Clemson's Dabo Swinney reaches out to Purdue's Gerad Parker

Current Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney was a wide receivers coach for the Tigers back in 2008 when Tommy Bowden was let go.

At that time, Swinney was then elevated to interim head coach and then the eventual head coach after the 2008 season.

For Purdue’s Gerad Parker, he hopes to follow the same path as Swinney. Former Boilermakers head coach Darrell Hazell was fired on Oct. 16 and Parker has stepped in as the interim head coach.

During today’s news conference – and on Twitter – Parker said that Swinney actually reached out to him and talked about what Parker is going to endure as the new head coach in the middle of a season.

I talked to Dabo Swinney yesterday. He took 26 minutes to talk to me. That's not for attention. He knows who our team is and reached out.

— Purdue Football (@BoilerFootball) October 25, 2016

That shows you why Clemson is where they are. He noticed some things he liked and some things he went through. It was unbelievable. -Parker

— Purdue Football (@BoilerFootball) October 25, 2016

Obviously the respect is there for Swinney, as it should be. The now ninth-year head coach at Clemson has turned the program into a recent juggernaut, making the College Football Playoff a year ago and currently has the Tigers sitting at 7-0 and No. 3 in the country.

If Parker follows Swinney’s career path perfectly, Boilermaker fans would be quite pleased.