"Let the man cook": A look inside how Swinney might conduct his coaching search

Dabo Swinney faces another key coordinator hire.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Tue Jan 07 12:50:54 GMT-05:00 2025

“Let the man cook."

Clemson’s search for a new defensive coordinator is well underway, and like we’ve preached since the loss to Texas in the first round of the College Football Playoff, patience is the key. Rumors have run rampant and names have been tossed out there, but Swinney has done most of his work in radio silence.

He returned from his vacation home in southwest Florida Sunday, met with the coaches (the entire staff) Monday and released a statement about the school parting ways with former defensive coordinator Wes Goodwin. One quote stands out:

“I will start the interview process immediately and will hope to have our new defensive coordinator named by the end of the month or sooner,” Swinney said. “Our staff has been hard at work on our roster, and we look forward to solidifying our defensive coordinator position to help lead this extremely talented group as we pursue our goals for 2025.”

This aligns with what we’ve heard over the last 10 days or so. Swinney has been mostly focused on roster retention (and they’ve done a good job of making sure the main players return), and I was cautioned more than once that perhaps one or more of the targets were still involved in either the NFL or the College Football Playoff.

With the search fully underway, I reached out to a few people – one is a former coach, and one is a college football administrator, and both are familiar with Swinney and how Clemson operates.

My first question centered on Goodwin, and how so many of us questioned the hire at the time. Not because we didn’t believe Goodwin had the football chops, but because we wondered if his personality would translate into good coaching.

“I think we all wondered that,” the coach said. “Perhaps Dabo thought that the other coaches on that defensive staff would make up for those shortcomings. I don’t know. One thing I’ve heard is that when he first started at Clemson was that he wanted to ‘hire hungry’ and not necessarily go after the big name. Maybe he thought he could catch the proverbial lighting in a bottle with a hungry young guy. But with Goodwin, it just didn’t translate. I’ve heard he wasn’t relatable. And if you’re in that defensive room, you don’t want to speak over your boss. You don’t want to overstep your bounds. It makes it awkward. So, communication was probably a big issue.”

Hire hungry? Or a big name? This is where the administrator comes in.

“I think this is where the current era merges with the former era,” he said. “Coaches and administrators have always tried to placate the fan base and win the press conference. But winning the press conference doesn’t always mean you win the games. There are certain guys that are never going to win the press conference – you’ve seen that at Clemson – but are fantastic coaches.

“And in today's world with NIL and the transfer portal, average coaches can have a good year and good coaches can have a bad year. You have to dig deeper and do your due diligence on guys. Are they relatable? Can they come in be The Guy. Can they come in and immediately be the man in charge? And this is important to note, too. Garrett Riley came in and didn’t bring any of his guys with him. He was given his staff. The new guy may want to bring some of his people with him. How will that be handled? If it’s the right guy, you listen.”

I watched the FCS Championship game Monday night, and you can tell that both of those teams are well-coached with good schemes. There are good coaches out there – really good coaches – that no one hears about.

“Those guys run developmental programs, and they do more with less,” the coach said. “Those are the hungry guys. It’s not often you find a guy who makes millions and keeps that hunger – Nick Saban is an example of someone that money didn’t change. I would be looking all over the place – even at that level – for the right guy."

Back to the administrator's call.

“That goes back to winning the press conference or winning games. Can you do both? Absolutely. But Swinney has to get this hire exactly right. He has a talented team capable of winning it all next season, he just has to put the right pieces in place. Someone relatable who commands attention and can coach. People just have to let the man cook.”