Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney was briefly linked to the Alabama job upon Nick Saban’s retirement. That certainly wasn’t a surprise given Swinney’s prior connection to the university. The question of whether the national title-winning coach would return to his alma mater to replace Saban raged for years, and it even prompted Clemson to put an Alabama clause in his contract that called for a larger buyout if he left for Tuscaloosa than another job.