When you have a program as successful as Clemson under Dabo Swinney, you always run the risk of losing assistant coaches to head coaching jobs elsewhere.
This month, both of Swinney’s longtime coordinators moved on for opportunities to run their own program. Offensive coordinator Tony Elliott is the new head coach at Virginia, while defensive coordinator Brent Venables took over the reins at Oklahoma.
This week, Swinney said there is another coach on his staff who he thinks is destined to be a leading man at some point: Todd Bates, who was recently promoted to assistant head coach.
“Todd Bates is a future head coach,” Swinney said on Tuesday. “And he’s going to be a great head coach. He’s special. He’s got that gift. He’s got whatever that is, that you have to have I think to be a head coach, Todd Bates exemplifies every possible thing you could possibly want. He has a great understanding of the game. He’s young. He just gets it at all levels.
“Him moving into a leadership role is going to really help me and lean on him with a lot of head coach things. Again, Collaboration and discussion. I’m excited about Todd be able to step into that role. What an unbelievable job he has done and somebody that I had a lot of trust in, his opinion, everything. He’s also our recruiting coordinator. He’ll be a head coach sooner or later one of these days, no doubt about it to me.”
The 38-year-old Bates has been a defensive assistant under Swinney since 2017. In 2019, he was named Rivals’ Recruiter of the Year.
Prior to coming to Clemson, Bates spent three seasons on staff at Jacksonville State. He also worked at East Central Junior College in 2013 and Idaho State in 2011-12.
A defensive end at Alabama from 2001-04, Bates was named co-captain as a senior. He began his coaching career at Talladega (Ala.) High School in 2007.
We’ll see if Swinney’s prediction about Bates running his own team soon comes to fruition.
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