Clemson football: Tony Elliott is highly under-appreciated

Clemson football offensive coordinator Tony Elliott has guided the Tigers offense to two national titles, several conference awards, Heisman trophy invites, and all American nominations. However, he might be the most overlooked coach in the country.

When Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney promoted Tony Elliott to co-offensive coordinator, there were a lot of naysayers among the Clemson fan base. He was taking over for a coordinator that had brought in Deshaun Watson and helped guide Clemson to their first BCS level bowl game. What Coach Swinney knew that no one else did was Tony was the right person for the job.

Sure, South Florida head coach Jeff Scott was promoted as well but Tony was going to be in charge of the actual play calling, one of the most important duties of an offensive coordinator. Any good OC has to get into a rhythm just like players do and would Tony be good enough?

As frustrated as he makes most of us any given Saturday, Tony has been very good directing the Clemson offense. He was even recognized by the Broyles Award as the nation’s best assistant coach back in 2017.

Tony does a really good job of keeping any outside interest in him as a head coach very quiet. We hear his name being mentioned every offseason but we never hear of him actually being interviewed. Could be that he has no interest in leaving Clemson right now or it could be that he is being overlooked and not given the credit he deserves leading this Clemson offense.

There are a lot of fans that think coaching Clemson football is easy. Great young men off the field and hellacious talented players on it, how tough could it be? Being on the Clemson coaching staff might be the toughest job in the country.

Getting players of this magnitude to buy in week in and week out while not focusing on individual statistics is difficult in high school, let alone at the top college football team in the country. Yet, he has been able to convince the best running back in the country to return, kept players from transferring and also signed two of the best running backs in America.

Tony Elliott is doing his thing at Clemson and at some point, people need to take notice and appreciate what he brings to the table.