Clemson's New OL Coach Thomas Austin Has 'Huge Shoes to Fill' Replacing Robbie Caldwell

Thomas Austin knows following Robbie Caldwell won't be easy.

Clemson's former offensive line coach brought more than four decades' worth of experience to the table, having coached in more than 500 college football games, and Austin knows that he is replacing one of the sport's most well-respected names. However, he is very much looking forward to the challenge.

“Huge shoes to fill,” Austin said recently on Clemson's signing day show. “Got to go on the road a little bit these last two weeks, and I feel like every high school I went into, I had to say, ‘Hey, listen, I’m not Robbie Caldwell. I don’t have the stories that he has. I didn’t work at a turkey farm when I was 3 years old.’" 

"But just the amount of respect he has, especially for high school coaches in the Southeast, and what he’s done creating some in-roads in Ohio, especially with offensive linemen, has been awesome. So I’m excited about it."

Austin was a mainstay along the Tigers' offensive line from 2006-09, appearing in 48 games with 39 starts, including starting each of his last 38 games. After his final season, he was named a third-team All-American by Sporting News. He then went on to spend four seasons in the NFL, having played for the Colts, Panthers and Texans.

After his playing days were over, Austin got into coaching, beginning his career as a graduate assistant with the Tigers in 2015 where he spent four seasons learning the ropes, before being named offensive line coach at Georgia State in 2019. The Panthers averaged 241.6 rushing yards per game in his debut season, good for No. 12 in the nation. 

After the 2020 season, Austin chose to return to his alma mater as a member of the support staff and in February he was formally introduced as Clemson's new offensive line coach. Along with his on-field coaching duties, Austin is also now allowed to go out on the road and recruit, and he hit the ground running.

"It’s been a fun process, but a little busier," Austin said. “The first week was mainly in the Southeast, up in North Carolina and a little bit of Florida. The second week, I was in 10 states in five days. So it was a little bit of a blur."

Despite the fact that he's just getting started, Austin is already being embraced by high school coaches, something he credits to the culture inside the Clemson program and how the staff has always handled the recruiting process.

"Having the Paw on your chest when you walk into a school has a different commanding presence to it than it does at other schools," Austin said. "And the respect that high school coaches have for our program and the way our staff has done it the right way, gone through high school coaches and tries to be above reproach in recruiting and not breaking the rules on the road. All of those things go a long way with high school coaches."

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