CLEMSON — On Monday, LSU head coach Brian Kelly took a cleaver shot at Clemson during his press conference during the first day of SEC Media Days.

“We still think we are ‘The Death Valley.’ They can use the name, too. We are letting them borrow it,” Kelly said.

On Tuesday, during Clemson Football’s annual Media Outing, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney was asked if heard Kelly’s comments.

“I do not know the context. I don’t have any idea,” Swinney said. “It is not like I am sitting around and watching press conferences and all that stuff, so I have no idea. I have a lot of respect for LSU and Coach Kelly. I can tell you that.

“I guess it was Coach [Lonnie] McMillian at PC. I guess that is when it all that started. So, I guess everybody can go do their research on all of that, but it is going to be a great game in a great environment with two really talented football teams.”

Of course, Clemson is College Football’s Original Death Valley. As Swinney mentioned, McMillian first mentioned the nickname to his team prior to Presbyterian College’s trip to Clemson in 1945. He later told the local media the same thing, and the nickname stuck.

There are several urban legends about how LSU came to nickname its stadium Death Valley, but the earliest account, which its own former coach, Paul Dietzel, debunked in the story link above, came in 1959. That’s nearly 15 years after Memorial Stadium in Clemson was nicknamed Death Valley.