ESPN.com · Sep 26, 2025
Wetzel: Mike Gundy dug in his heels and got left behind
Back in November of 2015, when his Clemson program was still barreling toward a national title (it would win two of them), Dabo Swinney spoke about the life cycle of a business.
"You've got the birth. You've got the growth. You've got plateau. You've got decline. And you've got death," Swinney said. "Those great businesses out there, those great programs, they don't plateau.
"So how do you do that?" he continued. "You have to constantly reinvent, reinvest, reset, learn, grow. You change. You have to do that. You don't just change to change, but you have to always challenge yourself each and every year and make sure, 'OK, this may be how we've done it, but is it still the right way?'"
