Report: Todd Bates Leaving Clemson to Join Venables on Oklahoma Staff

Todd Bates has helped lead Clemson's talented and productive defensive lines since 2017 and is considered among the best recruiters in college football.

Ken Ruinard / staff / USA TODAY NETWORK

One of the last things Dabo Swinney said before exiting the stage after the Cheez-It Bowl was that he still had to "finish up some staff stuff that I got to get done."

It's unclear if losing a defensive coach was included in that, but as of Monday, it appears the Tigers are losing Todd Bates. The defensive tackles coach and recruiting coordinator is reportedly leaving Clemson to join new Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables as the co-defensive coordinator. 

Bates added the title of assistant head coach last month and was given a raise to $750,000 per year on a three-year contract. He has been with the Tigers since 2017 and has helped produce one of the top D-line groups in the country in recent seasons. Following the 2018 national championship season, Clemson had three defensive linemen selected in the first round of the NFL draft. 

Bates, of course, worked alongside Venables, who left Clemson as the defensive coordinator last month to take his first head coaching position. Bates will join Ted Roof as co-DC at OU. Roof spent the last year working on Swinney's staff as an analyst. 

Bates is the first, and so far only, defensive assistant coach to leave the Tigers. Wesley Goodwin was promoted from analyst to DC while safeties coach Mickey Conn added co-defensive coordinator to his resume. Venables did take another off-field Clemson staff member, Miguel Chavis, with him to OU to become an on-field assistant. 

It's a big loss for Clemson as Bates has been one of the program's top gatherer of talent. In 2019, Rivals named him its Recruiter of the Year. In 2020, 247 Sports ranked Bates second nationally among recruiters. 

Swinney said last month after promoting Bates to the assistant head coach that Bates has a future as a head coach. 

"What an unbelievable job he has done and somebody that I had a lot of trust in, his opinion, everything," Swinney said. "He’s also our recruiting coordinator. He’ll be a head coach sooner or later one of these days, no doubt about it to me.”

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