Bill Shanks: Dabo Swinney has been worth the gamble at Clemson

Dabo Swinney was Clemson's wide receivers coach in 2008. He also was head coach Tommy Bowden's assistant head coach and the recruiting coordinator. Swinney was 39 years old and had never been a head coach before when Clemson fired Bowden and picked Swinney to take over for the rest of the season.

The selection of Swinney to even be the interim coach was a surprise, and then when Swinney got the full-time gig, many were shocked. There were other bigger names on Bowden's staff who might have had a more impressive resume.

Clemson instead went with a first-time head coach. It was a gamble. But Swinney was young and energetic and as the recruiting coordinator obviously connected well with the players to convince the powers-that-be that he deserved the chance.

The gamble worked. Swinney has had one losing season (in 2010) but since then has gone 56-11 and has Clemson prepared to play for the national championship Monday against Swinney's alma mater, Alabama.

So what made Swinney the right choice for Clemson? Why did he, as a first-time head coach, work?

It's interesting as to why some coaches succeed and others don't. Timing has something to do with it, as does the situation of what the coach is inheriting. It's intriguing why some first-time coaches who look like perfect candidates struggle and even fail and some you never imagined would be special (like Swinney) turn out to be very good head coaches.

Why did Will Muschamp fail at Florida? Unlike Swinney, Muschamp had served as a coordinator for 10 years before getting the chance to be a head coach. He was even mentioned as a candidate at Clemson before Swinney got the permanent job, but Muschamp was given the title as head coach-in-waiting at Texas and stayed on Mack Brown's staff until Florida called.

Muschamp was young and energetic, like Swinney. He was a great recruiter, like Swinney. Muschamp arguably had a much better resume to be a first-time head coach than Swinney. But Muschamp never turned the corner in his four years with the Gators.

Now, I believe Muschamp will do a better job with his second chance at South Carolina. Sure, he has to calm down a bit and learn to not go crazy on the sideline with every bad call. But certainly Muschamp will learn from his mistakes in Gainesville and do things differently in Columbia.

Coaches usually do better the second time around. Bill Belichick is the perfect example. He was not very good in his five years in Cleveland as the Browns' head coach in the early 1990s. But look at what Belichick has done in New England. He's a Hall of Famer, with four Super Bowl titles as a head coach.

Belichick has admitted he was better the second time around, that he learned from what went wrong in Cleveland and did not make the same mistakes again.

All head coaches serve time as assistants first, but some go to smaller programs as a head coach first (like Mike Bobo, for example) before moving up to a higher level. But when an assistant gets a big job without ever being a head coach before, it's always interesting to wonder how he'll do.

Will Kirby Smart be like Swinney at Clemson or his buddy Muschamp at Florida? Smart has a great resume, as he has been around the best coach in college football for most of his career. Smart's dad was a high school head coach, so he has been around coaching his whole life. He was the right fit for Georgia, but does that guarantee Smart will succeed?

Swinney should be Smart's role model. It turns out Swinney was the perfect choice at Clemson, even though when he was hired it was quite a gamble. Since he has never been a head coach before Smart is a gamble, too, but it's hard to imagine him suffering the same fate as Muschamp did at Florida.

Some coaches make it, while others don't. In reality, it's just a gamble every time.

Listen to "The Bill Shanks Show" from 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WPLA Fox Sports 1670 AM in Macon and online at www.foxsports1670.com. Follow Bill at twitter.com/BillShanks and email him at thebillshanksshow@yahoo.com.

This story was originally published January 5, 2016 at 2:50 PM with the headline "Bill Shanks: Dabo Swinney has been worth the gamble at Clemson ."