DALLAS — The question was about sustaining high-level success in college football and Dabo Swinney’s answer lasted 3 minutes, 40 seconds. Brevity is not the Clemson coach’s strong suit.

Swinney talked about how people make the program, continuity leads to consistency, and how it can’t just be about the results on the scoreboard.

“It’s a holistic approach. It’s social. It’s spiritual. It’s life skills. It’s career development. It’s every area,” Swinney said Friday during the final Cotton Bowl news conference. “And I think our commitment to that has been a big reason that we’ve been able to sustain our success because I think certain types of young people have bought into that.”

As Swinney talked, Notre Dame Coach Brian Kelly listened – a joint news conference with Swinney involves a lot of listening – occasionally nodding his head in agreement. Swinney has built the Tigers into what Notre Dame used to be and what Kelly is trying to recreate in South Bend, Indiana.

The second-ranked Tigers (13-0) face the third-ranked Fighting Irish (12-0) on Saturday in Notre Dame’s first College Football Playoff appearance. It is Clemson’s fourth straight. The winner will play for the national title on Jan. 7 in Santa Clara, California. Clemson has played for the title twice in the past three seasons.

Kelly marveled at Clemson’s consistency under Swinney.

“It’s easy to get distracted,” Kelly said. “And to keep that within your culture in your program requires just to have an eye on it every single day. So his ability to continue to keep his program year in and year out at the top of college football requires more than just recruiting good players.”

Kelly has been at Notre Dame for nine years and has had its best coaching run since Lou Holtz, who won the school’s last national title in 1988. The only coaches who have won more games at Notre Dame than Kelly (81-34) are Hall of Famers Knute Rockne (105), Holtz (100), Ara Parseghian (95) and Frank Leahy (87).

Kelly has only once been this close to a national championship and after Alabama beat the Irish 42-14 in the 2012 BCS championship game, Notre Dame really didn’t seem all that close in retrospect. Just two seasons ago, the Irish went 4-8 and Kelly overhauled his staff and his approach. The result was a huge turnaround to 10-3 last year. The foundation appears to be in place for the Irish to regularly contend for the playoff.

Still, Kelly and his team have downplayed any talk of the Cotton Bowl being a barometer for the program.

“When you go through and win week after week, you’re past measuring sticks,” Kelly said earlier this week.

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