Ben Boulware has come full circle.

Born and raised in Upstate South Carolina in a family full of Clemson fans and alumni, Boulware grew up attending Tiger games as a youngster and then went on to star as a linebacker for the Tigers from 2013-16, ultimately helping them win the natty in his final season.

Now, after joining the Clemson staff last season in a volunteer capacity, Boulware has taken on a larger role on Dabo Swinney’s staff this year after being named as the linebackers coach alongside Tom Allen.

On Tuesday morning, Boulware got emotional while discussing his journey during Clemson Football’s Media Outing at the Allen Reeves Football Complex. He’s extremely grateful to have his opportunity to coach at Clemson – something he certainly isn’t taking lightly.

“I would say super thankful and appreciative of Coach Swinney,” Boulware said. “I’m well aware that situations like this and [running backs coach] C.J. Spiller, those don’t happen a lot. So, one, just very thankful for [Swinney] for believing in me and giving me the opportunity to lead the linebacker room.”

“But yeah… I’m gonna cry. I’m gonna drink my coffee so I don’t cry,” Boulware continued. “But I would say, man, it’s full circle for me. It was cool. Like, it was really cool.”

Boulware couldn’t help but tear up when talking about his break from football and the excitement of coming back to Tiger Town in his new role.

“It’s too early on a Tuesday for me to be tearing up, man,” Boulware said. “But it was cool. [Tearing up] … A lot of y’all saw me play… so to now be back in this position is cool. It’s a full circle moment for me… no other way to explain it other than just thankful for the opportunity.”

A two-year starter at linebacker, Boulware left a legacy after a tremendous Clemson career during which he posted 352 tackles, 26 tackles for loss, 8.5 sacks, five interceptions, 41 quarterback pressures, 10 pass breakups, six caused fumbles and four recovered fumbles over 53 games (31 starts).

He earned the Jack Lambert Award as the nation’s top linebacker a senior in 2016, as well as second-team All-America honors and first-team All-ACC honors, and was selected as ACC Co-Defensive Player of the Year before earning national championship game Most Valuable Defensive Player honors in leading the Tigers to the program’s second national championship.

Boulware signed with the Carolina Panthers as a college free agent following the 2017 NFL Draft and spent the offseason and training camp with the squad. Once his playing career ended, he became an entrepreneur and business owner. The former Strength & Conditioning All-American opened The Junkyard, a cross-functional training facility with locations throughout Upstate State Carolina.

Boulware reflected on what he has learned from starting a business, saying the transition from his playing career to entrepreneurship and now back to football is similar to riding a bike.

“Imagine that you haven’t ridden a bike in a couple of years,” Boulware said. “Say it’s five years, you haven’t ridden a bike, but throughout those five years, you’ve done a lot of things like changing a bike tire or learn how to change the breaks on a bike. And every single day, you’re learning how to change a tire or learning how to grease the breaks up or tune up a bike. And also imagine when you used to ride a bike, you were the best bike rider in the country, you were the MVP of riding bikes. And yes, it’s been five years since you’ve ridden a bike, but over the past five years, you’ve done a lot of things to improve your craft on bike riding. So if I asked you today, could you go ride a bike? … You’d say, I’ll ride the freakin’ mess out that bike.

“And that’s the same for me. Yes, it’s been a couple years since I’ve been in ball, but over the past couple years in life, I’ve done a lot of leading people in our business, having 70 employees. Leadership is leadership and leading people is leading people, and communicating is communicating, and holding people to a higher standard and demanding it – whether it’s in this or whether you’re a doctor – leading people and demanding excellence, that is transcendent amongst many professions.

“So, I think that’s for me, yeah, I haven’t ridden that bike in a couple years. But over the past couple years, I’ve been learning how to change the hell out of a tire, and I can go ride that bike. I did it in spring, and I’m going to hop on it in a couple weeks and ride it for miles. It’s allowed the transition to be super smooth.”