Bill Belichick was nothing but complimentary Thursday of Dabo Swinney during his time at the podium for ACC Kickoff.

“Yeah, we’re all learning from Dabo,” the North Carolina coach said.

Belichick, the former New England Patriots coach was asked about his relationship with the Clemson head coach.

“Dabo has been a friend for a long time,” he said. “We’ve scouted his players from the NFL down. Some of the players that are here today, I actually thought, maybe we’ll be drafting one of these guys, and now here we are going to be playing against them.

“But Dabo has been great. I have so much respect for him and the Clemson program, what he’s done, the way he runs it. It’s high quality. Kids are high quality. He came up to New England, got probably the top player out of New England in the last probably decade, Christian Wilkins out of Springfield, Suffield Academy.”

Swinney’s Tigers are once again picked to compete for a College Football Playoff berth.

“I think that says a lot for the program that he runs and what he’s done for not only college football but all the student-athletes that he’s coached there,” Belichick said. “They’ve gone on to represent him and the school very well.

“Again, I have a ton of respect for Dabo and what he’s done. Great opportunity to spend some time with him at the ACC coaches’ meetings, and he’s always been a really enjoyable guy to be around. I don’t know if that’ll be true on Saturday afternoon. Probably not. But at least in these meetings it is.”

Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter@Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.