Swinney arrives back to a different Clemson, now has work cut out for him

Swinney has a lot of work to do before the bowl game.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Thu Dec 09 08:00:05 GMT-04:00 2021

Clemson plays in the Cheez-It Bowl in less than three weeks, final exams are finishing up, and head coach Dabo Swinney is supposed to meet with his staff Friday and Sunday to discuss the bowl practice schedule, the recruiting weekend, and catch up on what’s transpired since the Tigers defeated South Carolina 30-0 a few weeks ago.

At this point, I am not sure even Swinney knows exactly who will be at that staff meeting.

Let’s play catch up. Defensive coordinator Brent Venables is now the head coach at Oklahoma and won’t coach Clemson in the bowl. Defensive assistant Miguel Chavis is headed to Norman with Venables, and we’re not sure if any other coaches or staff members will make the trip to Sooner country.

Athletic Director Dan Radakovich is set to take over at the University of Miami after a group of former players met with university leadership and demanded sweeping changes, saying money was no object. The fix for this one seems easy – Deputy Athletic Director Graham Neff will likely step into the role as interim AD and have the leg up on the competition to take the permanent job.

Offensive coordinator Tony Elliott is in line to get the head coaching job at the University of Virginia after he and his family flew up to Charlottesville late Wednesday afternoon. If the family is along for the ride, that’s a pretty good indication that things are fairly far along in the process.

What we don’t know is how Elliott’s potential departure will affect the current staff. If Swinney tells Brandon Streeter that he wants to look outside the program for another coordinator, would Streeter go to Wahoo land to take over Elliott’s offense? Quarterback guru JP Losman has shown he has some coaching chops and could also be a candidate, as could Kyle Richardson. Richardson is currently the Director of Football Player Development & Freshman Transition, but he was the head coach at Northwestern High School in Rock Hill before taking a job as an offensive analyst on the Clemson staff.

Richardson is known for his offense. Richardson led the Trojans to a pair of state titles after taking over for Jimmy Wallace ahead of the 2011 season. Northwestern went undefeated in 2013 and added another championship in 2015, the school’s fifth overall. He was 58-14 in his five seasons at the helm of the Northwestern program. He previously coached at the college level, at Southeastern Louisiana, before joining Northwestern as an offensive coordinator for Wallace.

On staff on the offensive side are former quarterbacks Cole Stoudt and Tajh Boyd.

On the defensive side, we’ve told you that Wes Goodwin is moving to an on-field role, at least for the bowl game, and that Mickey Conn is slated to either be the defensive coordinator for that game or share those duties with Goodwin.

If this is an addition for Conn, we still don’t know what will happen with either Todd Bates or Mike Reed – both seem ready to take the next step, but we don’t know if either one wants to be a coordinator at this point. Both or one might even try to be poached by Elliott, especially if it’s a coordinator position.

That’s a lot.

What Swinney has to do next is figure out his dance card. It would make sense that at some point there will be a team meeting – clear the air, answer questions, and project an air of stability. The quicker that things can get back to normal and get coaches in place, the better things will be for everybody. After two weeks of uncertainty and rumors and speculation, it will be nice to finally see a plan in place.

When Swinney left for Las Vegas to be with some former Tigers and support CJ Spiller at his College Football Hall of Fame induction, I am not sure he envisioned the different Clemson he would come back to. The plane landed around 2 pm Wednesday afternoon to cold and steel gray skies, and I can only imagine it took a few minutes for Swinney’s pickup truck to get warmed up.

Like his truck, it might take Swinney a little bit to get warmed up. But I’ve been told to expect certain closure sooner rather than later.