Hurricanes Weekly

Head Football Coach, Florida State University

Mike Norvell enters his third season as Florida State’s head football coach in 2022. Norvell’s offenses are averaging 37.7 points per game during his six years as a head coach, which is the third-highest average in the country among head coaches active each year from 2016-21. His offense has showcased 49 individual 100-yard rushing games, 33 individual 100-yard receiving games and 20 individual 300-yard passing games. In addition to his high-powered offenses, Norvell’s teams have also scored 13 defensive touchdowns and 11 kickoff return touchdowns. His commitment to academics has been visible on FSU’s jerseys since he arrived with the addition of the ’Seminole Scholar’ patch, which has been earned by 126 student-athletes in his first two seasons at Florida State. Prior to coming to Tallahassee, he led Memphis to a 71.7 winning percentage and three straight AAC Championship Games, the first AAC school to appear in three consecutive conference championship games. Norvell is one of 16 head coaches in any conference to appear in three straight conference championship games and one of only eight to make three conference championship game appearances in their first four years as a head coach.

Virginia athletics director Carla Williams announced on Dec. 10, 2021 the hiring of Tony Elliott as the University of Virginia’s Fralin Family Head Football Coach. Elliott became the 41st head football coach in the program’s history.

Elliott spent 11 seasons as an assistant on Dabo Swinney’s staff at Clemson. In January of 2021, he was named the program’s assistant head coach and offensive coordinator. He previously served as the team’s co-offensive coordinator (2014-20) and the team’s running backs coach (2011-20).

At Clemson, Elliott was a part of a 10-season stretch in which the Tigers won 10 or more games. In that span, Clemson won six Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, made four appearances in the College Football Playoff National Championship game and captured national titles in 2016 and 2018.

Since Elliott’s promotion to co-offensive coordinator prior to the 2014 Russell Athletic Bowl, the Tigers posted an 89-10 record and ranked in the top 12 nationally in total offense. Clemson either led or ranked No. 2 in the ACC in total offense in five of his seven seasons as an offensive coordinator. Elliott’s 2018 and 2019 offenses were responsible for two of the 22 650-point seasons in major college football history.

Elliott was named the Frank Broyles Award recipient as the nation’s top assistant coach in 2017. Before transitioning to the tight ends room this year, Elliott was in charge of Clemson’s running backs for his first 10 seasons. In that time, he guided  Clemson running back Travis Etienne to one of the most illustrious careers in ACC and college football history, helping him set the NCAA record for most games scoring a touchdown (46) and secure ACC records for career rushing yards (4,952), total touchdowns (78), rushing touchdowns (70) and points (468).

As the program’s offensive coordinator, Elliott worked with two first-round draft picks at quarterback, including the 2021 first overall pick Trevor Lawrence. From 2015-2020, a Clemson offensive player took home both the ACC’s Player of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year awards  four times.

Prior to returning to his alma mater, Elliott spent three seasons at Furman (2008-10) and two at South Carolina State (2006-07) coaching wide receivers at both schools. Prior to his coaching career he worked for Michelin North America for two years.

In 2002, Elliott earned his undergraduate degree in industrial engineering from Clemson, where he was a first-team Academic All-ACC selection as well as a CoSIDA Academic District III member. He was also a recipient of an ACC Weaver-James-Corrigan Postgraduate Scholarship.

Under Tommy Bowden, he came to Clemson as a walk-on wide receiver in the fall of 1999 and finished his career with four letters and appeared in 44 games. Swinney was his position coach his senior year (2003) in which he was named a co-captain of a team that finished with a 9-4 record and a No. 22 final ranking by AP and USA Today.

Born in Watsonville, Calif., Elliott and his wife, Tamika, have two sons, A.J. and Ace

An illustrious coaching heritage is embedded in the foundation of Clemson football. At the dawn of the 20th century, the Tigers were led by future College Football Hall of Famer John Heisman. Hall of Famers Jess Neely, Frank Howard and Danny Ford followed in Heisman’s winning tradition.

Now entering his 15th season (and 14th full season) as Clemson’s head coach, Dabo Swinney has already carved his name into that foundation, elevating himself amid a pantheon of Clemson greats by becoming the first coach in program history to lead Clemson to multiple national championships.

Swinney’s stratospheric start to his head coaching career placed his record not only among Clemson legends but also among the names of the winningest leaders in the more than 150 years of major college football.

With his final win of the 2021 season, Swinney reached 150 career wins in his 186th game as head coach. In terms of games played, Swinney became the sixth-fastest coach in FBS history — and the fourth-fastest in the modern era — to earn 150 career wins, trailing Urban Meyer (176), Gil Dobie (180), Barry Switzer (180), Fielding Yost (184) and Joe Paterno (184). Entering 2022, only 16 coaches in FBS history including Swinney had accomplished the feat within 200 games, and 14 of the 16 had been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, with the lone exceptions being Swinney and Meyer, both of whom are not yet eligible.

The 150th win came in Swinney’s 13th full season and his 14th season overall including his seven-game interim stint in 2008. He moved into third place in FBS history for the most coaching wins in the first 15 seasons of a head coaching career, trailing only Meyer (165) and Bob Stoops (160). Swinney will have the opportunity to take aim at both in his 15th season as head coach in 2022.

Though other seasons resulted in more hardware, analysts and observers opined that 2021 might have been Swinney’s best coaching job, as the Tiger mentor guided his team through adversity and attrition to overcome a 2-2 start to finish 10-3 and extend Clemson’s streak of consecutive 10-win seasons to 11. Clemson entered that October as one of 28 Power Five teams with two or more losses, yet concluded the season along as one of only two of those 28 programs to finish the season having reached 10 wins.

Swinney’s 2021 Tigers played seven one-possession games, one shy of the school record, and went 5-2 in those contests. The squad’s success came in spite of tremendous turnover and attrition, as 48 different players earned at least one start, eight more than started in the pandemic-impacted 2020 season. Only 23 Clemson players played in all 13 games, and only four offensive or defensive players started all 13. Between injuries and transfers, Swinney held aloft the 2021 Cheez-It Bowl trophy following a game Clemson finished without the services of 30 scholarship players from its initial fall roster.

A year earlier, Swinney’s squad accomplished its “double-double mission” in 2020, going 10-2 in a condensed season to give Clemson 10 consecutive 10-win seasons. Clemson became only the third program in FBS history to accomplish the feat and became the first school to win 10 games in 10 straight seasons as a member of the ACC, as only the final nine of Florida State’s record 14-straight 10-win seasons came during the Seminoles’ tenure in the ACC.

The pandemic-affected 2020 campaign was a historic one for the Tigers both as a team and individually, as quarterback Trevor Lawrence ascended to become the winningest quarterback in school history (34-2) and running back Travis Etienne added the ACC’s all-time rushing crown (4,952 yards) to his arsenal of school and conference records. Etienne’s versatility as a rusher and receiver earned him consensus All-American honors as an all-purpose selection, while Lawrence became the second Heisman Trophy finalist in program history, tying Deshaun Watson (second in 2 ...

Joe Z and Don Bailey Jr give their final thoughts on Orange Bowl Media Day

Eric Poms - Chief Executive Officer - Orange Bowl Committee

Sarah Barnes enters her fifth year at the helm of the Miami Hurricanes soccer team. Since taking over the Hurricanes in 2018, Barnes has led Miami to some of its finest victories in school history.

In 2021, Barnes’ team improved its win total by three, highlighted by the first victory over rival Florida for the first time since 2012 and the first win at Boston College in program history.

During the 2019 campaign, Miami topped then-No. 15 Clemson, 3-2, in a double-overtime thriller at Cobb Stadium, posting a top-25 win for the second consecutive campaign.

Barnes capped off her first season in Coral Gables, guiding the Hurricanes to a 1-0 result over then-No. 9 Florida State. The victory marked the 12th time Miami has defeated a top-10 team. 

Under Barnes’ guidance, goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce earned Second Team All-ACC honors in 2018, closing out her illustrious collegiate career with 259 saves, the third-most all-time at Miami.

Five student-athletes have garnered All-ACC Academic Team accolades, featuring Tullis-Joyce, midfielder Michaela Baker, goalkeeper Melissa Dagenais and two-time selections Tia Dupont and Selena Fortich.

Eric Mac Lain joined ACC Network in 2019 and is a studio analyst on The Huddle, ACCN’s signature football show that airs Friday evenings and Saturday mornings throughout the fall.

A Hope Mill, N.C., native, Mac Lain played at Clemson 2011-15, where the Tigers captured two conference championships and made a national championship appearance. He obtained the most wins (46) by a single player in Clemson history, while earning Strength and Conditioning All America honors. As a student, Mac Lain was an All-ACC Academic Football Team selection and was graduated with a bachelor’s in health science (2015) and a master’s in athletic leadership and administration (2017). He will be joining ACCN from JMI Sports where he has worked on multimedia sponsorship rights for Clemson athletics.

Joe Z and Don Bailey Jr preview the upcoming Unversity of Miami Season 

University of Miami Quarterback Tyler Van Dyke joins Joe Z & DBJ to talk about training camp and the upcoming season. 

University of Miami Athletic director Dan Radakovich joins Joe Z to talk about the upcoming fall season of UM athletics