x
Breaking News
More () »

Clemson's Prowl & Growl Tour Kicks Off In The Midlands

The spring speaking circuit has officially begun with Clemson holding its first Prowl & Growl event of 2018 at Columbia's Jamil Temple.

The annual spring speaking schedule that is Clemson's Prowl & Growl Tour cranked up Tuesday night at the Jamil Temple In Columbia.

Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney and head basketball coach Brad Brownell returned to their roles as the headliners for this event.

Swinney is coming off a third consecutive trip to the College Football Playoffs. Spring practice wrapped up on Saturday with the annual Orange and White game and now, the next step for the players is offseason conditioning and doing extra football drills on their own. Swinney says he is confident that the players will see the next few months as a chance to improve and not rest on the accomplishments of the last three seasons.

"To me, this is the time of year when your team makes the biggest strides or loses the most ground," Swinney said.

"I think that's part of the journey for every team - the chemistry, the leadership, the discipline, the commitment. Those are all the things I think the summer brings about - good or bad. I love this team, the leadership. This is the most veteran team I've had since I've been the head coach. I'm excited about that and I think they'll do a great job leading them through the summer."

Swinney is also excited about what he has going on at quarterback with Kelly Bryant, Trevor Lawrence, Hunter Johnson and Chase Brice all vying to be the guy under center. With so much talent at that position, what is a head coach to do?

"It depends on how many balls they’ll let me have. Maybe they’ll let us have two huddles and two balls. That’d be a lot easier to figure out,” said Swinney.

“But it’s exciting. We’ve got good players. We’ve got great young men. That’s a position where we’ve got a high level of character, high level of intelligence. And they all want to be the guy. They’ve got good relationships with each other, so it’s a real positive for our program."

Unlike some years when there was a clear cut starter and the others guys were backups for a reason, that is likely not going to be the case this fall where the guy who starts game one will have to fight for his role each and every week.

"Regardless of where we are today we’ve got a long way to go before we play in September, and no matter what happens in September I don’t think the competition’s just going to end,” Swinney said.

“I think we’ve got guys on the roster that are going to be driven each and every day to either be the guy or beat the guy out or make the guy better or whatever it may be."

Clemson head basketball coach Brad Brownell had his best season since taking over the Tiger program eight seasons ago. Clemson advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 and won a program record 11 ACC games. The 25 wins also tied a program record. For Brownell, he has noticed a different vibe from the Tiger fan base.

"Certainly a few more pats on the back and all those kinds of things," Brownell said.

"But that doesn't do a lot for me, I mean I appreciate it. Everyday I'm thankful to be the head coach at Clemson. It's a great university. I think we're doing good things and have done good things for a long time in terms of how we treat our players and what they get out of the Clemson experience. But certainly, what we've wanted to do is just win a few more games and that proved to be the case this year. We got hot and played well throughout. We were able to ride it into a Sweet 16. So now, I think that's propelling us now to be involved with a little bit better player and certainly a little more publicity."

The Prowl & Growl Tour takes place in April and May of each year in a joint effort by IPTAY, the Clemson Alumni Association and the Clemson Forever Fund and is hosted by local Clemson Clubs and IPTAY Representatives.

Before You Leave, Check This Out