WATCH: Dabo Swinney reveals compelling offer Nick Saban made to him in 2007

Dabo Swinney has had a successful run as a college football coach – there’s no question about it. After starting his coaching career at his alma mater Alabama, Swinney joined the Clemson coaching staff in 2003 and has never left – working his way up from wide receivers coach all the way to head coach.

While Swinney spent eight seasons at Alabama from 1993-2000 working in various roles, mostly coaching wide receivers and tight ends, he later joined Clemson’s staff in 2003 as the wide receivers coach. Swinney was later promoted to assistant head coach in 2007 during an important offseason for the coach.

Heading into the 2007 season, Swinney had the chance to return home to Alabama and rejoin the Tide’s coaching staff – this time under newly-hired head coach Nick Saban. However, Swinney decided to stay put at Clemson.

Swinney recently shared the story about his offer from Saban on The Players Club Podcast.

“On the surface it made sense, but it just wasn’t the right timing.”

In 2007, Coach Swinney (@ClemsonFB) turned down a $150k raise from Coach Saban (@AlabamaFTBL) to go back and coach at his Alma Mater as the Passing Game Coordinator.

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— The Players Club Podcast (@playersclub_pod) January 29, 2022

“Nick Saban gets the job in January of ’07,” Swinney said. “He gets the job, and he calls me and offers me a huge raise, passing game coordinator, coming back to home – and I’m like, man, I need a day to think about this. I just – I don’t know. … I didn’t know him. I didn’t know him at all.

“It was a week before signing day, C.J. Spiller had just come back here, and I’m just like, man … I just didn’t have peace about it. So, I stayed.”

While Swinney would’ve been able to return to Alabama and earn a much higher paycheck, he remained loyal to Clemson – and that payed off, as he was later hired as the Tigers’ head coach in 2009 after becoming the team’s interim head coach in 2008.

Now, Swinney has been Clemson’s head coach for 14 years – compiling an impressive overall record of 140-33 with two College Football Playoff national championships in 2016 and 2018.

“Sometimes the decisions that we make don’t make sense,” Swinney said. “I mean it was a $150,000 raise to go take this job. On the surface it all made sense, but it just wasn’t the right timing for me. … It wasn’t the right thing for me. And it would’ve been bad for Clemson. It just wouldn’t have been right.”