Clemson coach Dabo Swinney reacts to LSU coach Brian Kelly’s Death Valley jab
LSU coach Brian Kelly gave Clemson some early bulletin board material on Monday.
Coach Dabo Swinney wasn’t taking the bait, but he wouldn’t be surprised if some of his Clemson players have already filed it away.
Kelly has not been shy talking up the importance of LSU’s Week 1 game at Clemson, which is set for a 7:30 p.m. ABC kickoff on Saturday, Aug. 30 from Memorial Stadium.
Kelly said on a podcast earlier this year LSU had the Clemson game “circled” and doubled down on those comments at SEC Media Days on Monday in Atlanta.
He revealed that LSU had put orange Clemson tiger paws on its weight room punching bags and screens displaying “1-0” all around its football facilities.
His most viral comment came when he declared LSU the real Death Valley.
“We still think we are the real Death Valley,” Kelly said Monday during an answer about Clemson. “They can use the name, too. We’re letting them borrow it.”
Clemson and LSU: Who’s the real Death Valley?
Clemson’s Memorial Stadium (capacity 81,500) and LSU’s Tiger Stadium (capacity 102,321) both use that nickname for their home football stadiums.
Although Kelly was overwhelmingly complimentary of Swinney and Clemson, his Death Valley comment and willingness to lean into the importance of winning the opener (LSU hasn’t won its first game since 2019) caused an online stir.
Swinney was asked about Kelly’s comments Tuesday at Clemson’s on-campus media day, and if he viewed them as “bulletin board material” going into Week 1.
“Oh man, no,” Swinney said, laughing. “I don’t know the context. I have no idea. It’s not like I’m sitting around watching press conferences and all that stuff. I have no idea. But I’ve got a lot of respect for LSU and Coach Kelly, I’ll tell you that.”
Swinney did offer a polite rebuttal to Kelly’s assertion that LSU was the real Death Valley. As detailed by ESPN and The Clemson Insider, Clemson’s usage of the name dates back to the 1945 season when an opposing coach used the term.
After a 76-0 loss at Clemson, then-Presbyterian College coach Lonnie McMillan started to referring to the Tigers’ stadium as “Death Valley.” Clemson opened the season at home vs. Presbyterian, an in-state school, every year from 1930-57.
Meanwhile, ESPN reported, LSU’s equally raucous stadium was referred to as “Deaf Valley” (as opposed to Death Valley) by most fans in the 1970s and 1980s.
There’s a theory that the Cajun accents that dominate the New Orleans/Baton Rouge area naturally turned “deaf” into “death” over time, ESPN reported. The media also started referring to LSU as Death Valley in the 1990s. The school has read a “Saturday Night in Death Valley” poem since 2011.
“Coach McMillan at PC, I guess that’s where all that started,” Swinney said Tuesday. “So I guess everyone can do their own research on that.”
He said his focus remains on the LSU game itself. Clemson vs. LSU will likely be a matchup of preseason AP Top 10 teams (if not AP Top 5 teams) and be a key opening test for both teams’ respective College Football Playoff hopes.
It’s also the first regular-season meeting between the ACC and SEC teams.
Clemson players take notice of Kelly
But Swinney said he wouldn’t need to address Kelly’s comment with his team, which starts preseason practice July 31. They’d probably already seen it, he joked.
“It’s not like I’ve gotta walk in and say, ‘Oh, guess what I heard!’ ” ... I mean, these guys all live in the (social media) world,” Swinney said.
To his point: Star Clemson defensive tackle Peter Woods reposted Kelly’s Death Valley comment to his X (formerly Twitter) feed shortly after Kelly said them.
Swinney said Clemson tries not to focus on external opinions but “there’s always fuel for the fire” and he understands players use different things for motivation.
But that ain’t gonna have nothing to do with blocking and tackling and executing on game day,” Swinney said. “It makes it fun, but just gotta focus on what we got to do.”
Clemson football vs. LSU game, TV info
- Who: No. 6 LSU (0-0) at No. 2 Clemson (0-0)*
- When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 30
- Where: Memorial Stadium in Clemson
- TV: ABC
- Betting line: Clemson by 2.5 points (VegasInsider)
* Per ESPN’s post-spring Way Too Early Top 25 rankings
This story was originally published July 15, 2025 at 4:11 PM.
