Dabo Swinney was not expecting it at all.
Just a few hours earlier, his Clemson Tigers had just won the national championship. He, along with some of his old friends and members of his coaching staff, were sitting around the television in their Tampa, Fla., hotel watching the highlights from their 35-31 win over Alabama, while smoking a victory cigar.
It was about that time, somewhere around four in the morning when defensive tackles coach Dan Brooks leaned into Swinney and said, “Coach I think I’m done.”
“I just looked at him and my heart just dropped,” Swinney said.
Swinney knew this day would one day come, but he was not expecting it right then.
Brooks had been with Swinney since the beginning, joining the Clemson staff after Swinney got the job in December of 2008. He was there when the Tigers advanced to their first ACC Championship Game a year later and when they won their first ACC title in 20 years two years later, and of course he was there on that cool night in Tampa when the Tigers won Clemson’s first national championship in football since 1981.
“I certainly hate to see Dan retire. I tried to talk him out of it, but man he earned it,” Swinney said.
Brooks did earn it as he made Clemson’s defensive tackle one of the more feared units in college football. During his eight seasons in Clemson he coached up guys like Jarvis Jenkins, Brandon Thompson, Grady Jarrett, DeShawn Williams and D.J Reader, who are all playing in the NFL.
This year, he coached All-American Carlos Watkins, who likely will go in the top two rounds in the 2017 NFL Draft this April. He is also responsible for bringing in All-American Christian Wilkins, Freshman All-American Dexter Lawrence and Scott Pagano.
Current and former players all express how much they love playing for Brooks and what he means to them outside of football. The same goes for Swinney.
“I love Dan Brooks. He is just a mountain of a man,” Swinney said. “He is a gentle soul. He has been so good for the game and has impacted so many lives. He is just loyal. He is a joy to work with every single day.”
However, Swinney says he gets it. After 43 years in the coaching business and 412 games as a college coach, he understands why Brooks, who is 65, wants to call it a day as a football coach.
“He won the national championship and he was like drop the mic and rides off like John Wayne,” Swinney said with a smile. “What do you say? He said he thought about it this summer, but typical Dan he did not want anyone to know anything because he does not want anything to be about him. That is how he is.
“He was mad that I made a big deal out of it at the parade and the banquet and all of that. But man, he deserved it and so did Kathy, his wife.”
—Above photo: Former Clemson defensive tackles coach Dan Brooks waves to the crowd during the College Football Playoff National Championship celebration last month at Memorial Stadium. (Dawson Powers-USA TODAY Sports)
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