It's now obvious Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney is one of the best head coaches in the country.
Swinney inherited a decent program and has turned it into one of the premiere destinations in the country for the best recruits coming out of high school.
For Swinney — who prides himself on selecting the right kind of player to come suit up for the Tigers — it starts with the kids' high school environments and cultures.
Luckily, the Clemson head coach has a gift for sensing a school's culture almost immediately, which helps him identify if a prospect is a good or bad fit for the Tigers' program.
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"When you get around a company that's got a great culture, you can smell it," Swinney said in an interview recorded on organizational culture for the Southern Textile Association/Join Fiber Buyer annual meeting in South Carolina. "You see it on the walls. You hear it. That's why I like to go on the road in December and January recruiting. I love to go to these schools, and I can spend five minutes at a place and know exactly what type of culture they're coming from. It's a culture of commitment, or it's a culture of compromise. I can tell just like that.
"Sometimes, I go to these places that don't have a whole lot, school's in bad shape, but there's so much pride in what they have. Sometimes I go to schools that have a lot, and it's a mess. There's entitlement, instead of empowerment. This is a program of empowerment here. That's the culture we've established."
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This is interesting stuff. It's nice to hear a coach break down the walls and offer a candid explanation of what he's looking for on the recruiting trail, not only from the player, but from the high school they come from.
Obviously Swinney's plan is working. He has a 103-29 record in his nine-year tenure at Clemson, and as we all know, led the 2016-17 to a victory in the College Football Playoff.
I'd be interested to know if he's ever gambled on a kid that came from an iffy culture, or if he always sticks to his guns.
