In the midst of a long and eventful College Football offseason, both Clemson and South Carolina have made their final coaching staff hires with both schools hiring running-backs coaches. Dabo Swinney has tapped former player C.J. Spiller as running backs coach, while Shane Beamer has tapped current Charlotte WRs coach and former Vols/Browns standout RB Montario Hardesty as its running backs coach. Both hires have a lot in common, as both coaches are former players and are more known for their playing days than coaching days; both C.J. and Montario were some of the best running backs in all of college football in their time on the field. Both Swinney and Beamer are hoping their playing time will translate to coaching and being able to develop players to elite standards.  

C.J. Spiller takes over Tony Elliott’s former role, now that the highly regarded offensive coordinator now assumes the role of Associate Head Coach/Offensive-Coordinator/Tight-Ends. Spiller was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame Class of 2021 and is a huge ambassador for Clemson University, just a few of the reasons why Swinney wanted his former elite RB back in the building, this time coaching the position he used to thrive in. 

When asked about the hiring of Spiller, Swinney had this to say: “[Spiller] is one of the greatest ambassadors that we’ve had for our program for a long time and now for him to be able to come back and be able to sow seeds into these young men and teach all the things he’s learned throughout his career, there’s not a guy on this staff that’s more committed and more ALL IN for Clemson than C.J. Spiller, that’s for sure.” 

After spending 8 years playing for the Buffalo Bills, Spiller spent the 2020 season at Clemson as an unpaid coaching intern, as he was getting his master’s degree in Athletic Leadership at Clemson.  

South Carolina head coach, Shane Beamer, also announced his final coaching hire of the season, running-backs coach Montario Hardesty. The hire comes after former running backs coach, Des Kitchings, left the Gamecocks for the Atlanta Falcons in the same role.

Before coming to South Carolina, Hardesty was a WRs coach at UNC-Charlotte for two seasons and helped with other offensive positions for the 49ers as well. Hardesty has also spent time at Ole Miss and Tennessee coaching before Charlotte.

Hardesty is more known for his playing time, as he was an elite running back at the University of Tennessee from 2005-2009. After graduating from Tennessee, Hardesty went to the Cleveland Browns and played 23 games in Cleveland before being placed on injured reserve in 2013 after knee surgery. After his time in the NFL Hardesty took jobs at Chowan University briefly, and then was running backs coach and special teams coordinator at Norfolk State for two seasons.  

Both Clemson and South Carolina have finally completed their staffs for now and finished both staffs off with a running backs coach, both of which are former players in college and the NFL. Shane Beamer and Dabo Swinney will place their elite running back rooms in the hands of C.J. Spiller and Montario Hardesty.