The right touch

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CLEMSON -– Sometimes it takes some time for a first-year head coach to get things right.

Once upon a time – say, four years ago – Dabo Swinney was labeled by some a coach who couldn’t make the right hires. There was quite a bit of turnover from 2008 to 2012, culminating with the firing of Kevin Steele after the Orange Bowl 70-spot.

Well here Swinney is preparing for his eighth full season, and the last four years are the precise inverse in the area of coaching turnover. Secondary coach Charlie Harbison left for Auburn after the 2012 season. Chad Morris left for the head coaching job at SMU in December of 2014. Other than that the staff has remained intact, and you’d best believe it’s a key ingredient in this blissful period of prominence for Clemson.

It’s common, in light of 46-8 the past four years after 29-19 from mid-2008 until the end of 2011, to wonder how Swinney has grown as a coach since those early rollercoaster days. You probably won’t get a great deal of elaboration from the head coach beyond him saying he’s the same guy he’s always been. But surely his acumen in identifying assistant coaches has to be an excellent example of his growth from a coach with questionable credentials into a coach now known among the best in the profession.

The Steele topic is an obvious storyline leading to next week’s opener at Auburn. Clemson fans hate him, probably excessively so, for his inability to “get it fixed” in some key late-season 2011 contests.

When you allow West Virginia to do what it did that night in South Florida, it tends to skew long-term perceptions. Because going into that game, no one was calling for Steele’s firing after the Tigers’ defense shut down Virginia Tech in the ACC title game. Earlier that season, in Blacksburg, Clemson limited the Hokies to a mere three points in what was then considered a truly landmark victory (and still should be).

Steele’s defense couldn’t get Connor Shaw and South Carolina off the field in Columbia that season, but not many defenses could.