Vindication for Dabo Swinney comes with winning. If there’s evidence that he carries grudges it’s disguised by the big smile, the inspirational rhetoric and the stiff dance moves.
Those five straight losses to South Carolina are on him. Needled by former head coach Steve Spurrier, Swinney showed he was willing to dish smack back, so they struck an accord rather than allow it to further incite the acrimony between fans, played it for laughs and he took one back.
Swinney insisted, not quite convincingly, he doesn’t bother himself with the coach on the other sideline. Urban Meyer, Bob Stoops, Brian Kelly, Jimbo Fisher, Steve Spurrier or Shawn Elliott, it doesn’t matter.