Clemson football's Dabo Swinney has a twin in the SEC — and it's time you met him
Sam Bennett would never describe himself as an avid follower of college football.
Heck, he didn’t even attend Texas A&M’s season-opening game last week.
“I’m not really that big of a football fan,” Bennett said. “But I do know who Dabo is.”
He should.
Since his high school days, Bennett has been compared to Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney, and rightly so.
Bennett, a 22-year-old senior golfer at Texas A&M, bears an uncanny resemblance to Swinney, 52.
He is, by an overwhelming majority of observers, considered a convincing Swinney look-alike – a Dabo doppelganger, if you will.
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So do you agree, Sam?
“Oh yeah,” he said without hesitation. “My buddy started saying I looked like Dabo in high school, then when I got to college our Director of Operations for the golf team started calling me ‘Samo’ because I looked like Dabo.”
It didn’t end there.
Fans in the galleries at June’s U.S. Open and other tournaments often would comment on Bennett and Swinney's clone-like countenances. Posts made on the Texas A&M golf team’s social media accounts have regularly prompted even more Dabo comparisons.
Bennett is expecting such to continue, particularly considering his elevated profile after his recent victory in the U.S. Amateur, which qualified him for the U.S. Open again in 2023 as well as the Masters and The Open.
“I’ll probably be hearing ‘Dabo’ a bunch,” said Bennett, a three-time All-American who set the school record with a 69.97 stroke average last season. “But sometimes I’ll just be walking around and random people will mention it.
"I wonder if Dabo has heard about it. He probably has no clue.”
Oh, rest assured Dabo is completely clued in.
During the U.S. Amateur, which Bennett won on Aug. 21 at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J., Swinney said he received numerous messages from friends telling him about his spitting image.
“Well, he is a good-looking young man,” Swinney said with a laugh when seeing their photos side by side for the first time. “Looking at this picture of me when I was a player at Alabama and this recent picture of Sam, I see it.”
Bennett not only has embraced the notion, but considers the comparison a compliment.
“He’s a cool-looking dude,” Bennett said. “I definitely think in 15 or 20 years that’s pretty close to what I’ll look like, too.”
For now, Bennett is focused on his final season of collegiate competition, and there's plenty at hand what with the Aggies scheduled to compete in four tournaments over the next six weeks.
“Winning the U.S. Amateur is a great accomplishment,” Swinney said. “I remember when (Clemson golfer) Doc Redman won it a few years ago and now he is on the PGA Tour. Looks like Sam is following that same path.”
No question there. Bennett, who’s from Madisonville, Texas, about an hour-and-a-half north of Houston, plans to join the professional ranks in May.
Bennett says he’s played golf in South Carolina at Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head while on vacation, but would love to return – and perhaps play a round with Swinney.
If given the opportunity, Dabo would oblige.
"Maybe he can give me a few lessons," Swinney said. “I look forward to meeting him someday."
In the meantime, all he has to do is look in the mirror.
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Clemson's Dabo Swinney has twin in the SEC — and it's time you met him
