When college football coaches change, everything changes at that school, right down to the conversations within the team.
“It's a whole new attitude around here,”
Clemson University cornerback Chris Chancellor said Thursday afternoon. “It's the same place, most all the same players, but the coaches are different and it feels like a new team, you know?”
“It always used to be said we were one play away from this, one play away from that,”
he said. “We settled for that stuff for five years around here, but that's all out the window now; we're not talkin' about that kind of stuff anymore.”
Chancellor is expected to be one of the senior leaders on the 2009 team, the first full season for Coach Dabo Swinney, who was named coach midway through the season last year after Tommy Bowden departed on a Monday morning following a loss to Wake Forest.
Swinney immediately released offensive coordinator Rob Spence – now at Syracuse – and finished the season with a 4-3 record, before bringing in several new coaches including Kevin Steele, the team's defensive coordinator.
“The intensity is up, way up,”
Chancellor said after going through some informal 7-on-7 drills Tuesday in Memorial Stadium. “You can tell the atmosphere is good because we have so many guys out there. I'd say we have about 98 percent of our team out here, working, getting better each day and that's what it's going to take.”
Three weeks prior to the start of fall practice, it appeared most of Clemson's players participated in the spirited passing drills. The atmosphere was loud and fun-filled with hoots and shouts over dropped passes, whether a receiver had his foot inbounds on a sideline pass – the field wasn't marked so there was plenty of room for robust debate – and on the occasional touchdown pass.
“We have some things to prove to people about us,”
Chancellor said, “so we are all very excited about Middle Tennessee (the first game, at home, on Sept. 5;) that's where it all starts.”
Most of the preseason publications have Clemson predicted for a middle of the pack finish in its Atlantic Coast Conference division, but that didn't seem to be a concern for Chancellor.
“I don't look at that stuff,”
he said, “and it really doesn't matter about what people say you will do, it's all about where you finish, that's it.”
“It hasn't worked out the way we wanted these last few years,”
Chancellor said, “but Coach Swinney has a good plan for us, and I know (defensive players) are all jumping on Coach Steele's back. He comes with a reputation for being at good places, places with great defenses and that's where our concentration is, being aggressive and getting after people.”
