PHOENIX — For a short time in the spring of 2013, two of college football’s best recruiters were waging a pitched battle for the services of a 40-something ex-athlete with bad knees and thinning hair who had never so much as flipped on game film.
Thad Turnipseed wasn’t the type of person fans or even many players knew, but for more than a decade he was the guy who got things done behind the scenes at Alabama. Any project Nick Saban wanted to undertake from an analytics operation to building a recruiting room at his house, it was Turnipseed’s job to make it a reality.
Then his former Alabama teammate Dabo Swinney called, offering roughly half the salary but a more hands-on role in recruiting and an opportunity at Clemson to escape what Turnipseed perceived to be a rut in his career development.
“I said ‘Dabo, I’m not leaving,’ ” Turnipseed. “He said, ‘Thad, you’re too full of Alabama. You don’t know anything different. You’ve done everything you can at Alabama. Sometimes in life you have to step back two steps to move two steps forward.’ Give him credit because he saw that. He’s a recruiter. He got my mind spinning.”
Much has been made this week about the contrasts between No. 1 Clemson and No. 2 Alabama before they play in Monday’s College Football Playoff championship game, focusing largely on the personalities of the coaches.
Nobody is more well-equipped to understand those lines than Turnipseed, whose technical title at Clemson is director of recruiting and external affairs but does a little bit of everything from compiling a weekly report on recruits’ social media accounts to designing the Tigers’ new $55 million football complex.
He has been part of Saban’s famous “process,” which often makes Alabama seem more like an NFL organization than a college team, and now the more family-oriented atmosphere Swinney prefers. He considers both confidants and friends. And he has been in the unique position to understand why both coaches, who have very different approaches, have their teams in the national championship game.
“Nick was very respectful to me, very good to work for,” Turnipseed said. “He treats you well if you do your job. He holds you accountable, but I never had any issues with him. You respect somebody like that who’s successful with that work ethic and intelligence. You fear Nick like most bosses are feared because he does drive a heavy hammer at times if he needs to. You fear Dabo because you love the guy so much.”
***
Swinney’s warmth and the culture that orbits around him helped Turnipseed understand immediately why he had been able to take Clemson from a perennial underachiever to one of the nation’s premier programs.
When Swinney offered the job, Turnipseed admittedly had only watched Clemson three times: Twice when they played Auburn and the 2012 Chick-fil-A Bowl against LSU. Other than that, he didn’t know much about the program.
“Any time it helped Alabama, that’s when I watched Clemson,” he said.
But Swinney convinced him to visit campus, with a meeting scheduled at the football complex for 7 a.m. When Turnipseed got there, the building was locked and empty, except for a player who let him in, walked him up to Swinney’s office and waited there 15 minutes until the head coach arrived.
It was a small thing, but it struck a chord with Turnipseed, who said there weren’t even 15 players at Alabama who would know his name because, well, it wasn’t their job to know. That doesn’t make it better or worse, just a matter of process versus culture.
“All day Dabo walks around and he’s hugging every players, asking about their brothers and moms and first names, and so it was just the whole feel,” Turnipseed said. “That’s how he recruits, that’s who he is and that’s why we’re successful. Good people like Clemson.”
Saban did his best recruiting pitch to keep Turnipseed — including a tearful phone call from his wife, “Miss Terry” and several conversations that ranged from shocked to cussin’ mad to conciliatory — but said he supported the decision in the end.
“He was a guy that implemented a lot of the things we wanted, whether it was facilities or (off-the-field) programs or whatever it might be,” Saban said. “He really had a lot of value in our organization. I think it was an opportunity for him, because he had been at Alabama almost his whole career, to sort of spread his wings a bit and have a better chance to realize some upward mobility, which I totally understood. Thad is still a great friend.”
***
And though the programs could hardly be more different in personality and approach, Turnipseed has, in fact, helped Clemson build an Alabama-style operation for recruiting in terms of staffing, analysis of players, structuring visits and social media publicity blasts. Co-offensive coordinator Jeff Scott, who was formerly the recruiting coordinator, said the recruiting-focused staff (including student assistants) has increased from two or three to 40 in recent years.
Turnipseed, who was in the construction business before he returned to Alabama in 2002 as an administrator, has also helped Clemson take its facilities to the next level, including a players' lounge and now a new football building that will include touches like mini-golf and laser tag.
“(Athletics director) Dan Radakovich has allowed me a lot of leeway for what that’s going to look like,” he said. “So I took Oklahoma’s locker room, Tennessee’s training room, Alabama’s weight room and gave it a bit of a Clemson feel. We’re fun. Dabo says at Clemson I want to be fun, I want to be warm and I want to be family. That’s what I want our program to feel like.”
Though Clemson has always recruited well under Swinney, it's probably no coincidence they’ve been a on a tear since Turnipseed’s arrival. The Tigers are currently No. 11 in the 247Sports recruiting rankings for this year — and with just 15 commitments, they could easily end up much higher — and finished No. 8 last year.
Swinney said Turnipseed has been like a “bull in a china shop” in putting his personality into the recruiting operation.
“He’s really helped us take what we have an improve it,” Swinney said.
And though Clemson doesn’t have quite the same resources as Alabama, Turnipseed said he has never been told no, which may also explain how the Tigers have taken their program to the next level.
“That's one thing I learned from coach Saban,” he said. “Whatever it takes to be the best, whether it’s psychology, nutrition, I’ve helped push that at Clemson. Whatever it takes, let’s be smart with it, but we’re going to do it. I know it sounds simple, but it’s so rare in college athletics: When the head coach is in line with the (athletics director) and the AD with the trustees and with the president, you can get all those egos aligned that’s when you can be great. That’s what Alabama had and that’s why we’re where we are today.”
The man behind Nick Saban and now Dabo Swinney
Thad Turnipseed wasn’t the type of person fans or even many players knew, but for more than a decade he was the guy who got things done behind the scenes at Alabama. Any project Nick Saban wanted to undertake from an analytics operation to building a recruiting room at his house, it was Turnipseed’s job to make it a reality.
Then his former Alabama teammate Dabo Swinney called, offering roughly half the salary but a more hands-on role in recruiting and an opportunity at Clemson to escape what Turnipseed perceived to be a rut in his career development.
“I said ‘Dabo, I’m not leaving,’ ” Turnipseed. “He said, ‘Thad, you’re too full of Alabama. You don’t know anything different. You’ve done everything you can at Alabama. Sometimes in life you have to step back two steps to move two steps forward.’ Give him credit because he saw that. He’s a recruiter. He got my mind spinning.”
Much has been made this week about the contrasts between No. 1 Clemson and No. 2 Alabama before they play in Monday’s College Football Playoff championship game, focusing largely on the personalities of the coaches.
Nobody is more well-equipped to understand those lines than Turnipseed, whose technical title at Clemson is director of recruiting and external affairs but does a little bit of everything from compiling a weekly report on recruits’ social media accounts to designing the Tigers’ new $55 million football complex.
He has been part of Saban’s famous “process,” which often makes Alabama seem more like an NFL organization than a college team, and now the more family-oriented atmosphere Swinney prefers. He considers both confidants and friends. And he has been in the unique position to understand why both coaches, who have very different approaches, have their teams in the national championship game.
“Nick was very respectful to me, very good to work for,” Turnipseed said. “He treats you well if you do your job. He holds you accountable, but I never had any issues with him. You respect somebody like that who’s successful with that work ethic and intelligence. You fear Nick like most bosses are feared because he does drive a heavy hammer at times if he needs to. You fear Dabo because you love the guy so much.”
***
Swinney’s warmth and the culture that orbits around him helped Turnipseed understand immediately why he had been able to take Clemson from a perennial underachiever to one of the nation’s premier programs.
When Swinney offered the job, Turnipseed admittedly had only watched Clemson three times: Twice when they played Auburn and the 2012 Chick-fil-A Bowl against LSU. Other than that, he didn’t know much about the program.
“Any time it helped Alabama, that’s when I watched Clemson,” he said.
But Swinney convinced him to visit campus, with a meeting scheduled at the football complex for 7 a.m. When Turnipseed got there, the building was locked and empty, except for a player who let him in, walked him up to Swinney’s office and waited there 15 minutes until the head coach arrived.
It was a small thing, but it struck a chord with Turnipseed, who said there weren’t even 15 players at Alabama who would know his name because, well, it wasn’t their job to know. That doesn’t make it better or worse, just a matter of process versus culture.
“All day Dabo walks around and he’s hugging every players, asking about their brothers and moms and first names, and so it was just the whole feel,” Turnipseed said. “That’s how he recruits, that’s who he is and that’s why we’re successful. Good people like Clemson.”
Saban did his best recruiting pitch to keep Turnipseed — including a tearful phone call from his wife, “Miss Terry” and several conversations that ranged from shocked to cussin’ mad to conciliatory — but said he supported the decision in the end.
“He was a guy that implemented a lot of the things we wanted, whether it was facilities or (off-the-field) programs or whatever it might be,” Saban said. “He really had a lot of value in our organization. I think it was an opportunity for him, because he had been at Alabama almost his whole career, to sort of spread his wings a bit and have a better chance to realize some upward mobility, which I totally understood. Thad is still a great friend.”
***
And though the programs could hardly be more different in personality and approach, Turnipseed has, in fact, helped Clemson build an Alabama-style operation for recruiting in terms of staffing, analysis of players, structuring visits and social media publicity blasts. Co-offensive coordinator Jeff Scott, who was formerly the recruiting coordinator, said the recruiting-focused staff (including student assistants) has increased from two or three to 40 in recent years.
Turnipseed, who was in the construction business before he returned to Alabama in 2002 as an administrator, has also helped Clemson take its facilities to the next level, including a players' lounge and now a new football building that will include touches like mini-golf and laser tag.
“(Athletics director) Dan Radakovich has allowed me a lot of leeway for what that’s going to look like,” he said. “So I took Oklahoma’s locker room, Tennessee’s training room, Alabama’s weight room and gave it a bit of a Clemson feel. We’re fun. Dabo says at Clemson I want to be fun, I want to be warm and I want to be family. That’s what I want our program to feel like.”
Though Clemson has always recruited well under Swinney, it's probably no coincidence they’ve been a on a tear since Turnipseed’s arrival. The Tigers are currently No. 11 in the 247Sports recruiting rankings for this year — and with just 15 commitments, they could easily end up much higher — and finished No. 8 last year.
Swinney said Turnipseed has been like a “bull in a china shop” in putting his personality into the recruiting operation.
“He’s really helped us take what we have an improve it,” Swinney said.
And though Clemson doesn’t have quite the same resources as Alabama, Turnipseed said he has never been told no, which may also explain how the Tigers have taken their program to the next level.
“That's one thing I learned from coach Saban,” he said. “Whatever it takes to be the best, whether it’s psychology, nutrition, I’ve helped push that at Clemson. Whatever it takes, let’s be smart with it, but we’re going to do it. I know it sounds simple, but it’s so rare in college athletics: When the head coach is in line with the (athletics director) and the AD with the trustees and with the president, you can get all those egos aligned that’s when you can be great. That’s what Alabama had and that’s why we’re where we are today.”
The man behind Nick Saban and now Dabo Swinney
