Dabo Swinney opens up on his relationship with Bobby Bowden as he aims for ACC wins record

When head coach Dabo Swinney leads the Clemson Tigers into Tallahassee to take on the Florida State Seminoles, he’ll have a chance to make history by setting the record for most wins as an ACC head coach. In doing so, he’d pass Bobby Bowden on Bobby Bowden Field.

While Bowden is famed for his time at Florida State and Swinney is for his work at Clemson, the two still had a strong relationship, which Swinney opened up about as he aims for the ACC wins record this week.

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“Honestly, if Bobby Bowden could poof, pop down here with his hat on he’d probably smile,” Dabo Swinney said. “We’re both from Birmingham. He went to Woodlawn High. My mom went to Woodlawn High. We were friends. So, I don’t know — if God blesses us, if that happens, I think Coach Bowden would be fine.”

Dabo Swinney who has only played and coached at Alabama and Clemson in his career, never worked for Bobby Bowden. He did, however, coach under Tommy Bowden, one of Bobby’s sons.

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“In fact, he kind of claims me. I’ve got a great letter in my office. He kind of claims me as one of his own. He said, ‘I hope that doesn’t offend you,’ is kind of what he wrote in the letter. ‘I just see you as one of my own.’ So, I think that’s one of the greatest compliments that I’ve ever gotten and I’ve got voicemails from him, even to this day that I’ve kept long after he was done playing. He would just call to encourage me. He’s a big letter writer,” Swinney said. “There’s probably some people out there that got some letters from Bobby Bowden. He was a big letter writer and I’ve got a couple of them framed that just mean a lot to me that he took the time to encourage me over the years.”

When Bobby Bowden retired, he left the game with a record of 173-53-1 as an ACC coach. He had 357 overall wins as a head coach in college, which is second all-time behind only Joe Paterno. That came over the course of 18 seasons. That was an all-time win mark that Dabo Swinney tied when Clemson beat Stanford last week, with his overall record being 173-44 in 17 seasons coaching in the conference.

George Welsh of Virginia is the next closest head coach in wins as an ACC head coach with 134 during his career. Meanwhile, North Carolina head coach Mack Brown is the second among active coaches with 110 wins.

“Hey, it may happen. I may get the record but Bobby Bowden, he’s still the best,” Swinney concluded.