Dabo Swinney Looking Forward to P.A.W. Journey Week
While Clemson is getting set to face Boston College this weekend in Memorial Stadium, it is also P.A.W. Journey week at the school.
P.A.W. Journey is a leadership initiative put in place by head coach Dabo Swinney that stands for "Passionate About Winning" and its success inside the program has been well documented over the last few years.
"This is P.A.W. Journey week for us," Swinney said. "And P.A.W. Journey is something that we're incredibly passionate about here at Clemson. What started with really literally the day I became an interim coach and trying to create a program for the players that was obviously, as coaches we do a lot of things, but I just felt like it needed to create something that was different for our players."
Jeff Davis, a former Clemson linebacker and a captain on Clemson's 1981 national championship team, has been a catalyst when it comes to the success of the program and Swinney could not be more pleased with the commitment he and the rest of the staff have shown to the program.
"Jeff has been amazing, really has been so instrumental in developing and growing that program," Swinney said. "And as we were able to get him more help and hire Savannah Bailey to come in for the short-haul and Travis Blanks, Reggie Pleasant, just have an awesome team. That's all they do every day."
Another area it has helped in with the Tigers is recruiting. The program is so successful, defensive end K.J. Henry says it was one of the deciding factors in his decision to come to Clemson.
"Obviously, what they started was amazing because it definitely was probably the number one reason why I even committed to Clemson," Henry said. "Just seeing P.A.W. Journey and what it did for the players and the success rate it has coming out of college, just building the players up. We come in at different levels and it's is great to see what this program is doing for our guys."
Running back Darien Rencher is another player who has experienced the benefits of what P.A.W. Journey provides the players. He is very appreciative of such an initiative that puts the needs of the players at the forefront and says that each individual has the choice of making the most out of it.
"My experience has been awesome," Rencher said. "It's always been for the players. My experience, it has been ultimately whatever I want to make of it. I've been to internships, everything that we did this summer was through P.A.W. Journey. I've seen other teammates do whatever dream they had. "It's been awesome to see P.A.W. Journey come alongside of us, while we're still in the midst of like this football dream and see us chase other dreams."
P.A.W. Journey has evolved into an integral part of the culture inside the Clemson program. This is a week that will be dedicated to giving the outside world an inside look at what goes on and Swinney says he is very much looking forward to it.
"So many things go into the college journey program and it's just amazing what goes on year in and year out," Swinney said. "You know it's a huge part of our leadership development as well. Apollo journey ambassadors, that's those guys are elected by our team. Just can't say enough about it, this is kind of a week where as a program we try to feature culture and all the things that go on within the program outside of football. So hopefully everybody will enjoy some of the social media things and different content that we'll put out this week."
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