Seven years ago, Clemson put all four paws squarely on the panic button.
The Tigers started 3-3, so coach Tommy Bowden had to go. They promoted James Christopher Swinney, their receivers coach and top recruiter, as the interim guy. The feeling was that Swinney would get the Tigers to the end of the season without serious injuries or crimes, then go back to selling real estate, his job in 2002.
Clemson went only 4-3 the rest of the way, but beat South Carolina, and that got Swinney the big chair. Today every coach in college football is less “interim” than Swinney, a high-motor, camera-aware type of fellow known to one and all as “Dabo.