Cal’s Tosh Lupoi is heading into just his fourth game as a college football head coach, and Friday night’s matchup at Memorial Stadium drops him straight into a meeting with one of the sport’s most established names.
Across the field at 7:30 p.m. will be Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, who is set to coach his 244th game for the Tigers over 19 seasons. The experience gap is obvious, and so is the résumé gap.
Swinney, 56, has won 189 games, which ranks third among active FBS coaches. His .778 winning percentage trails only Georgia’s Kirby Smart at .851. Under Swinney, Clemson has won nine ACC championships and two national titles, and he’s been named the Paul “Bear” Bryant national coach of the year three times.
Lupoi isn’t pretending otherwise. He knows exactly who he’s dealing with.
“Faced him on multiple occasions in national championships,” Lupoi said. “Got a lot of respect for him and his organization, how he carries himself as a man and a coach. Super fired up about this opportunity ahead and excited.”
Those championship meetings came from 2015 through ’18, when Lupoi was on Nick Saban’s Alabama staff, first as an assistant and later as defensive coordinator. Clemson beat Alabama in 2015 and ’18, with the Crimson Tide taking the title in ’16 and ’17.
For Lupoi, those games only reinforced what Swinney has built.
“They’ve had great players . . . but I think him as a leader, he’s obviously doing a lot of things right,” Lupoi said. “I don’t have an intimate personal relationship with him.
Shaken his hand a number of times and had a few quick conversations, and his resume and his body of work speaks for itself. Just a very respected head coach in our profession.”
Clemson has not looked quite as untouchable lately. The Tigers went 7-6 last season and opened this year with a 51-10 loss to LSU before winning their last two games.
“Don’t know a whole lot about what’s going on over there,” Lupoi said. “He’s had a lot of success.”
Still, Lupoi said the attention inside his program stays on Cal. The Bears enter at 2-1 overall and 1-0 in the ACC, and he downplayed the idea of treating the night as a personal measuring stick against a future Hall of Famer.
“Don’t put a lot off thought into it.
“We’re trying to grow our team and, starting with me, just focus on self-improvement. Anything I can do better for us.”
Lupoi said Tuesday morning’s practice was one of Cal’s best of the season, and he pointed to the team’s progress as the real storyline.
“Seeing our team grow from Week 1 to Week 2 to Week 3, that’s the goal,” he said. “We want to be like bamboo.”
After a few guesses from reporters missed the mark, Lupoi explained the metaphor.
“Bamboo, once to breaches the surface, it takes two months to grow to its full potential. And it typically takes three to five years to harvest,” he said. “So the nurturing that goes into that, the preparation, right?
“Voicing that to our team of that’s what you hope for is all our work, once it pops you start to really start see some growth and fast improvement. That’s what we’re trying to do.”
Hmmm. Wonder if Dabo ever discusses the growth potential of bamboo with his teams.
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