Some college football bonds go beyond the field. They don’t fade when the locker is cleaned out or when the NFL spotlight takes over. And for Clemson’s one of the most popular QBs, Trevor Lawrence, that bond still runs deep with the man who helped launch his rocketship of a career, Dabo Swinney. It’s not just respect. It’s something more. In a recent conversation, the former Clemson star QB pulled back the curtain on what made Swinney one of the most powerful voices in his life.
We’ve seen plenty of coaches who call the plays, pace the sideline, and drop buzzwords like “culture” and “grit.” But for Trevor Lawrence, Dabo was more about belief than words. He was that rare figure in college football who could walk into a team meeting, talk for 40 minutes straight, and still leave players ready to run through brick walls. So, what exactly made Swinney so magnetic to someone who now leads the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sundays?
Lawrence laid it all out. He said, “First of all, I love the guy, like genuinely. Like I’m not saying that cause I played for him. Like, he is awesome.” You could hear it in his voice. It was real. “There’s a ton of people that love him, there’s a lot of people that don’t like him… but what you see really is what you get with him. Like he doesn’t put on a face.” For Lawrence, that authenticity set the tone every single day. Whether the team was prepping for a big game or playing a cupcake opener, the energy stayed the same. And so did Dabo. “That’s why sometimes he’ll say stuff in media and people would kill him for it… and he just doesn’t care.”
Former Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence was on Pardon My Take and got the chance to talk about Dabo Swinney:
“He would make you believe you could do anything. It didn’t matter who we were playing, we are gonna kill these dudes. He was awesome.”
: @PardonMyTake pic.twitter.com/G3MjnZr2vq
— Grayson Mann (@gray_mann21) July 14, 2025
What truly stuck with Lawrence wasn’t Dabo’s game scheming; it was his unmatched ability to motivate, and if you’ve ever seen Clemson’s ‘Run down the hill’ with Swinney leading the pack, then you’ve seen the hype-man firsthand. “He’s not an offensive coordinator. He wasn’t a coordinator. He was a position coach and straight to head coach,” Lawrence explained. “But he’s like a motivator, a visionary.” That vision was about transforming a roster full of teenagers into warriors who believed they could take down anyone in the country. “Our team meetings would be so long. But honestly, like, he kept our attention… Like he would make you believe you could do anything. It didn’t matter who we were playing, we are gonna kill these dudes. He was awesome.” If you’ve ever wondered how Clemson looked so fearless year after year, there’s your answer.
And Swinney’s aura is just increasing year by year, even after being one of the longest-serving coaches in present-day CFB. Lawrence may have moved on to NFL Sundays, but when he talks about Dabo Swinney, it’s clear that the fire still burns. And maybe that’s what makes Clemson different. Their blueprint? It’s built on conviction.
Belief Vs belief
Now, call it shade or praise, we can’t tell you. But Brian Kelly just said something about Cade Klubnik that has left everyone shocked. He compared the improvement he saw on film from Cade Klubnik last year to Jayden Daniels and said, “Not that prolific … but if you take his opener against UGA vs. where he finished, it’s night and day. What I see more than anything is a guy that has had great strides, made great improvement, and is playing really confident football.” Now, let us tell you something, Kelly is onto Clemson. Ain’t no way he is losing his 4th straight opener as LSU head coach.
In a video posted by Chessa Bouche, Kelly was saying, “If you go through our weight room, we’ve got a Clemson paw prints on the bags that we hit every day. It’s on every monitor in the building. It’s on every monitor in the building to go 1-0.” LSU opens the 2025 season against Clemson, and Kelly is turning that date into a mission statement. It’s about snapping their 0-3 record in season openers.
Kelly knows that elite programs operate on motivation (something that is Dabo’s forte). “I use the analogy, when I work out, I have a clock in front of me,” he said. “That’s what this is. This is the clock in front of them, saying this is where we start this.” It’s a mirror image to Dabo Swinney’s approach, as described by former Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence. Both the coaches’ schemes up belief. “He would make you believe you could do anything,” Lawrence said. That’s what made Clemson so lethal under his leadership. Kelly’s method may be more structured, but the intent is the same: create a vision your players can buy into.
It’s fitting, then, that LSU’s season begins against a team defined by motivation. Clemson’s edge came from Swinney’s relentless confidence. LSU might come from turning pain into purpose. Whether it’s paw prints in the weight room or fiery speeches behind closed doors, Kelly is leaning into symbolism to spark results. And when Week 1 arrives, it will be Tigers vs. Tigers and belief vs. belief.
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