Tony Elliott faces a blast from past in Clemson’s home opener against SC State
For the first time in a while, Buddy Pough had nothing to do on Saturdays in the fall of 2020.
South Carolina State’s football season was moved to the spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic, freeing up the longtime coach’s weekend. That allowed him to browse college football games at his leisure.
Watching Clemson, though, brought about a unique sense of pride.
The Tigers had one of the best offenses in the country last season, thanks in part to Heisman finalist Trevor Lawrence. Leading Lawrence and the rest of the offensive unit was Tony Elliott, a former Pough assistant who has become one of the most highly sought-after coaches in college football.
On Saturday, Pough will be across the field from Elliott as Clemson hosts S.C. State in the Tigers’ home opener at 5 p.m. at Memorial Stadium. He’ll be focused on trying to lead his team to a win following a 42-41 loss to Alabama A&M University in the season opener. Elliott, too, will try to turn the Tigers’ offense around after a 10-3 loss to Georgia.
There will be part of Pough, however, that will feel validated.
His intuition 15 years ago proved him right: Elliott was going to be a good football coach.
“He never wanted to do anything but be here and soak up football and that kind of stuff,” Pough said. “Studied other people’s stuff, studied our stuff, just was a student of the game in a way where I knew he was obviously going to be a star.”
Pivoting careers, away from Michelin
Elliott was working as an industrial engineer at Michelin in Anderson when he decided to begin his career in coaching.
On the word of Brad Scott, who was coaching at Clemson at the time, Pough decided to give Elliott a chance in Orangeburg. Pough called Scott a close confidante, so his word carried weight and sent Elliott and his wife, Tamika, to S.C. State for the 2006 and 2007 seasons. It was a huge sacrifice financially, as Elliott took a large pay cut to jump industries.
“We’re always looking for good coaches cheap, so he wasn’t very expensive at the time,” Pough said with a hearty laugh. “I’m sure his wife wasn’t real excited about it, I guarantee you.”
The grind of being the Bulldogs’ wide receivers coach was a sacrifice, but Elliott stayed dedicated. Pough described Elliott as more on the quiet and unassuming side, but always wanting to study film and perfect his craft. There were times where Pough would have to run his pupil out of the office because he’d been there so long.
Elliott was also very disciplined, which sometimes was a challenge to get the Bulldogs’ wide receivers on the same page.
“The group that he had, you know, we had some guys that would kill a rock,” Pough said. “I think sometimes Tony couldn’t see what the heck those guys were thinking about with some of the stuff they’d do. ... I can tell you he had his time with some of these cats he met here.”
As the Bulldogs’ wide receivers were learning from Elliott, he was learning from Pough. South Carolina State didn’t offer many resources for the football team, but Pough did what he could to make sure the program stayed on the cutting edge of technology. Elliott has never forgotten that.
“Coach Pough was trying to create an environment that was very similar to his experiences when he was at the University of South Carolina,” Elliott said. “He got film intercut within the league, so he challenged everybody in the league to step their game up from a video perspective. ... Even though his circumstances may have said you don’t have the budget to do some of the things that you want, he found ways because he believed that was right and the best thing for the players.”
SC State springboard
Elliott only spent two seasons at S.C. State before taking the same position at Furman University, which is what Pough wanted. He’s more than OK with coaches using S.C. State as a springboard for other coaching opportunities. Billy Napier spent one season at S.C. State as the quarterbacks coach and now heads his own program at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Fifteen years doesn’t always feel like a long time, but Elliott has certainly made the most of it following his debut season with the Bulldogs. Ten of those years have been spent helping Clemson rise to national notoriety. There hasn’t been a season yet that Elliott has been with the program that it hasn’t won at least 10 games. Still, he’ll never forget his humble beginnings nor how Pough took a chance on him.
“It’s going to be a special moment before that game getting to see those guys,” Elliott said. “But, just a constant reminder that ‘don’t get too big for your britches,’ so to speak — stay humble, remember where you came from and if it wasn’t for individuals like Brad Scott, who called Buddy Pough. ... So, it’s just humbling to be able to say, ‘You know what? That’s where I got my start,’ and then also encourage a lot of coaches out there that are trying to move up the ranks that you can start wherever you need to start, but you can still dream big and get to where you want to be.”
This story was originally published September 7, 2021 at 5:44 AM.
