The perception from Gamecock fans has been that Dabo is a bit of a clownish buffoon. He’s all rah-rah with players and sometimes comes across as more of a cheerleader than a coach. Fair or not, he’s been pegged as more of a great recruiter and motivator and manager and less of an Xs and Os coach. Now I have no idea if that’s perception or reality, though if you watch him on sidelines he does not seem to be overly engaged in down-to-down play calling, but is involved in the big decisions.
Clemson fans of course think he’s the best coach in the nation and that all the clown-act, drunk frat boy stuff is BS and really just Dabo motivating the fan base.
My take is that both are right and both are wrong. Dabo is both a rah-rah cheerleader who comes across as clownish at times, and he’s a great coach (there’s just no denying that anymore). The best comparison I can come up with is to envision a young Lou Holtz without the lisp.
On thing about him is he is recruiting 24/7/365. Everything he does and says is with recruiting in mind. When he delivers Christmas hams to widows he makes sure cameras are rolling and ESPN knows about it. When there are spontaneous baptisms at practice he makes sure the local paper of that top recruit whose parents are devout Southern Baptist runs a nice story in the Sunday edition. It doesn’t mean his actions aren’t sincere, but he never, and I mean never, misses an opportunity to turn something into a recruiting op.
I went thru having Lou Holtz as coach at USC, and while I’m not a huge fan of that style of corny rah-rah stuff, I certainly supported him and pulled hard for his teams while he was here, and recognized that underneath all the schtick was a good coach whose players loved him. Dabo falls into this arena IMO.
As for recruiting issues, if there are any they've not been made public. He seems to recruit within the rules, but he does have a reputation for negative recruiting. Things like providing parents and/or recruits articles of crimes in Columbia and other competing school towns. He was quoted as telling recruits that clemson was the "Christian school in the state". He supposedly sent parents articles about an opposing coach caught urinating on the streets. He allegedly told Clowney's mom that Clowney would end up in jail if he went to USC. So while he seems to follow ncaa rules, there does not appear to be much he's not willing to do or say within the rules to land a recruit. But anyone thinking he's the only coach out there doing that is naive.
Anyway, that’s a local SC take from a non-insider.
