Of course, Dabo Swinney’s own team is his foremost focus, but Clemson’s head football coach certainly enjoys keeping up with and supporting the university’s other sports.

A good example of that was last weekend, when Swinney was on hand at McWhorter Stadium rooting on Clemson’s softball team in the regional round of the NCAA Tournament.

John Rittman’s team needed two games on Sunday afternoon, but ultimately Valerie Cagle and company shut down Auburn to advance to Super Regionals for the second consecutive season.

After dropping the first game on Sunday, 5-2, the Tigers responded with a 5-1 victory in the Regional Championship finale, while improving to 49-10 overall.

“I haven’t had a lot of opportunity to see them play, with the schedules and stuff. I hate they didn’t win the first one, but it gave me a chance to see them twice, and a lot of fun,” Swinney said at Monday’s Prowl & Growl in Rock Hill.

“They’re a great group of young ladies that are well coached and really believe. Obviously Cagle, she’s amazing. She’s fun to watch. But they’ve just got a bunch of really good players, and again, they’ve done a great job, Coach Rittman and his staff, of putting it all together.”

In just the fourth season of its existence, the Clemson softball program has already accomplished quite a bit and impressed Swinney in the process.

“It’s amazing to think that we didn’t have a softball program just a couple years ago,” he said. “Now we’ve already won a league, we’ve won a region, now we’ve won a second region, and it’s exciting to see the momentum building in that program.”

Meanwhile, Swinney has been keeping up with the Clemson baseball team and communicating with head coach Erik Bakich, who has led the Tigers on a remarkable turnaround this season.

Following a 2-8 start in the ACC, Clemson won its last seven ACC series and won 18 of its last 20 ACC regular season games to conclude the regular season with a 20-10 conference record.

The Tigers, who finished the regular season 39-17 overall, head to the ACC Tournament as the No. 3 seed and have positioned themselves well for the NCAA Tournament as a probable regional host.

“I’ve been texting with Coach Bakich,” Swinney said. “What a great job they’ve done, and keeping up with them. Super excited that we’re going to be able to host a regional, and hopefully they’ll do great in the ACC Tournament, keep that momentum going.”

Dear Old Clemson has added the Tiger Sack Pack to our online store.  Save by getting the Two Pack of signed cards from two of the nation’s top defensive ends, Myles Murphy and Xavier Thomas.

Now there is a new way you can support Clemson student-athletes. Purchase collectibles from Dear Old Clemson and the proceeds with go to support Clemson student-athletes. 

Dear Old Clemson is doing NIL the ‘Clemson way’, but we need your help to make sure we build a sustainable, repeatable model that will help keep Clemson competitive with the other top programs around the nation.

Dabo Swinney: “We need your assistance more than ever to provide meaningful NIL opportunities. Tiger Impact, Dear Old Clemson and other collectives allow student-athletes to utilize their voice and platform to maximize their NIL opportunities and strengthen their impact in the community.”

Graham Neff:
“Tiger Impact, Dear Old Clemson and other collectives need your support to help provide meaningful NIL opportunities for our student athletes. We are doing things the right way, the Clemson way with integrity as a non-negotiable and we fully support the mission of these groups.”

Join the Tiger Club or Lady Tiger Club to help these great student-athletes and help the Tigers compete at the highest level!