Wes & Walker- What Did We Learn

In this edition of the What Did We Learn, the guys discuss an ugly weekend of bowl games for the ACC and Cade Klubnik's career coming to a close in the Pinstripe Bowl loss.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, class. I don't like disorder in my room.
I'm in charge of this class. I'm the Warrior Chief.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
I'm the merciless god of anything that stirs in my universe.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Who kind of school is this anyway? All right, let's
start this thing off.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
The ACC did not help itself this weekend with some
of the losses that they took. Now, they are currently
five and three in bowl games this season, so they're
doing pretty good, but they went one in three this weekend.
Virginia won a squeaker over Missouri in the Bowl down
in Jacksonville, thirteen to seven, but there were some low
lights for sure to be had by the conference. Clemson

(00:41):
highlighted those, so they highlight the lowlights. Okay, they lost
to Penn State, who did not have most of his staff,
true freshman quarterback with Kate club Nick and other decent
weapons out there playing. And this is still a Clemson
team that was perceived to be better than a Penn
State team because both had twenty plus opt outs in
this one. There were a lot of teams that weren't playing,

(01:02):
but people still thought with k Klebnick back there quarterback,
that the Tigers should have been able to get it
done or at least have a much better offensive showing
than what they did. Number twelve byu rallied from an
eleven point deficit in the second half for twenty five
to twenty four twenty five to twenty one win over
number twenty four Georgia Tech and the pop Tars Bowl.
Did love what they did with the helmets and the

(01:23):
end zone. It was pretty cool and the post game
was pretty lit as well. Pitt losing to ec you
they had Mason Heinschel out there and just looked anemic offensively, so.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
That was not good.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
KYL lost to Hawaii during the week on a Wednesday,
But they still have plenty of opportunities to get that
Bowl Cup, the Mythical Bowl Cup. I think that does
have a physical trophy if I'm not mistaken. But Duke, Miami, SMU,
and Wake are still left to play for the conference.
But this past weekend I thought that they lost some
key games that could have really helped the reputation of

(01:56):
the ACC.

Speaker 4 (01:57):
Well, I can't help but go to the Clemson game.
I know we're going to talk about it, but you're right,
I mean, especially when Clemson is supposed to be atop
the conference every single year. That's a team, a program
that you're supposed to be able to set your watch to,
and then you see them play a program that Big ten,
they're supposed to be able to set their watch too,
and they win in a year where there These are

(02:18):
the programs that have underperformed the most in each of
these conferences. One coach had, one program had a coach fired,
One team has had a fan base that can't wait
to fire the starting quarterback and we'll get to him
there as well. A Clemson having the loss that they did,
or it was ugly football. That's one where you just
don't leave with a good taste in your mouth whatsoever.
And you mentioned the conference as well, it was another

(02:41):
kind of shrug your shoulders and say, this is the
conference that allowed Duke to get to the ACC Championship
game and.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Become ACC champions.

Speaker 4 (02:48):
This is just the cherry on top of what already
was a not so great year for the conference.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
Ronal, what did you think about the ACC's lack of
a great showing this weekend?

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Oh, it's pathetic.

Speaker 5 (02:57):
It's just what the conference continues to do to itself,
like every time that it feels like you have a chance.
I mean, we said it. This was a game that
Georgia Tech was in position to win. I know they
had some staff changes going on, but you still felt
like with Haines king out there, they'd be able to
find a way to win. The more disappointing performance, I
mean we saw it. We were hanging out with our

(03:17):
buddy Nascar Brad and our guy Alex Holbrooks watching the game,
the Clemson game.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
I mean, you know, they're Clemson fans, and.

Speaker 5 (03:25):
They said, this is the most disgusting offense that they
have really ever seen, and this is the worst year that,
according to Brad since he's been a fan, that he
has experienced.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
I mean, it was just a pathetic showing.

Speaker 5 (03:38):
And I get it, man, it was cold, but still
it's gotta be better than that cave looked.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Awful all the time. They enjoy it very much.

Speaker 5 (03:48):
I mean, they brought Howard's Rock with them. Did we
not see that. They showed it like five times on television.
They thought it was like the greatest thing that's ever happened.
I just man, for Dabo, that's a tough year, man.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
And the thing for Georgia Tech too, is that they
could say, yes, you are losing coordinators, no doubt about it.
Buster a far from the one of the best in
the business. But this is a continuation of what's been
happened to the happening to you down the stretch. Georgia
Tech has lost plenty of games. Their season collapsed, there's
no other way to put it. They were lucky that
they were able to salvage it and get into this

(04:21):
bowl game play against the quality opponent like the YU,
So that's the thing. They really had a chance to
put a nice feeling on this season. Now, I'm sure
Georgia Tech fans, if you're out there, hit us up
on a FanDuel text line seven on four five seven
oh ninety six ten. I'm sure that they feel like
that this season kind of failed in some ways because
of the way it ended.

Speaker 4 (04:39):
Well, the way that you build the expectations in the
first half, and then Georgia Tech they had the big
win against Clemson. Perhaps some of it you saw the
foundation breakout from underneath everybody before we even got to
the second half. Because the Clemson win big one for
Georgia Tech. But then it not really as the season
goes on, well, everybody's been the Clemson Tigers. And what's

(05:00):
unfortunate about this for the ACC is that you do
see Clemson, they lose their game against Penn State. But also,
these are the best teams in the conference. All these
teams right here, you know it's Virginia they lose in
the ACC championship.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
So that's the fact.

Speaker 4 (05:15):
That Duke won is not anything that you can point
to as a positive for the conference. With Duke winning
in a way, it made the conference look worse, all right,
So now Virginia's left out. The only team that we
have any hope for left is with Miami and then
the other best teams in the top half of the conference,
they all lose in a bunch of different ways. ECU

(05:36):
a good football program. We talked about how that was
one of the more intriguing matchups of ball season. But
even still Pittsburgh los into ECU. That's not a great
look for the conference. No, Georgia Tech, after we thought
they might get to the college football playoffs. Somehow, you
have Haines King, who was a Heisman representative for most
of the season, and now they're losing to BYU, another

(05:56):
team that was just on the outside looking into the
College Fool Playoff. Yeah, it's a bad look all around.
When these are the teams that we have to boast about.
Those are the teams that are supposed to represent everything
that is the best part of the ACC football season,
and they all take L's clearly not a great look.

Speaker 3 (06:12):
And the thing is, like I said, Mason heinshow plays
for pitt and East Carolina. They have defections on their
side as well. And not only that we haven't talked
about it, but Cayden Houser in the transfer portal, so
he was not out there for them either. So to
lose that game I thought was pretty tough. But this
does mark the end of the career for one cave
club Nick, And I want to know from Clemson fans,

(06:33):
how do you view him because some of the things
that we learn or that I learned this weekend, to me,
Dabo should have never been loyal to kve Klubnick. We're
going to get into that. And he's the most curious
case of a productive quarterback in Clemson history just listening
to some of this stuff. Now, he did finish his
career with a twenty six and fourteen record. Is Clemson
started in QB every other quarterback who started a game

(06:55):
for Clemson from twenty fourteen to twenty twenty two had
a career record of one in two, one, ten and fifteen.
That's from David Hale's Twitter page. So all those guys
had only one more loss than kay Clebnick did. But
then when we get into brass tacks some of the numbers.
He's won of six Clemson quarterbacks with twenty five plus

(07:15):
career wins, he did get to a CFP. He's second
in Clemson history with nine hundred completions. He had ninety
total touchdowns during his career. He concluded his career ranked
ninth in ACC history in passing yards.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
He passed up Trevor Lawrence.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
He joined Taj Boyd, Deshaun Watson, and Trevor Lawrence as
the only quarterbacks in Clemson history to throw for ten
thousand career passing yards. Clubnick also became the eleventh player
in ACC history to throw for ten thousand passing yards
and he's the fourth quarterback in school history to throw
in or gain eleven thousand career yards of total offense.

(07:52):
I mean, that's a crap ton of production. And when
you look at these Clempson quarterbacks with whom he's in
there with with Taj Boyd. Yes, he didn't get to
a CFPO Winter Natty, but he was kind of a
fire starter. He started getting clemsonto some big Bowl games.
They had won some games under him, and he was
uber productive. But we know DeShawn and Trevor won Natties,
they won ACC titles, all of that stuff. And so

(08:13):
now when you put Clubnick in there, it's almost like
when you're saying the names of these guys, you're gonna
go Todd's boy, man, what a player, Deshaun Watson, Oh
man fire, Trevor Lawrence, Oh sunshine, we can't get enough
of that young man right there. And then you just
go and ares Kate club. Okay, so how do we

(08:35):
look at Kate Clebny's career. I mean, so much production.
Granted he did start for three in the better part
of maybe his first year, he had some opportunities there,
but for three seasons he was the guy. He puts
up all these numbers. But I think he is not
going to be looked at very favorably by the Clemson faithful.

Speaker 4 (08:53):
All the Clemson fans that I know that are in
my life, they were ready to move on from him
as soon as they possibly could. And this was even
last year. This was even leading up to the twenty
twenty five campaign when Kid Klemnick actually gave us some
good football to look over. Even then, after coming in
as a potential top five, certainly first round pick, even still,

(09:15):
all the Clemson fans in my life, they were ready
to move on from him as soon as possible. And
I get it when you start to look at all
the other quarterbacks that you just mentioned. Since twenty ten
when Taj Boy took over, Clemson has been extremely spoiled
at that position until DJ you starts. And now we've
seen a couple of lackluster quarterbacks during their time with

(09:36):
the Clemson Tigers, even if they've seen some ACC championship experiences.
Caid was supposed to be the guy that got Clemson
back on track in that position, and I don't think
he ever really did. Maybe you got back on track
last year to the point where you were able to
get to your destination to some degree, but man, it
wasn't the pinnacle of the mountain. It wasn't the destination

(09:57):
you get to the College Football playoff. Okay, at minimum,
that's what Clemson is hoping to do, especially in the
expanded field. But when you get there, are you supposed
to get destroyed in the first round? How much of
a success would you call last year having won the
ACC championship barely took a massive comeback to win that
game and then get destroyed in the first round of

(10:19):
the college football players.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
I thought, I think destroyed is there? So I thought
they were right there. They had an opportunity to win
that game. They just couldn't stop the run in the
College fotball playoff.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
From when they played Texas.

Speaker 3 (10:28):
Yeah, yeah, they would, They're cutting No, they cut that
to one score and then Texas broke that big run
that closed the game.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
But Clemson mounted a big comeback, fair enough.

Speaker 2 (10:39):
Remembers of the first round games last year.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
But still no, they mounted a big comeback that was
a one score game with Clinton having a chance to
stop them and get the ball back, but they give
up the big run that ultimately closed the game. And
that was the Achilles said because remember a was on
fire in the second half of that game.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
Oh he threw for he threw for over three hundred, that.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
Was the number one secondary in the country, and he
lit them up fair enough.

Speaker 4 (11:04):
It was twenty eight to ten going into halftime. It
was thirty one to seventeen going into the fourth. Perhaps
I'm doing a little more box score watching than actually
remembering it, but a.

Speaker 5 (11:17):
Game didn't feel as close as I think it got
to be.

Speaker 4 (11:20):
Honest, and even so, all right, yeah, maybe it's too strong.
I'll wear that. Would you consider it's consider it a
success to barely win the ACC championship and then get
beat in the college football playoff first round? I would
say probably not. And yet that's the most success that
we've seen from Kate Klebnick.

Speaker 3 (11:37):
Right yeah, and so so yeah, And just to clean
that up a little bit, it got to thirty one
twenty four on a TJ. Moore pass from Kay Klemnick.
It was thirty one twenty four and then Jayden Blue
broke the seventy seven yard that made it thirty eight
to twenty four.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
So what else? Say? Courses it got?

Speaker 3 (11:53):
It felt like it felt like a stepping stone, because
I will admit when I say that he never should
have been loyal to him. Had me drinking the kool
aid after that game. I look at that and I say,
all right, Clemson is gonna be ready to go next year.

Speaker 4 (12:05):
Yeah, another people don't feel like they got I don't
want to get lost on it, but I admit I
was wrong on that. It destroyed is way too strong.
I thought it was a bigger margin victory. I just
misremembered that, but fair enough do The question is do
you consider that a success given what we've seen from
Clemson before the Kid Clubnick era.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
To me, I would say probably not.

Speaker 4 (12:22):
You barely win the a SEC Championship, you still get
to the College Football Playoff, you get beat by Texas
and in the first round.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
But all these other qbs, which.

Speaker 4 (12:30):
You even got from Kelly Bryant, who was the worst
quarterback since twenty ten, but even he goes on a
double digit winning streak with a great team around him.
But even with Kelly Bryant, you had more success with
him as the signal caller compared to what you had
with Kid Clubnick. And so that's my point. It's Buddy
you're talking about the last fifteen years. It's DJU that
didn't accomplish a whole lot. And I would put kaiate

(12:50):
Clubnick despite playing there as long as anybody, despite getting
as many seasons as almost anybody. You still didn't accomplish
as much as some of these other qbs.

Speaker 3 (12:58):
Yeah, I'll close them by saying I felt that this
year marred last year. What I remember by that, I
said that I thought that, yes, they went through a low,
like a lot of programs do it. They took a
little bit of a dip, and then it felt like
when they went down and played Texas as close as
they did that it felt like, all right, this is
why they were Pre season two one, people were saying

(13:19):
national championship because they came down they fought at Texas,
and people saying they got all these guys coming back. Okay,
club nicknaw looks like he's ready to take the next step.
They're ready to go. And because this year was so
bad that it marred last year