How many baseball metaphors can we fit into one football article? More than one.
We reported Wednesday that head coach Dabo Swinney is expected to hire Auburn defensive line coach Nick Eason to take the place of Todd Bates. Bates left Clemson earlier this week to become the new co-defensive coordinator with Brent Venables at Oklahoma.
I wrote that Swinney needed to hit a home run with the new hire, that simply moving someone up from the ranks might satisfy some, but from a perception standpoint (and for recruiting purposes), this had to be a solid hire.