Clemson Tigers coach Dabo Swinney used to play football for the Alabama Crimson Tide. Still, maybe the coach should be a little less honest when talking about the idea of replacing Nick Saban when the current Bama coach retires.

In what will surely get a lot of attention, Dabo Swinney will not rule out replacing Nick Saban at Alabama. He could have, but he didn't. Instead, he used some good old fashioned coach speak to try to get by.

Going back in time a bit first, “You don’t ever say never,” the Clemson head coach said in November of 2015. “You don’t ever know what the circumstances would be at any given time.”

OK. That was a few years ago. Maybe he got smarter as to how to handle these things. However…

“I’ve always said you never say never because you never know what the dynamics will be,” the coach said Wednesday on the Kirk Herbstreit/Ian Fitzsimmons podcast.

Um, you should say “never” after being asked that. Even if you don't mean it, a coach can't run the risk of his current fan base getting all upset.

Oh well. It is what it is. To provide some context to this entire thing, below is TigerNet.com‘s transcription of the of that podcast when the Clemson coach was talking about maybe going to Bama one day.

They [Clemson] may run me out of here, they’ve [schools] fired Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno and you name it, so I don’t think about it,” Swinney said. “I just love what I do, whether or not I retire here or not, I have a long way to go. You can retire a lot worse places than Clemson, SC; this place is special. I love it. Who knows what God’s got in store for me down the road. I just kinda take it one day at a time, one year at a time. Hopefully, we can be about the right things and the right way. Who knows what God has planned for me 10-15 years down the road will be.”

Herbstreit pressed him on the issue if he would one day coach at Alabama after Nick Saban hangs it up.

“We just beat them [Alabama] for the National Championship I think,” Swinney joked. “First of all…anybody that would suggest that or say that I am humbled by that and certainly appreciate anybody that would even think that way that they would want me be a candidate for a job like Alabama or whatever. But that’s just kinda the fandom. You know people just naturally make connections and think things like that and they never really consider all factors. I’ve always said you never say never because you never know what the dynamics will be. Ten years from now, Alabama may call me and want me to come to Alabama and Clemson people may hate me at that point. I may have a terrible president or AD. There are dynamics that change. I have always focused on being great at where I’m at and blooming where I’m planted. All I know is there is nothing we can’t do here at Clemson. I don’t have to go somewhere else to win at the highest level.”