about two hours of prep every morning.
So the game was over and we were all rooting
for you because we were getting tired of Alabama. So
you won. I went to bed because I have to
get up early. So, um, I didn't see the post game.
So I come in for my prep and I sit there. Okay,
(21:38):
so the prep starts about five fifty seven twenty seven.
The guy all the guys look at me and they go, well,
aren't you going to talk about what Dabbo said? And
I said, well, what the hell Dabbo say? Were you
talking about? And they played it and I went, guys,
this is the lead the show. What are we doing
for two hours? And by the way, we loved it.
(22:00):
I mean I went on the air and I'm like,
you know what I own it was because it's funny. Watch.
I watched you twice early because I love college football,
and you struggled a little bit offensively, and I think
it was you couldn't put away NC State and I said,
how did these guys get But it was classic. I
saw you early and I didn't catch you late. And boy,
(22:22):
by the time, you know, that was a team that
got much better in the last six weeks of the season.
But you know, to be honest with you, we we
loved it. I had a ball with it. And by
the way, I used to work at ESPN, so I
can tell you, Dabbo, they just hated you saying that
on the air. They hated it. So I want to
go to this. So I saw Trevor Lawrence in San
(22:45):
Diego his junior year. So a buddy of mine, Steve Clarkson, called,
he said, I'm having a camp down here. There's a
kid you need to look at. So I went down
and watched him. And I came back from that camp
and I went on the air and I said, I
just saw the best high school quarterback I I think
I've ever seen you. You see all the good ones.
(23:06):
The first reaction when you saw Trevor Lawrence? What was
your first reaction? You know, just I mean like a
sideboard man, I mean just unbelievable. Never really see anything
like it, you know, I what does it look like
when you see Steph Curry shoot a basketball? You know,
you just go wow, you know, like you just sit
there and watch him shoot a basketball all day, right,
(23:28):
And that's kind of how you feel when you watch Trevor.
And you know, the first time I met him was
in the ninth grade. He came into the office and
I was like, this, this is a man. I had
not watched any tape on him at that point. I
just met him and he was up here passing through
and uh, I told him I was gonna watch him
his sophomore year. I didn't offer him a scholarship. That's
that's probably one of the reasons we got him, is
he had like fifty offers. I said, I don't even
(23:50):
I just meet you. I haven't watched you your tape,
I said, but I'm gonna watch you this year. I
want to see you drive a car. I'd like to,
you know, maybe see you go to prim or something.
And let's let's when you're talking about the you want
to be the face of our program. And so I did.
I watched him in sophomore year every week, and I mean,
oh my goodness. So we offered him and then he
committed as a junior. But I remember, it's funny you
(24:12):
say that every year, we usually do a Nike trip
with about twenty coaches, and so he had committed his
junior year and we're on the Nike trip and we
go in February every year, and David Shaw is a
good friend of mine. I love David and David. David
and I were sitting there talking and he said, I'm
gonna tell you he said, he is exactly what he said.
(24:34):
And we had a bunch of good players at the time.
He goes, I don't know who your quarterback. He was
a junior in high school. And another year of high
school he said, I so, I know you've got a
couple of good guys committed this year, and I know
you got some good guys on the team, but I
can tell you who your quarterback's going to be next year.
And uh, he said, that kid you got committed out
of Georgia. He said, that's the best quarterback I have
(24:54):
ever seen in high school about and and you know
that and always up with me and and so so
you know, but you never really know until you start coming. Guy,
like you know, we've had lots of great high school
players and then all of a sudden you get them,
and you know the transition is different, you know how
the speed of the game, that the technical part of
(25:15):
the game, the the the transition from an installation and
verbiage and all those things. I mean, you never know,
you know how a guy's gonna adjust, and you know
he's just you know, Deshaun was special in that in
that way. I mean, you know, Deshaun just wasn't as
biggest Trevor, and but he was unique and that he
absorbed it and you knew right away, like this kid
(25:38):
is different, h and everything that I loved about Deshaun.
I didn't know that I would ever coach another guy
like Deshaun and everything I loved about Deshaun. Here, this
guy shows up except these six six and you know,
two hundred and fifteen pounds and and unbelievable arm talent
and so but you never really know where are they
going to be mentally, And he shows up here that
(26:00):
first spring and it was just I mean, like wow,
I mean you really would watch this kid and you
just knew, like as soon as he gets through Spring
and he kind of gets gets his feet on the
ground and really has the but the game never seemed
fast to him from day one, like he had been
doing it forever and and uh, you know, his first
pass at A and M in College station, touchdown to
(26:22):
Tee Higgins, his first pass on that stage, and so
you know, but he's just a he's just a very
very gifted player. And you know, I've I've there's not
anything if there's a hundred boxes that you want to
write down on a guy that you would want in
the ideal quarterback. He checks every box. There's not a
(26:44):
single box that that he checks in facts. He has
some things that you don't even really need. I mean,
he's just he's just he's just a generational type player
and and I'm super excited about it. I tell him,
we got a kid that that's gonna take his place.
That's looks like somebody went to a lab and you know,
birth between Trevor and DeShawn. You know, he's you know
(27:07):
this d he's a Yep, he's gonna be a great
one too. And uh, you know, has the same type
of physical gifts and aptitude just just unique in his
own way. Yeah, he's the best high school quarterback out
of California I've ever seen. So I saw him two
years ago a thirty minutes I live in California. Yeah.
(27:28):
So I saw him play in California and there were
two kids, Bryce Young and your quarterback, And I thought
your quarterback. M he's got a bigger arm He's a
bigger athlete. He needs to get a little tempo on
his ball. Sometimes he throws ninety eight miles an hour.
He needs a little tempo. But he's a he's a
special athlete. He came to camp. First time I saw
(27:49):
him throw live. I mean, I thought he was gonna
kill somebody. Uh. Got all these little high school kids,
you know, they're lined up and they all want to
go with DJ And I'm like, wait a minute, whoa
whoa whoa? You know, because they don't have helmets on.
I'm like, like she to get a broken nose or something,
because you're right, he's throwing a slant route like a
you know, deposed Uh. And but he's he's he's matured
(28:09):
a lot in that. But I think he wanted to
really show us what is what kind of army had
when he came into camp. He can know da boat.
Lou Holtz once said that he turned down a five
star recruit because he was in the house and he
was disrespectful to his mom and Lu said, I can't
sign him. You you get a lot of five star
(28:31):
kids that want to talk to you because you're Dabbo
and your Clemson. Have you ever, Um, you've created a
culture that's unique to you. It's it's it's an extension
of your personality. You don't have to mention names. I
wouldn't expect that. But you ever have you ever gone
on a recruiting trip, said fellas, I know he's talented,
but he's not us. It doesn't work. Oh many times,
(28:53):
many times. Listen, Um, I don't even have to go
on a trip. Uh, you know, I mean I can.
I can spend five minutes with a guy. I mean,
you know, And I think that's that's something that that
has led to our success. You know, I've never we
don't sign We've never signed transfers or junior college players.
Everything has been through the draft, if you will, and
(29:14):
I and to this point, and we may have to
change or adjust, who knows, But but that's been our
philosophy from day one. Uh, because it's it's just been
you know, we've been a developmental, relationship driven program. And
if that's your philosophy, you better be right on the
front end. You know, this is not a program. I mean,
nine out of ten years top ten academically. You know,
(29:34):
you can't have a lot of attrition and running guys
off and things like that. Our kids graduate. I mean
we're ninety eight percent graduation rate. Um. You know, since
I've been the head coach, that's the number one thing
in our program. You know, again, it all goes back
to my how I was shaped, you know. You know,
I've had a lot of great experiences, but walking across
that stage and getting my degree at Alabama made me
(29:55):
different from everybody else in my family. And it gave
me opportunities that my mom and dad, my brothers that
they didn't get in life because because of that. And
I also saw firsthand a lot of players teammates that
the band cheered loud for them and everybody was cheering
(30:15):
for him, and then all of a sudden, football's over
and they don't have because back in those days, you
just majored ineligibility. You know, there was a lot of
guys just stayed eligible every year and they were there
three four years and that weren't any closer to a
degree than they were when they walked in the door.
Thankfully all those rules have been changed, you know, And
and I just never wanted that for my players, you know.
(30:36):
And so the number one thing in our program is
value and education and equipping getting your degree. You know,
one point seven percent of college players playing in the NFL,
and it's a shame that we make it all about that,
and that's not what it's all about here. I love that,
I mean, I want Hey, we're I'm second in draft
picks as a head coach since I've been a head coach.
Second in first round pick, So that's great. But but
(30:59):
we're ninety eight percent graduation rate nine out of ten years,
top ten academically. Christian Wilkins won the Cambell Trophy. Trevor
Lawrence graduated in three years to sean two and a
half years. Though that means more to me than anything
is knowing that when when football goes away whenever that is,
whether it's in college or right after college, that they
(31:19):
that they're equipped and and you know, they've got they've
got they they've got that education to get a job
and to be able to have a career doing something
because there's so many places you can't get a job
if you don't if you're not qualified. And so that's
important to me. But but you know, when you when
your philosophy is what it is here, you got to
(31:40):
be right. And you know, early on, you know, had
to take a few more chances on some guys. You're
trying to build a program, and when you get a job,
nobody came there for you to be their head coach.
So the first thing you gotta do is you got
to recruit your team, and you got to have a vision,
and you got to articulate it, and you got to
get them to buy in. And that's why I'm forever
thankful for my first few teams, because they're the forefathers
(32:04):
of what we have today, you know, because those kids
had to make a decision to buy into the way
I wanted to do things and what we were going
to be about. And and now, you know, to protect
our program, it's all about you know, a limp, you know,
I mean, don't avoid red flags. You know, so many
people they they they just look the other way. And
(32:26):
you know, the philosophy of our program is to serve
their heart, not their talent. And and you know, so
that starts in the recruiting process to me. We're incredibly
transparent in the like brutally if you look at how
many I think we've had three D commitments in six years,
and that's because we're incredibly transparent. I hate the term
(32:47):
if sometimes people say, oh, we got to de recruit them,
If we got to de recruit somebody, then we weren't authentic,
we weren't genuine, We didn't tell them the truth. You know,
I don't want to de recruit nobody. I want them
to know this is the way it's going to be.
If you won't go to class here, you ain't playing.
If you're not gonna follow the rules, and you're not
gonna be a good citizen, you're gonna be out smoking dope,
whatever it is, you ain't playing. I mean, it's just
that symbol. Don't come here because we're not gonna use you.
(33:09):
You know, we're gonna empower you, we're gonna serve your
hard and that's been that way from day one. And
so that's not for everybody. But we got to get
the right guys. And there's been a ton of guys,
a ton that have all kind of offers that they
don't ever get an offer from Clemson. New fact and
you can. The last time I looked, it was about
a month ago or so. The Power sixty five teams,
(33:31):
I think we were third and fewest offers. So the
number one team had like four hundred and something offers
and we had like fifty. All right, So we just
don't offer many guys. But our offers mean something too.
You know, if you get an offer from us, it
you know it's a committable offer. There's no uncommittable offer
or whatever that means. And we're the second winningest team
(33:54):
in the country the last ten years, and we've not
had a single number one recruiting class. Alabama I think
has been number one in the country nine out of
the last ten years. We ain't had we ain't had
a number one class yet. I think we're an average
about ninth over the last ten years. But yet we've
we've won two national championships, and we want a bunch
of games. So you know, we do it with people,
(34:15):
we do it with a relationship, we do it with development,
and uh you know, hopefully, hopefully that's how we can
continue to do things here. So Dabbo, I want to
end this with what I call rapid fire. I'm going
to ask you a question and you give me a
sentence or maybe an explanation. And you're a good storyteller,
so that's not easy for you. You're a good storyteller.
(34:36):
So here we go. Best coach you've faced, who who
never gets mentioned among the great coaches? Best coach I've faced,
who never gets mentioned amongst the great coaches? Um, I
would say Dave Clawson at Wait Forest, think he think
(34:57):
he's I think he's a really good football coach, and
he has done a great job there. I mean he's
he is a he's at Dino, He's another one at Syracuse.
He's always a handful, you know. I think Bronco at
Virginia is a really good football coach. That would probably be,
you know something, just thinking about guys we play every
single year, right, those are some of the guys that
(35:20):
jump out. Toughest loss of your career, oh man, every
loss is tough. Uh. Probably the first National championship in fifteen.
You know, I thought we were the better team. We
really dominated the game, had the lead in the fourth quarter,
(35:41):
and you know, they had the one hundred yard kick
return and they had the on side kick, and that
was the difference in the game. Uh, it was a
forty was at five forty and you know, at thirty
five years since Clemson had been a national champion. And
here we are. You know, we've come from this our
beginnings in oh nine and now it's it's two thy
(36:02):
fifteen and six years later we're in a national championship.
We're playing Alabama and we really I mean, we put
up almost six hundred yards of offense, but you know,
we just made a couple too many mistakes and and
uh uh you know the kick return and their execution
on that own side kick. Uh, that was a that
(36:22):
was a really really tough I mean they're all tough,
but that was just gut wrenching because you just, you know,
you felt like you just let everybody down. And um,
it was a tough moment, you know, but you know,
just wast meant to be. But it was all part
of our journey. And then the very next year we
went it all with one second on the clock, you know,
(36:43):
and another epic, epic game. Last time on the headset
in a game an assistant coach talked to enter out
of something. Uh shoot, probably probably the last game we played.
That happens all the time. Man's that's every game. I mean,
(37:04):
we were very we communicate. Um, you know, well, again,
most of these guys played for me. Streeter, my quarterback coach,
was a GA for me, Tony my offensive coordinator, was
a receiver for me, and captain and you know so,
I mean I have great relationships with all these guys
and then we communicate constantly. So that's happened many times.
(37:26):
M true or false. Have you ever gone to your
athletic director and said, it's so dang hot here in September?
Can we just play night games? It's too hot to
stand in that sun at one one eastern h You're
talking to the wrong guy there, man, Mohata mo Betta.
That's my saying. I like it hot. Uh. You know,
I'm from Alabama, Man, I grew up in the heat.
(37:47):
I like it hot and sweaty, and it don't matter.
You don't play whenever. It just doesn't matter to me.
I love it. That's my mentality. Moha tell my team
at all time, Mohata Mobetta, let's go the recruit. Your
proudest of that. You sold your staff on, you sold
(38:07):
people on, and you got a little pushback and you
look back years later and you're like, boy, he was,
You're proud of that. Oh, that's easy, that's really easy.
That's Grady Jared, who was the thirty seventh highest paid
athlete in the world right now. He was a two
star recruit and he but he was the state wrestling
(38:29):
champ led the state of Georgia and sacks and he
was from down there at Rockdale, Georgia, and he came
to camp. All right, he comes to camp. I'll never
forget it. I go over to watch the oldl you know,
pass rush section and Dan Brooks like, he goes, you
need to watch this kid, And so I watched him,
and I mean, he was destroying everybody. He's only he's
(38:50):
barely six feet like on his tippy toes and doesn't
have any of the measurables that you want. You know,
if you met him to this day, you would never
know who he is. It's amazing. But I watched him,
and we already had a kid who was kind of
similar body type, and actually he plays for the Broncos now,
kid named DeShawn Williams. And uh and I and I'll
(39:13):
never get it. I'm watching, I'm watching, and I finally
I said, I'm watching his mom over there. As mom's
into she's old, and she's as much into it as
he is. And the kid would go every he would go,
and he'd go and get in line again, and he
didn't care who he went against. And I'm like, man,
this is what I want on my team. And this
would have been so eleven twelve thirty fourth, so his
first year here was eleven, and uh so this would
(39:36):
have been two thousand and ten. I'm like, so, I
tell his mom and this kid to come to my office.
And so the coaches, some of the coaches heard about it,
and I said, man, I'm gonna offer this kid. And
I had some of my coaches, man, we so we
had the staff meeting talk about it. I got the
mom and Grady coming to my office and I already
know I'm gonna of for him. And I get in
there and man, it was it was. It was one
(39:57):
of I listened. It was a come to Jesus. And
I had coaches like, Coach, we don't, we cannot do that,
we don't need another short guy, we don't, you know whatever,
and uh and I listened for a little while and
I said, I said finally, I said, well, I tell
you what, here's what we're gonna do. I've been doing
camp for a long time and I have yet to
see anybody like that guy. And I want that guy
(40:17):
on this team. And it's gonna put He's gonna be
a coach Sweeney signy if he stinks, and ain't nobody's fault.
I'm not gonna hold anybody accountable. All right, this is
one hundred percent on me. Nobody's accountable for this guy. Well,
we signed him, and it was some some you know,
hurt feelings and a little pouting and all that. And
so the next thing, you know, I got this kid
in my office and his momaia Lisa Jarrett, and she's
(40:41):
an amazing lady. And and I told him, I said, look,
I'm just telling you right now. You know what you
got we want on this team. And we had a
great talk. When he commits and we beat Buffalo University
of Buffalo to get this guy. He had no offers
and he comes in here and he ends up starting
as a true freshman, all right, And in his senior
(41:03):
year twenty fourteen, we were in the number one defense
in the country in every statistical category, every single one
of them. All right, and then so now it's time
to go to the draft. Well, the same things happens
in the draft. Guess what, he's too short, his arms
aren't long enough, he's not big enough, he's barely three
hundred pounds, and you know whatever. You know all this stuff.
(41:24):
And I sat in my office with Dan quinn and
and the GM because they wanted to go draft Vic Beasley,
all right, and I told him, I said, well, you're
gonna love Vick Beasley because he's a freaky dude. Man.
This guy can rush the passer. He's gonna make you better,
I said, But Grady Jarrett will change your locker room,
(41:46):
he'll change your community. He gonna make you better as coaches.
And that's the guy. And I literally to this day,
if you told me I could redraft my team, start
a program all over again, and draft from all the
kids that I've had in this program, he'd be in
my top three draft picks. And he was a fifth
round draft pick. And if you went back right now
(42:06):
and looked at all the de tackles that were drafted
in front of Grady Jared, it's embarrassing, all right, it's embarrassing.
Most of them made in the League no more. This
guy is unbelievable human being, one of the greatest leaders
I've ever been around, one of the one of the
He is like a foundational piece to what we enjoy today.
(42:28):
He didn't get a chance to win a national championship,
but you best believe we would never have won one
if it wasn't for Grady Jared and the impact that
he had while he was here. And so that's an
easy answer right there. And I got a bunch of
guys like that. Adam Humphreys, I think he makes nine
million dollars a year. He was a little wide out
only Division. One offer that he had was US, and
(42:51):
we called a lot of grief for signing him because
there was another kid there. Everybody's like oversigning him to
get this kid. And well, Adam was a great player
here and he was a tryout free agent for the
Bucks and ended up starting his first ever NFL game
as a tryout free agent. And you know it was
making nine million dollars a year last year for the
for the Titans, and now he's with red Skins. But
(43:14):
he's had an unbelievable career. So we've had a lot
of those type of guys and it's cool to see
the hunter Infro walk on. He's been good. He was
a he was a walk on his first National championship game.
He was a red shirt freshman walk on and had
ten catches and two touchdowns against Alabama out there in Arizona,
and then came back the next year a sophomore year
(43:35):
and had the game winner. He's one hundred and fifty
five pound. Dude, it looks like the you know the
you know the trainer. Uh, he never looks like even
if you met him today, you'd never think he plays
it starts for the Raiders. I'll tell you what, Davil,
this was such a pleasure. I can see. You know,
recruiting is so much about relationships. It's you. There is
(43:58):
no question. I look at you now and I think, oh, yeah,
of course, this is why you built a program. Your
story is great. You're a great communicator. You're a great storyteller.
And this was just a pleasure for me. And I
have a I don't know if you like a beer occasionally,
but if if we ever, that's one. See I'm from California.
(44:18):
I should love that stuff. I'd rite it ever beer.
It's great talking to your coach. Yep, enjoyed it. I
appreciate it. And uh, you know, we I don't know this.
Are we what are we on? Are we live? Are
we alive? No? No, we're um. We are on a
podcast and this will be out tomorrow, tomorrow morning, and
it'll be for the world to see tomorrow morning. Oh okay,
(44:39):
I was gonna tell you we got a big fundraiser
this weekend our foundation, but John Gruten's coming in gonna
spend Friday and Saturday with me, so I'm super excited
about that. It'll be pretty cool. Good luck to your coach,
all right, man, good be with you. Thank you all right, everybody,
Uh that was fun. See even Dabbo likes me. This
(45:02):
is why you need to get on the Volume sports
or Twitter and Instagram, rate review, subscribe. Even the people
you think don't like me like me. It's it's hard
to explain. I'm like Tebow with a microphone. Everybody likes me.
We'll see you soon. The Volume
Host
Colin Cowherd
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