By Will Vandervort.

With Chad Morris’ name popping up as a potential candidate at one job after another the past two years, Clemson’s opponents were hoping recruits might go back on their commitments to the Tigers and go to different places.

They were waiting to throw anything they could to discredit Clemson after Morris’ departure. So when Morris left for SMU last week, some of the Tigers’ biggest recruiting rivals went after them.

But Dabo Swinney had an ace in the hole and for some reason everyone forgot about it. He has Clemson.

With Jeff Scott and Tony Elliott serving as Clemson’s co-offensive coordinators, Brandon Streeter serving as the new quarterbacks coach and Danny Pearman in charge of the tight ends, Swinney has four coaches on his staff who played at Clemson, went to school at Clemson and started their families at Clemson.

What better way to sell Clemson to an impressionable young man than to talk about their own personal experiences at the same school they are thinking about attending.

“I think recruiting is all about relationships and I think more than anything when Tony, myself, Brandon, and even Danny Pearman, that when we go into a home and talk about Clemson football, we can explain to them what it has done for us from a first-hand account,” said Scott, who served as the Tigers recruiting coordinator the last six years. “That is something a lot of coaches can’t do. They can just tell about their experiences being a coach, but actually going through it, there is a lot of pride and the prospects and their families can see that and can sense that whenever you are telling them about your alma mater and not just about a school that you are currently working for.

“I definitely think it has been a positive for us and it already has been on the recruiting trail. The feedback we have received from the 2015, ’16 and ’17 recruits has been really strong so we look forward to that.”

A lot of schools have tried to tell recruits Clemson might have a drop off on offense with Morris’ departure especially with young coaches like Scott and Elliott running the show, but that strategy backfired.

“A lot of the others schools had those articles ready and when Coach Morris left then they thought guys would move about and go to other places. Really, I think it did the opposite,” Scott said. “For Tony and I to go into those homes of the young men that we have been recruiting for two years, now the relationships we have are very close and now the people they have a relationship with have kind of move up in their role with the offense. That just made their commitments even stronger.

“They know the people that are going to be heavily involved in helping them be successful at the next level.”

With Streeter taking over as the recruiting coordinator and Scott and Elliott sharing offensive coordinator responsibilities, it will allow all three of Clemson’s youngest coaches to be on the road selling Clemson.

In the past, Morris’ coordinating duties forced him to stay more in the office and less on the road bringing in players. It will not be that way with Elliott and Scott.

“There is not one person spending all their time up here doing coordinating work and maybe it would limit them from being on the road,” Scott said. “With us being able to share that, and obviously Brandon with his experience, we plan on being on the road and being just as active in the recruiting process as we have before with our other roles.

“I think this will only continue that momentum we have had recruiting.”