Clemson’s Swinney brothers hold — literally — a unique role in father Dabo’s program

Dabo remembers the day Will came home from seventh-grade football practice at R.C. Edwards Middle School, saying he’d been tabbed as holder.

“Y’all kick field goals?'” asked Dabo, surprised, because seventh-grade teams aren’t known for having reliable specialists.

Dabo was puzzled but not apathetic. He took great interest in his sons’ sports, namely as their youth baseball coach. The boys recall him posted up on an upside-down bucket, chewing sunflower seeds, denouncing “backwards” Ks.

“If you’re gonna strike out, strike out swinging,” Drew said.

On the basketball court, Dabo challenged his sons to games of one-on-one, setting a life goal of turning 50 before he lost a matchup.

His first loss came to Clay at 49.

“He was not happy about it,” Clay said. “But if we played now, I think it would be a beatdown, for sure.”

“He’s full of crap, now,” Dabo responded, adding he’d just beat Clay in pickleball during the Tigers’ bye week.

In a variety of ways, the sons are a reflection of their father, inheriting some degree of Dabo’s over-the-top enthusiasm, his folksy but confident ways of speech, and heaping helpings of competitiveness.

But in the realm of holding, Dabo had no expertise.

Holding on

Perhaps, a heavy dose of bat-and-ball sports softened his sons’ hands, which led a middle-school coach to pick Will for the task. And it just so happened Drew, only a year behind, followed his brother from R.C. Edwards Middle to D.W. Daniel High, where the special-teams coach has been there for years.

“It was kind of unsaid,” Drew said. “They kind of assumed, ‘Oh yeah, you’re the next holder.'”

“My first ever practice as a freshman,” Clay said, thinking of Daniel’s special-teams coach, “he was like ‘You’re my new holder.’ Kind of got thrown into it.”

The Swinney boys were entrusted with the most unsung tasks on special teams, including Will’s other title of emergency snapper.