Dabo Swinney shares what he likes best about makeup of 2023 team

Culture has been a big part of the success that Clemson has had under Dabo Swinney. The Tigers head coach feels great about where the program is as far as culture heading into the 2023 season.

Swinney spoke at the ACC Football Kickoff event last week about what he likes best about the makeup of this year’s team. He believes that so many veterans choosing to pass on the NFL and come back for another season says a lot about the status of the program.

“It starts with those seven graduates that could all have gone into the NFL Draft. All graduates. I think three of them have Masters degrees. They all chose to stay at Clemson,” Swinney said. “They didn’t choose to hangout and play on the lake for a year. They came back with a very focused vision and purpose of what they wanted to do individually and also as a team. So that really is awesome.”

The seven players who passed on the NFL to come back for a graduate year are defensive linemen Ruke Orhorhoro, Tyler Davis, Justin Mascoll and Xavier Thomas, cornerback Sheridan Jones, safety Jalyn Phillips and offensive lineman Will Putnam. All seven are expected to be major contributors this fall, if they can stay healthy.

“These are guys that I didn’t expect to be back, and now they’re all back. That type of leadership has been great,” Swinney said.

According to Swinney, the group of veterans has gelled well with this year’s freshman class, as well as other veterans who are back for 2023.

“We signed another great class. We signed a great class last year, and I think we signed a great class this year. Fifteen of them came midyear, so there was a lot of enthusiasm because of that. There’s a lot of competition that comes from that,” Swinney said. “And guys like Cade [Klubnik], guys like Antonio [Williams], guys that have been in the program like a Trent Howard, a Ryan Linthicum, Marcus Tate that you don’t know as much about, Cade Denhoff, are going into that third year or a redshirt junior and are really developing. So it’s a good roster. It’s a good mix from top to bottom.”

Clemson should find out just how good it is early on in the 2023 season. The Tigers open the year on the road at Duke against a Blue Devils team that won nine games a year ago.

The Tigers will face another tough task in September when Florida State comes to town on Sept. 23.