CLEMSON — Ben Boulware is one of the most revered players of the Dabo Swinney era.

Boulware anchored the middle of the Tigers’ defense during its run to the national title game in 2015, as well as when they won it all in 2016, the year he won the Jack Lambert Award as the nation’s top linebacker. His fiery speech after that national championship win will never be forgotten by most.

As good as he was, what many remember the most is the intensity he brought to the field. As a first-year linebackers coach at his alma mater, Boulware is bringing that same mentality to his room, and his players, including sophomore Sammy Brown, are embracing that mindset with open arms.

“He is a very intense person, if you can’t tell, and when he played,” Brown said. “As a coach, he is the exact same way.”

“It is really easy to learn things from him because he has played the game, and he played it at the highest level in the national championship. He’s got things in his game that he can relate to us with. He knows what it is like to be in our shoes and know what we are feeling.”

On the defensive side of the ball, Brown wears the helmet with the mic equipped inside of it, and shared some insight on what that is like when Boulware is on the other end.

“I’ve got the green dot, and I will be in the middle of a play, and he is just screaming in my ear,” Brown said. “Not even meaning to, he is just screaming at somebody in my ear. He just happened to have his mic on.”

For senior Wade Woodaz, who is now the elder statesman of the linebacker room, it’s Boulware’s transparency that really stands out. It’s always brutal honesty, which Woodaz appreciates.

“I love Ben, just as a human and then as a coach even more,” Woodaz said. “First of all, he is not scared to tell me the truth, whatever that looks like, as brash and harsh as it might be. I appreciate him for that. And then constantly pushing and being like a human with it at the same time. It’s not like he is just speaking down on me, speaking down on me, speaking down on me, and there is no relationship behind it.”

After several years away from the game, Boulware just got into coaching a year ago. He joined the staff as an unpaid volunteer assistant for the 2024, before being promoted to his current full-time role.

However, listening to his players, this sounds like the role Boulware was made for, and Woodaz thinks this year is just the first step in what will be a very long coaching career.

“We can talk to each other that way. Well, he can talk to me that way, I don’t yell at him,” Woodaz said with a chuckle. “I can just see him being here a long time. The intensity and the juice he brings.”