He was South Carolina’s defensive coordinator. Now he works for Dabo at Clemson
Clemson football and Dabo Swinney generated some headlines last year when they added a former South Carolina defensive coordinator to their support staff.
Now, Lorenzo Ward’s homecoming trip is right around the corner.
When Clemson takes the field at South Carolina’s Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday, you could argue nobody on the Tigers’ 2025 roster or staff will be more familiar with that venue — and the city of Columbia as a whole — than Ward, who’s in his second season on staff at Clemson as a special assistant.
Ward spent six years on Steve Spurrier’s South Carolina coaching staff from 2009-15 as either a co-defensive coordinator or standalone defensive coordinator. He was part of USC’s heyday: A stretch from 2011-14 when the Gamecocks won 11 games three years in a row and finished no lower than No. 9 in the final AP poll.
But his newest role, defined as a “special assistant” to Swinney and Clemson football, has him on the other side of an in-state rivalry he knows quite well.
“It’ll be the first time I’ll have been back at Williams-Brice on the opposite sideline,” said Ward, who left USC a decade ago when Spurrier abruptly resigned in 2015.
From Gamecocks to FCS to Tigers
The State spoke with Ward about his time at South Carolina and his new job at Clemson during the Tigers’ preseason media day in July.
Ward, 58, had been working as the defensive coordinator at FCS Chattanooga since 2019 and said he was content with finishing his college career there. After all, Chattanooga was the program that gave him his very first position coaching job.
But a few conversations with Swinney — who’s known Ward since 1988, since they were teammates and later graduate assistant coworkers at Alabama — and a coincidental opening on the Tigers’ support staff prompted Ward to make a move.
Ward joined Clemson as a special assistant to the head coach in May 2024, filling a job vacated by longtime special teams assistant Bill Spiers, who’d retired.
“I know Dabo, and I know what kind of man he is,” Ward said. “But you don’t really know and understand how this program operates unless you’re on the inside.”
Ward makes $185,000 in annual salary for his off-field role, according to public information, and assists Clemson in a broad role that touches offense, defense and special teams prep. He said his time at Clemson has been “awesome.”
Most people in the building, including Swinney, call Ward “Whammy,” a nickname from his college days tied to the hard hits he laid on the field as a walk-on safety and special teams ace at Alabama (and the 1980s game show “Press Your Luck”).
“We’ve been friends for a long, long time — just haven’t had an opportunity to work together since Alabama,” Swinney said of Ward last week. “But he was at a point in his career where he was ready for the role that he’s in. … He’s been a great addition and a great asset to our staff, and to me.”
Ward will ‘always have love’ for South Carolina
It’s quite a different position than the one Ward held in Columbia from 2009 to 2015, coordinating defense for some of the most successful teams in South Carolina history. Spurrier’s 2011, 2012 and 2013 teams remain three of the only four teams in program’s 132-year history to win 10 or more games.
Ward coached some of the better defenders in recent USC history, including eight first-team All-SEC players, six All-Americans and 12 NFL Draft picks. That list included Melvin Ingram, Stephon Gilmore and, most notably, Jadeveon Clowney.
Gamecocks fans might also remember Ward for his infamous declaration that USC’s 2014 defense — in its first season without Clowney, the No. 1 overall pick — had a chance to be better than USC’s defenses over the last few years with Clowney.
USC’s 2014 offseason prep included shifting from a 4-3 defense to a 3-4 defense.
Preseason No. 9 South Carolina proceeded to lose its season opener 52-28 at home vs. No. 21 Texas A&M. Ward’s defense allowed 511 passing yards, 680 total yards and 39 first downs, prompting a memorable postgame jab from Spurrier.
“Did anybody like that 3-4 defense?” Spurrier asked reporters after the loss.
.JPG "spurrier_td008.JPG (1).JPG")
Ward left South Carolina the following year, which also saw Spurrier resign. He coached at Fresno State and Louisville (where he served two games as interim coach after Bobby Petrino’s firing) before returning to Chattanooga in 2019.
During his time at USC, Ward also briefly overlapped with current Gamecocks coach Shane Beamer, who was Spurrier’s special teams and recruiting coordinator.
“Working for Coach Spurrier and being a defensive guy, he never bothered you because he’s an offensive guy,” Ward said, laughing. “Columbia was great. It was a great stretch. And I’ll always have love for Columbia, because it was very instrumental in my life.”
But now Ward is on “the other side,” as he put it. And all of his focus will be on trying to help Clemson avenge its 2024 home loss to South Carolina on Saturday in Columbia. The Tigers (6-5) are a 2.5-point betting underdog to Gamecocks (4-7).
“I hope they win every game they play except the last one,” Ward said of USC.
2025 Clemson vs. South Carolina football game
- Who: Clemson (6-5) at South Carolina (4-7)
- When: noon Saturday
- Where: Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia
- TV: SEC Network
- Betting line: South Carolina by 2.5 points
