Former Clemson defensive tackle Brentson Buckner says there is one reason why he brings his son Brandan to Dabo Swinney’s Football Camp, even though he has to fly across country to do so. It’s Dabo Swinney.
“I want him to come down here and get good coaching,” said Buckner, who is entering his fourth season as the defensive tackles coach for the Arizona Cardinals. “When you watch what Clemson does on Saturday afternoons you know there is a lot of quality coaching getting done.”
Brandan Buckner is 5-foot-10 as an eighth grader, and shows plenty of potential. He plays wide receiver, tight end and outside linebacker for his team back home in Arizona, and Buckner says his son is projected to reach 6-foot-3 and weigh 225 pounds by the time he is 17 years old.
Buckner was an All-ACC defensive tackle for the Tigers from 1990-’93 and was drafted in the second round of the 1994 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers. He played in the NFL for 12 seasons and played in two Super Bowls for the Steelers and the Carolina Panthers.
The former Tiger credits Clemson for a lot of his success, and he enjoys bringing his son to football camp here so Brandan can see where his dad and mother went to school.
Buckner says Swinney’s camps are the best. This is Brandan’s second time in Swinney’s camp.
“It speaks for itself. To get 1,400 sets of parents to come from all over the United States to send their kids to your camp; that says something about your program and the quality in which he brings to the program,” Buckner said. “You see it in the players that leave here and go into the NFL or just in society. They are a good group of young men and as a parent you want your son to be a productive person in society. You want him to understand values. You want him to understand academics and be able to go out there and be a valuable part of society.
“But the way Dabo does it, not only does he have his coaches here, but his players have gone on to be productive and they come back and help with camp. You get to see a little piece of Clemson. You get to see the past, the present and the future of the program here. There is a family tie and these kids love it. It is 10,000 degrees out here and you don’t see one kid out here complaining. They are working hard because they know the quality of which they are getting from Dabo. The people at Clemson are second to none.”
To see his son have so much fun playing and learning about football at Clemson, “It’s a dream come true for me,” said Buckner.
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