The "Back on Top" Edition

Clemson tops South Carolina, restoring order in the Palmetto State. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Each time, or Clipson Sports Talk with Lawton Schwan.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Now finally Clemson Sports Talk has come back two.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
Drivetime. Hell everybody, Lawton Swan back in the saddle once again.
It is the show that Shakes the South Lan. Clempsones
Sports Talk for you each and every afternoon as you
make your way around the great state of South Carolina
and beyond, listening to us on incredible radio stations like
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(01:15):
the website. Put the dot com on a dog garnet.
That's Clemson Sports Talk dot com Ato three four five
oh zero zero eighty six. That is the text line
in the phone line. And again the Show that Shakes
the south Land brought to you in part by our
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two two six seven one o eight. That's Mets Plumbing

(01:38):
two two six seven one zero eight. All right out
of the gates the Tigers twenty eight South Carolina fourteen,
so you.

Speaker 4 (01:46):
Could continue to peek over the fence at the best radio.

Speaker 3 (01:49):
Showing the naked the late great Cleveland Man, the domination
in this rivalry continues. Clemson now up thirty games all
time in the series, seventy four, forty four and four.
Easy for everyone to remember, Clemson wins it twenty eight
to thirteen, a very competitive game in Williams. Brice Stadium.

(02:12):
Oddly though, it felt like Clemson dominated, Like I can't
even as I'm coming out of the game and I'm
trying to piece it all together. The fact that South
Carolina had the ball down just six at the five
yard line with under four minutes remaining, given the way
Clemson had played, was kind of bizarre. South Carolina really

(02:33):
only scored on two big plays, and those two big
plays came on back to back throws in the second quarter.
Clemson led at the at the half seventeen fourteen, and
they would get a late pick six from Ricardo Jones,

(02:54):
a short pick six, a memorable pick six in a
game ceiling from the Clemson Tigers. And in fairness, the
final stats probably don't do justice to how Clemson controlled
that game because South Carolina ended the game with a
fourteen play seventy four yard drive that they did not

(03:17):
score on, So that's part of the ballooned numbers. Almost
one hundred yards additional that South Carolina game, they outgained
the Tigers in total the yards. They outgained the Tigers
in passing yards. They did now gain the Tigers in
rushing yards. Clemson rush for a buck forty seven. Adam Randall,

(03:39):
the former running back, rushes for one hundred and two
yards and a touchdown on twenty four carries. Kay Klubnick
had a rushing touchdown in the game. That was something
club Nick dropped back to pass, the ball got knocked
out of his hands, bound up, bounced up, excuse me,
fortuitously right into his hands, and he rushed to the

(04:00):
in so wild play. But Clemson comes away with a
twenty eight fourteen victory over South Carolina. The Tigers had
twenty five first downs in the game. A time of
possession was probably the big story. I mean, there were
points in that game where Clempson had the ball twice
as long as South Carolina. Out of the sixty minutes

(04:22):
of the game, Clemson had the ball thirty eight nearly
thirty nine minutes to South Carolina's twenty one minutes. In
sixteen seconds, Leonora Sellers had two interceptions. Those were both big,
both made by the afore mentioned Ricardo Jones won in
the end zone. Gamecock fans would say, controversy, Like the
ball hit the ground. I might argue, Ricardo Jones had

(04:44):
his hand under the football, and in that scenario the
ball can move because the ball's not touching the ground,
the ball is touching his hand. You know, the reviews were, yeah,
one way or the other. You could probably judge it.
But all in all, outside of two b plays by
South Carolina that actually happened on back two back snaps

(05:05):
for the game Cocks, which is beyond bizarre. Outside of
those two plays, a fifty three yard touchdown where Nick
Harbor got behind the Clemson defense with eleven to fourteen
remaining in the second quarter, and then after a Clemson
scoring drive, South Carolina on the very first play has

(05:27):
a seventy four yard reception by Van Dravius Jacobs to
tie the game with five twenty nine left. And I
think that's what really hurts South Carolina those two scoring drives.
The Nick Harbor scoring drive was a three play seventy
five yard drive took a minute twenty three off the clock,
and then the other one was a one play seventy

(05:47):
four yard scoring drive and took thirteen seconds off the clock,
and I think that wore South Carolina's defense down. I mean,
Clemson had three scoring drives of eleven plays or more.
They went eleven plays eighty five yards, eating up five
minutes and twenty seconds for a touchdown to take a

(06:09):
fourteen to seven lead in the first excuse me, in
the second quarter in the first half, and then they
got a couple of field goals off of long sustained
drives twelve play sixty one yards. They got a thirty
two yard Dolan who's your field goal to make it
seventy to fourteen with just fifty six seconds left in
the first half. Then in the second half they got

(06:29):
a twelve play fifty six yard drive, they ate up
five thirty three off the clock to make it twenty
to fourteen after a forty two yard Dolan Who's your
field goal? And then, of course, as I mentioned, the
twelve yard interception returned by Ricardo Jones with three minutes
and twenty some odd seconds remaining in the game to
give Clemson a twenty eight fourteen lead after a two
point conversion attempt was made. And you know the thing

(06:54):
about the end of that game is Clemson converted on
a big third downsion that would have been a first
down similarly to a first down that they would have
gotten on the first drive of the game, and they
were flagged for illegal formation having too many guys lined
up in the backfield. And I'm pretty sure that it

(07:14):
ended up being Trusted Lee multiple times that that was
called on, just lining up too far off the line
of scrimmage as a tackle, trying to give himself an
extra split second or so to block South Carolina's edge rushers.
All in all, though, all in all, you know, if
you get rid of that play or have Trusted Smith

(07:37):
line up appropriately, Clemson gets a first down there and
they probably kick a field goal to go up nine,
and then the game's really not down to the moments
that we saw where South Carolina fans and faithful you know,
had some hope. They had some hope. And here's what
it sounded like all in South Carolina's radio call of

(08:00):
final play. And I listen, I like Tommy Suggs. I
know a lot of you do not like todd Ellis,
but Tommy Suggs has been sort of in your ear
as the game Cocks color man for most of your lives. Well.

(08:21):
With three twenty nine left South Carolina down by six.
Tommy Suggs did give us though one of the most
memorable calls of the day. Here's what it sounded like.

Speaker 5 (08:32):
And now we got ninety five yards to change the
absolute feeling of the season.

Speaker 4 (08:40):
You know, when I say, Todd is times like this
that heroes are made.

Speaker 3 (08:43):
Times like this that heroes are made. Here's what happened.

Speaker 5 (08:50):
Sellers, Harbor Jacob's in the ball game.

Speaker 6 (08:53):
Faisons have been.

Speaker 5 (08:54):
The backfield nick going curl route knocked up and has.

Speaker 6 (08:58):
Picked all Jones the free.

Speaker 5 (09:00):
Safety caught it out of the air. Oh, just like
you might think, something bad goes wrong in the fourth
quarter and Carolina's denied. On the very first play, the
Tigers with a pick six called Leonora Sellers and they

(09:22):
get their revenge from a year ago Memorial.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
Stadium twenty six to fourteen. That put the Tigers up
and then of course Clemson would capitalize with a two
point conversion. But in that moment, at times like this,
heroes are made. And for Clemson, if you're I think,
if you're being honest about it, Ricardo Jones kind of

(09:48):
became a hero in that moment because he was sort
of a goat on the big fifty three yard touchdown
pass to Nick Harbor. It was Ricardo Jones who was
out of position. You know, Harvor's gonna run. Harbor's gonna
run by guys. I mean, he raced right past Brandon Strozier,

(10:12):
like track guy. We've talked about his speed and in
that moment, in that moment, the safety has to be
over the top, and he wasn't, and that cost Clemson.
But then for Jones to get two interceptions in the game, man,

(10:37):
and time for Clemson to string up a guy like
Leonora's Sellers and keep him from getting loose. You can
think about the damage Sellers did a year ago on
the ground against Clemson, one hundred and sixty four yards rushing.
In this year just two, just two. He had one

(10:58):
long It was a thirteen yard and Clemson, because I
think their legs were fresh Way wood As was actually
able to make the play to get to him and
bring him down. And so the Tigers get the job done,
the job done there in Williams. Brice Stadium. Clemson wins

(11:19):
it and they moved to seven and five on the
regular season. They await their bold destination after the matchups
coming up this weekend and South Carolina finishes the twenty
twenty five campaign under Shane Beemer at just four and

(11:41):
eight four and eight for the South Carolina game Cocks
this year, and they were favored in this ball game
going in and Clemson played really, really well, and it
felt it was so bizarre, I said, out of the
gates here, like it felt like Clemson dominated that game,
yet South Carone had the ball with under four minutes

(12:01):
to go with a chance to win it. Just a weird,
a weird situation. Like I told some friends, I said,
you know, the thing about it was, there was never
a moment where I felt like Clemson was going to lose.
I never felt like Clempson was going to lose that game.
I felt like the Tigers were in control. And I

(12:22):
think for South Carolina fans, they probably felt fortunate to
not be down by more quite frankly, when they got
the ball back late in that game with a chance
to win it, and then it was on the very
first play, the very first play. Here's that same call
on the Clemson Sports Network.

Speaker 4 (12:41):
SNAPA sellers wants to throw looking those across the middle ball.

Speaker 7 (12:45):
Batting up in the air, Ricardo Jones the taking it
the Joe touchdown.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
Holy moly, Reggie Merriweather's Holy moly. How about that. Here's
a couple of other big plays from the ballgame. And
and you know, I didn't give the flowers. I didn't
give the flowers that I probably should to TJ. Parker
given the struggles that he had this season. But he

(13:14):
had three sacks in the ball game against South Carolina
after entering with just two and a half. Some people
have argued that he may have actually had four himself.
The Tigers had five in the game, getting after Leonora
Sellers for sure. But here are a couple of the
highlights from the game. Clemson got the scoring going with

(13:38):
Adam Randall with a ten yard rush. Here's what that
sounded like with Don Munson on the call, hands and
off Randal trying to pass it back side touch so
the touchdown. The Tigers would get their second rushing touchdown
of the day. On that play I mentioned earlier where
Kay Klubnick sort of bobbled the ball like he was
gonna pass it and got knocked out of his hands.

(14:00):
A little friendly bounce, a little scoop and score for
the senior quarterback pup Nick takes out for to take it,
try to throw. Of course, the rush come on it,
picks it back up, comes left side with it. Does
he have a speeding in.

Speaker 4 (14:14):
The inside cut the insole touchdown?

Speaker 3 (14:17):
Wow? Doug on to that picked it up, came left
side it out rather than defender.

Speaker 6 (14:23):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (14:24):
Then after the South Carolina game, Cocks tied the game
at fourteen a piece. It was a thirty four yard
field goal late in the first half. Let me see
how long was remaining in the first half when Hoosier
kicked that field goal just fifty six seconds remaining in
the first half of action to give Clemson a seventeen
to fourteen lead. From thirty four yards out. Casperson snaps

(14:46):
Sweety's hole and the kick by hooser is on its
way and it is good.

Speaker 4 (14:51):
So seventeen fourteen in favor of Clemson with fifty six
seconds to go second quarter.

Speaker 3 (14:57):
The Tigers would open up the scoring in the second half.
As usual, would get another opportunity, this time knocking through
a forty two yard field goal with eight to thirty
two left in the third quarter. Snap full kick on
its way.

Speaker 4 (15:11):
The kick is god.

Speaker 3 (15:15):
He didn't hit it very well, but it got just
enough of home to get it there. Forty two yard
field goal caps are twelve play fifty six yard drive,
and of course Clemson would get that one final touchdown
off the pick six that we played earlier from Jones
to give Clemson a twenty six twenty excuse me, a

(15:39):
twenty six fourteen lead. The Tigers will get a two
point conversion to make it twenty eight to fourteen. And
I mentioned Parker. He got a sack late in the
game with just twenty eight seconds remaining. Here's what that
sounded like. This is Don Munson on the call. Here's
Sellers to throw over.

Speaker 4 (15:58):
Cam sacked again, Yorker got him again, joined by Woods.

Speaker 5 (16:03):
They sacond back at the forty nineteen eighteen seventeen seconds.

Speaker 3 (16:08):
And the clock would run out there on South Carolina
season and on a Clemson victory in Williams. Brice Stadium.
But again in the world of college football, the storyline
that was just totally bizarre over the weekend is the
one that started to take place out in Oxford, Mississippi,
several weeks ago and is now concluded with the news

(16:31):
that Lane Kiffin is going to be the new head
coach at LSU. And there's a lot of pieces, Okay,
a lot of pieces to this. First and foremost, I
tweeted this on Sunday. You know, Lane Kiffin, part of
the problem I have with him leaving Old Miss is
that he could have been like Dabosweeney or Kirby Smart

(16:52):
and essentially locked in at Old Miss. They weren't. They
were gonna fire him. He's got them going to the
College Football Playoff allegedly. We'll see what happens with that.
I understand what they did on the field probably deserves
the right to be there. But with some of the
things that took place behind the scenes, we'll get to
that in a minute. I don't know. But you know,

(17:14):
he's gonna be hated in Oxford, just like he's hated
at Southern Cal, just like he's hated at Tennessee. And
he'll likely be the next head coach that's fired at LSU.
And so the thing that is crazy about the whole situation,
first off, is how it kept getting pushed back. Like, Okay,

(17:36):
they played on Friday, the Egg Bowl, they beat Mississippi State.
Everybody expected an announcement to come on Saturday, and then
we waited the announcement, and then it turned out that well,
there was a meeting, and they were gonna have a
meeting the next day, and they're gonna have a meeting
on Sunday, and then that meeting, Oh, things are gonna
come out at nine. Oh, it is gonna come out
at two. And then it just it just completely got

(17:59):
pushed around. But Lane Kiffen, according to reports, basically told
his offensive staff at LSU either join me now at
LSU or you won't have a spot on the staff.
You're on the plane to Baton Rouge today, or you
will not be a part of the staff. And so

(18:21):
essentially most of the offensive staff at Old Miss is left.
And I don't know what that means for the players
at Old Miss and what their futures will hold. Some
of them will likely go to LSU, and that's fine.
But if the College footballlayoff committee left Florida State out
of a four team playoff because they lost their quarterback,
you could leave Ole Miss out of a twelve team

(18:43):
playoff because they lost their entire coaching staff on the
offensive side of the ball and their head coach. I mean,
I don't have a problem with them being left out
after this, And I know it's not the player's fault
that the coach left, but to me, that would be
the old time way to stick it to Lane Kiffin

(19:03):
because he would have joy in ole Miss having success,
and you could stick it to him by keeping them out.
And so the head coach and the offensive staff leaving LSU,
excuse me leaving four LSU, and ole Miss is promoting

(19:24):
defensive coordinator Pete Golding as their new permanent head coach.
So Kiffin out Golding in. What does the future look like,
not only in Oxford but also in Baton Rouge. It
will be interesting to see better rivals for sure from

(19:45):
this point forward. I can guarantee you that, all right,
quick break, we'll come back. We'll hear some of what
Dabo Sweeny had to say after the tigers twenty eight
fourteen victory over Florida State on Saturday in WILLIAMS. Brice Stadium.
Long and Swine back with you, Clems and takes down
South Carolina convincingly twenty eight to fourteen on Saturday. Maybe
should have been thirty five. You know, Adam Randall had

(20:06):
a big run late that was called back for a hold.
I don't know if it was a hold or not.
I haven't gone back to try to watch it, but
you know, you could probably call holding on any play,
so that means you could probably not call holding on
any play as well, because holding is not called all
that often, so if it's not called. There, Man, this
is thirty five fourteen given the big touchdown run that

(20:30):
was taking up the board for Adam Randall. But here's
Dabo Sweeney and his postgame conversation with the media.

Speaker 6 (20:37):
Man, just that was Clemson football. That was fun, a
lot of fun.

Speaker 7 (20:41):
Really happy for our fans, we all know how much
this one means. And really happy for our team, especially
our seniors, to be able to say they are undefeated
down here. So just happy for those guys. You know,
these guys have had great preparation. That's that's four road

(21:03):
wins in a row. That's four overall wins in a row.
That's six in a row down here, which this is
not an easy place to come play six in a
row down here, and.

Speaker 6 (21:13):
It's our seventh there it is Chapel, there's six seven.

Speaker 7 (21:17):
So maybe there's something to that. I don't know, but man,
it was a lot of fun. I love just the
effort of our guys, the belief of our guys, and
you know, hey, now we've put ourselves in position to,
you know, get to the postseason and maybe try to
get an eighth win. And you know, that's not what
we set out to do. But there's only two other

(21:41):
teams that have had eight wins fifteen years in a row,
and that's Alabama and Georgia. So that's quite a turnaround.
In fact, this is the greatest turnaround team in Clemson history.
There's thirty teams that started one in three or worse,
only four. We were only the fourth to get to
sixth Nobody got the seven. So that wasn't what we
set out for our story to be. That's our story,

(22:01):
and that's what life's all about. It's you know, when
good things happen to you, how do you respond? And
when bad things happen to you, how do you respond?

Speaker 6 (22:08):
And man, you saw a.

Speaker 7 (22:10):
Group of young people that have responded to a lot
of adversity, a lot of disappointment, a lot of negativity,
a lot of that stuff. They've stayed together, they've continued
to believe and uh, again it's a good football team.
I mean they should have beat Alabama. I mean, they
should have won that game, and there are two or
three plays away from winning a couple.

Speaker 6 (22:30):
More games, and just you know, one of them years
didn't quite go their way.

Speaker 7 (22:35):
But that's a really dangerous football team that we just beat.
And again, I got a ton of respect for Shane
and how he does things here, and this is you know,
my heart hurts for him and Emily and his family
because I know what it feels like to be on
the other side of it, and this is a tough,
tough game to come out on the short side of it.
But I'm proud of our guys, and I know everybody

(22:56):
likes to give me math lessons around here.

Speaker 6 (22:57):
That's nine out of eleven. That's nine out of eleven.
Y'all was already for the three out of four. Y'all
couldn't wait.

Speaker 7 (23:03):
Y'all already had the articles written, and let me just help.
That's nine out of eleven. And that's six in a
row down here.

Speaker 3 (23:10):
So Sweeny says, that's six in a row down here,
dating back to Clemson's victory in Williams Bryce Stadium back
in twenty fifteen. But to put that all into perspective,
you know, I'm not quite fifty, but in my life,
I was looking back at it. In my life, South

(23:31):
Carolina has only won six games in Williams Bryce Stadium
against Clemson, And so that means that a kid who
is ten years old today has seen six Clemson victories
in Williams Bryce Stadium, and a kid who is basically

(23:56):
fifty or individual, if you don't want to consider yourself
a kid, but somebody that is nearly fifty has only
seen six South Carolina wins against Clemson and Williams Brice Stadium.
Looking back at it, the game Cox last week Clemson
at home in twenty thirteen. They also won in twenty eleven,

(24:17):
in two thousand and nine, so half of those came
during that five game winning streak that Steve Spurrier led
South Carolina's program through in two thousand and one. Maybe fittingly,
South Carolina won at home against Clemson twenty to fifteen.
The game Cox won against Clemson in Williams Brice Stadium

(24:37):
in nineteen eighty seven, that was a twenty to seven victory.
That was the one we talked about the other day,
that Brad Edwards interception. And then you go back to
nineteen seventy nine, which was a thirteen to nine South
Carolina victory for that sixth win. So for South Carolina
fans to have seen six victories against Clemson in your

(25:01):
life from today's day, you have to go back all
the way to nineteen seventy nine. And for a Clemson
fan to have witnessed six wins in Columbia against South Carolina,
you merely have to go back to two thousand and fifteen.
That's insanity. It doesn't even seem possible. But that's the facts.

(25:29):
Going back to Dabo Sweeney real quick, here's his Here
are his comments all on Clemson's offense in this ball game.

Speaker 6 (25:39):
We were very efficient.

Speaker 7 (25:41):
It's a real shame that Adam didn't get credit for
that last run.

Speaker 6 (25:44):
And what a run.

Speaker 7 (25:46):
It's still on tape, I know, you know that is
still on tape for the guys that evaluating and scouting him.

Speaker 6 (25:51):
But what a great day. Overall. We were very.

Speaker 7 (25:56):
Efficient and the biggest thing offensively was when we gave
up the horrible plays in the first half, they responded
and it was great to see that we scored first,
we had the lead at half.

Speaker 6 (26:07):
We responded to some adversity, uh, you know, on the road.

Speaker 7 (26:11):
To kind of get back on top coming in here
at half, and I'm really proud of that. We were
making a very concerted effort to get the guys, the
playmakers of the ball, and man, they came through. Fors
Kde you know, had a heck of a game and
missed a couple that we had a chance to score
a couple of touchdowns and we didn't quite execute. Uh,
but he made some big time plays. Adam Randalls one

(26:34):
hundred and two yards a touchdown, TJ Moore six for
one oh one, uh Antonio seven for sixty six. I
thought Cole Turner all three of his catches were elite
to catches and Benton Korr had a career high sap
had a big catch. I think we only had one
sack for one yard against one of the best fronts

(26:56):
that we've seen all year. So I'm just really us
to be able to protect and run the ball efficiently
was a big difference in the game for us.

Speaker 3 (27:04):
So there you go. That's just a little bit from
Dabos Swingyon. We'll come back. We'll hear a little bit
more from him. He talked about Special Team's band tip
of the cap to Jack Smith that dude was an
afterthought going into the season and turned out to be
just an elite punter for Clemson this season. Not that
you want to have an elite punter, right, you'd prefer
your punter never punt, But man, the job that he

(27:25):
did simply phenomenal. All right, Well, a quick break, we'll
come back with more here. Celebrating Clempson's twenty eight fourteen
victory over South Carolina. Stay with us. Lawton Swan Clempson's
sports talk on a Monday Dabos Swingy again. Meeting with
the media after Clempson's twenty eight fourteen victory over South Carolina.
He talked about Clempson's special teams and the impact that
those guys have, and we don't give a ton of stats, etc.

(27:48):
On the special teams. Obviously, I mentioned Nolan Hoosier and
his field goals in the ball game, and yes, no
doubt that's a positive. But special teams play from Clemson,
and it comes down to the job that Jack Smith did,
not just in this game, but throughout the season where
people were concerned about that position. He punted the ball

(28:09):
six times in the game, averaged nearly forty one yards
per punt, and put four of those six punts inside
the twenty yard line, he also had one that he
missed so poorly. He might even say shanked it, but
I would say not because he purposely shanked it, but
I would say because there was pressure up the middle
and he ended up getting a roughing the kicker call

(28:32):
that was a big first down, or roughing the punter
call that was a big first down for the Tigers.
But yeah, man, Jack Smith, tip of the cap, sir,
here's Dabos Winy talking about special team's impact.

Speaker 6 (28:42):
Couple of field goals. Jack was four of six inside
the twenty.

Speaker 7 (28:48):
And we were number one in the nation coming into
this in punt coverage and they were number four in
punt return yards and they finished negative three. So I
just can't say enough for Coach Gilly and our staff
special teams and the job that all of our guys
have done to buy into to that.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
Dabos Sweeney also gave major props to the Clemson defense,
especially given the fact of everybody knew coming in what
what Leonora Sellers had done against Clemson a year ago, and.

Speaker 7 (29:21):
Then defensively, to me, that's the story of the game.
Story of the game was defense in the second half.
I mean, they only had nineteen plays at the half,
and you felt like we're losing by three touchdowns. I mean,
it was just two of the worst plays that I've
ever seen. But man, they responded four takeaways, We got
a score on d Ricardo with two picks, avion.

Speaker 6 (29:43):
Calls to fumbling up. My favorite part of that was TJ.

Speaker 7 (29:45):
Parker was hustling to the ball and came up with
it downfield and then roaming with a big calls fumble
and Sammy coming up with it. We had I think
five sacks. I think TJ. Parker tied a South Carolina
Clemson record with three sacks, helped, had a couple big plays,
just a lot of great things. Only forty one yards Russian.

(30:07):
So y'all all know the story of the game last year.
We've read all about it for a year. But I
think the stat of the game was Colin Sadler had
the same amount of receiving yards at Sellers had Russian two.
All right, so listen, man, that is unbelievable effort by

(30:28):
our defense, because, let me tell you, Sellers, that's one
of the best players in the country. That guy is special.
He is a great football players. A great kid, he's
a great player.

Speaker 6 (30:40):
And to hold that guy to two yards Russian unbelievable.
I mean unbelievable.

Speaker 7 (30:44):
And I just can't say enough about Coach Allen and
our defensive staff and the plan that they put together.
We did everything that we needed to do. We needed
to not let them get a run game going. You know,
we did everything except let eight get behind us one
time on cover three and then we had.

Speaker 6 (30:59):
Some crazy play over on the sideline. But I'm just.

Speaker 7 (31:02):
Really proud of the guys. It was awesome and again
happy for our fans. I got to meet a young
young man named Tron before the game, and man, hopefully
he's he's smiling.

Speaker 6 (31:14):
I know he's.

Speaker 7 (31:16):
I think he's he's maybe hospice right now. And I
got a chance to meet his mom and dad and
his sisters, and he was in a wheelchair when I
came in here for the game, and man bundled up
in a blanket, and I just, man, it just blessed
me to be able to to see him. And so
just want to give a shout out to Tron and

(31:38):
tell him go Tigers. And I hope he I hope
he was able to have a smile. On his face today.

Speaker 3 (31:45):
Here's Dabo Swiney when he was asked about k Clubnick's
wild fumble touchdown scoop touch you know play. I don't
even know what to call it.

Speaker 7 (31:53):
Yeah, we had a little boot and it wasn't there,
and I guess somebody hit the ball or whatever, and
I just was like, uh, you know, we had that
bad situation at Louisville, you know where we came away,
but you know, we hadn't had many breaks. That's what
I said was we were due for one and I'll
just chalk that up to one. And we had, you know,
especially with the was it the second drive where we

(32:14):
had I mean we got Antonio like, there's nobody within,
there's the closest person is in the fifth row of
the stands, and.

Speaker 6 (32:22):
We threw it to the fifth row person in the stands.

Speaker 7 (32:25):
And then we come right back and we got Adam
Randall wide open and we underthrow it and get an interception.
So to me, that kind of evened it out. We
got a break, But that's football.

Speaker 3 (32:38):
Dabo Sweeny was also asked about why he's still bullish
about Clemson in this program.

Speaker 7 (32:44):
I mean, we are going to chief great We're gonna
win more championships. And why why I can say that
is because we've done it over and over and over again.
I mean I think sometimes again we we just just
throw things out. We just because we've done so much.
I mean, we've been to seven playoffs in ten years.
We've been you know, all of a sudden, we think
it's just easy to do.

Speaker 6 (33:02):
It's not. It's not easy to do. They're only twelve teams,
there's one hundred and thirty five.

Speaker 7 (33:06):
I mean, but we'll win another national championship, We'll win
more conference championships, We'll win more big games, and guess what,
we're gonna lose some too. We just are I mean,
it's football. I don't know that there'll be anybody undefeated
this year, and you know, we we It's just always
a part of your journey. And you know, the main
thing is is do you have a program, do you

(33:26):
have a culture? You know, some years things can hit
just right, and some years you can have some craziness and.

Speaker 6 (33:33):
Maybe maybe somebody doesn't play as good as you wanted to. Whatever.

Speaker 7 (33:36):
There's a lot of things that go into football. But
what you saw this year with this team is unique.
It's uncommon. It's special. I mean, it really is. It's
a it's a very they won four in a row
on the road, and you know we didn't have the
overall record and season. But again, you ain't that far.

(33:57):
It ain't like we're you know in every seventy five
ain't same.

Speaker 6 (34:01):
You know, we're we're about.

Speaker 7 (34:02):
Three plays away from this is a different story in
different press conference right now. But that's that's football. That's
that's our reality. And we've had plenty of We've had
so much good fortune. We've had so much favor over
the years. But you just got to do the work.
And for me, I saw all I focus on. I
don't I don't really focus on all the other stuff.
I don't focus on stuff I don't control. Uh, there's

(34:24):
a lot of great lessons from this season for all
these guys, especially that'll be back. I mean, I love
the game and I love the player, and that's what
I that's what I focus on. I mean, I love
to compete and I love to develop these these players
into great men through this game.

Speaker 6 (34:40):
And that's what I'm passionate about.

Speaker 7 (34:42):
And to see a group of guys because when you're
at a place like.

Speaker 6 (34:45):
Clemson that's won so much.

Speaker 7 (34:47):
There's so much noise, especially when expectations are high and
and you know you have a couple of crazy situations,
so much negativity, just really toxic stuff like nasty.

Speaker 3 (34:59):
But they just that's not normal Dabo Sweeney their final
segment of Hour one coming up. William qualkin Bush joined
us an hour too. Keep it locked, Clemson Sports, Taltlaw
and swam with you on the Monday afternoon. All right,
just got a text message from William qualkin Bush. He's
actually in the air, flying back from the Bahamas as
the Clemson women's basketball team was down there for a

(35:19):
few days. So uh, while we're enjoying the cool air
here leaving the warm air of the Bahamas, but I
did text Jason Priester from the Clemson Insider and good news.
JP will be joining us in William Qualkinbush's stead. All right,

(35:43):
next time you're up at Tigertown, let me remind you
about our friends in Alumni Hall right there on the
corner of campus on College Avenue in downtown Clemson. It's
Alumni Hall for all your officially licensed Clemson apparel. That's hats,
t shirts, Telgate, Garen Moore. Go check him out today
or online at Alumni Hall dot com where Hey, maybe

(36:03):
you're playing in the ACC Championship like Virginia and Tony
Elliott congratulations, and you're a Cavalier fan. You could click
on that Cavalier button and go to the Alumni Hall
for the Virginia Cavaliers. But maybe you're moving on to
basketball season and you just want to dive into all
of the holiday gifts, etc. That they've got over on

(36:26):
Alumni Hall. You could do that too. Check out this
Clemson Nike Utility team beanie man. Listen, if you're a
guy like me, then you don't. You don't wear much
hair up top on purpose, not because the Good Lord
makeshif some of you, you know, the Good Lord makes you.
Others of us, we choose it and I've chosen it.

(36:49):
And anytime you go outside with this type of haircut,
you gotta cover up the you gotta cover up your melon.
Go check out that beanie man. That's a sweet Clemson
beanie that got that in store, in online in Alumni Hall.
It's Alumni Hall where Tiger fans shop. All right, speaking

(37:10):
of Tony Elliott and the Cavaliers, we do have our
college football postseason matchups. The college football conference championship games looming,
and because Cal beat SMU this weekend, shockingly, that set

(37:32):
up a tiebreaker in the Atlantic Coast Conference featuring a
six and two SMU team, a six and two Miami team,
a six and two PIT team, a six and two
Georgia Tech team, and a six and two Duke team.
Now of those teams, Miami is ten and two overall,

(37:55):
but because of the nature of the tiebreaker, it went
down to the winning percentage of your opponents in conference play.
And because of that fact, the Duke Blue Devils are
going to the ACC Championship and they are a seven

(38:17):
and five football team, seven to five, and remember how
they beat Clemson. They went for two and like forty
seconds left in that ballgame to win it. This is
a duke team that lost thirty four to twenty seven
to two Lane. This is a duke team that lost
thirty seven, thirty forty yukon. They also lost to Illinois,

(38:41):
Virginia and Georgia Tech for their five losses. A chaotic
scenario in the Atlantic Coast Conference setting up Duke in Virginia,
There's gonna be a chess match before the game apparently
at midfield winner takes So I'm kidding, I'm kidding, do

(39:02):
him Virginia, And I couldn't feel better for Tony Elliott
won an opportunity for him. And how about the fact
that Manny Diaz. Manny Diaz got Duke because of this tiebreaker,
got Duke to the a SEC Championship game sooner than
the guy who replaced him, Mario Christobal has gotten Miami

(39:24):
to the a SEC Championship game. So just a weird,
weird scenario. And for example, some things that have come
out about this, if Florida State would have won two
more ACC games, Miami would have made the ACC Championship
game instead of Duke. And people are saying, Norvelle out

(39:47):
here playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers. No,
and that's not like, that's not like the only you know,
the only oddity of the whole thing. Get this. You
go back to that loss for Clemson in that matchup
against Duke. Remember there was a penalty at the end

(40:11):
of that game that was very questionable, a very questionable
pass interference call that went Duke's way, which led them
to the game winning touchdown in two point conversion, and
if that doesn't happen, if the ACC gets that call

(40:32):
right when people thought that call doesn't matter, that's the
difference right now in Duke being in the ACC Championship.
And I think it would have been Miami in the
other scenarios. But still all the other teams that could
have potentially been in are ranked, all the other teams

(40:54):
are ranked, but instead you've got a Duke team with
an o RAL record that is the same as Clemsons
at seven and five in the ACC Championship. And for Clemson,
you want to talk about another frustrating part of this season.
Forget that close loss or the walk off winner against

(41:18):
Georgia Tech. Think about the fact that you got beat
the way you got beat by Syracuse, and if that
game is reversed, all of a sudden, you would have
been in the mix to be in this group. You
would have been five and three in the league. And
again you had to get to six to two. But

(41:38):
that means only one more game has to go your way,
only one. You know, Georgia Tech miss a field goal
at the end, Duke not convert. Of all the losses
Clemson has this season, the loss to Syracuse is the
one that is still unexplainable, not just losing, but the

(42:00):
way they lost. But the Tigers currently have the longest
winning streak in the Atlantic Coast Conference, tied with Miami,
winning four consecutive games, and the Tigers will now turn
their attention to postseason play as in a little under
a week the Bowl matchups will be announced. Well, hit
a quick break, we'll come out with Jason Priester right
after this.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
Each time for Clipson Sports Talk with Luwton Schwan.

Speaker 3 (43:03):
It is our number two. That's drivetime right here on
the show The Shakespeare south Land Clemson Sports tal On
Swan ain't out with you Welling Qualkinbush not available to date,
but in his stead we are joined by none other
than Jason Priester from the Clemson Insider. Make sure you
follow him on Twitter at JP Underscore Priester And again

(43:24):
the show that Shakespeare south Land brought you in part
by our good friends over at METS Plumbing mets plumbing
dot com. Two two six seven one oh eight. That's
Mets Plumbing two two six seven one zero eight. All
right out of the gates our two R good buddy
Jason Priester joins us JP. What's going on? Man? All

(43:45):
is right in the world. I guess you would say,
is Clemson knocks off South Carolina twenty eight fourteen on Saturday.
What was your biggest takeaway from the game.

Speaker 4 (43:56):
I'll tell you, man, I was just overly impressed with
the f from the guys on the defensive side of
the ball. I mean, they made it a point to
ensure that Leonora Sellers was not going to single handedly
beat them again this year. When they got hands on him,
they brought him down. He was not able to run
the ball, He was harassed in the pocket all afternoon.

(44:19):
I mean, it was just a thorough kind of domination
on that side of the ball. Outside of the two,
you know, the two big passing plays they got that
accounted for both of their touchdowns, I mean, it was
a pretty impressive performance by Tom Allen Jennett. That was
the biggest thing that stuck out to me.

Speaker 3 (44:37):
Isn't it funny how the final stats looked though by
comparison to how you felt about it. And certainly South
Carolina ended on a huge what seventy four yard drive
I think, which kind of tacked onto their numbers. But
Kyle Lee, when you just walked out of the stadium.
You just felt like Clemson had dominated that game. But

(44:59):
yet statistically, South Carolina put up huge numbers and quite frankly,
they had the ball in ninety five yards from winning
it before the fatal turnover by the North. Sellers.

Speaker 4 (45:11):
Yeah, particularly when you got the halftime. I remember looking
at the numbers at halftime and they were so one sided.
Yet the score was only seventeen to fourteen. You know,
you just look at the numbers if you're like, man,
Clympch is running away with this thing. But because of
the two big plays, you know it was still in doubt.
You know, that final drive they had there in garbage

(45:33):
time really skewed some of the numbers. But the time
of possession was one of the ones that really stuck
out to me. Clemson just dominated that aspect. The rushing
yards was another one. They just weren't able to run
the ball at all. Faison did nothing, Sellers did nothing.
I mean, I thought the defense just thoroughly controlled things. Again,
outside of those two plays, you had the one where

(45:55):
they let Harbor get behind them and then the crazy
one with Lucas and I forget who the other dB
was there.

Speaker 6 (46:02):
Maybe Strojer for where they just.

Speaker 4 (46:06):
I think each one thought the other one had him
and let him go. I mean, it was just weird.
I'm not surprised we didn't see Lucas again after that.
But you know, outside of those two plays, man, the
defense that that's the kind of defense I think most
people were expecting when Tom Allen was hired. It's taken
a little while to get everything in place, and there's
probably still more work to be done. I still think

(46:28):
we're probably gonna see some some you know, changes to
the staff and those kind of things. But man, it
was good. It was a good way to end the
regular season, and like you said a few minutes ago,
you kind of restored some order when it comes to
the rivalry, especially with the way you lost last year's
game in the final minute and then the pick there
in the waiting seconds.

Speaker 3 (46:50):
Jason Priester hanging out with us here on a Monday
following Clymches twenty eight fourteen victory over South Carolina and Jason,
I've asked a couple of people this. I don't recall
if I've asked you specifically, but I will do it now.
I look at Adam Randall twenty four carries one hundred
and two yards had about a fifty summit yarder called
back or so because of a holding penalty. I don't

(47:11):
know if it was or wasn't, but that's neither here
nor there. What bugs me about Adam Randall is this,
could you imagine how good he would have been if
they would have recognized that he's a better running back,
say two or three years ago, what he could be
right now.

Speaker 4 (47:29):
I actually wrote that in a story, you know, one
of my stories over the weekend. You know how good
it would you know, how neat it would have been
to see him make that move a year earlier. I mean,
it's easier to say that in hindsight now, but man,
I think they really found something with him there in
his final year. I know a lot of people didn't
like the idea of moving a wide receiver to running back,

(47:51):
but you look at what SMU did it with a
lot of success during the twenty four seasons. I mean,
it's not like it's unheard of. And you know, I
think he to his legacy at Clemson tremendously with what
he was able to do this year, particularly particularly in
the weeks where he was really given an opportunity to
show what he could do, and they did that Saturday.

(48:11):
If you tell me going into Adam Randal's gonna get
twenty four carries. I like Clemson's chances. You know, we
just haven't seen that from week to week on a
consistent level. I thought he was able to make something
out of nothing a few times. You know, he's probably
put himself in position to play on Sundays with what
he's accomplished this show, or at least have a shot

(48:32):
at playing on Sundays with what he's accomplished this year.
I mean, I think he's been one of the better
stories of the season.

Speaker 3 (48:38):
I think he'll get drafted, for sure. They'll probably be
somewhere in one of the late rounds. But I think
somebody will take a flyer on him because of his versatility,
with the fact that he's a former wide receiver. The
NFL loves a good third down back, and quite frankly,
he's proven he can run between the tackles. So I mean,
I like what Adam Randalls brought to the table. Again,
twenty four carries one hundred and two yards in a

(49:00):
touchdown probably should have been two in that ball game,
and then there's the legacy of K Club. Nick and
Dabo Swinge was asked, I think Wednesday after practice about this,
and certainly I think fans thought about it before the game,
what a win in this game would mean for K
Clubnick never threw a touchdown against South Carolina, and on
a play where he had an opportunity to throw one,
he gets the ball, knock, lose scoop scores. I mean,

(49:22):
just that was kind of the summation of his career
in one play. What were your thoughts on Cade's play
and now maybe his legacy for Clemson fans, given the
fact that he got this victory down in Williams Price Stadium.

Speaker 4 (49:38):
Yeah, he kind of had multiple opportunities to throw for
touchdowns in that thing. You know, you shot anton Antonio
on one. I mean, I'll give him a little bit
of a pass there. He had some pressure in his face,
throws it off his back, good boy. Very next play,
he's got Adam Randa wide open to He's got his
man beat by two steps and he underthrows and it's

(49:58):
picked off. I mean, I mean, you're sitting there watching
that thing on funding You're like, oh no, here we
go again.

Speaker 6 (50:03):
But I thought he.

Speaker 4 (50:04):
Really settled in. I thought he settled in nicely after that.
I mean, he made some big time throws in that game,
and he was under pressure for a lot of the day.
I mean it's not like he had a clean pocket
to operate in all afternoon, and he made some big
tun throws on But yeah, I think he did do
a lot for his legacy. I mean, he's not going

(50:25):
to be the guy remembered for leading Clemson back to
national prominence. I think probably, you know, coming out of
high school, most people probably envisioned him having a little
more success than he actually did. But man, there's only
so many quarterbacks that have gotten multiple wins at Clemson
as a starting quarterback against South Carolina and now he's won.

(50:46):
You know, when you go to and one against those
guys as a starter as opposed to one and two,
it absolutely puts your legacy in a much much different
light than it would have if you go out with
a losing record against those guys.

Speaker 3 (50:58):
Yeah, no question about. And I think for Clemson too,
and not necessarily. I'm not a big like sec acc
you know, the kind of guy like some shows might be.
But you know, I think for Clemson, they bared a
lot of weight of what their record meant based off
of the results in this game, Meaning if they got
beat by a four and seven South Carolina team, it

(51:21):
was really gonna deflate what their season you know, maybe
was and some of the close losses that you know,
Dabo Swing you talked about after the game. He said, Hey,
if a couple of things happened the other way, you know,
this is a whole different conversation we're having today. And
he's right, Like the Duke two point conversion coming after
a what people might label a controversial flag Georgia Tech

(51:44):
with a walk off field goal. I mean, there's several
games in there that might have could have gone Clemson's way,
And I really think if this one goes South Carolina
this way, given how bad their season had been, I mean,
it was really gonna, I guess, set back the feeling
and the vibe for Clemson fans on what this season
was for them.

Speaker 4 (52:05):
Oh, no doubt about it. I Mean, you go into
the offseason, no matter what happens in whatever bowl game
you play in, you know, losing to South Carolina, you
go into the offseason with a whole different vibe. It
would have extended that losing streak against the SEC teams.
I forget what it was. Coming into that game four
or five or whatever it was, you finally get that

(52:25):
thing snap. But that was not I mean, I had
been telling people for two weeks that, you know that,
I had people telling me how South Carolina was so
much better than Clemson, and I kept saying, look, I
don't know that Clymtpson is gonna win. As matter of fact,
I'll be the first say I predicted them to lose.
But I didn't think there was anything about that South
Carolina team that should scare anybody. If you looked at

(52:46):
their offensive numbers, they were putrid. Only four teams had
given up more sacks all season long. Their rushing numbers
weren't very good, passing numbers weren't very good, and there
was just nothing scary about them, you know. But yeah,
a lost of those guys, particularly after you're on a
winning street, you know, after you start out one and

(53:07):
three and then three and five and you bounce back
to kind of you know, get things headed back in
the right direction, it would have absolutely ended a regular
season on a very sour note, and it would have
put a whole different twist on the off season again.

Speaker 3 (53:19):
He's on Twitter at JP Underscore Priester Jason Priester from
The Clips and the Insider hanging out with us today.
You know, I asked Daboswingy about the offensive line, you know,
the issues that those guys have dealt with in terms
of injuries, and I thought they held up and did
a really good job at times controlling the line of
scrimmage where you know, I'm not saying that there were

(53:40):
gaping holes to run through, but there were multiple plays,
consecutive plays where it was like Clipses got five yards,
seven yards, four yards, And I'm like, man's that's incredible
kind of given the way they've looked one and number
two sort of the pieces that they had holding that
thing together. Man, it was like held together with like

(54:01):
bubblegum and rubber bands.

Speaker 4 (54:04):
Yeah, they have experienced, you know, some key losses there,
Braden Jacobs, Walker parts, Elijah Thurman. I mean, they have
just been beat up up front, and I thought they
got better as the game went along. It was almost
like they were kind of taking the steam out of
South Carolina. The deeper you got into the game that

(54:25):
the better they were able to kind of control the
line of scrimmage. But yeah, it was not. It was
a much better performance than I was anticipating going in.
You know, some of those guys on the interior. I
had some struggles against the better defensive fronts they played
this year, and I thought they held up extremely well
all things considered.

Speaker 3 (54:45):
Again, follow Jason on Twitter at JP Underscore Priest. All right,
Jason and I will come back to Clemson in South Carolina,
and obviously some thoughts on where you think Clemson might
go in terms of the bowl game. But I do
want to ask you out the ACC Championship first and foremost,
Virginia and Duke. I joked earlier, there's gonna be a

(55:05):
chess match at midfield before the game to kind of
kick things off first, know who gets the possessions? But
what do you make of it? And the fact that
Duke at seven and five because of the six and
two tiebreaker mix it in the ACC Championship game. What
a weird year?

Speaker 4 (55:23):
Uh? Yeah, it kind of reminds you of some of
those seasons back when you had divisions of how the
coastal would play out and all the wackiness you would
see on that side of the of the league. But man,
I'll tell you what, I think the ACC's got to
revisit these tie breakers. I mean, you're with the way
these things are now and you're seeing it with Duke
or do let's just say Duke making it in. If

(55:45):
Duke wins that game, you're very likely not getting a
single team in the playoffs. You know, maybe you got
to rework how you do those tie breakers and maybe
let the highest ranked team in or something like that
to at least ensure yourself better possibility because you don't
want to get left out. That's a lot of money
you're leaving on the table there. But you know, it's

(56:07):
good to see, you know, Tony Elliott and have some
success at Virginia, particularly with the way his tenures started
with some of the off field tragedy they had there. Man,
he has done a heck of a job. I don't
know anybody that's going to be pulling against that guy
this weekend.

Speaker 8 (56:23):
No.

Speaker 3 (56:23):
I actually wondered if there would be Clemson people that
we're gonna buy tickets and go to that game and
support Virginia, Like legitimately, I wondered that fact. I can't
imagine tickets are going to be like through the roof.
I just can't imagine it.

Speaker 4 (56:40):
No, I don't think they will either. If you if
you're looking for something to do Saturday, I imagine that
would be a very very cheap outing for you and
your family.

Speaker 3 (56:50):
Jason Priester with his Herald the show. All right, let's
talk about recruiting a little bit. Obviously the early signing
period coming up, but maybe the big your issue at
this point forget about guys and who's signing, Jason, the
calendar and that's come to the forefront with the situation
with Lane Kiffin and old miss and we can dive

(57:12):
into that if you want. But I mean, does college
football need to fix this calendar? I know they've tried
a little bit, but there are a lot of people
out there now that are kind of for just going
back to the original way it was with a February
signing period, to push this thing back and don't get
guys on campus and just make that kind of universal
across the board. I mean, as a guy that covers

(57:33):
recruiting the way you do, what do you think is
best for the sport?

Speaker 4 (57:38):
Yeah, I mean that that's certainly an idea. You know,
the early signing day. It was a great idea and
its inception, you know, before the portal and nil and
all that stuff. But but those things have literally changed everything.
The expanded playoff has changed everything. Maybe if you go

(57:58):
back to the one signing day in February, you can
avoid some of this stuff. I don't think it. I
certainly don't think it prevents everything. If you do want
to have an early signing day, maybe do it the
way that bosween he's kind of been pining for for
a couple of years. Now, do it, do it much earlier,
and if God wants to go ahead and sign, let
him sign. Most would probably choose not to, but give

(58:20):
him the opportunity of that want it. But yeah, the
calendar is definitely out of white. You know, kids have
to be enrolled, and I'm not up to speed on
all the specifics of how you know the deadlines on
every school. You know, the deadlines of every school and
when kids need to be enrolled by what date and
those kind of things, but they don't, you know, really

(58:42):
line up sometimes. And I think the calendar is definitely
something that they could take a hard look at for sure.

Speaker 3 (58:50):
Yeah, And I think the other thing too, Even before
the early signing period players could sign. Uh, it wasn't
a letter of an intent. Was a financial aid agreement
is what they would sign back in the day. And
with that financial aid agreement, it sort of locked you
into the school. And you know, I don't know what's

(59:12):
the right answer for college football and high school kids,
but I can tell you the track we're currently on
is just not great overall for everybody. And I think
when like, the goal of your sport should be to
enhance the value of the consumer. And I would venture

(59:33):
to guess that ninety five percent of the consumers of
college football would say that the value is down since
an IL and the portal, And I think, quite frankly,
because of that, the early signing period is also a
part of the problem for people. I mean, I don't
know all the solutions, but anyway, now let's talk about
some of the guys. Though those are solutions to some

(59:53):
Eclipson's problems. Obviously, Dabbo swinging the staff expecting a ton
of individuals to you commit on Wednesday when the early
signing period begins. Is there anyone that you know of though,
that's planning to hold out and wait to sign, or
are most of the you know, is most of the
hay going to be in the barn by the end

(01:00:14):
of the day Wednesday.

Speaker 4 (01:00:17):
I would expect, you know, of everybody that they are
expecting to sign, I think there's guys will sign Wednesday
at some point. Usually with Clemson, they it's pretty much
done by mid morning at the latest. They start coming
in at seven am. You know, we we have started
seeing some some online predictions of one guy that's looking

(01:00:40):
like he might decommit and end up elsewhere, So we'll
see how that plays out. That would be, you know,
for star safety Kyden Gipart, who who told me a
month ago that he was not going to be one
of the players that flipped and he didn't understand committing
if you weren't committed, And that looks like that's going
to transpire with him. But outside of that, I think

(01:01:00):
everybody's fully locked in and I think I would expect
all the rest of those guys to sign on Wednesday
at some point.

Speaker 3 (01:01:06):
Now, so let's go back to the ghib Heart conversation
that you just brought up. So give me, give me
the situation here that's potentially playing out.

Speaker 4 (01:01:18):
Yeah, over the weekend, there started to be some you know,
projections for Gip part to flip or end up signing
with Ohio State. I don't know if he's going to
go public with it before signing there or just kind
of quietly do it. You know, I had a long
telephone conversation with him. I think it was October to thirtieth,
so just about a month ago.

Speaker 6 (01:01:39):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:01:40):
I got him on the phone one night after, not
long after Blake Stewart decommitted, and you know, we were
talking about the de commitments, and that was his quote,
I'm not going to be one of those.

Speaker 6 (01:01:52):
Wow, I will not be.

Speaker 4 (01:01:53):
One of those who flip or you know, something to
that effect. But you just ever know until you know. Man,
it's a crazy world in recruiting these days.

Speaker 3 (01:02:04):
Oh yeah, no doubt, no doubt about it. I'll tell
you what. Speaking of recruiting, We're gonna put Jason Priester
on hold. We'll come back with a little bit more
from him on recruiting and the clips of Tigers as
the early signing period gets going on Wednesday. Keep it
a lot right here on Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred,
rocking and rolling along with you on a Monday afternoon,
Jason Priester filled in for William qualkin Bush. We were

(01:02:26):
talking to recruiting before the break and it's all I think.
It's also a little bit different to Jason. By the way,
follow Jason on Twitter at jp Underscore Preest. He covers
the clips of Tigers for the Clipson Insider. I think
the other thing that has gotten a little bit different
in this era is the early commitments. Like it feels

(01:02:49):
like back in the day, not eighty percent of the players,
but it felt like fifty percent or more kind of
came down to a national signing day and making the
decision hat sitting in front of the table. But now
some of these guys commit early. It's almost taking away
some of the excitement, if you will. I think about

(01:03:10):
that aspect of recruiting as well for people.

Speaker 4 (01:03:13):
Oh yeah, especially if you're a Clemson fan. You know,
there's really no signing day drama anymore like there was
ten fifteen years ago when you were tuned in all
day to see who's signed where and to see if
your guy picked Clemson or somewhere else. And give part's
kind of an example of a guy committing early. You know,
he committed way back in March Clemson hire and Tom

(01:03:33):
Allen was a big part of it. You know, it
looked like he might be, you know, leaning towards Penn
State originally, and then Clemson hires away Tom Allen and
they get him on campus I think in January for
the first time. He comes back for the Elite retreat
in March and he commits right after that. You know,
Het playing for Tom Allen was a big thing for him.
But he's a kid that's from Ohio, and you know,

(01:03:54):
I guess maybe he decided he wanted to stay home.
I have no idea the reason behind it, or has
money played the fact that you never know these days.
But you know, outside of I mean, let's just say,
if you're a Clemson fan, there's generally not a lot
of drama. I mean, if you look at other places
across the college football world, particularly over the past week
or so, there have been a ton of flips. There

(01:04:16):
have been a ton today when people negotiating deals at
the last moment and you know, kids changing their mind
or taking better offers or whatever it is. But that's
about the only drama you get these days, and you
don't get much of that at Clemson.

Speaker 3 (01:04:30):
Yeah, I was looking GiB Hart, this looks like his
high school is about six miles from Ohio State's campus,
So if indeed the flip does come, that might be
a big part of the reason. Again, you want to
keep up with recruiting. Jason Priesters got you covered over
on the Clipson Insider as well. Now, if we talk
about like impactful freshmen, you know, guys that you think

(01:04:55):
in this group when they commit, can come in and
play immediately and help this team. Is there a guy
on this list right now that you would say unequivocally, Yeah,
he's a guy. And maybe people would ask at quarterback,
could Tate Reynolds, who's gonna be a dual sports star?
Can he compete for the starting job at quarterback in

(01:05:16):
year one?

Speaker 4 (01:05:17):
You know, I used to wonder if that was a
possibility and think maybe it was potentially possible. But man,
he got hurt. I think it was in his first
game of his senior season and didn't come back till
maybe the last game of his senior season, So he's
basically missed the whole year of development. I think that's
gonna hurt him. I'll be surprised if he's a guy

(01:05:38):
that's gonna come in and compete for the starting job
in year one. He's also talking about wanting to play
baseball during his first at least while he's a freshman.
So I mean, we'll see if he's changed his mind
about that, but that would certainly impact his development at
quarterback if he's, you know, splitting time between two sports.
I do think there are a couple of guys who

(01:05:59):
can come in and maybe contribute right away. I think
Nae Boroughs, the wide receiver from down in Florida, just
you know, in the latest rankings update, I think it
was that on three or rivals. I think I get
them mixed up these days since they merged. But you know,
he's ranked like thirty four in one set of rankings.
There's like two spots away from being a five star.
Shifty speed, I mean, he is a burner man. He's

(01:06:21):
a guy that I think can help you immediately on
the offensive side of the ball he returns punts to
and on the defensive side of the ball, Look no
further than right down the road there at Dorman for
Ken Davion Anderson, or they call him Polo Anderson. He
is if get part does indeed end up at Ohio State,
Anderson would be the only safety commit in the class.
They originally had three, but Blake Stewart also decommitted a

(01:06:44):
few weeks ago. Maybe he's a guy that, you know,
with some of the issues they've had at safety, maybe
he's a guy that can come in and contribute right away.
You certainly would think so looking at his film. But
those would be two guys at the top of the list.
I do think they got a Yeah, they got a
class of six offensive lineman. I think is one of
the best class of offensive linemen in the country. Don't

(01:07:07):
know that any of those guys will come in and
be day one starters or anything, but man, Matt Luke
did a hex job on the recruiting trail in this class,
and he deserves some props for that.

Speaker 3 (01:07:16):
All right, Well, we'll wrap it up there with the
offensive line. And I'll say this because a lot of
people are very critical of Matt Luke, and that's the
one thing I kept saying. I was like, man, you know,
let this guy get his class in. And this class
in particular is kind of built by the mold of
what he's looking for. And he's a guy that loves
long rangy offensive linemen, and you've got that throughout this group.

(01:07:43):
I agree. I mean, I think it's a spectacular group
of talent, a lot of good clay for him to
mold up. And I would say, this is the group,
you know, if you're gonna fire Matt Luke at some point,
I would say, let these guys get to their junior
year and if they're not performing, then you could look
at Matt Luke's job.

Speaker 4 (01:08:01):
Absolutely, you got at least give him the opportunity to
start getting it rolling some of his guys that he
brought in, you know, on the field, and sometimes that
takes time with some of these offensive linemen. I'm with
you there. It's to me it is far too early
to even mention the F word there with Matt Luke.
Man there, you got one of the better or more

(01:08:21):
well respected offensive line coaches in the country and you
want to fire him after a year or two. Man,
that that's just unconceivable to me.

Speaker 3 (01:08:29):
It was, you know, it was out there though a
lot of people are all over the line.

Speaker 4 (01:08:32):
I know.

Speaker 3 (01:08:32):
It's crazy, yeah, crazy, all right. Follow on Twitter at
JP Underscore priest is Jason Priester. Jason Man, Thanks so much,
for filling in for Qualk while he's a tough job,
tough life down there in the Bahamas for a few days.

Speaker 4 (01:08:47):
Yeah, he went it just the right time, as soon
as it got cold up here.

Speaker 3 (01:08:51):
Right, no doubt. There you go. That's Jason Priester from
the Clemson Insider here with us on a Monday afternoon.
All right, so again, the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game
is set Duke and Virginia. Jason made a great point,
you know, maybe change the way the tie breakers are

(01:09:13):
done to look at overall rankings. That way you sort
of ensure ensure yourself of having teams that are pretty
highly thought of in the mix. That might be one
way to do it. Yeah, I look, I just I
think the whole thing's got to go away. You know,
in my scenario, in my system that I've taught you

(01:09:35):
all about, which has made us all smarter college football enthusiasts.
The conference championship games are gone. So I'll tell you
what we'll do. Let's go back and take a look
at what my playoff would have looked like. Let's see
over the past few years what it would have given us.
I'll tell you about it when we return. Stay with
US London Swan Clempson sports talk again. Don't forget about

(01:09:58):
our friends at Alumni Hall right there on the corner
of campus on College Avenue of downtown Clemson. It's Alumni
Hall for all your officially licensed Clemson merchandise. That's hats,
t shirts, T'll get geared more. Go check them out
today or online at Alumni Hall dot com. It's Alumni
Hall where Tiger fans shop. All right, So during the

(01:10:20):
break I thought about some fatal flaws and going through
this with you. Number one is this fact Notre Dame,
and it's if I were to do this based off
of conferences, Notre Dame is not currently in a conference,
and so by virtue of that, Notre Dame, a team

(01:10:44):
that played for the national title a year ago would
technically be eliminated. We could put them in as a
default Atlantic Coast Conference team if we want to look
at it that way, and I'd be happy to do that.
But remember the way my system works, or the way

(01:11:07):
my college football playoff would work, it would be the
SEC one versus the Big twelve four every year, and
it would be the Big twelve one versus the SEC
four every year. Then you would have the SEC two

(01:11:31):
versus the Big twelve three, and you would have the
SEC three versus the Big twelve two, right, and that
would give you those four teams playing each other in

(01:11:51):
each league. And I believe the way you would want
to do it is you would put the one from
the SEC where the three is and the one for
the Big twelve where the three is, and that would
give you the spacing that you would want. Then on
the other side, you'd have the ACC one versus the
You know what, for the sake of the argument here,

(01:12:13):
we'll do Big ten one versus the ACC four, just
so that we kind of stay in line with what
the football leagues, you know, the SEC and the Big ten.
They they want to put their big boy pants on
and let you know how great they are. So you
have the Big ten three versus the ACC two. Then

(01:12:34):
you would have the Big ten two versus the ACC three,
and then you would have the ACC one versus the
Big ten four. That's a Big ten four, all right,
So what would that look like over the past couple

(01:12:54):
of seasons, So last year your playoff would have looked
like this, and again repair the Southeastern Conference and the
Big twelve on one side and the Big Ten in
the ACC on the other. And again I will include
Notre Dame as an Atlantic Coast Conference school. So the
SEC one last year would have been Texas, and Texas

(01:13:17):
would have faced the Big Twelve four, and the Big
Twelve number four last year would have been Colorado, So
Texas Colorado would have been an opening round game in
the College Football Playoff. Then you have underneath them would
have been the Big Twelve number two team, which is

(01:13:38):
Iowa State a year ago, and Iowa State would have
played the SEC's number three team last year. And I'm
just doing the pairings that I see in front of me.
I'm not going into like the minutia of is that
the right ranking? That would have been Iowa State and
Tennessee facing off, all right. Then the bottom half of

(01:14:00):
that bracket would have been the Southeastern Conference number two,
which would have been Georgia, and Georgia would have faced
off with the Big Twelve number three, which would have
been BYU, And then the Southeastern Conference number four, which
was Alabama, would have been facing the number one out

(01:14:26):
of the Big Twelve, which was Arizona State. Now, the
reason I like my system is because it's no longer
a beauty pageant. And if the SEC is strong, then
you would believe that Texas would advance. You believe that
Tennessee would advance, You believe that Georgia would advance, and
you would believe that Alabama would advance, and the SEC

(01:14:48):
would have all four teams. On one side, that's a
year ago looking at it. On the flip side, taking
a look at the Atlantic Coast Conference, in the Big ten,
it would have looked a little something like this. The
Big ten number one was Oregon, and Oregon would have
faced the ACC number four last season, and considering that

(01:15:11):
we have to include Notre Dame in the Atlantic Coast Conference,
that would have made the ACC number four a year
ago Miami, all right. Then the Big ten number three
would have been Penn State, and Penn State would have

(01:15:32):
played the ACC number two. And I'm assuming, based off
of what I have in front of me, that the
ACC number two last year would have been Notre Dame.
Then the Big ten number two, Indiana would have played
the ACC number three, and that would have been your
clymps of Tigers. And then the Big ten number four,

(01:15:54):
which was Ohio State, would have played the ACC number
one one, which was SMU. Now you might say, but
Clemson won the ACC swanee again, this eliminates. This eliminates
the need for conference championship games. So again we'd be
looking at Texas and Colorado, Iowa State and Tennessee, Georgia,

(01:16:18):
n BYU, Alabama and Arizona State, all SEC, all Big
twelve matchups. If the SEC is truly better, all of
those teams would advance. Then we'd have Oregon versus Miami,
Penn State versus Notre Dame, Indiana versus Clemson, and SMU
versus Ohio State. If the Big Ten was truly better,
in all those games, all of those teams would advance.

(01:16:40):
I don't have time to go through another scenario or
another year, but I can't tell you why that system
would not be better for college football for all teams.
Those matchups sound great. You could tell the organization of
the matchups, and I think for everyone to simply say, oh,

(01:17:04):
all I have to do is be in the top
four of my conference that I'm in. Okay, now you
know what the guardrail you need to break down to
get into the playoff is? Currently? What is it? Miami
Notre Dame? They faced off and the fighting Irish are
probably still going to be in over the Hurricanes. And
guess who won that game and they have the same record.

(01:17:25):
You got it, Miami, and I am certainly no Miami apologists.
Final segment, flip side, What have you done.

Speaker 6 (01:17:33):
For me lately? It's a fair question. Just don't lose
sight of the bigger picture. Don't forget history. Lucky for
us at Clemson, the answer to the questions what have
you done for me lately? And what have you done?
Always are the same. We win.

Speaker 3 (01:18:45):
Final segment. On Monday, Clemson takes down South Carolina twenty
eight fourteen. Here's what I'm gonna do. I am going
to put together. I am going to put together a
a look at what the playoff would have looked like
with my scenario. I'm gonna write an article. I'm gonna

(01:19:07):
have all the details in there. I think it's important.
I think it's important. I also think it's important that
the group of five get their own their own thing,
win something. Group of five have an actual championship. That's
more valuable for South Carolina fans. It's gonna be a

(01:19:30):
long offseason, and Shane beam Ress promised that things will
be better next year. I I don't think like I
know game got fans like to kill dabos Sweeney from
being an optimist to dabos Sweeney saying, you know that
there will be more championships to come. Wrote an article
about that over on our website, clymses sports saw dot

(01:19:52):
com like We're gonna win more championships. That's what Dabosweeney said.
He wasn't just talking about the ECC championships. He was
talking about national championships. He even said the word But
I think Gamecock fans have grown tired of Shane Biemer
and some of the things he has to say, based
off of what I see people saying on social media,

(01:20:16):
like Gamecock fans like, look, there are accounts that are
Clemson accounts, probably acting like South Carolina fans, but there
are some that you could tell are actually South Carolina
fans who listened to Shane Biemer and go, what what
are you talking about?

Speaker 4 (01:20:32):
Shane?

Speaker 3 (01:20:35):
And he vows a turnaround after a tough season, and
here's the guarantee he gave after the game on Saturday.

Speaker 4 (01:20:44):
Through this.

Speaker 8 (01:20:45):
I hate it for the seniors that don't come back,
but I can one billion percent promise.

Speaker 3 (01:20:50):
You this when we have a hell of.

Speaker 8 (01:20:52):
A season in twenty twenty six, and when I'm doing
this press conference after the Clemson game next year and
we finished the regular season, that because of the success
that we're going to have next season.

Speaker 6 (01:21:03):
I know we will. We're going to look back at.

Speaker 8 (01:21:06):
This season and say it sucked winning going through it,
but because of what we went through in twenty five,
it led us to what we just did in twenty six.

Speaker 6 (01:21:15):
A million percent.

Speaker 3 (01:21:17):
Confident in that game. Cock fans, however, are not a
billion percent confident in that. And you look at their schedule,
Tim says, cool, Cool, In what fantasy world does that happen?
They play at Clemson, at Alabama, at Arkansas, at Florida,
at Oklahoma, versus Georgia, versus Kentucky, versus Mississippi State, versus

(01:21:41):
Tennessee and versus Texas, A and down. I'm not saying
you got to be undefeated with that scheduled to be
in the College Football Playoff. But you know, Beamer saying
stuff like that, I don't think helps him with a
big portion of his fan base. And that's okay. I mean,
I think you look at the relationship, you see Dabosweeney
hugging Hu. I was actually in the earshot from them talking.

(01:22:02):
I didn't want to, like completely eves drop, but I
did drop some eves on them, and just heard those
guys hugging and heard the two wives. You know, Kathleen,
I think Emily Beemer, I think I think's her name
talking and say hey, we love you guys. And and look,
these coaches don't hate each other. They might get on

(01:22:24):
each other during the game. They are competitors. You might
like to think that they hate each other. If Dabo
says something, you can rest assured Shane's gonna clap back
and defend this program. But at the end of the day,
neither of these guys, you know, hates one another. They
are very similar h they you know, both have not

(01:22:44):
been coordinators. They both were promoted to Power five programs
and h they both had, you know, success, Shane Beemer's
success not as good as Dabo's. The conference tougher, I
don't have any question about that. But to think, you know,
if you're a game Cock fan, after watching Beamer go

(01:23:05):
seven and six, eight and five, five and seven, nine
and four, four and eight, to think that ten and
three is in coming because of some kind of funny
numbers game that you're tabulating. You're probably wrong. I mean,
look at the conference record three and five, four and four,
three and five, five and three, one in seven. I mean,

(01:23:28):
Beemer's eight games under five hundred in the Southeastern Conference.
He's three games above five hundred overall. And I am
not certain that he will make it through the football
season next year given the schedule that he has. And

(01:23:49):
for him, a statement like that, like moments like I
want you to be confident, but moments like that live
forever online and fans, the fans are going to be
all over you. And currently Coaches Hots Coaches Hot Seat
has Shane Beemer on the third hottest seat in the

(01:24:11):
country because Michigan State fired the hottest seat in the country,
Jonathan Jonathan Smith, meaning that Mike Loxley will move up
to number one, Mike Norvel will move up to number two,
and Beamer will move up to number three. In that
moment about how good next year is going to be
is going to be the thing that if you're not great,
they're going to use against you. Beamer literally laid down

(01:24:34):
the kindling for this fire that could start about three
or four games in the next year. Anyway, we'll talk
about more tomorrow. Until then, as always, I'll take care
now and got tigers