The Clemson Dubcast

Dabo Retrospective, Part 2

As part of Tigerillustrated.com's lengthy 25th anniversary series uncovering untold stories over that stretch of time, we continue with a glimpse back at the transformative days of 2008.

Two days after a dominant victory over South Carolina that sealed the removal of the interim tag from his title, Dabo Swinney was introduced at a press conference on the third floor of the West End Zone facility.

This is the uncut digital audio from that press conference, provided by Jeff Kallin and Matt Glenn of the Clemson Athletics Department.

Terry Don Phillips drew an ovation toward the end of the press conference when he said: 

"I say with great confidence that Dabo Swinney is going to become one of the great coaches in America."

 

 

A Dabo Swinney retrospective

As part of Tigerillustrated.com's extensive unearthing of the history that led to Dabo Swinney becoming the figure who would transform not just a football program but an entire community, we take a glimpse back to the two-month period in 2008 when everything changed.

We present the audio from some key moments during that timeline:

-- The introduction of Swinney as interim coach on Oct. 13, 2008, when Tommy Bowden suggested a change to AD Terry Don Phillips and Phillips shocked many by elevating a receivers coach who had no head-coaching or coordinating experience;

-- The coach's show that followed his first victory in charge, an exhilarating and vital triumph at Boston College that snapped a three-game losing streak to the Eagles;

-- The press conference that followed a convincing victory over rival South Carolina, which sealed the removal of the interim title. Swinney, on what it was like to hear the crowd chanting his name as the final seconds ticked off: "I felt like Britney Spears."

-- The news coverage that accompanied the press conference two days later to announce his hiring.

 

Patrick Sapp

Patrick Sapp played football at Clemson, and now he's watching his 19-year-old son Josh play football at Clemson.

What makes it most special is Patrick's 7-year-old son Miles gets to watch it all as the family makes memories of a lifetime.

Sapp rejoins The Dubcast to talk about his six years on the football staff at Greenville High School, and why he chose to give it up after last season.

Sapp's role as a television personality is going to increase moving forward as he contributes to FOX Carolina in various ways.

Sapp also keeps close tabs on Clemson football, and he was in attendance when Trent Pearman stole the show at last week's spring game.

Sapp believes Cade Klubnik will maintain his hold on the starting role, but he said Pearman's performance does make things more interesting in the Tigers' quarterback room.

He also gives high marks to Dabo Swinney's hire of Matt Luke and Chris Rumph, who have brought more energy and fire to the program.

"We've got to get back to the basics and the grind," he said. "We've got to be tougher. We've got to be better. We've got to be stronger. We've got to be more disciplined, and we've got to play with an attitude. I think that was the emphasis for the hires. ... You bring in guys who have the experience, who have the confidence, who have the moxie to walk out every day and challenge their players, challenge the attitude of the team. 

 

"If you watch them practice, you can see that Nick Eason, Coach Rumph and coach Luke are his attitude guys. Those are the guys who are setting the attitude and the tone for everybody. I think Coach Swinney understood he needed that on his staff."

Jerome Hall

Jerome Hall is less busy than he used to be, having given up his job as a college referee a year ago after 20 years.

Yet he still teaches at RD Anderson Applied Technology Center from 8 AM to 3 PM each weekday, instructing high school students in carpentry and officiating.

Four days a week, he leaves school at 3 and heads straight to the courthouse and works until 7 as a magistrate for the Spartanburg County court system.

And somehow he still found a way to follow his son PJ in his final season at Clemson, which of course included recent trips to Memphis and Los Angeles as the Tigers made a stirring run to the Elite Eight.

Jerome, who will turn 55 in two weeks, reflects on his son's life and what makes him one of the iconic figures in Clemson basketball history.

The Hall family also shares a deep love and appreciation for Brad Brownell, whose only promise during PJ's recruitment was that Clemson would take care of him.

"He was the only coach who didn't promise him a starting spot right away," Jerome said.

 

Cliff Ellis

Had he not chosen the coaching profession, Cliff Ellis could've easily spent his life as a professional musician.

In the mid-1960s, his group The Villagers was a sensation and even recorded at the legendary Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala.

Ellis remembers joining Roy Orbison on stage at a sold-out concert in Dothan, Ala.

"If you can perform in front of people with Roy Orbison behind you, you're going to be OK going up against Dean Smith and Mike Krzyzewski," he said.

Ellis announced his retirement in December, ending a 49-year coaching career. His final 17 seasons were at Coastal Carolina, where he led the Chanticleers to 297 victories and 10 postseason appearances.

His 831 career NCAA victories put him at ninth in Division I basketball history behind Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim, Bob Huggins, Jim Calhoun, Roy Williams, Bob Knight, Dean Smith and Adolph Rupp.

Ellis says the changing landscape of college athletics, namely NIL and the transfer portal, led him to walk away.

He's currently writing a book about his life, and he looks back fondly on his time at Clemson from 1984 to 1994.

Ellis led Clemson to its only ACC title in school history in 1989-90 when the Tigers claimed the regular-season title with back-to-back home triumphs over North Carolina and Duke.

Four years later, he abruptly resigned and later took the head job at Auburn. He said he was angry over the Clemson administration's handling of the Wayne Buckingham situation in the face of NCAA scrutiny of the player's eligibility as a freshman.

Ellis remembers exactly where he was on Jan. 18, 1990 when he heard Danny Ford was out as Clemson's coach.

"I was playing golf with our pilot, Earle Ambrose," he said. "We were on the 15th hole at Boscobel. It was a tough, tough time.

"But I told Danny at the time to tell Clemson thanks a million. Because they paid him a million dollars. And then he went to Arkansas and got another thanks-a-million. I never got those thanks-a-millions."

Tommy West

Tommy West has decided it's time to hang up his whistle after more than four decades in the coaching profession.

"It's a young man's game now," said the 69-year-old West, who was on Rick Stockstill's fired staff at Middle Tennessee State.

West has kept busy playing golf and taking care of his yard. He says the biggest question is how he'll find the fulfillment that came when he experienced success through grinding away as a coach and recruiter.

West goes in-depth on his time at Clemson as an assistant under Danny Ford, and as the Tigers' head coach from 1993 to 1998.

Clemson was trying to figure out what it wanted to be back then, and that meant trying to figure out how invested it wanted to be in winning football games.

The facilities suffered as a result, and it was West who first came up with the idea to build a complete football-operations facility in the west end zone of Memorial Stadium.

That facility finally began taking shape well into Tommy Bowden's tenure, and the first head coach to actually occupy the structure was Dabo Swinney in 2009.

West shares some vivid and colorful memories of the old days, including when the fired staff got together on the practice fields in the wee hours of the morning after their final game, a win over South Carolina.

They built a fire and spent hours reminiscing and connecting for a final time. Defensive coordinator Reggie Herring was so angry about the firing that he threw his Clemson apparel into the fire and watched it burn.

Soon thereafter Herring was retained by Tommy Bowden and wearing new Clemson gear.

West spent the next year living in Clemson as Bowden ushered in a new era.

"I was a total mess," he said. "I was lost."

 

 

Thad Turnipseed

A decade ago, Thad Turnipseed left Alabama to join Dabo Swinney at Clemson and played a major role in turning the Tigers' football program into a cutting-edge operation on numerous levels.

Turnipseed, who spent 18 months at Oklahoma under Brent Venables, returned to Clemson with his family last summer and is currently spending most of his time in real estate.

Turnipseed, who recently became a grandfather, joins The Dubcast to reflect on the glory days at Clemson and whether Swinney can get the Tigers back to the top.

He also expresses great concern about the state of college football and where things are headed.

"My job was always solving problems, and I prided myself in being able to figure things out," he said.

"I have no idea how to solve this one."

 

 

Dabo Swinney and Cade Klubnik

Dabo Swinney sits down to discuss the progress of his team a week into spring practice.

Swinney reflects on the talent of freshman receiver Bryant Wesco and what he could bring to an offense in desperate need of playmaking.

Cade Klubnik enters Year 2 as the starter feeling more comfortable in the second year running Garrett Riley's offense.

Klubnik believes the Tigers are going to have weapons galore on the outside to make the offense truly lethal for the first time since Trevor Lawrence and other superstars were in the program.

Clemson's spring game is April 6.

 

 

Gene Sapakoff

Last week, Gene Sapakoff announced he's leaving The Post and Courier after 38 years at the Charleston newspaper.

One of the strange elements of his departure: The leadership at the paper hasn't given him an opportunity to write a farewell column in the sports section that featured his mug shot since the 1980s.

Sapakoff joins The Dubcast to reflect on when and why he chose to hang it up, and what his next chapter looks like.

He also shares a wealth of anecdotes and memories of covering the biggest names in the Palmetto State's sports history.

He recalls getting cussed at by Danny Ford when he wrote a column labeling the coach the "Prince of Paranoia" in 1987.

And more recently, Sapakoff was publicly blasted by Shane Beamer at a press conference after he criticized Beamer's hire of offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains.

While it's natural for old-timers to lament the departure of this state's last prominent newspaper sports columnist, Sapakoff has an optimistic outlook on the present and future of sports coverage in South Carolina and beyond.

Grayson Mann and Toby Corriston

In many ways, the media and journalism industry has become almost totally disfigured over the past two decades.

Yet inside Clemson's Sports Communication program there are students who find a multitude of ways to distinguish themselves.

Grayson Mann is a senior who has spent his time at college starting his own podcast, writing for Tigerillustrated.com, doing video play-by-play for North Greenville basketball, and covering high school games for a local newspaper.

Toby Corriston is a freshman who has already developed quite a portfolio of photography, writing and stand-up video he does on his own after Clemson sporting events.

Where is the media industry heading? No one can predict that. But Mann and Corriston, who both serve as interns at Tigerillustrated.com, are positioning themselves to be marketable on a multitude of platforms post-graduation.

Mann and Corriston visit with The Dubcast to share how they got to this point, and what they aspire to do hereafter.