Fathers and sons: How Clemson football’s ‘CKU’ tradition came to be
Drew Swinney figured he had a squad that could dominate in a particular class of teams. The jerseys read Swinney, Venables, Batson, and a few others.
Clemson football has a five-time playoff team. But before Drew and his brother joined the team, they were part of something else: CKU.
Coaches Kids University.
“Before pregame of every game, we would run routes,” Drew Swinney said, “play a football game, and we started saying, I think we could take any other (school’s) coaches kids in the country.”
The Tigers’ roster has a smattering of sons of their coaches. Dabo Swinney’s sons Drew and Will are there, as is Brent Vanables’ son Jake — his son Tyler Venables will arrive next year. Clemson strength coach Joey Batson’s son Ben is there as a walk-on quarterback, and last year’s roster featured J.D. and Judah Davis, sons of Clemson staffer Jeff Davis.
The group even holds a seasonal CKU Turkey Bowl in the indoor facility with jerseys: The first team to 70 points wins.
Now that Drew Swinney is on the Tigers as a receiver, he went out this Thanksgiving to watch the next generation play in the CKU Turkey Bowl. He remarked how interesting it is that all the coaches had a run of boys around the same time.
These are the same boys who’ve been coming to practices since they were little kids. They played their games on an extra field, ran routes and maybe got a little competitive.
“I just remember us all like as middle-schoolers, some of us elementary-schoolers, out there at practice on our own fields playing the tackle football games,” said Will Swinney, the team’s starting holder and a backup receiver. “Now we’re actually in the practices practicing and with each other.”
The sons even went as far as making a locker room for CKU, Will Swinney said. They snuck into a boiler room in the Clemson facility and set some things up.
And it lasted for just a little while.
“We had it for about two weeks until they found us,” Drew Swinney said. “We got kicked out.”
Some of those players had options to go other places.
Maybe it was a smaller school, or the chance at something a little different. Clemson linebacker Jake Venables was actually looking for something a different early on in his recruiting process. But the allure of home and Tigers orange pulled him in.
“The whole, maybe first half, first quarter of my recruiting process was just, ‘got to get away from home,’” Jake Venables said. “I didn’t want to be attached to the whole, ‘I’m just coming to Clemson because of my dad,’ so really wanted to just kind of get away from home, took some visits to other schools and went to other camps. At the end of the day I made a pro-con list, and Clemson was the place for me.”
Most of them filter through Daniel High School, taking backyard football with friends to high school and then into college. Will Swinney said they don’t even have to do much recruiting of their fellow coaches’ sons. They just seem to make the choice.
There’s even another Swinney, Clay, now a sophomore receiver with the Daniel Lions. Will guessed he might look around (basketball is a favorite sport for him) but his plan isn’t set yet.
Now that Drew Swinney plays for his father’s Tigers, he jokes that it’s not the hardest Dabo has coached him. Beyond being the head coach of a perennial playoff contender, he also coached his sons in travel league baseball (the team was called Orange Crush) and even some rec league basketball.
And like any school with a profile, CKU has some gear. Someone stepped up and made T-shirts, nice enough ones that a few players, sons of high school coaches, asked if they could get one.
“It’s just a white shirt with the state of South Carolina,” Will Swinney said. “And it says CKU in orange letters, with a pin on Clemson.
“We got a few honorary members like Sawyer Jordan, who’s a student assistant, and Hunter Renfrow. ... They wanted shirts, like, ‘Oh those are sick.’”
Clemson coaches’ sons and how they did this year
Will Swinney: Starting Clemson holder, has 12 catches for 94 yards in 146 snaps
Drew Swinney: Caught two passes in 19 snaps at Clemson
Clay Swinney: A sophomore at Daniel High, caught, two passes for 26 yards, had five tackles
Ben Batson: Four carries for 20 yards, one completion in 11 snaps at Clemson
Jake Venables: Made 34 tackles, eight for loss, in 196 snaps at Clemson
Tyler Venables: (Clemson signee) Threw for 3,281 yards, 41 TDs, seven interceptions, ran for 222 yards, punted for Daniel High School
Tanner Pearman: Student assistant on Clemson staff
When is the Fiesta Bowl?
Who: Clemson (13-0) vs. Ohio State (13-0)
Where: PlayStation Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix
When: 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 28
TV: ESPN
Early line: Clemson by 2
This story was originally published December 26, 2019 at 3:31 PM with the headline "Fathers and sons: How Clemson football’s ‘CKU’ tradition came to be."
