How long has Dabo Swinney been at Clemson? Exploring the CFB coach's career

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney is in the top 10 of longest-tenured college football coaches this season.

How long has Swinney been at Clemson, exactly? That's a question we'll answer here. Aside from that, we'll also explore the kind of job and benefits he's getting coaching one of the best college football programs in NCAA history. Maybe all that tenure really pays well, right?

How long has Dabo Swinney been at Clemson?

Swinney has been at Clemson for 15 years. He took over as the interim head coach on Oct. 13, 2008, and was promoted on Dec. 1, 2008, as the program's 27th head coach. The Tigers went 4-2 to close the 2008 regular season but suffered a 26-21 Gator Bowl loss to Nebraska.

After a 9-5 season in 2009, Swinney led Clemson to a disappointing 6-7 season in 2010, and many people called for his job. That year was punctuated by a 31-26 loss to South Florida in the Meineke Car Car Bowl.

But since then, Dabo Swinney's been nothing but great. In 2011, Clemson improved to 11-4. And for every single year from then on out, the Tigers have won at least 10 games, including an undefeated championship run in 2018. That was against Nick Saban's Crimson Tide, too.

Dabo Swinney's coaching salary

With seniority and experience comes a hefty payday, especially in the world of college football coaches. And Swinney is raking in the cash.

Last year, Swinney agreed to a massive 10-year, $115 million contract that locks him in as Clemson's coach until the 2030 season (via ESPN). This will see him earn around $11.7 million per year. It also solidified his place as one of the highest-paid college football coaches ever, alongside Nick Saban and Kirby Smart.

But before signing his new contract, the Clemson coach vocalized his opposition to players getting massive NIL deals.

Here's what he had to say about the new rules:

"I am against anything that devalues education. I am for anything that incentivizes education. People will come after me because I've always said that I'm against the professionalism of college athletics, and I am. Kids don't know what they don't know.

"That's a slippery slope if you professionalize college athletics, and now you've got salaries and taxes and you can fire kids on the spot and they've got to pay for their tuition and they pay for their housing and everything else."