CLEMSON — Dabo Swinney and Rich Bisaccia have known each other for a long time. Over the years, the two have talked that maybe one day they could work together.

“It has just never really worked out for me or him for whatever reason,” Swinney said following Wednesday’s practice at the Smart Family Media Center. “Whether it was where we were from a college football rules standpoint, which affected salaries and things like that, to where he was in his career, timing and stuff.”

However, that day has finally come.

Clemson officially hired Bisaccia on Wednesday, as the longtime NFL coach joins Swinney’s staff as the Tigers’ special teams coordinator. It marks the first time Clemson has hired a coach designated specifically as its special teams coordinator.

“Obviously, the rules changed,” Swinney said. “Last year, was the first year where everybody could coach (in college football) so now you are able to build your staff out, very similar to an NFL staff.

“You got a lead coach, you got an assistant coach, but now you can truly…your special teams guy does not have to be in a backroom somewhere. He can truly lead it and coach it.”

With Will Gilchrist, Clemson’s special teams coach in 2025, going to Samford to join John Grass’ staff, and with Bisaccia stepping down as Green Bay’s special teams coordinator, the timing finally worked out for he and Swinney to coach together.

“I have known him for a while,” Swinney said. “When he became the interim (head) coach (at Las Vegas) we spent a lot of time talking on the phone and, obviously, he had some of my players out there. That has been a really cool thing, and I shared that with Rich.”

Former Clemson players John Simpson, Hunter Renfrow and Clelin Ferrell reached out to Swinney on Wednesday about how excited they were that Bisaccia joined the Clemson staff.

“They were all fired up,” Swinney said. “The one thing I can say about Rich is that his players love him. He is an incredibly well-respected man.”

Bisaccia is definitely well-respected across the NFL, where he has spent the last 25 seasons as a coach, mostly as a special teams coordinator. As the interim head coach of the Raiders in 2021, he led them to a 7-5 finish and to the franchise’s first playoff berth since 2016.

NFL teams are not the only ones to respect Bisaccia. Swinney and several other college coaches wanted him to come and coach for them. Luckly, for Clemson, Bisaccia wanted to come back to Clemson, where he was the running backs and special teams coach from 1994-’98.

“The biggest thing in talking to him, is that he really loves me, and that is important,” Swinney said. “He really cares about me and he loves Clemson. Those were two things in him and I talking…and then the timing for him in where he was and what he wanted to do and how he wanted to finish his career.

“This is the right thing. He wants to win a national championship. That is the only thing he hasn’t done.”