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YOUR BALANCE
Where are they now--Former Clemson Coordinators?
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Where are they now--Former Clemson Coordinators?


May 8, 2019, 10:21 AM

Dabo famously has enjoyed uncommon staff continuity since he took over, especially in the last 5 years, so I thought it'd be interesting to see where some of the Offensive and Defensive Coordinators from the last couple of decades have gone:

Chad Morris
Everyone probably knows this--Morris left Clemson after the 2014 regular season to return to his home state of TX as the HC of SMU. He improved his record each year at SMU, going 7-5 in his final season but 14-22 overall, before being lured to the SEC and taking over at Arkansas. His first season in Akansas was... not good--2-10 overall, 0-8 in the SEC, but he's tasked with turning their Brett Bielema-Big-10-style offense into a spread attack. He's also in arguably the toughest division in CFB...

Billy Napier
Swinney promoted Napier from TE coach to be his first OC after taking over in 2008. Napier was let go after a middling 2010 season where he was quickly scooped up by Nick Saban as an offensive analyst (and probably more for his recruiting prowess). He then spent a year at Colorado as the QB coach before going back to Bama as the WR Coach. He went to Arizona State in 2017 as the OC and was then hired by the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns as their HC in 2018. He went 7-7 in his first year, winning the Sun Belt West Division.

Vic Koenning
Koenning was Bowden's last DC and was famously salty over Dabo being made Interim HC over him in 2008. He spent the 2009 season as Kansas State's DC, then onto Illinois in the same capacity, where he was finally made Interim HC in 2011 after Ron Zook was fired. He came back to the ACC coaching at UNC from 2012-2014, then onto Troy as DC from 2015-2018. He was just hired at WVU as their DC. For the record, his Illinois HC winning percentage is 1.000 (1-0). Maybe TDP should've hired him over Dabo!

Kevin Steele
Steele was Dabo's first DC and had a successful tenure before being let go for presiding over the WVU Orange Bowl debacle. He too was picked up by Nick Saban, first as Director of Player Personnel and then as the LB Coach. He spent the 2015 season as the LSU DC before switching to SEC East foe Auburn in the same capacity in 2016 (where he called a couple of really nice games against some good Clemson offenses in 2016 and 2017).

Rob Spence
Nicknamed "The Mad Scientist" when he came to Clemson in 2005, but eventually became known as "The Mad Bubble-Screener." It's widely suspected that he was the impetus for Bowden being let go in 2008 after refusing to fire him following a disappointing 3-3 start. He spent 2009 as the OC of pre-ACC Syracuse, then 2010 as the WR Coach at Temple, then OC at Bethune-Cookman. He then bounced around from Rutgers QB coach, Chattanooga (HS) Christian School, UT Chattanooga, and Morgan State. He's currently the OC at Georgetown.

Rich Rodriguez
You probably know this one too. Rich Rod was the architect behind Bowden's early high-powered offenses. As you probably recall, he left after the 2001 season to become HC at WVU where he coached until 2007 when he left for Michigan. He was run off from Ann Arbor in 2010 and hired by Arizona where he had a moderately successful tenure from 2012-2015 but was fired. He was just hired as the OC at Ole Miss in 2019. He has a 118-83 HC record since leaving Clemson.

Rick Stockstill
Stockstill was a mainstay Clemson Assistant Coach from 1989-2002, surviving 3 different HC regimes. He spent 2003 as the ECU OC, then a 2-year stint at USuCk as WR, then TE Coach, before being hired as the MTSU HC where he's been since 2006. His HC record is 87-78 with 1 conference title in 2006.

Reggie Herring
Herring was retained as DC by Bowden when he took over in 1999. He left in 2002 to take a gig coaching LBs with the Houston Texans but returned to the ACC in 2004 as the DC of NCST. He then went to Arkansas as DC from 2005-2007 before leaving permanently for the NFL, coaching LBs for the Cowboys, Texans, Bears, and currently Broncos.

Mike O'Cain
O'Cain you probably recall played QB at Clemson in the mid-70s and took over as OC when Rich Rod left. He was let go after the '04 season and ended up coaching QBs at VT for some good Beamer squads from 2006-2012. He went to JMU as OC in 2013 then onto ETSU in 2014 where he was their OC until 2017. He left coaching after 2017 and moved back to his hometown of Orangeburg, SC.

John Lovett
Lovett was Bowden's 2nd DC after Herring went to the NFL. He was let go after the 2004 season and hired as DC at Bowling Green. He returned to the ACC in 2007 coaching special teams at UNC and then as DC at Miami from 2009-2010. After Randy Shannon was fired he went to coach special teams for the UFL Hartford Colonials for a year, then DBs at Tex Tech for a year before going to coach DBs for the Eagles in 2013 and 2014. He returned to CFB in 2015 coaching CBs at Cal for 2 years before settling at Sam Houston State as the LB/special teams coach, where he currently resides.

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Re: Where are they now--Former Clemson Coordinators?


May 8, 2019, 10:59 AM

Gonna be interesting to see how some of Dabo's coaching tree does when they start going out on their own. Hopefully in 20 years.

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Dabo has the smallest coaching tree in the NCAA


May 8, 2019, 11:54 AM

our coaches never leave to become head coaches elsewhere

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Re: Dabo has the smallest coaching tree in the NCAA


May 8, 2019, 5:31 PM

Looks like it is GAs leaving for the most part.
Guys will eventually leave for head coaching jobs. Imo, position coach at Clemson = Coordinator elsewhere.

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Re: Where are they now--Former Clemson Coordinators?


May 8, 2019, 11:10 AM

Thanks for the update. I Didn't know that Georgetown had a football team.

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Re: Where are they now--Former Clemson Coordinators?


May 8, 2019, 11:49 AM

Neither does Rob....

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Re: Where are they now--Former Clemson Coordinators?


May 8, 2019, 11:41 AM

Moral of the story...Unless you’re an assistant coach for Dabo, it’s probably best to rent and not buy.

Got to be a rough life for families moving every year.

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No kidding--gotta be a tough lifestyle. The silver lining


May 8, 2019, 12:32 PM

though and other moral of the story is these guys always seem to find a place to land, and generally will be making good money too.

Vic Koenning's DC salary at Troy was $250,000/year and he makes $650,000 at WVU.

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Re: Where are they now--Former Clemson Coordinators?


May 8, 2019, 11:56 AM

The only one of those I thought would do any good is Billy Napier, I hope he finds success in the business.

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Napier was a good hire, he was just a little too green


May 8, 2019, 12:34 PM

around the gills at the time.

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Re: Napier was a good hire, he was just a little too green


May 8, 2019, 2:05 PM

I remember that Chad Morris commented on how Napier's offensive playbook was too thick. Way beyond a college team's ability to absorb and master.

Pretty much the same was the case for Steele's defensive scheme.

Steele seems to have made the adjustment; don't know much about Napier.

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Reggie Herring: "We got who we got"


May 8, 2019, 12:58 PM

He never saw the light of "an embarrassment of riches"

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Steve Ensminger OC in 1997-98 under West


May 8, 2019, 3:25 PM

is now OC at LSU.

Steve ran a complex, pass oriented scheme that went completely against his head coach's grain. His offense scored plenty of points right up to the place where we got a 4 point lead in any given game. As soon as that happened, West took over the play calling and we went 3 and out the rest of the game running off tackle on every play. We lost at least 4 games in 1998 that we probably would have won if Ensminger hadn't been handcuffed for the last 15-20 minutes of those games. That would have given that team a winning record. Instead our 3-8 record got West fired.

Stubborn stubborn stubborn.

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Re: Steve Ensminger OC in 1997-98 under West


May 8, 2019, 5:49 PM

Ouch!

I remember the epic GT game that year. I was at an SEC house on a Thursday night and said , "It has been a long 3 years, he is fired," after the game ended with us having the ball, 1 score down, and I believe 2 time outs remaining around our 35 yard line. We had gotten the ball with close to 1 minute 5 seconds left, after Tech scored a TD to go up. We let 4 teams come back to beat us in the last 2 minutes (maybe 1 minute 30 seconds) that year. Ugh.

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Herring was an awesome LB coach. Never seemed to do


May 8, 2019, 3:57 PM

well above that level. We had some beasts when he was LB coach!

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Probably the reason he's exclusively held that position in


May 8, 2019, 4:16 PM

the NFL for the last 10+ years

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Re: Where are they now--Former Clemson Coordinators?


May 8, 2019, 5:32 PM

Great post - Ace ..... Thanks !!

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If people were as good as their obituary - and products were as good as advertised - this would truly be a wonderful world !!


Good stuff! Wasn’t Mike O’Cain head coach at NCState?***


May 8, 2019, 11:13 PM



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Re: Good stuff! Wasn’t Mike O’Cain head coach at NCState?***


May 8, 2019, 11:18 PM

Yup, he sure wuz.

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NCST HC '93-'99 before coming (back) to Clemson***


May 9, 2019, 11:06 AM



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