Clemson Reportedly Losing Defensive Ends Coach Hobby to NFL
Potential replacements
One potential is Deke Adams. He’s currently the defensive line coach for East Carolina. He’s also served in the same position for both North Carolina and South Carolina, having coached Jadeveon Clowney his senior year at South Carolina. He’s a talented recruiter and would do well with the resources at his disposal at Clemson. Some Clemson fans may be skeptical of hiring a former Gamecock coach, but it worked out fairly well when Clemson did something similar in hiring former Gamecock Head Coach Brad Scott.
Another is Craig Kuligowski, current DL Coach at Miami. Kuligowski is known for his work at Missouri, where under his tutelage players such as Shane Ray, Kony Ealy, Michael Sam, and Ziggy Hood all made the jump to the NFL. Ray and Clemson’s Vic Beasley were the top two defensive ends selected in the 2015 NFL Draft, with Ray also being a consensus All-American and winning SEC Defensive Player of the Year. Kuligowski would be a great replacement for Brooks and Hobby, given his near matching of those two’s NFL production.
Another potential replacement is former Michigan Head Coach Brady Hoke. Hoke recently found himself unemployed as his last post as Oregon’s DC was vacated along with the entirety of Mark Helfrich’s staff. Hoke would be a great hire because he’d be a great potential replacement if Venables ever decided to move on either to a head coaching position or to the NFL. Taking the DL post at Clemson would put Hoke in a position to potentially become DC in the event Venables leaves, and Clemson wouldn’t miss much if that happened. While Hoke struggled at Michigan as Head Coach, he still recruited at a very high level and Michigan’s defenses performed decently under his tutelage. Hoke would be a great hire if Swinney and his staff are thinking in the long term. However, Hoke staying long as a positional coach is improbable given he’d be well suited for a coordinator position.
Ideally, Clemson would love to see Venables stick around for the long term much like Bud Foster has at Virginia Tech. However, Venables is one of the top coordinators in the country and talked about as a prime head-coaching candidate in the near future. Given how similar situations at Alabama panned out- with both of Nick Saban’s coordinators taking head coaching positions in the last two years (Lane Kiffin at Florida Atlantic and Kirby Smart at Georgia), Clemson fans more than likely have an ongoing fear in the backs of their heads that Venables may leave to take the head coach position somewhere, potentially his alma mater Kansas State when Bill Snyder retires. Venables has given no indication this will happen, but top-tier coordinators like him are always mentioned as favorites to become head coaches. It’s just the nature of the game at this point, especially given how much coaching turnover has increased in years past.
The success Clemson has enjoyed as of late has only seen a couple of coaching departures in the span of three years, but now that’s two major losses in a week following the National Championship victory in Tampa. This is one of the downsides of such success. How Swinney makes his next hires in the wake of these departures will be very telling.
Next: Clemson 2017 Recruiting Class Breakdown: Justin Foster
Many programs have suffered due to similar departures- Ohio State losing OC Tom Herman, Auburn losing OC Gus Malzahn (after the 2011 season), Florida State losing DC Jeremy Pruitt, Alabama losing OC Lane Kiffin, Michigan State losing DC Pat Narduzzi (who coached Pittsburgh to being the only team to defeat Clemson this past season), and so on. Swinney needs this next hire to be a homerun like his previous ones if he has any hopes to repeat or improve on the success of this last season.