By Johnny Falduto
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney announced on Thursday that defensive ends coach Lemanski Hall and offensive line coach Thomas Austin will not return to the staff in 2024.
Lemanski Hall joined the Clemson program as a defensive analyst in 2015 before being promoted to the defensive ends coach in 2018. The decision to leave the program was mutual between Hall and head coach Dabo Swinney, former teammates on Alabama’s 1992 National Championship team.
“Lemanski Hall and I met and had a great conversation about his future and long-term goals both personally and professionally, and after great thought and discussion, we came to a mutual decision for him to seek opportunities to advance his career elsewhere,” Swinney said in his official statement.
“Since joining our program as an analyst in 2015, he has been part of six College Football Playoff teams, seven ACC title teams, four national championship game appearances and two national titles. Since becoming an on-field coach in 2018, he has coached and recruited great players like Clelin Ferrell, Austin Bryant, Myles Murphy and so many others, and I am proud of the work he did in developing potential Freshman All-American T.J. Parker this year.”
In a statement, Hall said he was “grateful and thankful” for the opportunities at Clemson over the past nine years.
“Clemson has been so good to me and my family, and my wife and I want to thank the entire Clemson Family for being such a blessing in our lives. I also want to especially thank Coach Swinney and his wife, Kathleen, for welcoming us the way they have for almost a decade. I similarly want to thank Graham Neff, President Clements and the Board of Trustees for their faith in me representing this university for so many years.”
“I am incredibly proud of what we have been able to accomplish here. I am so thankful for all of the young men that have been in our program, and I hope I’ve been able to impact them as positively as they have impacted me. I am excited to see what God has in store for me and my family moving forward,” Hall added.
Swinney said that the decision to move on from Thomas Austin was in the best interest of the program and its players.
“After a few days of deep thought and evaluation, I believe this was a change we needed to make,” he said.
Austin was a former star on Clemson’s offensive line from 2006-09, playing in 48 career games for the Tigers. He earned All-ACC selections in his final two seasons.
“I love Thomas and his entire family, and Thomas has been a great representative of Clemson University and Clemson Football in every role — as a player, as a support staff member and as a coach. On the field, he was one of the best Tigers we’ve had, and his role as a captain and as a great leader is immortalized in concrete at Tiger Walk outside Memorial Stadium. I know God has a great plan for his future,” Swinney’s statement read.
This is the second consecutive season in which Dabo Swinney has made major changes on the coaching staff after Brandon Streeter was dismissed from the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach positions in favor of Garrett Riley in January.
All eyes are on Swinney as he builds his staff going into a critical offseason.
