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CLEMSON -- A cluster of college coaches sat in a room at Jennings High School waiting to make their pitches to Travis Etienne, his mother Donnetta, and coach Rusty Phelps.

The assistants from LSU, Tennessee and Louisiana Tech brought big personalities into the room, telling jokes and stories and trying to connect in a way that most coaches connect.

But there was another coach in the room who didn't say much at all, didn't make small talk with the other guys in large part because he was a long way from home and had no background or ties in Louisiana.

"We were taking the coaches into a conference room one by one and hearing them out," Donnetta said. "All these other men are -- you know how men go -- rah-rah-rah, talking man stuff and being loud or whatever.

"But Coach Tony is just there sitting and waiting quietly in a chair and not saying anything. He never said a word. He was courteous. He engaged when he was asked a question, but he was never boastful about what he was coming to do."

Coach Tony, of course, would be Tony Elliott. The same guy who, as Clemson's chief play-caller, helped engineer a 35-31 victory over Alabama in the national title game just three days earlier.

The day before that game in Tampa, Elliott and Dabo Swinney were stunned to see Fort Myers back Darrian Felix commit to Oregon. They tried to convince Felix to follow through with his scheduled visit to Clemson, but the deal was done. And now they were scrambling.