Tuesday when Clemson hired Rich Bisaccia, a 43-year coaching veteran who spent 24 seasons running special teams in the NFL. The Clemson University Board of Trustees Compensation Committee approved the hire.
Bisaccia, 63, won a Super Bowl ring with Tampa Bay in 2002 and spent nine seasons with the Buccaneers before coaching special teams for the Chargers, Cowboys, Raiders and Packers. In Green Bay, he also carried the title of assistant head coach from 2023 through 2025. His kickoff return units finished top 10 in the league 11 times across five different franchises.
“I am really excited to have the opportunity to work with the young men in the Clemson Football program and be part of a tremendous staff,” Bisaccia said. “After I made the decision to move in a new direction, Coach Swinney approached me with the opportunity to come back to a place that holds special meaning for me and my family. I’m thrilled to be able to return to the Clemson community and serve this program in any way I can.”
Rich Bisaccia
If you don’t know the name, you probably know the moment that put him on the map nationally. When Jon Gruden resigned in October 2021, Las Vegas turned to Bisaccia as interim head coach. He finished 7-5 the rest of the regular season, went 10-7 overall and got the Raiders to the playoffs while keeping the locker room intact. That wasn’t a special teams coordinator holding things together. That was a head coach.
Bisaccia’s ties to Clemson go back three decades. He coached running backs and special teams under Tommy West from 1994 to 1998. Before that, he spent six years at South Carolina, so the state, the rivalry and the recruiting landscape aren’t new to him. His career started at Wayne State in 1983 and included a stint at Ole Miss before he jumped to the NFL in 2002.
He could’ve stayed in pro ball. He could’ve retired. Instead he’s back at a place he left almost 30 years ago, which tells you something about the conversations he had with Dabo Swinney before taking this job.
Clemson needed this kind of change. Special teams have been an inconsistent third phase in recent years. Blocked punts, return miscues, coverage breakdowns. The issue wasn’t talent. It was structure. No single coach on staff owned the unit full time. Position coaches split the responsibilities, and the results reflected it.
That’s done now. One coach, one job, full ownership.
Let’s be real: Clemson didn’t just add a position to the staff. The program created a role that never existed in its history and handed it to a guy who coached 24 NFL seasons, won a Super Bowl and ran an NFL team. That hire tells you where the program’s priorities are in 2026.
Dabo Swinney’s full comments:
“I’m super excited to add Rich Bisaccia. Obviously, he has been an NFL head coach and he’s been in the NFL a long time, but he also has really good college experience, in particular in the 90s here at Clemson, a place he’s always loved.
“I’ve gotten to know him over the years, and we’ve actually talked a couple of different times about the possibility of him joining our staff. It just never really could work out from a timing standpoint or because the way the rules were set up in college. But with the changing of the rules to allow everybody to coach on the field and where he was in his career, he really wanted to finish here at Clemson. I’m super excited it worked out for us too, because this is as good a special teams coach as there has been in the NFL for a long, long time.
“I love his experience. I love that he cares about me and he loves Clemson in particular. I think that’s great, but his experience and expertise in all things football — not just special teams — is also a huge value to us. He’s a leader of men, and I think his perspective and his lens joining our organization will be incredibly valuable even beyond the impact that he’ll make on our special teams.
“So I’m just super excited to have he and Jeanne, his wife, joining the Clemson Family. He’s got a beautiful family, with his daughters and a son all grown and grandkids. It’s the right time and I’m thankful that it worked out for him to join us here at Clemson and help us take Clemson back to the top.”
