CLEMSON – Tucked in the upper right corner of South Carolina, just a few minutes away from the North Carolina border, lies Cheraw, a town of just over 5,000 people on the Pee Dee River.

Known as the birthplace of jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie and as the “Prettiest Town in Dixie,” Cheraw has now also produced Clemson’s new Director of Football Strength and Conditioning.

Dennis Love, the Tigers’ new strength coach, may hail from the little town of Cheraw, but he considers another small town in the opposite corner of the state as his home.

For Love, home is Clemson.

“I’m from about three and a half hours away,” Love said. “I started my career here (at Clemson) in 2004. I was a graduate assistant under coach (Joey) Batson, all the way right up until I left and went to Denver. But you know, it’s definitely home.”

After spending two years at his alma mater, Catawba College, Love began working under Batson, the Tigers’ longtime strength and conditioning coach. By 2011, he worked himself up as the director of Olympic sports strength and conditioning, helping Clemson baseball to a College World Series berth as their head strength coach.

“That’s why I learned everything about strength,” Love said.” Well, that’s where I got my foundation for that strength and conditioning. So definitely consider it home.”

Love left Clemson in 2014, spending two years as an assistant strength coach with the Denver Broncos, helping the squad to a Super Bowl 50 victory over the Carolina Panthers. Still, even while far away from Clemson and Cheraw, he made sure to check in with Batson, his mentor, at least once a month.

The phone talks continued as Love completed stints as an associate at Purdue from 2017-2020, and at Auburn–a town he says is similar to Clemson–in 2021. In the meantime, he continued to help train Clemson players in the offseason, becoming one of the first calls for Tiger standouts looking to improve their fitness.

In 2022, he got a call from head coach Dabo Swinney–one that changed everything.

“Are you ready to come home?” Swinney asked, knowingly.

Love was ready.

Quickly, he returned as an assistant under Batson, helping the Tigers to an ACC Championship that season. A few years later, while at Clemson, Love was up for an opportunity to become the head strength coach for an NFL team, but decided to pass up the opportunity when told he could be Batson’s successor.

“Joey loved him, leaned on him, and that’s one of the reasons we brought him back,” Swinney said. “And one of the reasons we made the decision we did because otherwise he’d be the guy for the Minnesota Vikings right now.”

Last November, after turning down the opportunity with the Vikings, Love was officially named the next head strength coach at Clemson and he began his duties after Batson’s retirement in January. 

“He’s a Clemson guy,” Swinney said. “He loves this place and he aligns with everything we’re about as a program. Unbelievable mentor in Joey Batson, but D-Love is his own guy and he’s got a ton of great experience, but the biggest thing is he really connects with these guys and he’s tough.”

As the leader, Love said his focus has been on effort and toughness in the weight room thus far, as well as the on-campus hill, where the Tigers have completed weekly runs this summer. He has also to be more focused on big-picture goals as the leader than as an assistant.

In his second term at Clemson and first with the reins of the program, Love now also gets to coach alongside players he once encouraged in the weight room, the athletes he once toured around Clemson’s facilities. 

Players like Jacoby Ford and Corico Wright that Love has known for almost 20 years have joined him in coming back home to Clemson, rounding out the best part of a home — people that feel like family.

“Now you go back to the piece where you say ‘Does it feel like home?’” Love said. “So yeah, I saw these guys when we were recruiting them. So now just see them on staff, all grown-up, you can tell them I said it’s like being back with your sons.”

With fall camp starting soon, Love will wrap up his first summer at the strength program’s helm, and will look forward to his first full season with the Tigers in his new position.

Though it may not be Cheraw, he feels more at home than ever as the Tigers’ new leader.