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Dabo Swinney just got paid. One of the best college football coaches in the country — and winner of two of the past three national titles — the Clemson Tigers head coach received a historic contract extension to stay in the purple and orange until the 2028 season, inking a 10-year, $93 million deal, per Bruce Feldman of FOX Sports.
The new contract for Dabo doesn’t only make him the highest-paid coach in college football in terms of overall value, and bumped his annual average salary to an insane $9.3 million, but, with that annual breakdown, Swinney’s now earning more than almost ever head coach in the NFL. Who says you ever have to leave college?
Just to see how insane this new Dabo Swinney contract is, take a look at how his salary is broken down over the life of the contract, which also includes a $4 million buyout.
$93 million for Dabo. pic.twitter.com/wpAtcBR0qf
— Tim Reynolds (@ByTimReynolds) April 26, 2019
The 49-year-old Swinney has been with the Clemson Tigers since the 2008 season, and has built the program into an absolute powerhouse. Not only has he won the two national titles mentioned earlier, but he’s routinely sent his players to the NFL, too, with three of his top defensive lineman — Clelin Ferrell (4), Christian Wilkins (13) and Dexter Lawrence (17) — all going in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft. Armed with soon-to-be sophomore quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who led the Tigers to the national championship last season, Dabo and the good ol’ boys will be back at it again in 2019.
In Dabo Swinney’s 10+ seasons at Clemson, he’s led the team to an absurd 116-30 record, and, while he’s more than earned the deal based off of his production at the school, the enormous salary may be criticized given his previous comments from a 2014 interview about student-athletes’ free education over the argument that players should be paid, per the Post and Courier.
“We’ve got enough entitlement in this country as it is. To say these guys get nothing totally devalues an education. It just blows my mind people don’t even want to quantify an education.
“I didn’t get into coaching to make money—coaches weren’t making any money when I got into coaching. It’s what I wanted to do with my life, and I was able to do it because of my education. That’s what changed my life. That’s what changes everybody’s life.”
Who knows if those will come back to bite Dabo Swinney in terms of criticisms, but, if that’s the case, he can laugh all the way to the bank with the millions of dollars he just got from Clemson to try and silence the haters.