After NCAA changes rules on number of coaches, who might take the field at Clemson?

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The start of August camp for the Clemson football team will feature a different look than in the past, as several coaches will now have the opportunity to offer on-field instruction.

The NCAA Division I Council recently opened the door for college football teams to completely rework the way they build their staffs this week. It voted to remove countable limitations on teams’ on-field coaching staffs, allowing unlimited numbers of coaches to provide help on gameday.

Previously, teams were only permitted to have 11 on-field coaches—the head coach plus 10 assistants. Schools worked around these limitations by hiring off-field analysts, of which they were allowed an unlimited number, but those analysts were strictly limited in what they could do during games.

Head coach Dabo Swinney has used analysts in the past, including Ted Roof, Chad Morris, and Terry Bowden. He hired former Jacksonville State head coach John Grass three years ago and has since added Andrew Zow and several former Clemson players to work in support roles.

Swinney recently added Lorenzo Ward, a former defensive coordinator at South Carolina, and we saw former Detroit Lions defensive line coach John Scott (a native of Greer) at Swinney’s camp.

Who are all the assistants who might now take on a bigger role?

Let’s take a look, and take your time reading through the bios. Some of these guys have interesting backgrounds.

John Grass, Special Assistant to the Offense

Grass joined Clemson in an off-field capacity in advance of the team’s 2021 Cheez-It Bowl victory. He came to the Tigers following a nine-year head coaching stint at his alma mater, Jacksonville State, the final eight seasons of which he served as the Gamecocks’ head coach. In his final campaign, his Gamecocks recorded one of the biggest upsets of the 2021 season, earning a dramatic 20-17 win at Florida State.

Grass joined Jacksonville State in 2013 as Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator under Head Coach Bill Clark before being tabbed for the head coaching job following Clark’s departure for UAB prior to the 2014 season. Grass led JSU to a 72-26 record from 2014-21, winning six Ohio Valley Conference titles and being named the conference’s Coach of the Year in each of his first three campaigns. Grass earned AFCA National Coach of the Year in 2015 after leading the Gamecocks to an FBS national championship game berth.

Prior to joining the college coaching ranks, Grass spent 22 years as an accomplished high school assistant coach and head coach in the state of Alabama. After assistant coaching stops at Ashville High School (1990-92) and Eufaula High School (1993-94), he became Ashville’s head coach from 1995-99. After two years as offensive coordinator at Hoover from 2000-01, he would go on to be head coach at Alabama’s Albertville (2002), Moody (2003-05), Spain Park (2006-07) and Oxford (2008-12) high schools, posting a high school head coaching career record of 123-60.

Andrew Zow, Senior Offensive Assistant

Zow joined Clemson as an offensive analyst in 2021 with 13 years of coaching experience at the high school level, including stints at Union County (Fla.) High School from 2007-09, Oak Mountain (Ala.) High School in 2011, Montevallo (Ala.) High School from 2012-15, Calera (Ala.) High School from 2016-18, Bessemer City (Ala.) High School in 2019 and Sylacauga (Ala.) High School in 2020, serving as head coach at Union County and in each of his last three stops.

After redshirting in 1997, Zow played collegiately at Alabama from 1998-2001, finishing his career as the program’s career leader in pass attempts, completions, pass yards and total offense. He compiled 5,983 career passing yards and 35 touchdowns with the Crimson Tide and helped No. 7 Alabama, a squad for which Dabo Swinney served as wide receivers coach, to a 34-7 win over No. 5 Florida in the 1999 SEC Championship.

Lorenzo Ward (role to be determined)

Ward spent the last five seasons as the defensive coordinator at Chattanooga after a stint at Louisville. His tenure at South Carolina, particularly as defensive coordinator from 2012 to 2015 under Steve Spurrier, contributed to the Gamecocks’ notable success, including three consecutive 11-2 seasons from 2011 to 2013.

A former player at Alabama and a graduate assistant coach during Swinney’s junior year with the Crimson Tide, Ward boasts a formidable 33-year coaching career, including a two-year stint as an assistant coach for the NFL’s Oakland Raiders.

DeAndre McDaniel, Senior Defensive Assistant

DeAndre McDaniel is in his ninth season on staff at Clemson and his second as Clemson’s senior defensive assistant after being promoted from defensive analyst in December 2021. Clemson’s defense finished in the Top 15 in total defense in each of his first seven seasons on staff and earned Top 3 finishes in scoring defense four times in that span.

Prior to joining Clemson’s support staff, McDaniel was one of the top safeties at Clemson in the 2000s. He was a first-team All-America safety in 2009 and third-team selection in 2010. He tied for third in the nation and was first in the ACC in interceptions in 2009. That season, he was the only player in the nation to have at least eight interceptions and 100 tackles.

As a senior, McDaniel, a 2010 Clemson graduate, led the Tigers in interceptions and tackles in 2010. He finished his career with 15 interceptions in his 53 games and was a two-time first-team All-ACC selection. He earned induction into the Clemson Athletic Hall of Fame in 2023.

Carter Thomason, Defensive Analyst

Thomason served as a student coaching assistant for Clemson from 2018-20, assisting in a variety of roles that included contributions to game planning, data management, film study and recruiting. He transitioned into a video graduate assistant role in 2021 before being hired as a defensive analyst in early 2022.

Prior to attending Clemson, Thomason served as a student coach at North Gwinnett (Ga.) High School in 2017, helping his team to a Georgia 7A state title that year.

Jody Evans, Special Teams Analyst

Evans began his coaching career at Tennessee-Martin, coaching multiple all-conference wide receivers in 1995 and moving to a position coaching outside linebackers for 1996. In 1997, he worked with the secondary and special teams at Louisiana-Monroe.

Evans then became an accomplished high school coach and administrator prior to joining the Tigers as Assistant Director of Football Operations prior to the 2021 Cheez-It Bowl. He coached at Tuscaloosa County (Ala.) High School in 1997 before a 20-year run at University School of Jackson (Tenn.) from 1998-2018, including spending the last 10 years as the school’s athletic director. He then returned to the state of Alabama, coaching at Northside Methodist Academy in 2019 and Cottonwood High School in 2020 before re-entering the college ranks.

Evans played defensive back at Alabama from 1989-91. He finished his career as a safety at UAB in 1992-93. He earned his bachelor’s degree in education from Alabama in 1994.

Da’Quan Bowers, Defensive Player Development

Da’Quan Bowers is in second season as a full-time staff member at Clemson, returning to his alma mater in January 2023 in a defensive player development role after spending the previous three seasons as South Florida’s defensive line coach.

Bowers’ decorated college career at Clemson from 2008-10 culminated in him earning unanimous All-America honors as a junior in 2010. That year, the former No. 1 overall recruit in the country earned the Bronko Nagurski Trophy as college football’s top defensive player, the Ted Hendricks Award as the nation’s top defensive end and the ACC’s Defensive Player of the Year award.

Bowers was selected by Tampa Bay in the second round of the 2011 NFL Draft. He played five seasons in Tampa and played the 2017 CFL season for the Edmonton Eskimos. In 2018, he entered the coaching ranks as a volunteer student assistant while completing his Clemson degree in parks, recreation and tourism management.

Daniel Boyd, Defensive Player Development

Boyd is in his fourth season assisting with defensive player development and in his eighth season with the program overall. Boyd transitioned into the role in 2021 after serving as a defensive student coach from 2016-18 and as a video graduate assistant from 2019-20.

From 2009-15, Boyd served as a sniper in the U.S. Army with two combat tours to Afghanistan.

Tajh Boyd, Offensive Player Development

Boyd is in his fourth season assisting with offensive player development after his standout playing career with the Tigers.

Boyd was a record-setting quarterback for the Tigers from 2010-13, setting school career marks in nearly every passing category, including completions (901), passing yards (11,904) and passing touchdowns (107) as well as in touchdown responsibility (133). The three-time All-ACC pick and 2012 AFCA first-team All-American won ACC Player of the Year in 2012, and he finished his career as a finalist for the Unitas and Manning Awards as one of Clemson’s team captains in 2013.

Carson Cramer, Offensive Player Development

Cramer is in his second season serving Clemson in an offensive player development role.

Prior to arriving at Clemson, Cramer spent four seasons in offensive quality control under the late Mike Leach, including one season at Washington State (2019) and three seasons at Mississippi State (2020-22). He spent one season serving in a similar role at Kansas, working alongside current Clemson offensive coordinator Garrett Riley in 2018.

Cramer was a volunteer student assistant at Oklahoma State from 2012-15 while earning a bachelor’s degree in management. He then moved into an offensive graduate assistant position from 2016-18, including a 2017 season in which the Cowboys’ 568.9 yards per game ranked second nationally.

Corey Crawford, Defensive Player Development

Crawford is in his third season assisting Clemson’s defense and his first in defensive player development after returning to Clemson as a graduate assistant in 2022.

A four-year letterman at Clemson along the defensive line from 2011-14, Crawford spent six seasons playing professional football, beginning his career in 2015 as an undrafted free agent with the team known currently as the Washington Commanders. His professional career also included tenures with the Columbus Lions (2017) and Carolina Cobras (2019) of the National Arena League, the Memphis Express of the Alliance of American Football (2019), and the Houston Roughnecks of the XFL (2020).

Tyrone Crowder, Offensive Player Development

Crowder is in his third season in an offensive player development role at Clemson after originally rejoining his alma mater as an offensive graduate assistant prior to the 2021 season.

Crowder entered the coaching ranks at the high school level, serving as offensive line coach at Daniel High School in Central, S.C. for three seasons from 2018-20, helping Daniel to the 2020 Class AAA championship. He also served as a special education aide at R.C. Edwards Middle School in Central.

Crowder was a four-year letterman at guard for Clemson from 2014-17, starting 41 of the 48 games in which he appeared. A three-time All-ACC selection, he started on Clemson’s national championship team in 2016 and earned third-team All-American honors from the Associated Press in 2017.

Cole Stoudt, Offensive Player Development

Stoudt is in his fourth season in an offensive player development role at Clemson. Stoudt joined Clemson’s staff following two seasons as quarterbacks coach at Morehead State from 2018-19 prior to the postponement of the 2020 FCS season.

Stoudt entered the coaching ranks as an offensive graduate assistant at Jacksonville State, assisting the program’s quarterbacks for three years from 2015-17 and helping quarterback Eli Jenkins earn OVC Offensive Player of the Year honors in 2015 and 2016. During his time on staff, Jacksonville State won three OVC championships, went 23-0 in the league and appeared in the 2015 FCS title game.

Stoudt was a four-year letterman at quarterback for Clemson from 2011-14, passing for more than 2,600 yards. He was named Most Valuable Player of the 2014 Russell Athletic Bowl after throwing for 329 yards and three touchdowns against Oklahoma. He earned a degree in sociology from Clemson in 2015.

Elijah Turner, Defensive Player Development

Turner is in his fourth season on Clemson’s support staff and his second serving in defensive player development.

Turner joined Clemson’s staff as a defensive graduate assistant in 2021 immediately following a five-year playing career. He began his collegiate career at Presbyterian College, where he played defensive back from 2016-17 and finished second on the Blue Hose in tackles in 2017. Upon Presbyterian’s transition to a non-scholarship model, Turner elected to walk on at Clemson, playing in 24 games across the 2018-20 seasons for squads that won a combined 39 games and made three College Football Playoff appearances.

John Scott, Defensive Assistant

Scott was most recently the defensive line coach for the Detroit Lions in 2023. Scott played professionally for the Greensboro Prowlers of the AF2 and the Montreal Alouettes of the CFL before entering the collegiate coaching ranks.

Scott played at Western Carolina and has coached at Penn St., South Carolina, Arkansas, and with the New York Jets and Detroit Lions.

He still has a year left on his contract with the Lions, so he may be in the same position as Roof a few years ago – an unpaid analyst who can help out wherever he is needed. We will likely have more clarity on this in the next month or so.

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