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Dabo's head coaching career - it's been a wild ride

Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney celebrated his 10th anniversary of his first game as interim head coach in an unusual way.

CLEMSON – So what did Clemson coach Dabo Swinney do on the Saturday of his team’s bye week, which also happened to be the 10th anniversary of his being named the Tigers’ interim head coach on Oct. 13, 2008?

Watch football? Nope.

Break down N.C. State video tape? Try again.

“I rode an unbelievable roller coaster,” Swinney said.

Swinney, who was in Ohio for a funeral, joined his sons in riding Top Thrill Dragster, a ride at Cedar Point, the world’s second-oldest amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio.

Top Thrill Dragster is one of the world’s tallest rides at 400 feet and the second-fastest, reaching speeds of 120 miles an hour.

“You get on this thing and it’s like a long runway,” Swinney said. “It’s like a drag (race)…red, yellow, green, go and you’re going from zero to 120 miles an hour and it is forever. Then, all of a sudden, you’re straight up and you’re like on a rocket going into the sky. Then you’re going straight down. It’s unbelievable.

“So that’s what I did on my anniversary – I was just thinking about surviving that roller coaster ride. I don’t even know what the name of it was, but it was freezing. If anybody likes roller coasters, you’ve got to go ride this roller coaster. I still can’t believe I rode it. It was crazy.”

Swinney’s career trajectory has been a fun ride as well, albeit with far more ups than downs.

Since the Tigers went 6-7 in his second season and lost to South Florida in the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, Swinney’s fortunes have taken quite an uptick.

At 6-0 this season, Clemson is bearing down on its program-record eighth consecutive season with 10 or more victories. Since 2011, Swinney’s record is 88-15 with three Atlantic Coast Conference championships and a national title.

The Tigers are tied with Alabama by having been ranked in the Top 10 for 51 consecutive weeks dating back to the 2015 season and could take another big step toward a fourth straight ACC Atlantic Division title with a win against No. 15 N.C. State on Saturday.

“They’ve had an open date as well,” Swinney said. “It’s going to be a big game, man. There are not many undefeated teams left out there and you’ve got two of them facing off Saturday in the valley. It’ll be two teams who are passionate about winning.”

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