The Citadel coach says don't talk bad about Dabo Swinney in his presence

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CLEMSON – Don’t say anything bad about Dabo Swinney around The Citadel head coach Maurice Drayton.

Drayton’s Bulldogs travel to Clemson this weekend for the Tigers’ annual Military Appreciation Day. But Drayton was on the Coastal Carolina staff of David Bennett back in 2009 when the Chanticleer coaches made the trek to Clemson to learn from a young Swinney and his staff.

Drayton took along his son, Montrel, who battled a heart condition from birth and would need three stages of open-heart surgery to correct his double inlet single left ventricle, also known as hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

Montrel was the star of the visit.

“I think Coach Swinney is a fine, fine man,” Drayton said earlier this week. “And I always tell the story, when I was coaching at Coastal Carolina under David Bennett, we went to Clemson to study to learn, and my son, I've talked about him often, was a heart patient at MUSC. One of his wishes was to go to Clemson because all his doctors and his nurses were Clemson grads.

“So we had the opportunity to take him with us as we studied Coach Swinney and his staff, they just took Montrel in and loved on him, and it was one of the best experiences of his life. And so much to where he broke their team down at the end of practice. And from that day going forward, I wasn't Coach Drayton to Coach Swinney. It was like, ‘Hey, Montrel's dad.’ So I think that's a really cool moment. C.J. Spiller was a player at the time. Now he's a coach. He was one of Montrel's favorite players and he has autographed memorabilia from him. So, when I think of Coach (Swinney) and what he's done and his program, better not say anything bad around me.”

Swinney spoke at The Citadel a few years ago, and he was reminded of the visit.

“A lot of times you get staffs that'll come up and I believe Coach Bennett was the coach at the time. A good Clemson man right there,” Swinney said. “But yeah, his son was obviously a lot younger and has had some heart issues and we brought him along, it was one of his things. We wanted to really show him a good time and make it a special time for him and coach. In fact, when I was down there a couple of years ago, he reminded me of that time. So he's a good man, he's a heck of a coach and got a great family. He's a great father and Montrel is, I think he's a Clemson fan, so it probably can't be this weekend, but hopefully he will be after that.”

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