This was part of kind of a "throwaway" sidebar column, but I thought it was fascinating and thought I'd share (bold highlights done by me):
Few know the inner workings of the Alabama and Clemson football programs better than Thad Turnipseed.
The former Crimson Tide football player in the early 1990s — who spent the last 11 years at the school as a special projects coordinator and then as Nick Saban’s director of external affairs — just completed his first season at Clemson as director of external operations.
With two words, Turnipseed distinguished the difference.
“Alabama is ‘process,’ ” he said. “Clemson is ‘culture.’ ”
Saban’s notorious process leaves little room for anything not directly involved in winning the next game. Or, as Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin said, “I don’t think having fun enters into about anything we do.”
Nor does time for getting together socially.
“There weren’t 15 players who knew my name at Alabama,” Turnipseed said, “even as close as I was to Nick.”
Meanwhile, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney is a people-person extraordinaire.
“The first day at Clemson,” Turnipseed said, “I’m walking around with Dabo and he’s hugging every player and asking about their little brothers and their moms by first name.
“The whole feel is family in a fun atmosphere. That’s how he recruits. That’s who he is. And that’s why we’re successful. Good people like Clemson.”
At Alabama, Turnipseed helped design a “recruiting room” in the six-car garage at Saban’s new house.
“He didn’t really want recruits going all through the house,” Turnipseed said. “So we built a recruiting room for guys to hang out.”
At Clemson, Swinney’s recruiting room is bigger.
“With Dabo, his whole house is a recruiting room,” Turnipseed said. “When he opens the door, I just sit back and watch. If there are 300 people there, and he doesn’t know but 100, he’ll meet them all. It’s amazing.”
During recruiting, Turnipseed said, some schools focus solely on who they think are the top talents. At Clemson, the formula has been tweaked.
“Dabo wants you to bring 10 good guys and then see which ones have the highest moral character,” Turnipseed said. “And that’s who we’re going to recruit. It’s that simple. But the key is if the guy at the top doesn’t believe in that culture, it’s not going to work.”
For Turnipseed to leave his alma mater and a high-up position with the most successful current college football program, it took a huge sales job from Clemson.
“Dabo told me, ‘You’ve done everything you can at Alabama. Sometimes, you’ve got to take a step back to go two steps forward. That’s where you are,’ ” Turnipseed said. “Give him credit for seeing that.
“Hey, he’s a recruiter. I went to Clemson for half the money.”
When asked about Saban’s response to him leaving, Turnipseed said: “We don’t have enough time for that story.”
The short version is it happened on the day the Alabama staff was at a golf tournament.
“By Hole 4, Nick called me and he’s getting mad,” Turnipseed said. “I got the ‘cussing-out Nick Saban.’ By Hole 16, he was a little more calm. Then I get in the car and drive home, and two hours later he called and wanted to talk. That’s when I got ‘recruiter Nick Saban.’ ”
But there was nothing Saban could say to change Turnipseed’s mind.
“He knew for me personally and professionally it was time to do it,” Turnipseed said. “What Alabama does works, once you understand it’s a process and you do your role. And I was good at my role.
“The question was whether I wanted a different feel or a different family. I did.”