TAMPA, Fla. — It began with a walk. Eight years ago, Dabo Swinney took over Clemson’s football program as an interim head coach and instituted a pregame constitutional for his players before every home game, a “Tiger Walk” that sent the players through a mob of fans on their way into the stadium.
The purpose, Swinney said, was to instill a greater sense of pride and purpose. The larger hope, he thought, was that it could be the beginning of Clemson’s rise from a should-be-great program to one of real national prominence.
It was.
From that first walk (which was followed, it should be noted, by a late blown lead and crushing loss to Georgia Tech), Swinney pushed and prodded and raised Clemson — finally — to the place he had always imagined.