CLEMSON — Bowl season is upon us, and we know where Clemson is going to spend the postseason.
The Tigers, of course, will spend the Christmas Holiday in New York, as they take on Penn State in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium. Clemson is currently a 3.5-point favorite, with 72 percent of the money on the Tigers according to FanDuel Sportsbook.
Clemson and the Nittany Lions will face off at noon (ABC) on Dec. 27. It will be the Tigers’ first game in New York since 1952.
Speaking of the bowl game, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney and athletic director Graham Neff will take part in a joint press conference with Penn State’s interim coach, Terry Smith, and athletic director, Dr. Patrick Kraft on Tuesday morning.
Last week, if you recall, The Clemson Insider Reported John Grass was going to take a few coaches with him to Samford. Earlier on Monday, news revealed Swinney’s middle son, Drew, and Paul Tyson will join Grass’ staff in Birmingham, Ala.
Drew is leaving Clemson to work with wide receivers on Grass’ staff. He is finishing up his third full season on Clemson’s staff and his first in offensive player development and as assistant wide receivers coach. He played for his dad from 2018-’22.
Tyson served as an offensive player development intern this past season at Clemson. He signed with Clemson out of the transfer portal in December 2022 after stints at Alabama (2019-21) and Arizona State (2022).
He served as a player/coach in 2024 when he transitioned to student coaching while retaining his eligibility and roster spot as an emergency quarterback.
Grass came to Clemson four seasons ago after spending nine seasons at Jacksonville State, including the last eight as its head coach. He took the job at Samford last week and was formerly introduced on Dec. 4.
On Monday, Grass told ESPN reporter Arielle Schafer that he will stay with Clemson through the Pinstripe Bowl before taking over at Samford.
In his interview, Grass mentioned how he was balancing recruiting, managing the transfer portal and building his staff. It was interesting to hear him talk about how he was trying to attack all of these things.
This is something Dabo Swinney is trying to do as well. As TCI reported last week, this is an important time of the year for coaches because of the new calendar.
With the transfer portal window set to open on Jan. 2, lots of players will go into the portal knowing where they are headed before it even opens, so things will move quickly for many, once the portal opens. There is only one portal window now, so the roster needs to be filled in January.
With that said, it would be very helpful for the coaching staff to be set, so they can attack the portal when it opens. In the past, Swinney has waited until after the bowl season to make most changes to his coaching staff.
However, Clemson is playing in the Pinstripe Bowl on Dec. 27. If Swinney waits until then to start making changes and looking for new coaches it would not benefit him or the program.
He wouldn’t be doing his job if he wasn’t doing his due diligence to be in position to have his staff in place when the portal window opens.
As you know, cornerback Avieon Terrell announced his decision to turn pro on Monday. We can tell you Swinney has been talking to a few more underclassmen that have a decision to make and we could hear from them as well at some point.
We can also tell you Clemson is in the middle of negotiations with the players it is trying to retain for next season. These negotiations have been ongoing over the past week and there could be some good news about one top of the line player returning.
Stayed turned to TCI as these stories develop.