-- The mess at Auburn reinforces so many of Clemson's positive attributes.

In December of 2020, Brent Venables was hot and heavy with Auburn and was extremely close to making the decision to replace Gus Malzahn.

He made the difficult decision to remain at Clemson, and the major factor was Auburn's lack of alignment. One of the red flags was when he was speaking with an Auburn trustee who didn't exactly give a ringing endorsement of the AD who would be Venables' boss.

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Here we are 14 months later, and how smart does Venables look for pulling out of the Auburn search and waiting for a better opportunity?

As it turned out the perfect opportunity for Venables would come along a year after his Auburn flirtation, and his judicious, careful approach stands as an important lesson to all other assistants who are aspiring to run their own show.

It feels like it'll be a while before Clemson assistants are as prominent in the coaching carousel as Venables and Tony Elliott were over the past several years.

The first name that comes to mind as even a possibility over the next few years is Brandon Streeter, and maybe Mike Reed. Other than that, Dabo Swinney's reconstituted staff features mostly coaches who are still getting used to being full-time assistants; six of the 10 assistants have a combined four years of experience as Power 5 college position coaches (Tyler Grisham 2, C.J. Spiller 1, Nick Eason 1, and zero for Thomas Austin, Wesley Goodwin and Kyle Richardson).