Spiller jump-started dynasty

Four losses in five games to end his freshman season in 2006 made C.J. Spiller consider leaving Clemson and transferring to Florida, where second-year coach Urban Meyer was building a powerhouse at a program located near Spiller’s hometown of Lake Butler.

Spiller brought his concerns to Dabo Swinney, then an assistant coach and the point man on Spiller’s highprofile recruitment. For the second time, Swinney had to persuade Spiller to commit to Clemson. He responded to Spiller’s worries with a question: Why would you go to someone else’s backyard, meaning a Florida program loaded with NFL-bound talent, when you can stay here and have your own?

“It kind of stuck with me,” he said. “You normally don’t think like that as a young player. When he said that I knew it was meant for me to stay.”

At a time when the Tigers were living in Florida State’s long shadow – and two years before Swinney himself was promoted to head coach – Spiller represented the sort of rippled-causing recruiting splash that proved Clemson could succeed in head-to-head battles with established powers for the nation’s best talent.

“I prayed about my decision and Clemson was the one,” said Spiller. “I just knew this place was where I needed to be.”

Spiller, now on the board of directors for Clemson’s athletics department fundraising arm, called IPTAY, will make an appearance along with former Tigers players Tajh Boyd and Ben Boulware at Saturday’s matchup against Boston College

(7:30 p.m. ET, ACC Network) with the Amway Coaches Poll Trophy, which is awarded in conjunction with the American Football Coaches Association to the winner of the College Football Playoff.

“I think they’re still a great team,” Spiller said of Clemson, which began the year ranked No. 1 in the Amway Coaches Poll but has since been replaced by Alabama. “There are some things they have to correct, but they’ll get it done.”

In hindsight, Swinney said this summer, no single recruit has been more vital to Clemson’s development from ACC bridesmaid to Bowl Subdivision power than Spiller – not to mention as a program capable of out-recruiting Alabama.

“Clemson wasn’t the sexiest program when I was coming out,” Spiller said. “At the end of the day, it just came down to a comfort level.”