Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney discussed a variety of topics during his Tuesday media availability, including this week’s exciting match-up with Virginia and former Tigers OC Tony Elliot as well as the 2025 recruiting class that suffered a surprise decommitment on Monday.
The Tigers will face the Virginia Cavaliers for the third time in the past six seasons on Saturday at Death Valley, a 12-noon kick-off, and it will be the first time Dabo Swinney and his former offensive coordinator, Tony Elliot, will have faced one another. Elliot took over the Cavaliers’ program in 2022 and is in the middle of his third season in Charlottesville.
“(Tony Elliot and I) have a lot of conversations and texts, and obviously I get to spend some time with him at ACC meetings,” stated Swinney. “I don’t think he likes it, but I always go sit by him. All of the other coaches make fun of him because I go sit by him. But we’ve had a lot of great conversations. He’s doing awesome. He’s been through a lot.”
Swinney explained, “His first year was just a nightmare situation. But like I told him, I think that’s why God took him there because there’s nobody more equipped than Tony to lead a group of young people and to help navigate some really dark times for a lot of people and that university. He did a great job. You can see the kids, his impact and them buying in.”
Elliot has certainly helped turn the Virginia program around. The Cavaliers are 4-2 this season but are coming off a 24-20 loss to Louisville. Virginia is 2-1 in ACC play, and Elliot’s team has Dabo Swinney’s full attention going into Saturday.
“Virginia’s a good football team,” Swinney said. “I’m really impressed with the job Tony has done and his staff because obviously I have been trying to keep up with them since he got up there from where the program was when he got there to where it is now. It’s really impressive what he’s been able to instill.”
As for the Cavaliers’ abilities on the field, Coach Swinney knows there are challenges to prepare for. Quarterback Anthony Colandrea has passed for 1,490 yards and nine touchdowns and added 242 rushing yards.
“Everything starts with this quarterback. He’s a good player,” he said. “He’s kind of like the kid from Stanford that we saw. This guy can really, really create and some of his best plays come off busted plays or scramble plays. He puts a lot of strain on you. You have to really squeeze him. And sometimes there’s a play where the read is to give it, but he’ll pull it anyway and he’s just better than the guy that’s there on the chalkboard.”
Clemson has dominated the overall series against Virginia, holding a 40-8-1 advantage. The previous two meetings resulted in a 62-17 Tigers win in the 2019 ACC championship game and a 41-23 Clemson win the following season in 2020.
Another hot topic around Clemson on Tuesday was the sudden and unexpected decommitment of 4-star quarterback pledge Blake Herbert. Herbert had been committed to the Tigers for over a year and had been acting as one of the 2025 classes’ biggest recruiters. But on Monday he announced he was withdrawing his verbal pledge and six minutes later announced he had committed to Notre Dame.
It leaves the Tigers’ 2025 recruiting class with just 13 players and ranked barely inside the top 20 at number 19 nationally.
Asked if Clemson would still try to take a quarterback in this class, Swinney said the Tigers would certainly like to, but were also thrilled with the three signal callers on the roster.
“We’d love to get a guy. We will definitely probably take a quarterback in the 25 class of some sort,” Swinney said. “Right now, we got Paul Tyson as our fourth guy. Love Paul Tyson. So, is it a Paul Tyson type of guy or a high school kid? I don’t know how that all plays out.”
Swinney added, “We love the three quarterbacks we have. They are pretty good. Very few people have three quarterbacks they can win with. If you’ve got three quarterbacks today that you can win with, you’re in good shape.”
Of course, those three quarterbacks being Cade Klubnik, Christopher Vizzina and Trent Pearman.
Dabo Swinney and the Clemson Tigers have another great opportunity on Saturday to keep their momentum rolling. The Tigers have won five in a row in dominating fashion, and 10 of their last 11 games dating back to last November. A win on Saturday would keep Clemson at the top of the pack in the ACC standings heading into a bye week. The Tigers are currently a 22.5-point favorite.
