On April 13, IPTAY hosted its second annual Coaches Corner at the Reeves Recruiting Room in Memorial Stadium, an event open to Clemson students who are standing members of the IPTAY Collegiate Club. The occasion featured participating coaches Dabo Swinney, Shawn Poppie, Justin Howell and Elisabeth Crandall-Howell.

The Coaches Corner began at 5 p.m. with catered food and drinks for the IPTAYCC members, followed by a photo opportunity on the field of Memorial Stadium with the coaches, with the Howells’ picture placing their new ACC Championship trophy in the middle.

After dinner and photos, William Qualkinbush of The Roar FM, famous for his radio show “Out of Bounds,” hosted a Q&A panel with the coaches. As the conversations unfolded, it was clear that each coach was bringing forth an aspect of transition within their respective programs, and that they were meshing these transitions together to create a great Clemson culture.

The panel began with a general introduction by outgoing IPTAY CEO Davis Babb, who will retire and be replaced by Travis Furbee at the start of the 2026 fiscal year. Babb affirmed the IPTAYCC as a student effort and as a perpetuator of Clemson’s strong alumni program. He added that the organization is founded on and survives through strength in numbers, especially with how the financials boil down to its “relationships with the people.”

ACC champion gymnastic coaches Howell and Crandall-Howell were next up on stage, beginning their segment by thanking the Clemson students for creating an incredible environment all season long within Littlejohn Coliseum for their meets.

Howell believed that atmosphere reflected the reason they moved from rising powerhouse Cal to Clemson in the first place, stating, “We have just felt the Clemson community wrap their arms around us.”

For Clemson gymnastics, in just its third year as a program and having already achieved an ACC title, Crandall-Howell believes it was all a product of the team’s “one day better” mantra. The motto encapsulates the idea of “intentionally waking up each day and thinking about ways that you can improve,” from minor organizational tasks to how you interact with others. She affirms that the gymnastics team’s success came from treating mistakes as opportunities, as opposed to failures.

Among all things, Crandall-Howell preached calmness for the team, a key part of the consistency seen throughout the title-winning season.

“You can’t control what the judges are gonna do,” Crandall-Howell said. “You can’t control what your opponent is going to do, but you can absolutely control the way that you show up, your effort, your responses and the way you adapt in the moment.”

Especially amid inconsistent judging in NCAA gymnastics, Clemson and its individual athletes still found a way to thrive. The decorated coaching duo, along with the entire gymnastics roster, is adding to Clemson’s culture of a golden standard among new beginnings. With the ACC title, the coaches have created a high standard for a program just finding its footing.

Clemson’s women’s basketball follows a different story: one of revival. It isn’t a program in its third year; it’s a team that just reached its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2019. Newly-extended coach Poppie believes the team can move past claims of being a one-hit-wonder and attempt to build sustained success and push the Tigers to the mountaintop every year.

“It’s no longer about ‘how do we get there?’” Poppie asserted about an NCAA tournament berth. “It’s more about ‘what do we do when we get there?’”

For Poppie, the rebuild of the Lady Tigers is less about recruiting the best players on paper in what he dubs the “speed dating process” of the NIL era, and more about finding players with great character and morale to allow culture to come naturally.

“You gotta come and be here for the right reasons,” Poppie said.

In addition to the “one day better” motto of gymnastics, Poppie’s basketball program adds culture to Clemson through its dedication to helping the right people succeed and growing the program together as a family.

To finish out the panel, acclaimed football head coach Swinney took the microphone himself, stating that the upcoming 2026 season would be, in simple terms, like the 1985 classic film “Back to the Future.”

Swinney touched on topics such as the return of Chad Morris on the sideline, incoming defensive additions and disappointments in 2025.

Swinney related his hiring of Morris as offensive coordinator to 2010, when he did the same thing after a lackluster season left the Tigers in need of an offensive spark. Swinney knows bringing back a fading Morris is not the most popular decision.

Still, he stated honestly that he has felt that his least popular decisions have been his most successful, alluding to the offensive explosion Morris brought in his first tenure at Clemson, as well as the hirings of offensive coordinator duo Tony Elliott and Jeff Scott in the glory days of Clemson football.

“Oftentimes,” Swinney doubled down, “the most popular decisions aren’t the best. Oftentimes, the hardest thing is the right thing.”

To build off of Howell’s earlier appreciation for the fans sticking with the gymnastics team the whole season, Swinney himself applauded the Clemson family for packing out Death Valley every game and staying strong in their support, before stating outright that the Tigers “stunk at home.”

When it comes to motivation for greatness, Swinney didn’t mince his words when trying to state that the Tigers needed to work hard to be all in for 2026 and to take back the spotlight after a shaky 2025 season.

“Greatness don’t go on sale, you can’t go to the Dollar General to buy it,” Swinney joked, a spin on the classic assertion that success is earned, not given, or in this case, purchased.

Ultimately, Swinney believes the 2026 Tigers have all it takes to be “back in the mix for ‘26.”

While the frustrating 2025 season had some Clemson fans placing Swinney on the hot seat, it’s clear his leadership of the football program follows tradition and has earned respect, alongside familiar notions of character and getting better every day, which his fellow coaches echoed in their statements.

These aspects of culture apply to all of Clemson, from athletics to academics to student employment, creating something golden for all Tigers to stand behind.

If the Tigers can follow these excellent principles into the next year, there is no doubt that Clemson as a whole will be back atop the mountain, across all sports.