Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney returned to practice on Wednesday morning as the Tigers practiced in Death Valley for the first of two practices. It was the first day back for the Clemson coach since his father, Ervil Swinney passed away.

Swinney said his dad lived with him since May and they got the opportunity to spend a lot of quality time together. He said his dad moved back to Alabama about three weeks ago and went back to work and doing what he loved to do.

“He died peacefully and happy,” Swinney said. “We had a great celebration of his life yesterday, but I was telling the team, mentally as you go through those things, you get exhausted. But my dad would have been yelling at me. Literally, as soon as they put him the grave, ‘Alright, that’s enough. Get yourself back to work. We have some football games to win.’ That was big Eriv. We will miss him greatly. But I know he is at peace. I know he is with our Lord.”

*Wednesday was the first time Clemson held a situational scrimmage in Death Valley during camp. They played first down, second down and third down situations as well as goal line and red zone stuff. Nothing was scripted, the ball was placed and they wanted to see how the players would react to each situation. They also worked on having to score to win the game in the last minutes as well as the two-minute situations.

For more news and notes from Day 8 of fall camp, please visit The Rock. It’s free.