Swinney's crisis management has Tigers closing in on 1st division title

CLEMSON -- Clemson's season has been brought back from the brink again and again.

Dabo Swinney has no accredited training in crisis management, yet he might receive speaking offers on the subject after taking the Tigers from the verge of disaster to the threshold of the program's first Atlantic Division title.

There was the 24-0 deficit at Georgia Tech in Week 2.

There was the trying week after the Maryland loss, when criticism reached its peak.

Most recently, there was a 16-play, third-quarter drive engineered by Florida State quarterback Christian Ponder, pushing the Tigers' ACC title hopes to the edge.

The touchdown drive gave Florida State a 24-21 lead. Trotting off the field, Clemson defenders passed blame and pointed fingers. They had lost discipline and composure. The score rekindled nightmares of Matt Ryan's efforts at Death Valley two years earlier, taking a division title from the Tigers.

Seeing the body language, Swinney huddled the entire defense.

'I said, ‘Listen guys, we've taken their best shot and it's a three-point game,' ' said Swinney, who turns 40 Friday. ' ‘Let's settle down and in the fourth quarter we'll win it. We are the better football team.' They just believed it. I said, ‘Don't worry about the scoreboard. Don't get caught up in all that other stuff. … I've seen too many things in my life. Battle. Don't quit.' '

For the next 20 minutes, Clemson shut out Florida State en route to a 40-24 victory.

The huddle is the sort of real-time response crisis management expert Jon Bernstein — a five-year veteran of U.S. Military Intelligence covert operations — says is critical in leadership.

'It's what the military calls situational awareness,' Bernstein said. 'It's an intuitive ability to stay calm when people are shooting at you. That's not something you can train. That's why leaders of teams need to be people that have that innate ability.'

Clemson defensive coordinator Kevin Steele has another explanation: 'Everyone loses composure. The key is not going over the edge.'

Clemson skirted the edge of a morale-crippling blowout against Georgia Tech.

The Tigers limped into the break, 24-7, a half eerily similar to their blowup against Alabama on national television to begin last season in Atlanta.

At halftime, the team first huddled in position units where Swinney credits the 'rare' leadership of Thomas Austin, no stranger to stories of crisis, having been born in West Point to a father who fought with the 101st Airborne and 3rd Armor Division in the first Gulf War — and tight end Michael Palmer.

'I've honestly never felt better about being in a locker room at halftime,' Palmer said. 'I don't think there was a single person that didn't believe we were going to come back.

'Just seeing everybody talk, hearing what was going on, and then Coach Swinney comes in and brings everyone together. … It was a really cool feeling.'

Unlike the Alabama debacle, the Tigers rallied, holding a fourth-quarter lead before falling.

'I told them after the game, ‘I know we didn't win, but when I saw your reaction and response to adversity … guys, I know we can be a special team,' ' Swinney said.

Swinney said that's when he knew this team could win.

The most perilous moments followed the Maryland loss.

Falling to 2-3, Swinney readied for a hurricane of criticism as he met with the media following the game in College Park. The storm came, including a reported power struggle between Napier and Swinney, which Swinney said was untrue.

Swinney says critical in the reversal of fortune, in five straight wins, was the decision to produce a horror film — a video of 35 plays gone awry, resulting in losses to Maryland, Georgia Tech and TCU.

'The best thing we did is I made everybody sit in there and watch that film,' Swinney said. 'I made sure everyone understood what our problems are. It was up to us to go and fix them … everybody take ownership.

'I made sure everybody listened to the right things. Everybody (outside the program) has an opinion and they don't have a clue.'

Said Palmer: 'A lot of people were telling us how bad we were. We really didn't have a choice but to play for each other.'

By turning the tide, the season is on the brink once more — the brink of history.

Reach Travis Sawchik at tsawchik@postandcourier.com and check out his Clemson blog at www.postandcourier.com/blogs/tiger_tracks.