CLEMSON, S.C. — Not long after Clemson Coach Dabo Swinney learned his top-ranked Tigers would face Alabama in the College Football Playoff semifinals on Jan. 1, he offered a playful complaint. “I can’t seem to get away from these guys, as hard as I try,” Swinney said. But Swinney’s characteristically folksy remark actually masked a crucial truth: Swinney really has tried to get away from those guys. Advertisement Continue reading the main storyThere are dozens of head coaches knocking around college football who have copied Saban’s joyless exterior, C.E.O. mentality, fanatical devotion to detail and buttoned-down professionalism (all the more conspicuous in an “amateur” pastime).

Source: New York Times December 27, 2017 22:58 UTC