Wednesday was a big day for a lot of reasons for the Clemson football program.

Fourteen young men officially became Tigers as part of national signing day, while head coach Dabo Swinney, President James Clements and athletic director Dan Radakovich officially opened the Allen Reeves Football Complex.

The new $55 million facility houses the entire football program. In addition, it provides visitors with a unique Clemson experience with an indoor replica of the Hill and Howard’s Rock as well as several interactive videos that will allow fans to connect with current players and coaches, Clemson’s rich football traditions and much more.

For the players, coaches and football support staff, the facility includes a career development and leadership center known as Paw Journey. There is a players’ lounge, a new locker room, a state-of-the-art training and rehab facility, a 2,300 square foot weight room, a nutrition center and a dining facility unlike any other, spacious meeting rooms, coaches’ offices and a first-of-its-kind recruiting war room.

Clemson’s football facilities have come a long way since Swinney took over the program in 2009. Actually, it was a year later when the idea for improving the facilities was conceived.

During C.J. Spiller’s Pro Day in March of 2010, a heavy rain storm hit the Clemson area. With NFL scouts, general managers and coaches in town to watch Spiller work out, it rained and rained for hours.

“I will never forget it. We did not have facilities like this,” Swinney said to an estimated crowd of 500 people on Wednesday. “We are standing out here, and it is pro day. It is the biggest day of his life. He has to go perform. Pro day is pro day. It’s not like all of these coaches flying across the country can come back tomorrow. It does not work that way. It was the biggest rain storm you have ever seen in your life.”

Swinney described Spiller, who is still Clemson’s all-time leader in all-purpose yards, as the standard for what the Clemson athlete should be like, on and off the field. Spiller graduated in three and a half years. He was a person of excellence in every aspect of his life. He set the standard for all these guys coming after him.

“We got individual drills and all of this stuff. We go out there on that turf field. I’m standing under a little umbrella with John Fox,” Swinney said. “Spiller never complained. He never complained.”

Later that afternoon Swinney met with the media and he let his frustration show.

“I said I’m embarrassed that we did not have better for C.J. Spiller,” Swinney said. “I told Terry Don Phillips, we need an indoor facility. This is an embarrassment. We are better than this. Best is the standard.

“Terry Don took that and he ran with it. The next thing I know, a year or so later, we are building an indoor facility. So our young people have the best of the best. We expect the best from them so it is important to me that we give them the best of everything. That’s what we have done here. That’s what I’m so proud of. Our players have an opportunity to be a part of something special like this.”

–Photo courtesy Clemson Athletic Communications

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