{"id":428741,"date":"2018-02-28T16:02:31","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T22:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/?p=428741"},"modified":"2018-02-28T16:02:31","modified_gmt":"2018-02-28T22:02:31","slug":"listen-dabo-swinney-on-the-opening-kickoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/listen-dabo-swinney-on-the-opening-kickoff\/","title":{"rendered":"LISTEN: Dabo Swinney on the Opening Kickoff"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Scott McInnerney
\nWNSP Reporter<\/p>\n

MOBILE, AL \u2013 Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney joined WNSP on the Opening Kickoff Tuesday to discuss his coaching career.<\/p>\n

Swinney started as an assistant coach at Alabama in 1995 before he became an assistant at Clemson in 2002. In 2008, he took the reigns as the head coach, where he has taken Clemson to the top, but coaching was not always what he wanted to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never really thought about coaching,\u201d said Swinney. \u201cI went to school to be a doctor, but I just realized that I didn\u2019t love it.<\/p>\n

“I wasn\u2019t passionate about it. It wasn\u2019t until after I finished playing. Literally, within a week of coaching, I found my calling, and I knew that was what I was supposed to do. I had no doubt.<\/p>\n

“I still love to compete. I love being a part of a team and all that comes from being a part of the team. I fell in love with coaching right out of the gate, and I\u2019m still as passionate about it today as I was the first day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swinney has led Clemson to the NCAA College Football Playoffs for the last three years, and the Tigers won the national championship in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are one of those programs that has proven that we can maintain consistency,\u201d Swinney said. \u201cTo me, it\u2019s not all about winning national championships.<\/p>\n

“There\u2019s only one team that\u2019s going to get that done each year. To be considered elite at something, you\u2019ve got to be really good for a long period of time. I think that we have established that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the head coach, Swinney has helped Clemson go from a 6-7 team in 2010 to a consistent national championship contender. But football is only part of Swinney\u2019s job as a coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m more proud of what we\u2019ve done off the field,\u201d said Swinney. \u201cWe\u2019ve had 172 graduates, and we\u2019ve been a top team academically 7 out of my 9 years. I\u2019m really proud of where we are, and we\u2019ve still got a long way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spring training at Clemson starts next week, and Swinney spoke on his expectations from his team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe number one priority for us is to start over,\u201d Swinney said. \u201cIt\u2019s a new team.<\/p>\n

“You don\u2019t just pick up where you left off even if you\u2019re a great player coming back. It\u2019s truly important to start over and go back and reinstall the core values of your program. You can\u2019t just be talented.<\/p>\n

“You\u2019ve got to have the right chemistry, the right leadership, and the right commitment. All those things are done in the offseason.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more, you can listen to the full interview below and tune into the Opening Kickoff weekday mornings from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.<\/p>\n

\n

Part 1<\/strong><\/p>\n\nhttp:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/DaboSwinney2-27-18a.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Part 2<\/strong><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/DaboSwinney2-27-18b.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott McInnerney WNSP Reporter MOBILE, AL \u2013 Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney joined WNSP on the Opening Kickoff Tuesday to discuss his coaching […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":4489,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,106,176],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-428741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-featured-news","7":"category-on-the-air","8":"category-top"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":428745,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428741\/revisions\/428745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}