A chapter from Dabo's Dynasty

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The following is an excerpted chapter from Larry Williams’ recent book “Dabo’s Dynasty: Clemson’s Rise to College Football Supremacy.” The book chronicles not just the story of the 2018 season, but also a decade of football under Swinney and all the key junctures in the building of a powerhouse. To order the book, plus the three previous books by Larry, visit ClemsonFootballBooks.com.

Late on the afternoon of Sept. 22 in Atlanta, assorted coaches and players were almost finished with their postgame media obligations following a 49-21 spanking of Georgia Tech. These interviews were taking place in the Yellow Jackets’ weight room, which was somewhat fitting because the Tigers had once again shown how much bigger, stronger and faster they were than the program that used to give Clemson fits early in Dabo Swinney’s head-coaching tenure.

Jeff Scott, the Tigers’ fifth-year co-offensive coordinator, was in a great mood as he reflected on what he’d just seen from Trevor Lawrence. The freshman from nearby Cartersville had just put on a homecoming show in the Tigers’ fourth game, making an emphatic statement that it was his time to be the starting quarterback after four weeks of a rotation predicated on Kelly Bryant starting. Scott had answered the last question and was headed back to the locker room. This writer stopped him and reminded him of something he’d said back in August when the world wanted to know how the staff would handle juggling two quarterbacks:

“Coach Swinney says all the time he doesn’t mind playing a freshman or sophomore. But if it’s against a senior, a guy with experience, it’s got to be a knockout shot.” Those were Scott’s words during August camp. Scott was asked if Lawrence’s tapestry on this day – 13 for 18 passing, 176 yards, four touchdowns – constituted a knockout punch in the quarterback battle. Scott elected not to comment, but the smile on his face said it all: Clemson had found its quarterback, and Lawrence was everything the staff thought he was when they signed him.

The fact that Bryant held on to his starting job into the fourth game of the season made this competition sound complicated. Fact is, it never was. Swinney and his staff needed to see something definitive to elevate Lawrence to the starting role, and he showed them exactly that at Georgia Tech. He was in on six possessions.

Clemson scored touchdowns on five of them, including a late exclamation-point 30-yard strike to Tee Higgins after Swinney put the front-line guys back in “to finish the right way.” The offense mustered one first down and no points on Bryant's two first-half possessions, and Bryant came on in mop-up duty to lead the offense on a touchdown drive. "We're going to enjoy tonight, that's what we're going to do," Swinney told reporters. "We're not going to set depth charts here in the post-game press conference."

Numerous voices on the outside said it was time to make Lawrence the starter, including this observer in a day-after column for Tigerillustrated.com:

We've called it like we've seen it the whole time. We said exiting spring practice that Lawrence was capable of starting the entire season and would be hard to hold off for long. We also said Bryant was, in fact, capable of improving on his first season as the starter.

Bryant did improve, and that's a great credit to him. But No. 16 is just a different type of player who makes the offense look different when he's on the field. As much as everyone on the outside wanted this drama to follow a set script, the reality was it was going to unfold organically. Resolution to the competition was going to be one of those "you'll know it when you see it" type of deals.

Some folks wanted so bad for Lawrence to be the guy RIGHT NOW that they saw that moment in the spring game, or last week against Georgia Southern. For those who are detached from the extremes of tribal affiliation, that moment came yesterday. It was the right call to start Bryant the first four games. Now it's the right call to start Lawrence.

On Monday, five days before a visit from Syracuse, Swinney made it official by listing Lawrence as the starter on the weekly depth chart. It was big news, but not controversial news. Quarterbacks coach Brandon Streeter informed Bryant of the change Sunday night. Privately, Swinney told the team the next morning and presented stats to back up the move. Bryant: 36 of 54 passing for 461 yards, 66.7 percent completions, two touchdowns, one interception, 8.5 yards per attempt, 146.9 rating, 130 yards rushing. Lawrence: 39 of 60 passing for 600 yards, 65 percent completions, nine touchdowns, two interceptions, 10 yards per attempt, 191.8 rating, 24 yards rushing. Bryant had been in for 20 possessions and the

offense has scored seven touchdowns on those drives. Lawrence had been in for 24 possessions and the offense has scored 13 touchdowns on those drives. Points per possession with Bryant in the game: 2.6. Points per possession with Lawrence in the game: 4.04.

As much as Bryant and Lawrence and everyone had cast their relationship and their handling of the two-quarterback system in a positive light, in truth it was a difficult and awkward situation. Bryant felt like he’d done nothing to lose the job, and on top of that his body language often looked less than enthused when he stood on the sideline and watched Lawrence. The freshman was confident in his abilities also, confident that he was the better guy. It was true that both of them genuinely liked the other. But it was also true that they were both supreme competitors at the highest level of college football. “It was just a weird situation,” Lawrence later recalled. “He’s an older guy who has built relationships with these guys for four years and a great dude. That was more uncomfortable than anything on the field this year.”

The next morning, a few hours before Swinney’s normal Tuesday press conference, this writer received a tip that Bryant was not at practice the night before. We reached out to football communications director Ross Taylor, who could not confirm it. Taylor briefed Swinney on the tip, and at his press conference the coach voluntarily broke the news that he gave Bryant the previous day off. The coach also shared that it was an extremely difficult conversation with Bryant, who’d amassed a 16-2 record as the starting quarterback.

“It’s a bad day to be the head coach. Most days it’s good. But it’s a bad day. Because I love Kelly. It was emotional. Emotional for him. Tough day. … It’s tough, tough. Because he’s played well. And there’s not a guy that’s ever been here as long as I’ve been at Clemson, there’s not a guy that’s been as committed to this program as Kelly Bryant. There’s not a better leader. This guy is the epitome of what you want. He’s what you want your son to be like. I love him. Like a son. So it was a very difficult conversation. And he’s very disappointed. But I don’t have any doubt that he’ll show up and go back to work and respond.”

The NCAA’s more relaxed redshirt rules allow a graduate player to transfer, preserve a year of eligibility and play right away the next year provided that player sees action in four or fewer games. Bryant had played in four games in

2018. Swinney was asked at the press conference if Bryant conveyed an interest in transferring.

“No. No. No. We just talked about a lot of things. But I don’t have any doubt he’ll be right here and ready to go and get back on the horse and ride. … If I was worried about (a transfer), or if I was deceitful in some way or something like that, I could've huddled the coaches up and said, 'Hey, let's make sure we start (Bryant) for Syracuse and that way he's got no option.' But that's not how I operate. I don't think like that. I don't operate that way. I mean, I'm just trying to do what's right. And I'm not ever going to apologize for that."

About six hours later, the story became a full-blown controversy. Bryant showed up and went through the normal Tuesday meetings. But then when practice began, he was nowhere to be found. Soon thereafter, Matt Connolly of The State newspaper reported Bryant was a no-show for the second day in a row. On top of all this, it was Bryant’s 22nd birthday. The last sight of him, according to a source with the team, was when he was walking out of the football facility to the parking lot with belongings from his locker and a birthday cake.

On the other side of the monstrous Allen N. Reeves football complex, the Tigers were going through practice while one of their key figures was going out the door for good. Swinney sent some staffers in search of Bryant but he was gone. The last thing Swinney told Bryant earlier in the day was that he needed an answer by 10:50 Wednesday morning, his normal time on an ACC media teleconference. When Swinney returned to his office after practice, he had a text from Bryant saying he was leaving.

The next morning came another gut punch. In normal transfer situations, the player and the coach come up with prepared statements and the school announces the news. In this case, Bryant gave the scoop to Greenville News reporter Manie Robinson. In the article, Bryant was quoted as saying his demotion was “a slap in the face” and he wasn’t treated fairly. Soon thereafter, Swinney was on the ACC teleconference and was asked about Bryant’s comments. “Nothing changes how I feel about him. I think he’s one of the best young people I’ve ever been around. It’s impossible for me to say anything bad about him. And I hope nobody else does either. Just wish him well. Support him even though you might not like his decision, and we’ve got to move on."

Swinney makes himself available to the media after every Wednesday practice during the season, and normally it’s attended by 8-10 people. But on this evening, media attendance was closer to 50 with cameras all around and Swinney being asked to comment yet again on Bryant’s departure. A few former players, including members of the 2016 team that won the national title, popped off on Twitter and ridiculed Swinney for promoting Lawrence. Meanwhile, Clemson was trying to pull together and prepare to face the team that handed the Tigers their only regular-season loss of 2017.

An excerpt from a column by this writer that week on Tigerillustrated.com:

For months, Dabo Swinney has publicly wondered why people are so dang interested in a quarterback competition. He has said it's no different than competition at any other position. Just last night, he noted that the media didn't flock to practice asking about Sean Pollard after Cade Stewart started over Pollard at right guard against Texas A&M.

Quarterback is treated differently because it is different. How many times have you heard a coach say "My right guard is 27-2 as a starter?" How often have you heard a coach say he gave his demoted defensive tackle a day off from practice to cope with it? How many times has a coach appeared genuinely distraught over a depth-chart shakeup at receiver?

Swinney's take on this is not a big deal. Coaches talk to their team through the media all the time, and our guess is that's the basis for his "it's no different than any other position" position. On matters that are a big deal relating to recent developments at quarterback, from this corner Swinney has handled it flawlessly. Which is to say that, in the course of making a difficult but justified decision to promote Trevor Lawrence, he has done everything possible to honor the feelings, the point of view, the reputation and the legacy of the player he demoted. …

We've been around him since 2004, and even when he was a receivers coach he was relentlessly building up his players. Lavishing them with praise that in some cases might not have been deserved. From then to now, if you ask him about a third-string bust he's probably going to tell you that the guy is this close to breaking out. Even he has gone on record saying it's on the coaches when they miss on a prospect, that it's not the player's fault. It's all on them.

The former walk-on always has a soft spot not just for the stars who have made him a very rich man, but also for the obscure guys who are busting it and will probably never do much of note. Swinney's elaborate touting of is players is something people like to joke about in some instances. But in this instance, it is a boldface confirmation that the man loves his players and almost always gives them the benefit of the doubt. And now some of his former players are going after him for a decision that is 100-percent defensible. Shameful.

There have been some slaps in the face over the past few days, no doubt. Except they're not coming from the head coach. He's had their backs a lot more lately than they've had his.

This team was not merely trying to move on from a transaction. It was much closer to the team grieving the loss of a loved one. Some players weren’t happy Bryant chose to bail on the team during the season, and some didn’t like his choice of words in describing Swinney’s decision. But Bryant was still a beloved figure on the team, an integral part of its fabric even before he became the starter in 2017. And now he was gone.

"It's sad to see," Brent Venables said. "I just hate it, just the big picture. I'm just a loyal guy. I believe in just fighting and sticking to it. That's just me. That's easy to say. I'm not sitting here trying to judge. He had such an incredible legacy here with his leadership and his toughness and his accomplishments: ‘I just keep fighting and control what I can control.’ And, 'My teammates are here and this is my team,’ that's how we all looked at him. I've probably said too much. I've got my own problems. But as a member of this team and as a coach, I've always -- and I still do -- hold Kelly in very high regard because I know the pressure that goes with that is different than there is at middle linebacker. I know that. I just don't think that if there's opportunities down the road that you have to look somewhere else, because there's those same opportunities right here. But that's just me."

Less than six months earlier, an ESPN crew came to Clemson to broadcast the spring game and the major topic was the Tigers’ stocked quarterback cupboard. Johnson left a month later. And now Bryant’s departure made Chase Brice the No.

2 guy. Taking reps at the third-string quarterback spot during Syracuse week: none other than Hunter Renfrow. Bryant would later end up at Missouri.

The day before the Syracuse game, Streeter traveled to Greenville for a previously scheduled speaking engagement at a downtown restaurant. The Bryant situation was the elephant in the room as hundreds of Clemson fans gathered to eat lunch and hear some inside scoop about the situation. Streeter went down his list of talking points and finally got to Bryant. He became choked up for a moment before gathering himself and concluding the speech.

On game day, Clemson had the look of a team that had been through a week of monumental distractions. Lawrence didn’t look totally comfortable in his first start, losing a fumble on the offense’s second play. Syracuse was moving the ball consistently on the Tigers’ vaunted defense. But then came the sum of all fears at the 4:56 mark of the second quarter: Lawrence sprawled on the turf and being attended to by trainers after diving for extra yardage and absorbing a helmet to the neck and shoulder area. It looked like a concussion, and it could’ve been worse given the severity of the hit.

This was exactly the scenario Swinney presented to Bryant after the demotion: Lawrence could get hurt and you could be the starter again. Lawrence could not play well and you could be the starter again. The staff had stressed to Bryant that it was still an open competition, that Bryant could still play his way back into the starting job just as Lawrence did. But there the team stood in the locker room at halftime, down 16-7 and minus Bryant and Lawrence. Everyone looked at Brice, the redshirt freshman who’d cultivated a reputation in practice as a lovable gunslinger – a gamer who was just going to help them do big things one day. It’s just that everyone thought that day would come in 2020 or 2021, not the fifth game of 2018.

The prevailing feeling inside Death Valley was gloom and doom. Fans were in a panic over Lawrence’s injury and in a rage over Bryant’s departure. Star corner Trayvon Mullen sprained his ankle in the second quarter and was out. It felt like players were dropping like flies. In the press box, writers joked about going to the Music City Bowl instead of back to the College Football Playoff. There was a feeling, and not an unreasonable one, that the Tigers were on the verge of being blown out of their own stadium by Syracuse. The visitors had 221 yards in the first 30 minutes, but three times the defense held the Orange to field goals after their offense had first downs inside Clemson’s 31-yard line.

On the second drive of the third quarter, Brice threw an interception to give Syracuse the ball in Clemson territory. Over the headsets, Swinney told his offensive staff they were going to have to lean on the run to help take the pressure off Brice. Even if Syracuse stacked the line of scrimmage to take away the run and make Brice beat them with his arm, the Tigers were going to be stubborn try to win it the old-fashioned way. The Orange was 38 yards away from making it a 23-7 game. But the defense held, and Syracuse couldn’t even get in field-goal range.

A circus catch by Renfrow from Brice down the seam converted a third down and gained 28 yards to set up a field goal that made it 16-10. Things seemed somewhat manageable now. And then, on second down for Syracuse, A.J. Terrell stepped in front of an Eric Dungey pass and picked it off. This supplied a major jolt of hope and emotion as Terrell returned the interception 20 yards to set up another field goal that made the score 16-13. It felt like Clemson was going to be OK.

Syracuse moved the ball to midfield but Clemson produced another stop and a punt. Everything was in the Tigers’ favor as the ball sailed toward return man Amari Rodgers, who’d fumbled a punt earlier but recovered it. He lost this one too and didn’t get it back. Syracuse recovered at the Clemson 10 and then cashed in with a touchdown. The Tigers were down 23-13 and the foreboding feeling was back inside the stadium. Syracuse was on the verge of handing this powerhouse another stunning defeat.

But the offense responded, and Brice provided the spark with back-to-back passes to Justyn Ross for 16 and 15 yards. Then Travis Etienne took over with a 17-yard burst to the Syracuse 26, then a 26-yard dash to the end zone to trim the margin to 23-20. Clemson forced a punt but couldn’t move the ball. Then the defense forced another punt that put the Tigers deep in their territory with 6:06 left. A holding penalty on Clemson was tacked on, placing the ball at the 6-yard line.

The Tigers pounded the run to get to midfield, giving the ball to the backs seven straight times against Syracuse’s gassed defense. Etienne ran for 2 yards on third-and-3 from the Syracuse 49, and there was no doubt Clemson was going for fourth-and-1 with 2:50 on the clock. But then backup right guard Gage Cervenka

committed a false-start penalty in his haste to pull to the left side on a lead block for Etienne. Now it was fourth-and-6 from the Clemson 48. “Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong,” said center Justin Falcinelli.

Swinney had already used a timeout to set up the play that was derailed by Cervenka’s penalty. He swallowed hard and kept his offense on the field, leaving it in the hands of Brice when the better decision seemed to be punting and relying on the defense to get the ball back. “I think you punt the football here,” ESPN analyst Todd Blackledge told viewers.

Swinney and his coaches had been saying all along that they could win with Brice, and then Brice delivered by threading a perfect throw to Higgins near the Clemson sideline. Syracuse was in a zone defense, which meant that Higgins was to find a soft spot on a circle route that started inside and then wound its way back to the sideline. That part was easy. But getting the ball to him with three defenders in the vicinity was another matter. Brice’s pass had the perfect velocity and accuracy needed to hit Higgins for a 20-yard gain. “The game is on the line and he throws a strike,” Swinney said. “Just unbelievable moxie.”

On the next play, Brice pulled on the zone-read because the defensive end crashed down to play the give to the running back. Brice found open grass and reached the 20 before lowering his shoulder and dragging a cluster of Syracuse defenders all the way to the 15. Bryant’s spirit was still very much present on this day, as everyone was still trying to process the fact that he was no longer present.

"I always visualize," Brice said. "Kelly actually taught me that. Just visualize making plays. First couple of plays off the play sheet, just visualize making that play, what defense they'd be in. Even when I was redshirting, I still just visualized me making those plays that they were making, in my head going where the ball should go and things like that and making checks."

Tavien Feaster took it to the 5-yard line on a powerful run, and he ran behind a determined block by Cervenka. Another run by Feaster to the 2, and then in came Etienne for Feaster. On the 13th play of the drive, Etienne ran in easily off the right side and Clemson was up 27-23. They found a way to go 94 yards for the go-ahead score in a bout of survival reminiscent of when they somehow got by N.C. State at home two years earlier. Then freshman end Xavier Thomas and the

defense feasted on Dungey on the final possession to end it. Clemson finished the game with 293 rushing yards on 53 carries, Etienne supplying 203 on 27 attempts.

“Danny Ford and Gene Stallings are probably drinking a beer and celebrating somewhere right now,” Swinney said. “Because that was an old-school – old-school – way of winning a game. But it’s what we had to do. … We ran it when they knew we were going to run it, and it was unbelievable.”

If you merely looked at the score and didn’t pay attention to the details, you probably wondered why Clemson was in such a close game against an inferior team on its home field. But this was so much more than that, and a week of emotional torment was all over the face of Swinney during his postgame press conference. “It’s been a long week and it’s been a tough week. Challenges within the week, challenges within the game. The game was kind of a reflection of the week. But at the end of the day, it’s all about how you respond.”

Three weeks earlier, the Tigers had just enough at Texas A&M with Bryant and Lawrence. Now they had just enough without them. Swinney calmed fears of a long-term absence for Lawrence by saying he had minor concussion symptoms and wanted to go back into the game. The Tigers’ prized freshman was going to be fine. And so was a team that probably never envisioned having to fight so hard and overcome so much for a 5-0 start.

“I always tell our guys about the heart of a champion, and it’s hard to define,” Swinney said. “But you just know it when you see it. And you know it when you don’t. Man, that’s all I can say: The heart of a champion. That’s our culture, that’s our offseason program, that’s the leadership of our team. Everything in life is about how you respond. It’s not about what happens great in your life or challenging in your life. It’s how you respond. And I’ve never been more proud of a team in all my life.

"I’ve had a lot of unbelievable, great wins as a head coach. I’ve been a part of some great ones as a player, great ones as an assistant coach in all my years. But I’ll never forget this one. This one right here, this one will rank up there with the biggest ones I’ve ever had. And some. People may say, ‘Well it’s just the fifth game of the year.’ But it’s more than that. Because I saw a team grow up. I saw a team stand up for each other and have each other’s back and just not quit. You know? That’s just what it’s all about.”

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