The Clemson Dubcast Larry Williams

In Part 2 of our lengthy interview with Thomas Austin, the former Clemson offensive line coach reflects on how he has transitioned from the non-stop grind of coaching.
Having become strongly rooted in Clemson, he and his family are hoping to remain. 
"My oldest is 12, and he was on the sidelines when I was the coach. He's still processing it. He's pulling for baseball right now, and he loves Clemson Athletics. But the football side of it is complicated for him. 
"Our other children, we'll sit them down and say: 'We need to talk to you guys.' And they'll be like, 'Oh no, are we about to move?' And we'll say no, we're just going to the lake this weekend."
"They're always worried that the next time we sit down to talk to them is going to be when they're told they have to leave all their friends.
"So that's the human element of it. It's not just about me. It's about my wife and my family too. It affects a lot of people. But that's a part of the business."
Austin also shares a classic story from his recruitment, when a first-year South Carolina coach named Steve Spurrier tried to pursue Austin but was told in no uncertain terms by Austin's mother that her son was going to Clemson.
 
 
 
 

When Dabo Swinney locked up the head-coaching job with a win over South Carolina in November of 2008, Thomas Austin was one of the players that carried him to midfield in the giddy celebration.
Swinney fired Austin last December after a four-loss regular season.
There are layers to this parting that aren't present in most other firings.
Austin and his wife are both Clemson alums, and they have chosen to remain in Clemson because their children are in school.
Austin, who coached offensive line for the Tigers, joins The Clemson Dubcast to reflect on what it was like to suddenly find himself without a job.
He also gives an inside look into what it's like for an assistant coach to navigate the chaotic world of the transfer portal and NIL.
This is Part 1 of our interview with Austin.
 

As IPTAY becomes more involved with NIL fundraising as part of the 110 Society, and as the collegiate model veers even more sharply toward compensation for athletes, a big part of Billy Milam's role is conveying a modernized message to IPTAY.
In a recent issue of Orange: The Experience, Milam devoted an entire column to encouraging IPTAY members to contribute to the 110 Society.
He wrote that IPTAY "was founded on the notion that many giving some would enable Clemson to better compete with schools with access to significantly greater resources.
"For those 90 years, the Clemson Family has generously and selflessly risen to the challenge and given to IPTAY to change countless lives. The mission today remains the same."
Fundraising for NIL is more abstract and complicated than generating money for a facility that donors can admire for years to come.
And as Clemson attempts to sell the masses on giving NIL contributions on top of what they're already contributing, the messaging is important.
Milam, an Atlanta resident who has been highly accomplished in the business world, is at the forefront of IPTAY's attempts to modernize its brand and its strategies.
Milam has a bachelor's degree in architecture from Clemson, and an MBA in finance from South Carolina. He is chief executive officer of EmployBridge, America's largest industrial staffing firm.
He previously spent more than 22 years with RaceTrac, where he rose to the role of president and chief operating officer.
In 2020, Milam was named most admired CEO in professional services by the Atlanta Business Chronicle. He was named a top CEO on Glassdoor in 2021.
 
 

Dr. Otis Pickett brings not just a wealth of educational distinction to his role as the historian for Clemson University, but also a wealth of life experience.
He grew up in Mount Pleasant spending time with his grandfather, a small-town medical family practitioner on Pitt Street in the Old Village.
Many of his grandfather's patients were African-Americans descendants of the Gullah people.
"He treated each one of his patients with dignity, honor and respect," Pickett said. "It didn't matter if it was the governor or a poor man who meandered aimlessly up and down Pitt Street."
In the mid-1990s Pickett and his mother began attending Trinity Baptist Church and were often the only whites who attended. With the encouragement of Rev. Herman Robinson, Pickett pursued pastoral ministry.
He is now a decorated author, historian and religious scholar. He has been known to officiate weddings of former students.
In present times, Pickett can be seen at many Clemson sporting events. He returned to his alma mater in 2022 after accepting his dream job as the third Clemson historian in the university's history (and the first Clemson alum to serve in that capacity).
Pickett's predecessor, Paul Anderson, now serves as Clemson's Director of Football Academics and Freshman Transition. Anderson joined the football program in 2021 after more than two decades at Clemson as a decorated educator and historian.
A significant part of Pickett's mission is introducing and framing the public conversation on Clemson's past, which includes difficult and complicated topics on race.
"We've got to interpret it and talk about it," he said. "I get Clemson. I love Clemson, and I don't think there's a bigger Clemson sports fan than I am. I go to everything, and I've been pulling for Clemson since I was 2.
"I love Clemson. But I'm also like: 'Hey, there's this history that may be difficult. But it also, I think, makes Clemson more interesting. I want to walk through that history. I want people to understand it.' ... We're simply talking about what people have been talking about for 200 and 300 years, which is this concept of race. And in the South that's a big concept and something that shapes our entire culture. And at Clemson it has shaped our culture in a lot of ways."
Pickett previously served in the School of Education at the University of Mississippi preparing Social Studies teachers, the Director of Social Studies Education Programs at Mississippi College, and Associate Professor of History in the Department of History at Mississippi College.
Pickett played a role in the state of Mississippi adopting a new state flag that retired the 1894 flag and its Confederate battle emblem.
Pickett is also the co-founder and co-director of the Prison to College Pipeline Program, the first program in the state of Mississippi to offer tuition free, credit bearing college courses to incarcerated students.
Pickett's grandfather, Robert Alexander Westbrook, graduated in the Class of 1950. His great grandfather, Albert Hayne McMeekin, was in the Class of 1918.
Pickett and his wife Julie (Class of 2002) live in Clemson and have three children: Martha Jane, Otis, Jr. and Thomas.  
He met his future wife on her 21st birthday at the Esso Club. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Brad Brownell visited with the media this week for the first time since his team's stirring run to the Elite Eight -- a run that was closely preceded by a brutal ACC Tournament loss to Boston College that had people screaming for his head.
Brownell kept the receipts and brought some of them to a press conference where he said he deserves more credit for the long-term work that went into the Tigers' postseason spectacle.
"I'm doing a ton of fundraising, folks, and I have been for 14 years," he said. "One of the reasons we were in the Elite Eight is because of all the fundraising, friend-raising, whatever you want to call it, for 14 years. It's one of the reasons we have a facility that's much nicer than it was. It's filling those premium seats. It doesn't just happen with NIL. It happens with improving your facilities. It happens with donor retention. It happens with getting folks to buy into your program enough that when (NIL) was new that our people were involved and engaged to be able to support the guys on our team to be ready for this opportunity when it did show up. We were there to meet it. 
 
"I do deserve a lot of credit for that. A lot. Because it's been a 14-year journey. And had we had a different coach, or a newer young coach at the time, it wouldn't have happened. There would have been no chance. 
 
"So that's obviously been a little bit of a sort spot of mine at times. Because I think that's gone not as noticed as I would like. And obviously it's vital. In college basketball right now, NIL is a major factor."
 
We present the full audio from Brownell's press conference, which lasted more than 45 minutes.
 
 
 

As part of Tigerillustrated.com's lengthy 25th anniversary series uncovering untold stories over that stretch of time, we continue with a glimpse back at the transformative days of 2008.
Two days after a dominant victory over South Carolina that sealed the removal of the interim tag from his title, Dabo Swinney was introduced at a press conference on the third floor of the West End Zone facility.
This is the uncut digital audio from that press conference, provided by Jeff Kallin and Matt Glenn of the Clemson Athletics Department.
Terry Don Phillips drew an ovation toward the end of the press conference when he said: 
"I say with great confidence that Dabo Swinney is going to become one of the great coaches in America."