Poverty made football a luxury Dabo Swinney couldn’t afford to chase. Raised by a single mother, all Clemson head coach ever wanted was to earn and earn well, to take his family out of those financial hardships, and the path wasn’t easy. But somewhere along the journey, things changed for Swinney.

“I never, once in my life, thought about coaching, ever, my whole life. Somebody said, ‘What do you want to do when you grow up?’ I was like, ‘I want to be a pediatrician,'” Swinney said on PSU alum Adam Breneman’s podcast on June 10. “I’m gonna be able to take care of my mom. I’m going to make a bunch of money, so I’m going to Alabama.”

Swinney arrived at the university as a walk-on wide receiver and a pre-med student. As an unrecruited walk-on, he fought for a roster spot and eventually earned a scholarship. During his time with the Crimson Tide, Swinney became part of Alabama’s 1992 national championship team and earned recognition for his academic work as well. But while football was going well, his academic plans were changing.

“I’m a pre-med major, and I’m kind of three years into it, and I just didn’t love it,” Swinney recounted. “God started changing my heart through my five years of work as a player and coach. “Gene Stallings (former Bama head coach) wanted me to be a grad assistant and hired me a week into coaching. It was like clarity of life for me, and what I realized was this is what God called me to do. What happened in that moment was all of a sudden. My life made sense to me.”

Under Gene Stallings (1990-1996), Swinney’s role evolved from walk-on to grad assistant. In 1989, the now-Clemson head coach spent his year on Bama’s scout team and only in the next year got the opportunity to be a part of the travel roster, when the receiving unit had several injuries. Despite Stallings handing Swinney a scholarship in 1991, the former Bama head coach already knew Swinney wasn’t a great player.

Dabo Swinney worked on Alabama’s staff before eventually joining Clemson as an assistant in 2003. Five years later, Clemson promoted him to interim head coach after Tommy Bowden resigned. Many people questioned the decision since Swinney had never been a coordinator and did not have the résumé of other candidates.

But Clemson took the risk anyway, and the rest is, of course, history.

Dabo Swinney opens up about his Alabama exit in 2000

Swinney had that Alabama fandom instilled in him at a very young age through his family, and so joining the program was a ‘no-brainer’ for the 56-year-old. Despite being a walk-on, Swinney savored every moment at the program, as coaches and players often found him with his camera, documenting everything. Joining Alabama felt like a childhood dream realized. For the same reason, people don’t realize that he didn’t leave Tuscaloosa willingly.

“Honestly, I didn’t leave Alabama, man. They left me,” Swinney said about his Bama tenure. “I’d probably still be there… I mean, I went to Alabama when I was 18. I left when I was 31, and I left because I didn’t have a job; they made a coaching change.”

After Gene Stallings departed Alabama in 1996, Mike DuBose became the next head coach, and he retained Swinney as WRs coach. But Alabama decided to fire DuBose since he couldn’t churn out results, and his whole staff, including Swinney, paid the price. However, if not for that firing, Swinney wouldn’t have gotten a 10-year, $115 million contract, and Clemson wouldn’t have become a powerhouse.