Swinney, Clemson Coaches Unfazed by Brian Kelly’s Death Valley Comments

Swinney, Clemson Coaches Unfazed by Brian Kelly’s Death Valley Comments

Most Clemson Tigers fans know by now what LSU head coach Brian Kelly declared last week in Atlanta ahead of the Tigers’ massive season opener on Aug. 30.

In a nutshell, Kelly, entering his fourth season at the helm in the Bayou, was asked at SEC Media Days about how excited he is to face Dabo Swinney and company in Clemson’s “Death Valley.”

Unsurprisingly, Kelly did not hesitate to speak his mind.

“We still think we are the Death Valley,” Kelly said to the media. “They can use the name, too. We’re letting them borrow it.”

Furthermore, Kelly recently doubled down on his comments while delivering remarks to the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge at Tiger Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.

“You want attention to detail on fourth-and-goal. You want great habits. They’re needed when you’re on the road and you’re playing in Death Valley ‘Junior’ – not the Death Valley – that’s what you need, you need those traits on a day-to-day basis,” Kelly said to fans earlier today on the importance of developing healthy traits in his players.

Many Tiger fans received Kelly’s comments as disrespectful and took to social media to express their opinions and unrest.

“Brian Kelly’s already been slaughtered in the real Death Valley while he was at Notre Dame,” a fan responded on X. “This talk makes me feel ever better about the LSU game. He’ll be fired by the season's end.”

“Tiger Stadium isn't even in a valley. Clemson has been THE Original Death Valley since the 1940s, LSU has Deaf Valley, named after a gas station,” said another fan in an X post.

The Tiger faithful are evidently perturbed by Kelly’s claims, but the Clemson coaching staff seems to be unbothered.

“I wouldn’t get caught up into it as a player, and so I won’t get caught up into it as a coach because it doesn’t mean anything,” running backs coach C.J. Spiller said during a media availability last week. “At the end of the day, guys have to go out there and play. The name of the stadium, obviously, is very meaningful to our university, but being in Death Valley is not going to win the game. The guys on the field that’s out there playing – that’s what wins games.”

Spiller most likely experienced plenty of external narratives during his time in college, where he earned All-ACC First Team and unanimous All-American honors in 2009 with the Tigers. The NCAA record holder in career kickoff returns (seven) was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2021 and has his No. 28 retired at Clemson.

“So, we have an awesome home field. Hopefully, come game day, it’ll be loud. And I know Tiger fans, that are in South Carolina, will show up on that day,” Spiller added.

First-year defensive coordinator Tom Allen shared similar thoughts, describing his personal strategy to eliminate the intake of outside chatter and social media storylines that could potentially affect him and his players’ mindset.

“I’m a block out the noise guy,” Allen said. “I use the phrase in my coaching career: ‘earmuffs and blinders’... but, here’s the thing about that. When you think about an earmuff, it just muffles what you hear, because you’re going to hear things, right?”

“To me, the focus is we have to play our best football right out of the gate,” Allen continued. “And that’s the focus. We have to be at our best week one.”

Swinney talked from a bit of a different standpoint on the matter, using one of the best athletes of all time to explain how people use various methods to inspire and encourage themselves.

“There’s always fuel for the fire. You can take whatever you want, everybody’s different, and they can be motivated by different things along the way,” Swinney said. You know, Michael Jordan used to make stuff up, right? For those of you following Michael Jordan, he would just make stuff up, whether it was true or not, because that was how he motivated himself on some things. But, everybody’s different in that regard.”

Nonetheless, one thing was made clear. 

The pregame hype is exciting, the slight diss towards the opposing team is invigorating for the fanbases, but Clemson is solely concentrated on what happens on the field.

“[Kelly’s comment] isn’t going to have anything to do with blocking, tackling, and executing on game day,” Swinney said. “So, it makes it fun, but let’s go focus on what we have to do.”