Former South Carolina DC Lorenzo Ward joins Clemson staff in key off-field role

Former South Carolina defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward will soon be on the other side of the Palmetto State rivalry.

Ward is joining the Clemson staff to work under Dabo Swinney, according to Wes Mitchell of GamecockCentral.

Lorenzo Ward will work as a “Special Assistant to the Head Coach,” Mitchell reports.

Ward was the defensive coordinator at South Carolina from 2009-15 under Steve Spurrier. He was most recently the defensive coordinator at Chattanooga from 2019- until now.

Like Dabo Swinney, Lorenzo Ward played college football at Alabama. Swinney and Ward also started their coaching careers as grad assistants at Alabama, although they were not in Tuscaloosa at the same time.

In addition to coaching at South Carolina, Ward also coached at the Power 5 level at Virginia Tech, Arkansas and Louisville.

This is a big season for the Tigers, who are coming off of a 9-4 year. Clemson is hoping to return to the College Football Playoff in 2024 after missing out on the CFP the past three seasons.

Clemson should have a good idea of what kind of team it is going to have in 2024 early on in the season as the Tigers open the year against a loaded Georgia team. That game will take place on Aug. 31.

Dabo Swinney shares excitement about expanded CFP amid ‘weird, weird time in college football’

From 2015-20, Clemson was a fixture in the College Football Playoff. The Tigers played in six straight national semifinal games and made four championships – winning two of them.

While Dabo Swinney’s group missed out on the CFP the last three seasons, there’s a new path starting in 2024. The field is expanding from four teams to 12, with the six highest-ranked conference champions making the cut under the new rules. Of course, there’s also discussion about further expansion.

But to Swinney, the new-look CFP is an exciting change, and he thinks Clemson will be right in the middle of the discussion given its success under the previous model.

“It’s gonna be fun,” Swinney said on SiriusXM College Sports Radio. “You embrace it. It’s one of those things … things happen. You adapt as you go. We didn’t have a Playoff, and then it was, whatever, BCS. Then, you get the four-team, and now, we’re going to 12 for a cup of coffee and then we’re going somewhere else. It’ll be fun.

“This is a weird, weird time in college football because there’s so many changes at one time. You just put your head down and focus on what you’re doing and making sure that you put yourself in the best possible position to have a chance to make the playoffs. That’s really kind of where you are in this game now. It’s all about trying to have a chance to make the playoffs.”