Dabo Swinney is a head coach who has a lot of his guys on the Clemson coaching staff.
Year after year, someone returns to the program, and Swinney welcomes them with open arms. The latest major came from former Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris but the Tigers also have many former Tigers players who have returned for coaching positions at Clemson. For Swinney, it has been like living in the twilight zone.
“It’s like I’m living in the twilight zone,” Swinney said Friday as the Tigers opened fall camp. “I told him (Morris) that like last night because I’m still not used to him being here. We had a late meeting last night and were walking around. I mean, (former Clemson OC) Jeff Scott’s moved two doors down from me. Kath (Kathleen Swinney) is taking food to them, and Chad Morris is in the building, and I’m going, ‘What? I am living in the twilight zone around here.’ But it’s been great.”
“He’s very cheap labor, if you will, for his expertise,” Swinney said of Morris. “Obviously he’s been a head coach and he’s been a very successful coordinator as well. So, he’ll be one of those guys like a lot of these programs have, he’ll be a guy that’ll kind of be a week ahead.”
Morris was Clemson’s offensive coordinator from 2011-14 before departing for a head coaching position at SMU and later Arkansas. He has returned to Clemson as a special assistant to football who will work with both the offense and defense.
Having a guy like Morris back for Swinney is excellent for himself and the program.
“Chad’s awesome. He’s been gone eight seasons. It’s crazy,” Swinney said. “The last time he had been at Clemson was the Sunday after the South Carolina game in 2014 is when he left to go to SMU, and he hadn’t been back here since. So obviously a lot has changed in eight years. A lot has changed. He hadn’t seen any of this building (Clemson Athletics Branding Institute) and obviously as a program we’ve been through a lot, etcetera, so it’s been great. And hopefully we can really help him kind of reset himself. It’s going to be a great situation.”
The Tigers’ head into the 2023 season with a ton of talent and a loaded coaching staff. It should be an exciting season for the program.
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