Clemson University’s Tony Elliott was once a walk-on for the team he now serves as co-offensive coordinator.
In the fall of 1999, he joined the team, then coached by Tommy Bowden. He went on to become not only a scholarship athlete, but team captain. Upon graduating with a team-best 3.55 GPA in industrial engineering in 2002, Elliott went on to pursue a career as an engineer.
A few years later, however, Elliott found himself volunteering as a coach of a local football team in Easley, South Carolina, less than 20 miles from Clemson, trying to find his true calling.
“I didn’t feel like I was fulfilling my purpose [as an engineer], and obviously football was the easiest thing to turn to,” Elliott said.
From there, the man who said he “didn’t plan on going into coaching” found himself on the coaching staff at South Carolina State University, then Furman University and, eventually, coming full circle at Clemson, where he started as running backs coach in 2006.
Elliott, who faced a tremendous amount of adversity and suffered more loss than any child should ever know growing up, has previously said that football provided an outlet for him.
“It was a way for me to channel my frustration in a positive way. Through the opportunity and relationships provided to me, I was able to realize the importance of education,” he said in an interview with ESPN earlier this year.
