Clemson football head coach Dabo Swinney announced an interesting new addition to his staff while speaking to the media on Thursday afternoon.
Former Clemson linebacker Ben Boulware, who played for the Tigers from 2013-2016 and was one of the keystones to Clemson’s 2016 national championship squad, will join the staff as an unpaid defensive intern.
A fan favorite in Death Valley who did not see a professional career pan out, with stints only with the Carolina Panthers and San Fransisco 49ers in 2017, Swinney said that Boulware was looking for a different opportunity in football: coaching.
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“He reached out to me a few weeks ago saying he was thinking about trying to get into coaching,” Swinney recalled.
So, Boulware and his former head coach made a deal: the former linebacker had to attend staff meetings and five days of All In Meetings to get to the next step of negotiations.
“And after that, if you still want to do it, we can talk about the opportunity,” he said.
An Anderson native, the hometown hero recorded 352 tackles, 26 tackles for a loss, 10 forced fumbles and five interceptions across 53 games as a Tiger. Now 29 years old, Boulware will hope to find success on the sidelines in the same way that he did on the field.
“He’s fired up,” Swinney said about Boulware. “This is what he really wants to do.”
