Facing Friends: Clemson's Swinney goes against longtime protege in Virginia's Elliott

CLEMSON, S.C. — Tony Elliott was a walk-on graduate receiver in 2003 who finally thought he'd have a chance for more playing time at Clemson when his position coach left and in walked a young, energetic assistant in Dabo Swinney who himself had returned to college football after selling commercial real estate.

“I'm like, ‘Man, I’d finally worked my way up from kind of the bottom to where now I have an opportunity,” Elliott recalled this week.

Little did Elliott realize how much his life path would change alongside Swinney, who soon enough hired him as an assistant coach. More than two decades later, the two will reunite at Death Valley on Saturday where Swinney's 10th-ranked Tigers play Elliott's Virginia Cavaliers — the first time Swinney has ever faced one of his former assistants as an opposing head coach.

It's much deeper than boss-employee, Swinney said. The two bonded over shared backgrounds in overcoming adversity: Swinney's dealt with poverty and his parents' divorcing; Elliott's mother died in a car accident as the family went to church.

“We just connected on a deeper level,” Swinney recalled.

Changing paths

Elliott, after Clemson, took his industrial engineering degree and worked at Michelin for a couple of years. But he missed football and askedc Swinney about how best to get into the business.

Swinney told him to find a high school or small college and volunteer. Do whatever they asked and see if you truly loved the game, Elliott remembered.

So Elliott got a job at South Carolina State, about three hours southeast of Clemson, and spent two years working as receivers coach with the FCS team.

Elliott moved to another FCS school, Furman, for three seasons before he and wife Tamika were sitting at Swinney's kitchen counter in 2011 when this old position coach offered his ex-receiver the chance to join the Tigers as running backs coach.

Elliott didn't understand and told Swinney he knew little about coaching runners. “That's OK,” Swinney said. “We'll teach you all that.”

What Swinney wanted was Elliott's blend of football strategy, his easy but firm way of handling people and what he would add to his then, young, unproven offensive staff.

“That was honestly one of the greatest, coolest moments,” Swinney said. “I told him, ‘We’re not hiring you because you're a great running backs coach, we're hiring you because of who you are.'”

Clemson success

Swinney, Elliott and the Tigers began a run that will surely be remembered as a high point of Clemson football. The team went 131-21 during Elliott's 11 seasons with seven Atlantic Coast Conference titles, six consecutive trips to the College Football Playoff and national titles after the 2016 and 2018 seasons.

When offensive coordinator Chad Morris left to become SMU head coach after the 2014 season, Swinney made Elliott a co-offensive coordinator and chief play caller.

"That surprised me, too," Elliott said of his new responsibilities. But as Elliott has learned the past two decades, that's just Swinney.

“His approach is to do it with people, believing in people, believing in the human spirit, believing that if you find good quality people and you give them an opportunity, they'll take it, they'll run with it and ultimately, everybody will be successful,” Elliott said.

Helping a friend

Elliott is in his third season leading Virginia. He was in his first season when the Cavaliers suffered an unspeakable tragedy when three players were shot and killed on campus. Two more students, including a fourth football player, were wounded. Elliott's job changed in an instant.

Swinney said Elliott's life experience and empathetic nature made him the perfect person for such a task, helping young people navigate a situation they could never imaging enduring.

Once more, Elliott turned to his friend and mentor for advice.

“The biggest thing was him just telling me to be myself. And lead with your heart and the good Lord upstairs will direct your path,” Elliott said. “And that's really, now that I look back, that's what it was like.”

Facing a friend

The two friends text and talk often, just not this week when the Tigers (5-1, 4-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) look to keep rolling to their sixth straight win as the Cavaliers (4-2, 2-1) try to recover from a 24-20 loss to Louisville last week.

No matter the outcome, Swinney remains proud of his former wide out and their shared journey to success.

And Swinney has no doubt Elliott will succeed at Virginia, or at whatever he wants to accomplish.

“When he sets his mind to do something," Swinney said, "(he) is going to be great at it.”