Dabo Swinney will always be touted as a potential future Alabama coach when Nick Saban steps down, but it’s not something he thinks about.
The Clemson coach admitted that things could always change down the line, but at the moment, he doesn’t pay any attention to Alabama rumors.
“People always like to say one plus one equals two, and it’s a simple thing,” Swinney said, via David M. Hale of ESPN. “I don’t pay any attention. I was at Alabama 13 years. I love Alabama and always will. That won’t change. But I’m going on my 17th year at Clemson, my 11th as head coach. I love where I am, love what I do.
“Who knows? They may do away with college football in three years. There may be no college football. They may want to professionalize college athletics. Well, then, maybe I’ll go to the pros. If I’m going to coach pro football, I might as well do that. I may get a terrible president or a terrible AD one day. I don’t know. I have no idea what’s down the road. But I know what we have at Clemson is special, and I wanted to make a commitment to the university.”
The big reason why this isn’t worth thinking about right now is that Saban is showing no signs of slowing down, and he’s taking steps to be physically able to coach for a while yet. The speculation is fun, but it may be quite some time before Alabama even has to confront the possibility of replacing Saban.
