Dabo and sons: Clemson football to feature all four Swinneys in 2024

Over the last seven years, Dabo Swinney has coached all three of his sons. But he’s never had Will, Drew and Clay under the same Clemson football roof.

Until now.

In what the eldest Swinney described this preseason as a “unique opportunity,” he and all three of his sons will be a part of the 2024 Tigers football team.

Clay, 21, will be a redshirt sophomore wide receiver.

Drew, 24, will be an offensive player development coach.

Will, 25, will be an offensive player development intern.

And Dabo, 54, a two-time national champion and Clemson’s all-time wins leader, is at the helm for a 16th full season as head coach.

“It’s the first time ever we’ve all been on the same team,” Swinney said ahead of Clemson’s opening 2024 preseason practice. “I’m excited.”

As a football family with three sons born within five years of each other, the Swinneys are no stranger to crossover. That’s something Dabo and wife Kathleen, who recently celebrated 30 years of marriage, have long been used to.

From 2018 to 2021, Will (the oldest brother) and Drew (the middle brother) overlapped for four seasons on Dabo’s Clemson teams.

Same for Drew and Clay (the youngest brother) for one season in 2022.

Now, the gang’s back together in full, with Dabo leading the Tigers into a huge 2024 season opener against Georgia on Aug. 31, Clay serving as the team’s starting placeholder for field goals and extra points, and his two older brothers joining the 2024 staff in new roles.

After graduating in 2022, Drew Swinney spent the 2023 season working for Clemson football as a graduate assistant. Now that the NCAA’s cleared the way for “unlimited coaches,” Drew and other former GAs within the program have new titles.

Drew — who, like his older and younger brother, graduated from Daniel High School in Clemson, played wide receiver for the Tigers and served as the starting placeholder — is now listed as an offensive player development/assistant wide receivers coach under lead assistant Tyler Grisham.

That’s a paid staff position, a team spokesperson confirmed to The State.

“Nothing’s changed with him other than we don’t have GAs anymore,” Swinney said. “Brandon Thomas was a GA, now he’s not a GA. Nolan Turner was a GA and now he’s not. They’re all player development, so they’re all the same roles. And (Drew’s) working with the receivers, so excited about that.”

Will Swinney is also back with the program after a formal two-year absence, although he maintained a presence around Clemson and even provided some radio color commentary for the Clemson Athletic Network after playing five seasons there.

Will is listed as an offensive player development intern in the team’s media guide, a role Swinney confirmed is unpaid. Swinney’s oldest son will be working with tight ends coach Kyle Richardson and his position group, he said.

Will’s role is similar to that of Ben Boulware, a former All-American Tigers linebacker who rejoined the program this year as an unpaid defensive player development intern.

After an NCAA rule change earlier this summer, any staff member within a college football program is allowed to give on-field instruction during practices or games.

“Just excited to be able to help those guys get started in their coaching career,” Swinney said of his two oldest sons. “And they’re going to be awesome.”

‘These guys love Clemson’

All three Swinney brothers signed with their dad’s program as preferred walk-ons after lettering at D.W. Daniel High School — a South Carolina prep football power just four miles from Clemson’s campus — and have made their names as holders.

Starting with Will, who earned the job as a true freshman, a Swinney has held the ball on every single Clemson placekick (field goal or extra point) since the 2017 season opener.

The program’s last non-Swinney hold for a placekick came in the 2016 national championship game after receiver Hunter Renfrow’s game-winning touchdown catch against Alabama.

After Seth Ryan held the ball for Greg Huegel’s extra point following that touchdown, Will was Clemson’s holder for five seasons from 2017-21 (including an extra COVID year of eligibility), Drew was the holder in 2022 and Clay’s been the holder since 2023.

And if the youngest Swinney exhausts his full eligibility — since he redshirted in 2022, Clay can play three more seasons with Clemson — it’s possible every Tigers placekick in a 10-year span from 2017-26 could be held by one of Dabo’s sons.

For now, the coach said he’s revved up to have all three of his boys on the same sideline with him — and to help his older two get their start in coaching.

“These guys love Clemson, man,” Swinney said. “They live it and breathe it. It’s cool to be able to see them get off to a good start in their career and help them build the right type of foundation that’ll really serve them for a long time.”