ARLINGTON - Nearly 10 years ago, Dabo Swinney was an interim coach with a funny first name who somehow impressed the people at Clemson enough to name him head coach.
Aware of what he didn't know, Swinney contacted prominent coaches in college football after the season hoping for some insight, maybe a chance to observe.
He had zero success until reaching out to Mack Brown, then coach at Texas and now back in the ACC at North Carolina.
"And Mack was the only one that said OK," Swinney said Thursday at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl media day ahead of Saturday's game with Notre Dame.