Tyler Venables lands Samford assistant job, follows dad Brent Venables coaching footsteps

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CLEMSON — Former Clemson football safety Tyler Venables is getting into coaching just like his father.

Venables, the son of Oklahoma coach and former Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables, announced on Jan. 7 that he is joining Samford as its nickelback coach. This is Tyler Venables’ first coaching position after spending six seasons with the Tigers, recording 94 tackles, including one sack, one interception and five pass deflections.

Venables will join his brother Jake Venables (director of football strength and conditioning) on John Grass‘ staff. Samford hired Grass as its coach on Dec. 3 after he spent four seasons with the Tigers.

Grass has added a slew of Clemson assistants to his staff, including former Tigers safeties coach Mickey Conn and Clemson coach Dabo Swinney’s middle son, Drew Swinney. Samford also landed former 2025 four-star Clemson signee Marquise Henderson in the transfer portal.

Here’s the full list of Clemson staffers joining Grass at Samford:

Mickey Conn, Samford defensive coordinator

Clemson fired Conn Dec. 29. He was hired as a defensive assistant in 2016 and was hired as Clemson’s safeties coach in 2017. He added defensive passing game coordinator and co-special teams coordinator titles prior to the 2025 season.

Drew Swinney, Samford wide receivers coach

Drew Swinney was on Clemson’s staff for three seasons, working as a graduate assistant in 2023 and 2024 before being promoted to offensive player development and assistant wide receivers coach this year. He was also a wide receiver at Clemson from 2018-22

Paul Tyson, Samford quarterbacks coach

Tyson, who spent a year at quarterback with Clemson in 2023 and served as a player/coach in 2024, was as an offensive player development intern in 2025.

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Will Gilchrist, Samford special teams coordinator

Gilchrist finished his third season with Clemson’s special teams unit in 2025. He joined the program as a player development assistant for special teams in 2023 and was promoted to director of special teams in 2024.

Brandon Thomas, Samford offensive line coach

Thomas finished his fourth season assisting Clemson’s offense and second year as the team’s offensive player development and assistant offensive line coach.

Montralius Mosley, Samford running backs coach/chief of staff

Mosley served as an offensive assistant and assistant running backs coach at Clemson from 2023-25.

Andrew Zow, Samford assistant

Zow finished his fifth season assisting Clemson’s offense. He joined Clemson as an offensive analyst in 2021 before becoming a senior offensive assistant across the 2022-23 seasons. In 2024, he became an offensive analyst and assistant running backs coach.

Derrian Carter covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at DCarter@usatodayco.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DerrianCarter00

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Samford hires Tyler Venables, Clemson assistants to staff

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