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Jack In The Box -- Pat Swilling: An Appreciation
By Jack Wilkinson
Not to overstate, but when word came Thursday that Pat Swilling was named to the College Football Hall of Fame, a thought occurred: Swilling was not just a great defensive end who helped resurrect Georgia Tech football, but a four-year starter who helped insure that Division I-A football would continue on the Flats.
"A program changer," recalled Bill Curry, the head coach for whom Swilling had the good fortune to play for 1982-85, and who was just as fortunate to have Swilling at his disposal.
"He was a dominant force in all the right ways," said Curry, now the head coach at Georgia State, "at a time when we desperately needed him to be just that."
In 1981, Curry's second season as head coach at his alma mater, he sat in his office one day and posed a question to a highly-touted recruit from Toccoa, Ga. "Do you want to do something good," Curry asked, "or do you want to do something great?"
"Great," Pat Swilling replied. Better yet, he signed a letter-of-intent to play for the Jackets. This, at a time when Georgia Tech football was not only dreadful, but barely removed from pigskin life-support.
In the late 1970s, under another former Tech star -- Pepper Rodgers --, the Jackets were mediocre, at best. Even worse, Dr. Joseph Pettit, then president of the Institute and hardly an ardent football advocate, was considering de-emphasizing the sport. Imagine: Georgia Tech, once the home of Heisman, Alexander and Dodd, in danger of becoming the Princeton of Deep South football? Yes.
Fortunately, Bobby Dodd, as well as Kim King and several other prominent Tech alumni, along with athletic director Doug Weaver, helped dissuade Pettit. Once Rodgers was fired following another losing season in 1979 season, Tech turned again to another familiar figure: Curry, who had no head-coaching experience.
The kid who grew up on a Toccoa farm and starred at Stephens County High started at defensive end as a freshman on the Flats. Tech finished a much-improved 6-5, only to stumble back to 3-8 in 1983 in its ACC debut. Stumble, but not fall.
Not once Don Lindsey came to Tech, and Pat Swilling came into his own.
"The bell cow." That's what Lindsey, the architect and orchestrator of Tech's famed "Black Watch" defense of the mid-`80s, called Swilling. A defensive guru and genius as a coordinator at Arkansas and later Southern Cal, Lindsey was hired at Tech in the spring of 1984. The defensive dividends began that fall, and never abated. Not with Swilling starring as the, uh, "bell cow?"
"No," he told a reporter in September, 1984, "I don't care for the bell cow." But then, neither did Tech's opponents.
To the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, the bell cow is: "A cow, especially the lead cow of a herd, having a bell attached to a collar around its neck so that the herd can be located easily."
To Tech, Lindsey and his defense, the bell cow was Swilling: A menacing 6-foot-4, 245-pounder with 4.7 speed in the 40; officially listed as an outside linebacker, essentially a ferocious pass rusher off the edge who could also be located easily: In the opposing backfield -- specifically, in the quarterback's face. Just listen for
the hit. No clanging bell around the neck necessary.
"I won't say he's the most important [defender]," John Guy, then
Tech's assistant coach for linebackers, said in '84 of Swilling, who
had just assumed the position of "Strike" (or strong-side outside
linebacker) as a disruptive key to Lindsey's defense. "But the goal of
the Strike is one of the most important in the system."
Tech opened that season 3-0, including a 48-3 rout of the Citadel in
which Swilling literally knocked Citadel quarterback Robert Hill out
of the game. Out of his senses, too. Tech finished 6-4-1 that fall,
including a 35-18 triumph at Georgia that stopped a six-year losing
streak to the Dogs. Swilling struck for five sacks that season. It was
merely an appetizer.
"I've never been in a game or coached a game where I saw somebody do
that," Curry said the following September, after Tech opened with a
28-18 victory at N.C. State in which Swilling sacked Wolfpack
quarterback Erik Kramer seven -- count 'em, seven -- times. The
first came on the game's third play, when Swilling hit the QB from
behind and sent his helmet flying. Kramer, duly cowed, heard bells all
right. All game.
"I really don't know why it happened," Swilling -- who perfectly
emulated his idol, linebacker Lawrence Taylor of the New York Giants --
said of his school-record seven sacks. "It just started happening. I'd
look up and the quarterback was there. This is the best game I've ever
played."
Not that John Guy was overly impressed. Hence, the message in Tech's
athletic dining hall a couple of days later, taped to a table:
"Pat Swilling, See Coach Guy Immediately."
Swilling's reaction? "Ah, coach Guy," he said that week, smiling. "My
best friend."
Maybe not. But Guy's intent was to do what Swilling had done to Erik
Kramer all afternoon: Bring him back down to earth. "Not to say he
didn't have a great game," Guy said the following week, "but he's
better. He's better than he played."
That fall, Swilling played better than he'd ever had. In part, he
said, because of...aerobics training? Yes. The strenuous, thrice-weekly
workouts in the off-season had markedly improved Swilling's
flexibility and strength.
"A lot of people think it's sissy," Swilling said of the aerobics two
days after creaming Kramer. "That's bull. It's as tough as playing
football. Aerobics puts you in every possible position like football.
It helps with my cardiovascular system and gives me quick recovery
after plays."
The "Black Watch," the nickname Lindsey conferred upon his defense
that fall, glorified big hitters and rewarded them, too. The prize: A
thick black stripe painted down the middle of Tech's otherwise
all-gold helmets. It went only to the heaviest of hitters -- especially
middle linebacker Ted Roof, the heart and soul of the Black Watch; and
to No. 99, Swilling, its most talented and dangerous Watchman.
That autumn, the Black Watch enabled the Jackets to go 9-2-1, losing
only to Virginia and Auburn, tying Tennessee and beating Georgia for
the second year in a row. Behind Swilling and Roof, the Black Watch
allowed just 10.7 points per game that year, holding opponents to
seven points or less five times.
Georgia Tech finished second in the ACC (5-1 in conference play) and
went to its first bowl in seven years. In the All-American Bowl in
Birmingham, Tech rallied to beat Michigan State 17-14, finish 18th in
the final UPI poll and post its best record since Bobby Dodd's last
team went 9-2 in 1966.
And Swilling? He was merely a first-team All-American selection by the
Football Writers Association of America, and an easy first-team
All-ACC pick. He left the Flats owning school records for sacks in a
game (7) and a season (15, also in '85), and tackles for loss. He was
fifth with 285 total tackles (second-best in Tech annals) and fifth in
career sacks (23).
And, it turned out, Swilling was merely beginning.
In 1986, he was drafted in the third round (the 60th overall pick) by New Orleans -- the first Georgia Tech defensive player drafted since Al Richardson in 1980. Playing with the Saints from 1986-92, Swilling was named the NFL Defensive Player of the Year in '89, when he set a league season record with 16.5 sacks. He broke that mark with 17 in 1991.
In his 12-year career, while wearing No. 56 -- a numerical homage to LT --, Swilling was a five-time Pro Bowl selection. He also played for Detroit (1993-94) and had two stints with Oakland (1995-96 and '98).
Already a member of the Georgia Tech Sports Hall of Fame, Swilling was later inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame (2004) and the New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame. More important, he graduated from Georgia Tech in 1991, having taken courses during the off-season. And in 2001, Swilling, who lives in New Orleans, was elected to the Louisiana State House of Representatives.
Come December, in a banquet in New York City, he'll be officially inducted as Tech's 17th member of the College Football Hall of Fame. Pat Swilling will also, and always be remembered as one of the key players who not only resurrected Georgia Tech football, but guaranteed its continued success on into the 21st century...and beyond.
"He was a warrior on the field, and he did the work in the classroom," Bill Curry said. "He was a great player and great leader, and I am very, very proud of him."
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 2009 Postseason Media Guide   2009 Media Guide  |
