How Clemson football's Dabo Swinney mistook LSU's Brian Kelly for a country singer this summer
Swinney said July 15 during Clemson's preseason availability that he and his wife, Kathleen, visited Grayton Beach in Florida with one of his brothers and his wife, who informed Dabo and Kathleen that Brian Kelley was having a concert there, and the musician's wife also has a gift shop there.
Assuming it was LSU coach Brian Kelly, Dabo said Kathleen purchased an item to support the shop, and Dabo took pictures of the concert stage and imagery and sent them to his first-week opponent. It wasn't until Dabo Swinney's brother's friend told Kathleen it was Brian Kelley, the country singer from the group Florida Georgia Line, that they realized their mistake.
"Kath goes, 'Babe, it's Brian Kelley. He's a singer with the Florida Georgia Line,' and I went 'What?' " Dabo Swinney said. "I've been firing all these pictures off to Brian Kelly. He's probably over there saying, 'What is this dude doing?' "
Swinney admitted the LSU coach was probably confused about the context of the photos but he had responded to the messages anyway, saying something along the lines of "You can't get away from Brian Kelly."
How could he? It is one of the most anticipated matchups this season.
Clemson hosts LSU on Aug. 30 (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC) at Memorial Stadium. Both teams have quarterbacks with Heisman Trophy hopes (Clemson's Cade Klubnik, LSU's Garrett Nussmeier) and Hall of Fame-level coaching. Klubnik said last month that he began preparing for the marquee game during the first week of July.
Kelly also has emphasized the importance of this matchup, saying at SEC media days on July 14 that Clemson's logo has been plastered on workout bags at LSU's facility this summer for motivation.
MORE: Our suggestions for Clemson as revenue sharing starts from alcohol deals to Memorial Stadium concerts
"We've got a Clemson paw print on the bags that we hit every day," Kelly said. "It's on every monitor in the building to go 1-0. I think it was important to have a tangible, specific goal for us to start the season."
Kelly, who is 0-3 in Week 1 games in his LSU tenure, said Tiger Stadium is the real "Death Valley," which is what Clemson calls Memorial Stadium. His comments didn't seem to bother Swinney.
"It ain't gonna have nothing to do with blocking and tackling and executing it on game day, so it makes it fun, but just go focus on what we gotta do," Swinney said.
He said he will share a laugh with Kelly if he sees the video of Swinney talking about the case of mistaken identity. He also has extended an invite to Florida Georgia Line's Brian Kelley to come perform at Clemson.
Derrian Carter covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at dcarter@gannett.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DerrianCarter00
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Clemson football: How Dabo Swinney mistook LSU's Brian Kelly for singer
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