Clemson, Brownell Lose Two Additional Staffers to ACC and SEC Programs

This past week, news broke that the Clemson Tigers and head coach Brad Brownell had found replacements for departing staffers, hiring Cincinnati's Andre Morgan, Minnesota's Chad Warner, and Charleston's Chris Harriman.

Now, on Saturday afternoon, we found out that the team will see two more departures from assistant coach Sean Dixon and general manager Lucas McKay, as first reported by Tiger Illustrated's Larry Williams.

That brings the total exits from the program to five: former associate head coach Billy Donlon is traveling to Eastern Michigan to become their head coach, while assistant Dick Bender and special assistant Jeff Reynolds are retiring after around four decades of coaching.

Dixon, who joined the team's coaching staff alongside Donlon in 2022 as an assistant coach, will now be heading to Louisville, but we do not know what title he'll hold there. The news comes after two staffers left the Cardinals in the past month.

In his time with the team, Dixon worked primarily with the Tigers' wings and on the defensive side of the ball alongside Donlon and Brownell, which has translated into back-to-back years of top 30 scoring defenses.

He was also tapped in on the recruiting side of things, as the Georgia native had strong ties to the Atlanta scene, which makes sense as Zac Foster and current four-star commit Harris Reynolds are both from the area. He also recently helped recruit Andre Morgan to the coaching staff, as they served as assistant coaches at Middle Tennessee State together.

Prior to Clemson, Dixon had stints with Middle Tennessee State, as mentioned, UNC Asheville and his alma mater, Presbyterian College.

As for McKay, he'll be on the way to Oklahoma and will be part of the behind-the-scenes work in the athletics department, as Sooners athletic director Roger Denny was the one to reach out to him about the front-office role.

During his 12-year tenure in Clemson, South Carolina, McKay worked his way up from video coordinator to director of operations to director of recruiting, contributing to numerous program milestones including three straight NCAA Tournament appearances, a Sweet Sixteen run in 2018 and an Elite Eight appearance in 2024.

Before arriving in Tigertown, McKay had been alongside Brownell for essentially his entire career — aside from two seasons at Kansas City under Donlon — as he spent over a decade at Clemson with him, worked under him as an administrative assistant at Wright State and worked under him as a student manager for three years at UNC Wilmington.

While no new rumors about replacements have been circulating yet, more news should drop within the coming weeks, and we at Clemson Tigers on SI will be on top of it.