Dabo Swinney’s name floated for Texas A&M job. Clemson coach responds

Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney responded on Tuesday to his name being floated as a possible candidate for the Texas A&M job opening.

The Aggies fired Jimbo Fisher on Sunday, and national reporters including ESPN’s Paul Finebaum and Peter Burns said Swinney could be an intriguing candidate. Swinney has not been formally linked to the job.

Asked directly if he had any interest in the job, Swinney said during his weekly news conference: “I’m just focused on this job. I always have been. Just trying to find a way to beat North Carolina. That’s it. Must be November that’s all I can say.”

Texas A&M, which competes in the SEC West, fired Fisher on Sunday amid his sixth season as coach. Fisher, a former national championship-winning coach at Florida State, was 45-25 and 27-21 in the SEC.

The team was 6-4 and 4-3 in the SEC this season.

Swinney hasn’t been directly linked to the Texas A&M job by any national reports, and his name is routinely floated as a possibility for SEC jobs, including Auburn in 2022 and LSU in 2021. His name was also mentioned for the Aggies’ 2017 opening.

That job, obviously, went to Fisher.

During his Monday radio show, ESPN’s Finebaum said that Swinney “absolutely” fits at Texas A&M and “aligns very well from a cultural standpoint” at an SEC school trying to compete for conference championships and national championships with a strong recruiting presence and administration willing to invest for football success.

“Would he leave Clemson? I think he would,” Finebaum said Monday, per Clemson Wire. “They’re kind of sick of him, and I think he’s sick of them. And before some Clemsonite comes out of his basement and starts telling me how wrong I am, after a while, that happens. Happens to every coach, usually.”

“And there are few exceptions. Nick Saban, pretty good exception after 17 years. But I think Dabo would be re-energized. I think he would be able to recruit well out there. He’s a good recruiter. His program has slipped at Clemson. It’s not embarrassing, but four losses is not the Clemson standard.”

Swinney, Clemson’s all-time wins leader, has led the Tigers to six College Football Playoffs and two national championships in 2016 and 2018. The Tigers are 6-4 and 3-4 in the ACC entering Saturday’s game against No. 22 North Carolina, Swinney’s 16th season at the school and 15th as its full-time coach.

Swinney is in the second season of a 10-year, $115 million contract he signed in September 2022. His total salary for 2023 is $10.75 million, the second highest in the country behind Alabama’s Nick Saban, according to a USA TODAY Sports database.

According to a copy of the contract, obtained by The State through a public records request, Swinney would owe Clemson $5 million “should employee terminate early for the purpose of accepting employment in another position with duties of or substantially similar to a collegiate head coach” in calendar year 2023.

Swinney’s buyout if he leaves to become the coach at Alabama (where Saban is under contract through 2029) is 1.5 times higher than his buyout for a head coach position at any other university.

For 2023, that’s $7.5 million for the Alabama-specific buyout (Swinney’s Crimson Tide roots obviously run very deep) and $5 million for the general buyout.

The contract also states that “Employee shall notify Director of Athletics prior to discussions by Employee or his agents for other employment.”

‘Way out of left field’ candidate

ESPN’s Peter Burns, on a Tuesday morning radio appearance, floated Swinney’s name as a candidate “way out of left field” for the Texas A&M job. Other hot list candidates for the job include Oregon coach Dan Lanning, Duke coach Mike Elko, Florida State coach Mike Norvell and Washington coach Kalen DeBoer.

“Think about what’s happening at Clemson,” Burns said. “It hasn’t been the best of times. He’s told everybody get the hell off the bandwagon. And if Tyler is Spartanburg is starting to get in your craw a little bit, it might be time to go a different direction.”

“But I think Jimbo was trying to get away from the FSU job. I don’t think you get a coach that’s trying to get away from Clemson to take that job.”

It’s been an up-and-down season for the Tigers, who were the preseason No. 9 team in the country but are unranked for a 10th straight week in the AP Top 25. Clemson is in the middle of its first four-loss season since 2011 and its first season with four ACC losses since 2010.

The Tigers also got out to their worst ACC start (2-4) since 1998, prompting Swinney to go on a viral rant against the aforementioned radio caller, Tyler in Spartanburg, in an Oct. 30 episode of his radio show, “Tiger Calls.”

In response to a caller questioning his credentials and why Clemson was paying him so much money to go 4-4, Swinney ripped the caller and said fans like him are “the problem.” Swinney had generated headlines earlier in the month, too, for quipping that Clemson had perhaps needed to lose a few games to “lighten the bandwagon,” comments he later walked back.

“I work for the board of trustees, the president and the AD,” Swinney said Oct 30. “And if they’re tired of me leading this program, all they gotta do is let me know. I’ll go somewhere else where there is an appreciation.”

Later in that same show, another fan called in to praise Swinney for what he’s done for Clemson. The fan said he was also “encouraged” to hear Swinney, 53, mention he planned to coach another 15 years earlier in the show and that he hoped those 15 years would be at Clemson.

“Well, I hope I’ll be here,” Swinney said. “I’m gonna be somewhere. But I promise you, I’ve got a long way to go, man. Shoot, I don’t know if I’ll coach at 70 but i plan on coaching til my late 60s for sure. Lotta great years to go.”

“I hope you’re still running down the hill,” the fan said, referencing one of the gameday traditions in which Clemson’s team runs down the hill in the east end zone of Memorial Stadium.

“Me, too,” Swinney said.