Dabo Swinney explains why the Gator Bowl has special meaning to him personally

Dabo Swinney has won national championships as the head coach of Clemson, however he still holds a soft spot in his heart for the Gator Bowl, where his Tigers are set to face Kentucky.

When Dabo Swinney took over the team in the middle of the 2008 season, Clemson wound up finishing the year with a loss in the Gator Bowl. Coincidentally, the next year, Swinney’s first full one, the Tigers landed in the Music City Bowl and faced none other than Kentucky, who they beat. The teams haven’t played nor has Clemson made a Gator Bowl since, but both will happen Friday.

Following Clemson’s first on-site practice Sunday evening at Fernandina Beach (Fla.) High School, Swinney went down memory lane and into what the Gator Bowl means to him personally.

“It’s great, this is where it all started for me. Right here. This was actually my recruiting area, I used to come down to Fernandina Beach all the time,” Swinney said in a video released by the team. “But the Gator Bowl is where I started as a GA (grad assistant) and it’s where I started as a head coach. And last time we were here, we went on a pretty good run in Clemson history, and that’s our expectation coming off this one.”

The Clemson head coach also discussed his long history getting teams to bowl games, noting he hasn’t missed one in nearly 20 years.

“This is my 29th bowl, I played in four and this is my 25th as a coach. The last time I wasn’t in a bowl, I guess it was 2004 when we had ‘The Brawl,’ and we didn’t get to go,” Swinney said, referring to the infamous 2004 on-field altercation between Clemson and South Carolina players, after which both teams self-imposed postseason bowl bans along with discipline from their respective conferences. “But it’s just great, great to go and spend some time with the team in a setting like this.”

It’s no secret the 2023 season was rockier than some of the team’s other years, but Dabo Swinney is proud of the run and current four-game win streak to even reach the Gator Bowl.

“And then to be 4-4 … I mean, everybody had a decision to make, and our team chose to believe it was still half-full, and kept a great attitude and just kept finding a way,” Swinney said.

“What we were able to do against some really good teams, four really, really good quarterbacks in a row, the credit belongs to these players. Because they made a choice to finish. And they’ve done a great job, they’ve won four in a row, from 4-4 to the Gator Bowl, and this is a great opportunity for us to finish our season on a really positive note, try to win five in a row and carry some momentum into the postseason.”

Now, the Gator Bowl vs. Kentucky offers an opportunity to carry even more momentum into the offseason.