Dabo Swinney gushes over return of James Davis, benefit of Clemson's 'Thunder and Lightning' coaching RBs

Following the 2022 season, Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney made several changes to his coaching staff. The biggest was hiring Garrett Riley as his offensive coordinator. However, another big one was bringing in James Davis to work with the running backs.

Davis, a former Clemson running back and part of a duo called ‘Thunder and Lightning’ along with CJ Spiller, has returned to school while working as a coach, making him a unique member of the staff.

“I’ve been trying to get James back for a while and he’s a few classes short of graduating, and the timing was right,” Dabo Swinney said. “So it’s really cool. He just finished five days of All-In meetings and he loved it. It was really cool to see him go through that process on this side of the curtain if you will. But it’s going to be pretty awesome, because he’s an undergrad, and as an undergrad student coach he can coach on the field, he can do everything but go on the road and recruit.”

For Clemson fans, the most exciting part of this addition to this staff is likely that CJ Spiller is already on Dabo Swinney’s staff, as the running backs coach. So, Thunder and Lightning are together again.

“So him and CJ [Spiller] along with the other dudes in that running back room, that’s quite a room. And it’s going to be a lot of fun to see them all work together.”

Dabo Swinney on Nick Eason, Clemson alums on coaching staff

Beyond James Davis, there are several different former Clemson players who are on the staff for the Tigers. It’s a competitive group of guys, but Dabo Swinney says that defensive assistant Nick Eason is the most competitive.

“Probably Nick (Eason). Nick went through mat drills [with the players]. He put on his cleats and I think he was trying to make a point to some of his guys and he did. He went through the entire session of mat drills at 5:30 in the morning,” Swinney said.

“So probably Nick for sure. And honestly, I might not get three downs out of him, but he’d probably be pretty good on first down. He can still do it. But all those guys are super competitive and you see it when we get out there and play a little Noonball [basketball]. A prideful group.”