When Tony Elliott played for Dabo Swinney, when the Clemson head coach was still the wide receivers’ coach under Tommy Bowden, Elliott remembers how his position coach always challenged him to be the best version of himself.

That’s exactly how Swinney runs his program today at Clemson. He is constantly challenging his players to be the best version of themselves. That is the core value of the program.

“That is how Coach Swinney is. That is how he coached me,” said Elliott, who serves on Swinney’s staff as co-offensive coordinator and running backs coach. “Even though I was nowhere near being the most talented guy in the receivers’ room, he challenged me to be the best version of myself, which resulted in me being able to earn the respect of my teammates and be a team captain.”

Those are things that usually don’t happen for a walk-on, who is maybe the fourth guy on the depth chart. But it happened for Elliott, which is why he challenges all of his players to be best version of themselves, too.

“That is my responsibility as a coach,” he said. “When it is all said and done, no one is going to care about the record that Jeff (Scott) and I have as co-coordinators. Nobody is going to care about the national championships. Really, I am going to be judged by how did I impact that young man’s life for the three to five years that I had him. His family is counting on me.”

So far Elliott has done a pretty good job of it. He has already coached NFL players like Andre Ellington and Wayne Gallman, but he has also produced fine young men in Zac Brooks, Roderick McDowell, Adam Choice, C.J. Fuller and the list goes on.

This year, Elliott is seeing the emergence of Tavien Feaster as the next leader in the running backs’ room. He says Feaster is the alpha dog and right now the senior commands the attention of his younger colleagues.

“The voice is Tavien. Tavien is the voice right now and I am starting to hear Travis’ voice emerge, but in that meeting room, Tavien is the alpha dog,” Elliott said. “And again, it is a healthy room. So, some days Travis will speak up a little bit. But really Tavien is the guy. Once he saw Choice moved on, he said, ‘this is my room. I want to set the standard.’ So far, he has done a really, really good job.”

Elliott says watching young men like Feaster and Etienne grow up, not just as football players, but as men is why he got into coaching.

“I did not get into coaching for the accolades and the notoriety. I got into the profession because football was that for me,” he said. “It taught me how to be the best version of myself and that is what I want to do with my players. I want them to be the best version of themselves because the reality is, if Travis learns how to do that at this level and Tavien learns how to do that at this level, then guess what? He is going to maximize his opportunities at the next level, but more importantly, he is going to be the best father he can be. He is going to be the best husband he can be and really in our society, with the platform they have, they can really impact changes if they are just the best version of themselves.

“Ultimately, when you are the best version of yourself, you are dying to share that with somebody. You don’t want anything in return, you just want to pass that forward to somebody else.”