Dabo Swinney is breaking the mold of an interim football coach.

Most times the “interim” tag hangs like an albatross around the neck. Right or wrong, it carries with it the stigma of someone who is merely a warm body filling a spot until someone better comes along. Interims aren’t really expected to succeed — their only task is to not screw things up worse than they already are.

He knows the job is temporary, his employers know the job is temporary, and it’s understood that once the smoke clears he’ll be thanked for holding things together then promptly replaced.

Swinney has yet to put his interim head coach title to practical use — that’ll come later today when the orange-clad Clemson Tigers host Georgia Tech. But after taking the reins from Tommy Bowden Monday, the former Alabama player has talked and acted like someone bound and determined to make Terry Don Phillips shift a national search a tad closer to home.

Instead of being satisfied with a fleeting moment in the sun, Swinney has gone to work. Aside from being hands-on in practice and firing up the players (he already had their respect), he is also working the student body.

From initiating a Clemson version of “Tiger Walk” to convincing fans that what looked like a lost season isn’t, he is making all the moves normally reserved for a guy who knows he’s the guy who can get the job done.

“I have a saying on my desk, ‘There’s nothing less important than the score at halftime,’ ” he said. “That’s where we are, at halftime. It doesn’t matter about (the previous) six games, it’s what you do from this point forward — we could be 6-0, 0-6. I’ll do everything I can do to do the best job I can. One thing I don’t want to do is look back in December and say, ‘I wish I’d done this, I wish I’d done this.’ You’re looking at a coach with nothing to lose. We’re going to lay it all on the line and we’re going to have fun.”

Having played for Gene Stallings, Swinney knows a thing or two about laying it on the line. And he also has a national championship ring as a reminder of how hard work and sacrifice can sometimes lead to great, great things.

Of course, his best intentions won’t matter should Clemson limp to finish line. If the Tigers win a couple but lose a couple more down the stretch no one will blame Swinney — but that interim tag will have a capital “I” and there will be no guarantee that he or any of the current coaches will be back in 2009.

Yet, if this bunch starts to play like many thought they would before the season started and finishes with a flourish, who knows?

“I have one gear — wide open, and that’s the way I expect my team to play,” Swinney said.

Notice Swinney said “my” team. If his desire and enthusiasm translate into victories, maybe it really will be.