Clemson promotes Drew Swinney, son of Dabo, to assistant wide receivers coach

The Clemson football program and head coach Dabo Swinney have promoted Drew Swinney to assistant wide receivers coach for the 2024 season. Drew Swinney will also be working in an offensive player development role.

The son of Dabo Swinney, Drew worked as a graduate assistant at Clemson this past season. Prior to that, he played football for the Tigers from 2018-2022.

The move comes after the NCAA approved unlimited on-field assistant coaches this offseason. There was previously a cap of 10 assistant coaches who could be a part of the on-field staff.

Drew Swinney redshirted his first season with the Tigers, playing a total of 17 snaps and appearing in four games.

In 2019, he played 19 snaps on offense across eight games, finishing the year with two receptions for 11 yards.

Swinney saw his role increase in 2020 as he played 40 snaps on offense, catching three passes for 18 yards. During the 2021 season he played in nine games, catching one pass and also returning a punt.

Finally, as a senior in 2022, Drew Swinney became a key member of the Clemson program on offense and special teams. He earned the starting holder position for placekicking and also appeared in all 14 games on offense. He finished the year with eight catches for 63 yards.

Drew Swinney has an opportunity to follow in the footsteps of his father Dabo Swinney, who started out as a wide receivers coach, before eventually working his way up to being the head coach of the Tigers.

Dabo Swinney discusses adversity of 2023, momentum entering 2024

Drew Swinney, Dabo Swinney and the Tigers will attempt to get back to being an elite program in 2024.

Last season, especially early on, was another one that didn’t fully meet the expectations at Clemson. However, the Tigers did enough late to have the right direction going into their spring, summer, and now the fall for this next year.

Dabo Swinney discussed the lows and highs of the past season during a press conference last week. That began with a .500 mark through eight games that led to a lot of discourse by the end of October.

“I mean we were in a tight spot, you know?” said Swinney. “It’s been a long time since we lost four games around here.”

It all started with a 28-7 loss at Duke to open it up for Clemson in ’23. They then lost another 31-24 outcome a few weekends later in overtime to Florida State. The Tigers answered with two wins but then dropped a pair of others, a 28-20 double overtime loss at Miami and a 24-17 defeat at NC State, to then be sitting at 4-4 by the start of November.

Still, with four games to go, Clemson managed to turn things around to end the year on a high note. That run kicked off with a 31-23 win over a ranked team in Notre Dame. They’d then win the final four from there over Georgia Tech, another rated foe in North Carolina, South Carolina, and finally Kentucky in the Gator Bowl.

“Now you look up and you’ve got to play Notre Dame. You know, a team that kicked you in the teeth the year before. And oh, by the way, you’re going to start a true freshman, you’re going to start a guy that has never started a game. Then, boom, here they went,” recalled Swinney. “That confidence was just kind of what they needed. And, man, the finish, winning five, who we beat, the quarterbacks that we beat down the stretch there was impressive.”

“Then to go beat another SEC team in a bowl game and how we had to win it was really painful,” Swinney added. “It was just painful to have to go through those type of games. Was there like, I don’t know, 60 points scored in seven minutes or something? It was crazy.”