Randy Smith
The late comedian Lewis Grizzard once described Clemson, South Carolina as being Auburn, Alabama with a lake. Physically, that may be true but that's where the similarities end. Clemson is a special place especially since Dabo Swinney took over as the Tigers' head football coach more than a decade ago. I'm not really speaking of championships but I'm speaking about teammates loving each other, and the community loving each other. I'm speaking about coaches staying at Clemson despite being offered more money to coach elsewhere.
I'm also speaking about the best tailgating experience you'll ever have at a college football game, the loudest stadium you'll ever hear and some of the friendliest fans in the country.
They all gathered at Memorial Stadium as part of a nearly full house last week to celebrate the Tigers' second national championship in the last three years. Coach Swinney talked about this team being the best team in college football history - a fact that is certainly debatable but also hard to argue with. Clemson finished with a perfect 15-0 record and their 44-16 win over Alabama in the championship game a week ago came against a team that was touted as the best team ever all during the regular season.
Swinney was presented the Bear Bryant Award as college football's coach of the year for the third time in the last four seasons but the real measure of his appeal as a college coach could be this fact - ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit is sending his sons to Clemson to play for Dabo. Herbstreit says it's because of the Clemson culture.
After accepting the national championship trophy and the Cotton Bowl trophy, Coach Swinney stated, "These trophies don't define us. Our culture defines us."
That term, "culture" is used a lot nowadays in football. A lot of times it's used in a negative way like when a new coach says, " We've got to change the culture around here." The culture around the Clemson program certainly doesn't need to change. On the way to the stadium for the celebration, the team and its coaches rode to the stadium in a parade as players tossed out Krispy Kreme doughnuts to the crowd that stood seven to eight deep along the parade route.
As senior All-American defensive tackle Clelin Ferrell said last week, "I won't be missing the championships we won. I'll miss the people we won them with."
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Randy Smith can be reached at rsmithsports@epbfi.com