Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney spoke in length during his weekly radio call-in show Monday night about the horrific tragedy that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia, where three University of Virginia football players were fatally shot Sunday …
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney spoke in length during his weekly radio call-in show Monday night about the horrific tragedy that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia, where three University of Virginia football players were fatally shot Sunday night while returning from an off-campus field trip.
The university went into lockdown mode at the time as law enforcement searched for the gunman. That hunt ended Monday morning when UVA police announced that a suspect, Chris Jones Jr., had been taken into custody. Jones is a former UVA football player.
The tragedy hit close to home at Clemson and with Swinney. Of course, Tony Elliott is in his first year as UVA’s head football coach after spending the previous 11 seasons on Swinney’s staff. He spent the last seven as the Tigers’ offensive play caller and was co-offensive coordinator for Clemson’s 2016 and 2018 national championship teams.
Although the sad and shocking situation that transpired is something Elliott could have never saw coming, Swinney believes Elliott is the right person to guide his team through this unimaginably difficult time.
“God took him there,” Swinney said. “There is nobody more prepared or more equipped to lead that group of young men in Virginia or minister to those guys than Tony Elliott. He is just a special person, but that doesn’t make it easy. He is the leader. He has to stand in front of his team. He has to get with the families. You just can’t prepare for that, but God has equipped him. I know he will use Tony in a mighty way to really just serve those young men, the families and the community.
“I am just praying for him, and I ask everyone to pray for Tony and the staff, and especially those players and those players’ families of the young men that lost their life. It is just so tragic. It is just sad. As a person of faith, you know there is evil. You know it is just devastating. You just have to love on each other.”
Swinney added that for him, it’s an opportunity to council Clemson’s players and talk to them.
“These are young people,” he said. “I know they are big and strong and all of this, but they are just young people, young men. When something like this happens, it really affects everybody, especially in the world that we are in. You realize these are young people that think they are invincible, right. And now all of a sudden you have to process something like this. It is very challenging. It is very difficult. It really hits home.
“So, an opportunity to just have a conversation and some council with our guys, but most of all just tell them that you love them and pray for all of the people up there in Virginia that are dealing with this. I am just heavy hearted for Tony. He is dealing with a lot of things and trying to pick his team up.”
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