THE WEST ZONE message board | SHOP NOW: DEALS on CLEMSON apparel

CLEMSON –- Dabo Swinney sure knew how to work a room, and he had that great strength going for him in October of 2008 as a means of introduction to a Clemson fan base that had no idea who he was and no idea what to think.

The mere fact that he wasn’t afraid to be passionate in front of a microphone – not Tommy Bowden, in other words – scored some points in his favor. Because goodness knows fans were tired of Bowden’s standard act of keeping his guard up and leaving it for everyone else to figure out how he really felt about stuff.

In the moment, Swinney’s approach was a fresh diversion. Everyone was impressed with his demeanor, his immediate move to reach out to the students and the fans, his utter fluency in the Clemson language. But while on the inside Terry Don Phillips was giving him a serious look, not many people on the outside thought it realistic that this 38-year-old receivers coach would get the job for good. And a home loss to Georgia Tech in the first game of his audition further turned perception in favor of hiring an outside guy.

That list of possible outside guys is what’s so fascinating to consider all these years later. It reinforces the fact that you never really know, even when you think you know. Whether it’s the week-by-week yo-yo of results that routinely punishes people who think they have it all figured out, or the coaching-search roulette that can turn a slam-dunk hire into a slam-dumb hire in short order, there is very little certainty in college football.

Eight years ago, Will Muschamp was the hottest name out there as an assistant coach. He was working under Mack Brown at a Texas powerhouse that, with Oklahoma and Florida, were basically the gold standard of college football at the time.

In October and November of 2008, if you polled Clemson fans and told them they could have Muschamp 99.9 percent would have taken him. He was that big a name. But Phillips never got to interview him, because Brown made a proactive move to give him a head-coach-in-waiting title. And that was the end of that.

At the time, Clemson fans weren’t all that devastated because it seemed like kind of a pipe dream anyway to land the hottest assistant in the game. Remember, the Tigers had gone two decades without a conference title or a 10-win season. A year before, they wasted a chance to win the Atlantic Division for the first time when Matt Ryan came into Death Valley and pulled off an upset. And in 2008 everyone was a wreck after Alabama, Maryland and Wake Forest made a punch line of Clemson’s preseason Top 10 ranking.

Clemson wasn’t regarded as one of the big dogs then. A program with potential, yes. But also one that couldn’t get out of its own way. When you go that long without major achievement, it affects your self-image and Clemson faithful certainly had wounded psyches. At this time, best was not the standard. Letdown was. As in: “How are we going to manage to screw this up?” This is the culture Swinney astutely identified as needing cleansing.

Muschamp will come to Death Valley on Saturday with a 34-26 record as a head coach over five seasons, four of them at Florida. He has compiled a 20-20 record in SEC play over that stretch, and he inherited a major rebuilding project in Columbia after Steve Spurrier seemed to lose interest in recruiting over his final few years. Muschamp has done a nice job this season of keeping things together and securing bowl eligibility, but the jury is still very much out on his ability to be a successful head coach.

In the winter of 2009, after Swinney got the Clemson job, he took his staff to Austin to learn from Brown, Muschamp and the rest of the Longhorns’ staff. Swinney took major foundational lessons from that trip, and he and Brown are close to this day.

But maybe Brown’s most vital contribution to Swinney’s coaching career was making Muschamp head-coach-in-waiting to eliminate the possibility of Muschamp going to Clemson.

Swinney is at the top of his profession now, with 10-win seasons seemingly growing on trees and the Tigers heavily favored to win back-to-back ACC titles. He and his staff have successfully confronted the Florida State giant that threatened to leave Clemson permanently toiling in the Seminoles’ shadow when they hung 51 on the Tigers three years ago on their way to the BCS title. He and the Tigers have become the envy of just about everyone in college football, including a Texas program that is now trying to figure out how to climb back to prominence amid the anticipated ouster of Charlie Strong.

Speaking of Strong, he basically made the decision by losing at Kansas last week. But before that horrific defeat, the developments out of Austin might have provided a lesson on how not to handle a coaching search.

Saturday morning, ESPN reported that key Texas figures had cooled on Houston’s Tom Herman after the Cougars lost to Navy and SMU in October, but had become much more intrigued after his team smacked around Louisville on Thursday night. Brett McMurphy reported that powerful boosters were exerting “extreme pressure” to hire Herman. Again, this was before the loss to Kansas.

“Herman was dead in the water when he lost to SMU,” a Texas source told McMurphy. “And now he’s hotter than ever.”

Watching this week-by-week circus from afar, you might conclude Texas deserves its current mediocrity if it’s going to base monstrous decisions on the rollercoaster emotions from the most recent result.

This strikes us as the opposite of Phillips’ approach with Swinney. He gave him the interim title after years of close observation. And then he stripped away that title after Swinney made a legitimate case over seven games.

Ten minutes after Swinney and the Tigers dismantled South Carolina on a rainy day at Death Valley in 2008, Phillips was a part of the celebration on the field when this writer approached him and asked him if this meant Swinney was getting the job. Phillips simply smiled and pointed at the scoreboard.

Eight years later, he’s still smiling. And still pointing to the scoreboard.

OH, THE POSSIBILITIES

This list of names includes either 1) candidates Terry Don Phillips interviewed for the job in 2008, and/or 2) candidates many Clemson fans would’ve loved to have over an interim coach named Dabo Swinney:

-- Will Muschamp

THEN: Hot name as defensive coordinator at Texas; Mack Brown gave him the Head Coach In Waiting title to ward off pursuit from Clemson and others.

NOW: After a failed tenure at Florida and a year as defensive coordinator at Auburn, Muschamp is trying to rebuild a South Carolina program that dropped off a cliff after three straight 11-win seasons from 2011-13.

-- Rich Rodriguez

THEN: Yes, hiring Rodriguez was a pipe dream at the time because he was in his first year at Michigan. But his ties to Clemson did put his name in the conversation of fans who longed for his return.

NOW: After getting fired at Michigan amid major NCAA violations and the lowest winning percentage (40.5) of any coach in Michigan history, Rodriguez eventually landed at Arizona. After going 26-14 in his first three years, the Wildcats dropped to 7-6 last year and are now in the midst of a 2-9 disaster (with wins over Hawaii and Grambling). Arizona has to beat Arizona State on Friday to avoid an 0-9 conference record.

-- Tommy Tuberville

THEN: Tuberville was in the midst of a losing season at Auburn in 2008, but there was still reason to believe he could be successful at Clemson. Over his previous four years, he’d guided Auburn to a 42-9 record.

NOW: Tuberville struggled in three years at Texas Tech (20-17) before making a surprising decision to go to Cincinnati. The optimism from back-to-back nine-win seasons in 2013 and 2014 has now disappeared, with Tuberville telling angry fans to “get a job.” The Bearcats are 4-7 and 1-6 in the AAC.

-- Troy Calhoun

THEN: The Air Force coach was a popular name among a segment of Clemson fans who remembered his Wake Forest offenses carving up the Tigers when he was an assistant there.

NOW: After success in his first four years, Calhoun sunk to 7-6 in 2011, 6-7 in 2012 and 2-10 in 2013. The Falcons recovered, though, with a 10-3 record in 2014 and back-to-back eight-win marks the past two seasons.

-- Jim Grobe

THEN: Grobe was enormously impressive in guiding Wake Forest to an ACC title in 2006 and formidability the Deacons seldom enjoyed traditionally. He was at or near the top of Phillips’ list of outside candidates, and plenty of Clemson fans subscribed to the logic of: “If you can’t beat ‘em, hire their coach.”

NOW: Grobe capitalized on the underachievement of Clemson and Florida State. So when the Tigers and Seminoles stopped underachieving, the gig was up as far as Wake contending for division titles. After 11-3, 9-4 and 8-5 from 2006-08, the Deacons had five straight losing seasons and Grobe gave way to Dave Clawson. Grobe is now at Baylor trying to steer the Bears through the wreckage left by Art Briles.

-- Gary Patterson

THEN: Patterson was in the middle of a spectacular run with the Horned Frogs at the time, amassing a 77-13 record from 2005 to 2011. Patterson was hard to pry from TCU, as he told Clemson and others that he would interview only if given assurances that he’d be hired.

NOW: Some slippage in recent years, with a losing season in 2013 (4-8) and a 5-5 record at the moment. But Patterson still has a reputation as an excellent coach.

-- Lane Kiffin

THEN: After flourishing as Southern Cal’s offensive coordinator, Kiffin became head coach of the Oakland Raiders and quickly flamed out. He was out of a job in October of 2008 after Al Davis fired him, and Phillips conducted an interview with him. He became Tennessee’s head coach in late November at the age of 33.

NOW: Kiffin left Tennessee with more embarrassing moments than wins, bolting for the head job at Southern Cal in 2010. He failed at that job also, getting fired by Pat Haden on an airport tarmac and becoming the popular butt of jokes. People thought Nick Saban was crazy for hiring him as offensive coordinator in 2014, but it was a brilliant move as Kiffin has successfully modernized the Crimson Tide’s offense into a typical spread outfit after Saban’s standard ground-and-pound style became outdated.

-- Brent Venables

THEN: Venables was a highly successful defensive coordinator for the Oklahoma juggernaut, and Phillips was enormously impressed with him when they interviewed.

NOW: Venables made the wrenching decision to leave his comfort zone in 2012 after a difficult 2011 season. Back then, many Oklahoma fans wanted to help him pack his bags. Now, they’re wishing he never left because Venables has become arguably the top defensive coordinator in the game in five seasons at Clemson.

-- Bud Foster

THEN: Virginia Tech was the king of the ACC then, and Clemson fans were still licking their wounds from humiliating losses to the Hokies in 2007 and 2006. Foster was a prominent part of Frank Beamer’s machine, and he reportedly told Phillips he’d … uh … take liberties with Clemson’s backside if Phillips didn’t hire him.

NOW: Justin Fuente retained Foster when he replaced Beamer, but the past five years have been humbling for Foster as he adjusts a defensive system that was geared to stop offenses of a different era. His philosophy was built on loading up to stuff the run, but modern offenses were able to hammer him with big plays left and right to prompt a move to softer zone coverages under Fuente.

-- Mike Locksley

THEN: Phillips interviewed Locksley when he was offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Illinois.

NOW: Locksley is an offensive analyst at Alabama, and odds are he doesn’t become a head coach anytime soon: He was 2-26 in three years at New Mexico, and 1-5 in 2015 as Maryland’s interim coach.

-- Brady Hoke

THEN: Hoke was in his sixth season as head coach of Ball State, which was 12-1 in 2008 after struggles in Hoke’s first five seasons.

NOW: He was fired after four years at Michigan, and now he’s on the verge of the same fate in his first year as Oregon’s defensive coordinator. He spent 2015 as a Sirius/XM commentator, and he might be headed back to that line of work.

Not a subscriber to Tigerillustrated.com?

Sign up HERE to get unlimited access to Tigerillustrated.com, the No. 1 authority on Clemson football and recruiting since 1999.