Dabo Swinney gives emotional tribute to Clemson's seniors

Senior Days have already begun to take place around the country, with many teams already having their final home games to send off the program veterans in front of the fans. Dabo Swinney will have to wait another week and a half for that, but that didn’t stop him from giving an emotional tribute to Clemson‘s seniors this week.

Simply put, he’s incredibly grateful to that group.

“This group’s been through a lot, man,” Swinney said. “They’ve been through COVID, post-COVID, they’ve been through a challenging season last year at 4-3 and, man, to respond the way we did, that team was amazing last year to go from 4-3 to 10-3, and then a 14-game winning streak. They’ve done a lot of things.

“They’ve been a part of the highest team GPA in the history of this football program, all of them are graduates. I think come postseason we’re going to have like almost 30 graduates, and several of them with two degrees, double majors, masters and all that stuff on this team. So it’s a special group.”

Clemson’s current seniors also still have a chance to do something they’ve done more than once in their careers.

Win and win big.

The Tigers are at 9-1 on the season and have locked up a spot in the ACC Championship Game. They have College Football Playoff aspirations.

“They’ve been through a lot. This senior group, they’ve never lost at home,” Swinney said. “I think that’s an unbelievable accomplishment, to this point, and something that’s important to them. They take a lot of pride in that, and I know they want to win these last two games at home, for sure. I know they want to win the ACC Championship. They’ve won a lot of championships.

“They’ve won a championship every year but last year. We kind of got knocked off the top of the mountain and these guys have the opportunity to finish back on top and win this league.”

Emotional tribute to Clemson’s seniors about key life transition period

One thing Clemson’s long-time head coach circled in on in praising his seniors is what an exciting time it is for them.

Whether or not the season has gone how they wanted it to, years of hard work and labor are coming to an end. For some, perhaps temporarily as they head to the next level. For others, it’ll be permanent, at least on the gridiron.

The lessons learned, though, can hopefully carry over into the rest of life.

“I love the senior player because that guy has put a lot of work in. You don’t make it in this program to be a senior without being very invested and putting a lot of work in,” Swinney said. “Just proud of those guys and always a special time to just kind of see that look in their eye, because they all kind of know… they’ve been so a part of it for so long you kind of get in that rhythm of life. You know what you’re doing next spring. You know what you’re doing in the summer. You know what you’re doing in the fall. When you show up, you kind of know what your three, four, five, six years are going to look like.

“Then this is that time that the sand’s kind of coming out of the glass and now you don’t know.”

Clemson wants to finish the 2022 season strong

The good news for the Tigers is these seniors aren’t in a position where they have to make that transition on a sour note. Some seniors around the country have seen their coaches go down with the program in their final year. Others have witnessed tragedy. For others still, there’s the journey not quite ending where the aim was.

Clemson has experienced the latter.

In his emotional tribute to Clemson’s seniors, Swinney highlighted one theme: Finish strong.

“Keeping these guys focused on finishing and really accelerating through the line of their career I think is something that we try to help them strive for each and every year because it’s going to mean something to them,” Swinney said. “That’s what I loved about that team last year down at the Cheez-It Bowl, man. Those guys fighting to finish.

“Then again, they start to realize they’re not going to be together every day. Nolan (Turner) didn’t get to go play with (James) Skalski. Them guys lived together for six years. They don’t get to be on the same team in the pros. They don’t get to do that. It’s kind of a different time. A lot of them have maybe relationships and they’re ready to take the next step or whatever in that. Am I going to make it in pro ball? Am I not? If I do, where am I going?”

Clemson will host Miami this weekend, then South Carolina the following week, on Senior Day.

Then it’s off to the ACC Championship and, however things unfold from there, the future for these seniors.

“And there’s just so many unknowns, so we just try to get these guys to really be in the moment, stay present and really finish and make sure that they’re prepared when that transition time comes,” Swinney said.