Dabo Swinney Shares Powerful News Bigger Than Clemson Football Entering Virginia Tech Week

The Clemson Tigers have almost a title eliminator for the ACC Championship this weekend, welcoming in the Virginia Tech Hokies to Memorial Stadium on Saturday. However, during the week, there’s something powerful that head coach Dabo Swinney shared regarding a player on the team.

It involves junior defensive tackle Hevin Brown-Shuler, who has been undergoing treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma since the summer. Now, on Thursday, Brown-Shuler is set to ring the bell to finish his cancer treatment.

Swinney and his wife, Kathleen, will be in attendance, as well as other Clemson football players. The last time Swinney was watching somebody ring the bell, it was his father, Ervil.

“He’s in the team meeting every day. He’s here training every day,” the Tigers’ head coach said about Brown-Shuler. “The guys see him everyday, and so I think he’s brought a lot of great perspective to everybody, and I’m just happy for him.”

Swinney hopes that this positive news brings up the football team in the right way. After players were able to see their teammate in meetings and workouts, as well as fighting in the hospital, there looks to be some perspective given that not many college football players see.

The average age of diagnosis for the disease is 39, and Brown-Shuler just entered his 20s.

“I think it’s just brought a lot of perspective, especially as a parent,” Swinney said. “Nobody wants to get a call like that as a parent, if you’re in a situation like this.”

Being a collegiate program, it’s not often to see anybody fight through things like chemotherapy and radiation. So, a lot of unknown was in front of the Atlanta native heading into the 2026 season.

But it’s something Brown-Shuler overcame.

“You’re walking into the unknown,” Swinney said. “You don’t know what chemo looks like; you don’t know what radiation looks like. You don’t know that whole process, and you shouldn’t, but he does now.”

The Clemson head coach also hopes that the positive news is promoted in the right way. At the end of the day, the news is a win, and the Tigers will hope it’s the first of two important wins they have during this week.

“Cancer is bad, and there’s a lot of bad that people are dealing with cancer, but there’s so much good too,” he said. “This is a win.”

As Clemson prepares to run down the hill under the lights on Saturday, there will be some more strength behind the Tigers with this positive news. Swinney will hope that it is perceived as such to be a powerful moment in college football.

“That’s really kinda just our society. It’s all bad,” he said. “Nobody focuses on anything good; everything’s bad. The bad gets all the headlines. . .but there’s so much good.”

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