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As part of Tigerillustrated.com's extensive unearthing of the history that led to Dabo Swinney becoming the figure who would transform not just a football program but an entire community, we take a glimpse back to the two-month period in 2008 when everything changed.
We present the audio from some key moments during that timeline:
-- The introduction of Swinney as interim coach on Oct. 13, 2008, when Tommy Bowden suggested a change to AD Terry Don Phillips and Phillips shocked many by elevating a receivers coach who had no head-coaching or coordinating experience;
-- The coach's show that followed his first victory in charge, an exhilarating and vital triumph at Boston College that snapped a three-game losing streak to the Eagles;
-- The press conference that followed a convincing victory over rival South Carolina, which sealed the removal of the interim title. Swinney, on what it was like to hear the crowd chanting his name as the final seconds ticked off: "I felt like Britney Spears."
-- The news coverage that accompanied the press conference two days later to announce his hiring.
(A shout out to @MBRO for preserving a lot of the key stuff from these days on his YouTube feed)
A Dabo Swinney retrospective
And here are the previous two in case you missed them:
Patrick Sapp
Jerome Hall (father of PJ)
