‘My heart breaks for him’: Dabo reacts to Muschamp being fired at South Carolina
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney won’t be celebrating the coaching transition that’s going on at the Tigers’ in-state rival in Columbia, he said on his radio call-in show Monday night.
South Carolina announced that head coach Will Muschamp had been relieved of his duties Sunday night.
“We compete against each other and obviously that’s a rivalry and all that. But listen, these are lives. I’m not cheering that someone lost their job,” Swinney said. “It’s a very tough business, as we all know. And as coaches we all know you’re only as good as your last game, or certainly year-to-year. But it’s not something that you enjoy seeing.”
Swinney’s Tigers competed against Muschamp four times, going 4-0.
There are bigger things in life than football and it’s important to remember that, Swinney said.
“He’s got kids. He’s got a wife. I know it’s a passion for a lot of people, but this is our livelihoods. It’s what we have invested our lives in,” Swinney said. “So my heart breaks for him. I understand, I get it. But certainly thoughts are with he and his family, and know the good Lord will open up another door somewhere and they’ll hire a great coach down there and so forth. But it’s the really tough part of this business, that’s for sure.”
While Swinney said he didn’t get to know Muschamp well while he was in Columbia, he did spend some time with him when Muschamp was at Texas.
Swinney visited Texas in 2009 when Muschamp was working under Mack Brown.
“We’ve been around each other a few times and mostly have competed against each other. He was at Auburn and I was at Alabama. ... Probably the most time I spent with him was when he was at Texas,” Swinney said. “I went out with our staff and he was incredibly gracious with his time, super nice, really, really helpful. Spent a lot of time with our staff. That’s probably the most I have been around Will. The rest of the time it was always just competitive environments and stuff.”
This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 9:10 PM with the headline "‘My heart breaks for him’: Dabo reacts to Muschamp being fired at South Carolina."
