Jeff Scott knew after USF that he was ready to come home (2024)

Jeff Scott attended a Clemson football practice last week but found himself concentrating less on the football and more on the conversations with friends and former co-workers. A burning desire to coach and jump back into the fray?

He’s not feeling it.

Scott helped Clemson win two National Championships, and his time as co-offensive coordinator, wide receivers coach, and recruiting coordinator was marked by the Tigers' success on the field. He was hired as the head coach at South Florida, but the school and Scott parted ways in November 2022.

However, his time at Clemson was never far from his thoughts.

“I came back to Clemson as a graduate assistant in 2008 and just happened to be at the right place at the right time on October 13th when Coach Swinney took over,” Scott said on the Orange Crush Podcast last week. “And so, to really be there for those 12 years with Coach Swinney was absolutely incredible. And then as you move up in your career, and you become a coordinator and maybe you get the itch to be a head coach, and so kind of watch the opportunities. I enjoyed my time at South Florida, athletic director Michael Kelly is still a good friend of mine, a good friend of mine. And I think there are challenges in a lot of jobs. And at the end of the day, you take responsibility just like you talk to your players, you have to take responsibility for how it goes.

“And it didn't go the way that we all wanted it to, but we enjoyed our time there. But whenever that was over, I kind of found myself in a position where I could make some decisions on where I want to live, what do I want to do, who do I want to do that with?”

With two small children and a home in town, the answer was easy.

“And very quickly, I would say the very next day, my wife Sara (who is from Batesburg-Leesville and was a Clemson legacy), who I met at Clemson, we woke up that next morning, we looked at each other, we said, let's go home to Clemson and let's go raise our family in Clemson," Scott said. "And I think, as a coach, it is very rare what Coach Swinney has been able to do at Clemson being here for so many years. One of the downsides to being a college coach, typically you have to move to different places and your children, much like the military, have to move to different schools.

“And so being at that point, having that decision to make of what we wanted to do, where we wanted to go, and Savannah was seven at the time, Hunter was three. And I said, you know what? Let's go back to Clemson. Let's raise our family there. I want to coach their little league teams, and we'll kind of figure out the rest from there.”

When people ask when he’s coming back to Clemson, he has a ready answer, albeit with a twist and smile.

“So really, what I've told my friends and people that would ask me and all those things, I said, the only firm decision that I've made about my career or my future is that we're going to raise our kids right here in Clemson. We’ve been here for almost two years. And we're really excited about that,” Scott said.

Scott didn’t close the door on coaching again, but said for right now, he’s happy being at home with his kids and trying to climb his way to the top in a different field.

“You never know what happens. I came back, talked to Coach Swinney, and much like his time when he left Alabama, there was a couple years in between where he was doing some real estate himself,” Scott said. “Honestly, I just love this area of the state of South Carolina. I mean the beauty of the mountains, the lakes, it's really incredible.

“And so it's been fun being back, and I really kind of talked to some mentors that I had and different people trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to do in the real estate side and really got an opportunity to meet a legend in Jim Anthony and obviously the incredible things that he did at the Cliffs and really getting that going from the ground up and really just learning.”

There are things he has taken from coaching into real estate.

“What I've seen so far is that I've tried to be a person of integrity and honesty, and I think that translates and no matter what business you're in, and I was telling somebody the other day, if you just answer your phone, you call people back, you communicate well, you do what you say you're going to do, it moves you really to the top 5% of whatever profession that you're in,” Scott said. “And so the fun part for me is being able to be back at a place that I love and that maybe I had an opportunity to meet so many great people, and now being able to be able to do business with them outside of just the football side. What's been really fun, I mean just between here and Greenville, there's so many great people that really have poured into me.”