AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. — When Clemson decided to make a change in leadership with its gymnastics program, it did not take athletic director Graham Neff long to figure out what direction he wanted to go in.

He already had a semi-relationship with California coaches Justin Howell and Elisabeth Crandall-Howell, stemming from the school’s search for a coach to start the program back in 2021.

“We actually interviewed them at that time and some others, but we paused the search at that point because it was off cycle, and it was in the middle of a gymnastics year,” Neff told The Clemson Insider on Tuesday during the ACC’s Spring Meetings at the Ritz Carlton on Amelia Island. “We were still trying to figure things out.

“We had an initial relationship and had talked to them, sort of speak, years ago, so we stayed in touch. Myself, a little bit, and some other staffers, and now this past year with them being in the league (at Cal). It was kind of one of those things, as I continued to track and follow them.”

Neff’s and Clemson’s relations with the Howell’s led to the two co-national coaches of the year moving across country to take over a two-year-old program that has a ton of potential and a lot of fan support.

Clemson officially announced the Howell’s as the Tigers’ co-head coaches on Monday.   

“It shows their desire to come here to Clemson. So, as we attacked the finances, it was a mutual desire with that,” Neff said.

That mutual desire will pay the Howell’s $225,000 each for the next five years, as well as pay the coaches’ buyout clause from their Cal contracts. Each will be in the amount of $450,000, within 60 days of start date, according to the terms of the contracts which were obtained by TCI.

“When you can get a coach or coaches with their background because the job is attractive to them, you are never going to dismiss it. Rarely do stars align like that,” Neff said. “Secondly, gymnastics is a revenue driven sport for us. We have seen the attendance. We are top 10 nationally in attendance. We are going to be top 5 in the country.

“The demand, holy cow! The demand for season tickets is tremendous. It is not a break-even sport, but we are bullish in our ability to invest in it, provide resources and what that looks like competitively.”

In addition, Clemson will pay both coaches approximately $225,000 sufficient to put coaches in the position they would have been in had payment of the liquidated damages and obligations been non-taxable.

In all, to get the Howell’s to come to Clemson, cost Clemson approximately $1.35 million.  

 “From a business line, this is not just sucking money into a sport because we can get a really good set of coaches. It is our most highly attended and most highly revenue generating women’s sport, behind football, men’s basketball and baseball, and we have only been at it two years,” Neff said. “The business strategy of it allowed for the opportunity to attract coaches of this caliber, and to me, it just made a bunch of sense.”