Big Money

By Brandon Rink
SouthernPigskin.com

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Big money – Clemson has it, and they’re making it rain on the football program right now.

Stealing away Oklahoma co-defensive coordinator Brent Venables, despite comparable Sooner offers, for a reported $800,000 this week, and the securing of up-and-comer offensive coordinator Chad Morris as the highest-paid assistant in the country at $1.3 million pre-Orange Bowl – mucho dinero has been shelled out in TigerTown recently (surely in denominations of paw-stamped, $2 bills).

Tigers coach Dabo Swinney called the hire “a grand slam” Friday in the introductory press conference, and it’s hard to disagree.

Oh, and Swinney isn’t getting slighted either – as he’ll reel in $2.3 million in 2012 according to Post & Courier Clemson beat writer Travis Sawchik, which would make him the fourth-highest paid coach in the ACC going off from last year’s USA Today database numbers.

Of course, the school’s first BCS trip down to South Florida helped to the tune of a $17.7 million payout, but after years of drawing comparisons to an SEC-program, they’re spending like it…and more.

Clemson has thrown down the gauntlet by grabbing Venables from Norman – almost doubling his Oklahoma salary, along with Morris, to have the highest-paid pair of assistants in the country – making $2.1 million in 2012. By comparison, when Dabo Swinney was hired full-time in 2009, Clemson’s whole staff came in at $2.7 million.

I’m not sure the ACC, outside of football-schools such as Florida State and Virginia Tech, can or is willing to really compete with the dollar figures they’re throwing out right now.

It’s not like institutions like Virginia or Duke or Boston College don’t have money, but Clemson’s administration has made a firm statement – they’re going to do whatever it takes to bring in or keep the best of the best to stay on top of the ACC.

I relate the situation to my second-favorite sport outside of college football, Major League Baseball. With no salary cap in play, Clemson now says it’s going to be the Boston Red Sox or New York Yankees of the ACC, as while most every MLB owner has the money – they don’t all spend it like they want to win the World Series every year.

The Tigers got a taste of what it’s like to have the national attention again (getting off to their best start since 2000), and they’re ready to stay there, whether big money directly correlates to those kind of results is still yet to be determined.

Believe it or not, it’s not always been like this in Clemson – frankly, the administration in TigerTown couldn’t have been any cheaper post-Tommy Bowden with inexperienced hires from within, Dabo Swinney at head coach and Billy Napier at offensive coordinator, after the 2008 season.

But a funny thing happened, after years of underperforming with gobs of talent – Swinney pulled out an Atlantic title in 2009 on the back of one C.J. Spiller, whose recruitment was the biggest asset of that offseason despite an early-jump-to-the-NFL flirtation.

Then, the young coach faced a testy 6-7 second-season, where post-season Swinney faced the firing of friends…or not being able to stick around to realize his vision for Clemson.

But even then, he hired an unknown offensive coordinator in Chad Morris from Tulsa for a fairly cheap $450,000 a season, which I’d say worked out pretty well in his favor, as Morris got the best out of a young but talented Tigers’ unit en route to the school’s first ACC title in 20 years.

Even with an ACC title in 2011, the embarrassing 70-33 Orange Bowl loss necessitated change – this time on the defensive side of the ball, and Swinney’s answer, actually interviewed for his job just two years ago, in Venables.

That process was fun in itself – one Tiger coverage site declaring it a done deal three days early despite other reported interviews to come, and a slew of more Clemson coverage sites jumping on the bandwagon later in the week, only to get caught in a web of misinformation from both Oklahoma and the Palmetto State on Twitter – just for Dabo Swinney to finally text Tiger beat writers with the news later that night, “BV to Clemson. Go Tigers.”

Just wild.

As it turns out, Venables was quite familiar with Clemson.

“Growing up, I was scared about what it would be like to compete against a place like Clemson,” Venables said. “There’s a mystique to it. But to see it, the beautiful facilities, it’s very special. This is as good as it gets.”

That gem to go with an almost Dabo Swinney-esque personality helped the 16-year defensive coach “win” the press conference Friday, but that won’t help the Tigers much if he can’t stop a mobile quarterback or the “air-raid” offense like his predecessor, Kevin Steele.

So, now we watch and wait – has Clemson started an arms-race in the ACC…or will the football schools spend and the rest stay at the status quo? Will Syracuse and Pitt, whenever they get to the conference, step up their games too?

It may very well come down to if the Tigers actually do anything in the next couple seasons with this staff and the amount of talent back.