Clemson football staffer leaving for position coach job at new ACC school
A Clemson football support staffer is leaving Dabo Swinney’s program for a position coaching role at another ACC school.
Tigers volunteer defensive assistant John Scott Jr. will be the new assistant head coach, defensive run game coordinator and defensive line coach under Fran Brown at Syracuse, as first reported by ESPN’s Pete Thamel on Monday night.
Scott confirmed the move on his personal X page, where he’s changed his bio to reflect his new job at Syracuse and changed his profile picture to an orange Syracuse logo. Scott also lists himself as Syracuse’s new co-defensive coordinator.
Scott, a native of Greer, South Carolina who played at Western Carolina, worked for Swinney and Clemson as a volunteer defensive assistant in 2024-25. Before that, he was defensive line coach for the NFL’s Detroit Lions for one season.
A veteran position coach, Scott has jumped between college football and the NFL and has also worked for Texas Tech (2013-14), the New York Jets (2015-16), Arkansas (2017-18), South Carolina (2019) and Penn State (2020-22).
He has a natural connection to Syracuse coach Fran Brown, as the two coaches overlapped for one season at Western Carolina in Cullowhee, North Carolina when Scott was a position coach at WCU and Brown was playing cornerback.
As a volunteer defensive assistant, Scott did not take a salary at Clemson.
Scott is the second Clemson support staffer to leave for a prominent role this offseason. Offensive analyst John Grass, the former coach at Jacksonville State, was hired as the new coach at FCS Samford in Alabama on Dec. 3.
Grass is expected to bring a number of current Clemson football staffers with him to Samford as position coaches. Although the full list hasn’t been publicly announced, Swinney has confirmed that his middle son, Drew Swinney, will join Samford and Grass as the program’s wide receivers coach.
It’s unclear whether Scott will stay with Clemson through Saturday’s Pinstripe Bowl vs. Penn State (noon, ABC). Swinney and Grass confirmed that Grass and his expected staff will be with Clemson through the bowl game.
