Dabo Swinney to add former South Carolina assistant Lorenzo Ward to Clemson football staff | Report

Former South Carolina defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward is expected to become the newest member of the Clemson football staff, according to multiple media outlets.

Ward coached for six seasons with the Gamecocks under coach Steve Spurrier and most recently served as defensive coordinator at Chattanooga.

Ward is pictured wearing a Clemson shirt in his profile photo on X, formerly known as Twitter, but as of Thursday afternoon there had been no official announcement of his addition by Clemson or what his role on coach Dabo Swinney's staff would be.

A Clemson athletic department spokesperson was unable to confirm Ward’s addition since all of Clemson’s football coaches “are on the road” and that he has not been “made aware of finalized staff changes or what the resulting roles would be.”

Ward’s profile no longer appears on Chattanooga’s athletics web site.

Ward, 57, is a former player at Alabama and was teammates with Swinney in 1989 and served as a graduate assistant for the 1991 Crimson Tide team when Swinney was a junior.

Ward then had stints coaching defensive backs at Chattanooga, Virginia Tech and Arkansas before joining Spurrier’s staff at South Carolina as defensive coordinator from 2009-15.

After one season as defensive coordinator at Fresno State in 2016, Ward was assistant head coach at Louisville for two seasons and was the Cardinals’ interim head coach for two games following the firing of Bobby Petrino in 2018.

Ward then joined the staff at Chattanooga for five seasons and helped guide the Mocs into the FCS playoffs last season, upsetting No. 13 Austin Peay before losing to No. 7 Furman in the second round.

Ward also coached special teams and helped with defensive backs for the NFL’s Oakland Raiders in 2006-07.

Scott Keepfer covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at skeepfer@gannett.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ScottKeepfer

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Clemson football: Dabo Sweeney to add Lorenzo Ward to staff | Report