The "Bayou Buyout" Edition

Brian Kelly is out at LSU after the No. 20 Tigers were blown out at home by No. 3 Texas A&M.

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Now finally, Clemson Sports Talk has come back two drive time.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
Hell everybody and Swan back in the saddle once again.
It is the show that shakes the south Land. Clemson
Sports Talk for you each and every afternoon as you
make your way around the great state of South Carolina
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(01:15):
The website. Put the dot com on a dog gonet
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Plumbing two two six seven one aw eight. Give them
a call today, all right out of the gates. The

(01:38):
weekend that was no Clemson football bye week for were
your Tigers? No football? For the top team of the country,
the Ohio State Buck Guy is also on a buy
the number two ranked team in the country. However, the
Indiana Hoosiers did work against a resurgent dare I say,
UCLA team Fernando Mendoza fifteen to twenty two, one hundred

(02:04):
and sixty eight yards, three touchdowns in the ballgame his
favorite target, former Clemson wide receiver EJ. Williams. Five receptions,
one hundred and nine yards and two touchdowns for Williams
in a fifty six to six thrashing. Welcome to the
big time, UCLA. Yeah. That fifty six to six hammering

(02:28):
coming at the hands of the Indiana Hoosiers. Quite the story.
This team has become over the past couple of seasons
under Kirk Signetti, and they have locked him up, and
I can only imagine. I don't know what kind of
big money donors there are at Indiana, but I can imagine,
like I said a few weeks ago when they inc

(02:48):
that big deal with him, that this is now a
football school and the money will be pouring in for
those guys. Mendoza also had a touchdown on the ground
with five carries for forty five yards in a fifty
six to six walloping of the Bruins over in Baton Rouge.
It was a great first half between LSU and Texas

(03:09):
A and m ultimately it ends up with the news
that Brian Kelly has been let go after the way
things unfolded between third ranked Texas A and M and LSU.
And that was a twentieth ranked LSU team, mind you,
but in the second half it was all Texas A
and M. They put a walloping down dumping an emptying
death valley, forty nine to twenty five the final score.

(03:33):
I told you it was a good game.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Though.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
Late in the second quarter fifteen to fourteen, LSU takes
the lead off a seven yard Harlem Barry touchdown run.
They missed the extra point. They still get a field
goal though, a thirty yard field goal before the half,
and lead eighteen to fourteen at the break, so LSU
feeling pretty good at home. That's when the onslaught began

(03:57):
a touchdown with ten forty one left in the third
cours off a five yard Marcel Red run made it
twenty one eighteen, and the Aggies would not look back.
Casey Conception owned the NC State transfer with a seventy
nine yard punt return to make it twenty eight eighteen.
It was quickly thirty five eighteen with four h two
left in the third quarter, when Jamari and Morrow had

(04:20):
a twenty four yard reception, a twenty four yard excuse
me reception from Marcel Reid, and then a couple of
rushing touchdowns in the fourth quarter would explode a game
that was eighteen to fourteen. Remember this, eighteen to fourteen
and M scores thirty five on answered to go up

(04:40):
forty nine to eighteen with two thirty five remaining in
that game, LSU gets a late touchdown with backup quarterback
Michael Van Buren in the game final score forty nine
to twenty five, but the Aggies eight to oh five
and zero may have officially arrived. And for South Carolina fan,

(05:01):
that's another team you've got on the schedule in a
couple of weeks Texas A and M's remaining games. Take
a look at it at number nineteen Missouri in two weeks.
They've got a bye week here it heal up a
little bit, rest up, get ready for nineteenth ranked Missouri.
Missouri another team we're going to be talking about shortly.

(05:23):
They fell late in that matchup with Vanderbilt. It was
a tight one seventeen ten points at a premium in
that game, and an injury that we need to touch
on that could be a huge deal for Missouri over
the long haul. But after that Missouri game on November
the eighteenth, the Aggies face South Carolina November the fifteenth,

(05:44):
and they host the game Cocks, they go to Como,
they go to Columbia, Missouri for that matchup with the Tigers,
and then they've got Sanford and then at number twenty Texas.
Dare I say, are we looking at a Texas A
and M team that might go undefeated in year two
under Mike elco White? The storyline developing out in College

(06:09):
station as they remain the only undefeated team in the
Southeastern Conference and one of just two SEC schools undefeated
in league play as Alabama off of their victory over
South Carolina still undefeated, and that's where we'll go next
with the fourth rank Crimson todd sneaking out of Columbia

(06:30):
with a twenty nine to two victory. Now, watching that game,
if you're a Clemson Tiger fan, you're just thinking about
how bad South Carolina is going to beat you down
when you arrive into Williams. Brice Stadium in late November.
Because that South Carolina team, that South Carolina team in
a lot of respects even though they trailed for the

(06:52):
majority of that game, looked competitive against one of the
top teams in the country, and at times Lenor Sellers
continued to look like the best player on the field,
which he was a year ago against Clemson in South Carolina. Honestly,
they probably are sitting there today and yesterday kicking themselves

(07:18):
for some of the mistakes that they made. Obviously the
eighteen yard interception return early in that game, after South
Carolina got a touchdown off of fifteen play seventy four
yard drive, they chose to kick a field goal late
in that possession, had a chance at the six yard
line to maybe go for it penn Alabama in but
they took a loss on a third and two at

(07:40):
the four and that left him with fourth and four
at the six. Shane Beemer probably made the right move
kicking the field goal to go up three to nothing.
They're making plays, they get the ball back, and then
they have a tipped ball as Lenor Sellers tries to
find Faison, I think it was Faison sort of bats

(08:01):
the ball, he gets intercepted or deflects the ball he
gets intercepted in return for an eighteen yard touchdown, giving
Alabama some momentum. South Carolina would get a field goal
back to make it seventeen to six. Then a late
second quarter touchdown from Ty Simpson to Josh Quavis made
it fourteen to six, giving the Crimson Tied an eight

(08:22):
point lead. That's when momentum would shift. When they come
out of the half. Nick Harbor has a big fifty
four yard touchdown reception from Leonora Sellers that came off
of a situation where ty Simpson kind of got hit
in the pocket and made a throw to Ryan Williams
that looked very catchable. Williams, who's been one of the
top wide receivers in the country, just kind of dropped

(08:44):
the ball as he was going to the ground. South
Carolina benefited and struck quickly with that fifty four yard touchdown.
The two point conversion was not good, making it fourteen
to twelve. The game Cocks then with one thirty eight
left in the third quarter, having eleven to play forty
six yards drive that ends in a field goal to
make it fifteen to fourteen, and then Lenor Sellers with

(09:05):
a ten yard run sort of mister do it everything
on that drive six plays thirty yards gives Carolina a
twenty two to fourteen lead, an eight point advantage, and
the Crimson tied a money drive. They get the ball back.
They go fourteen plays seventy nine yards, eating up seven
minutes and forty four seconds of the remaining clock. They

(09:27):
score with two sixteen left to make it twenty two
to twenty two. And in that moment, and they get
the two point conversion, by the way, the two point
conversion of a nifty little play. They line the running
back up behind the center if I remember correctly snapped
it to him. He hands the ball to the quarterback,
Tyson Simpson, and they're running. They've got another wide receiver,
sort of giving the deception that maybe there's going to

(09:49):
be a pitch back for a reverse there on this
two point conversion. But ty Simpson fakes the toss for
the reverse and throws a pass that Joshua us to
tie the game with twenty two seconds remaining. Now that
play would be key because just a few minutes later,
when South Carolina gets the ball back and thinking hey

(10:10):
all we needs a field goal, Alabama rips the ball
out as the North Sellers is going to the ground.
They stripped the ball out. The ball just lands conveniently
for the Crimson Tide underneath one of their big defensive linemen.
He didn't even know it was there, laying on like
a biscuit or something. He had no idea. That gets reviewed.

(10:33):
The call on the field stands to recoveries Alabama's and
the Crimson Tide go five plays thirty eight yards. But
really the controversial play came on a similar play to
the the two point conversion, where Alabama snaps the ball,

(10:55):
the running back fakes like he's going to pitch it.
They have in this situation. I think it will Ty
Simpson flanked out wide. He's gonna be the guy kind
of running on the reverse. They fake the pitch, the
guy gets the corner, and South Carolina allows him to score.
Hoping to get the ball back with thirty some odd
seconds remaining in the game and have a chance to
potentially tie it. That would go for not The questions

(11:17):
would arise online and everywhere. Are you better off in
that moment if you're South Carolina trying to make the
tackle holding Alabama to try to kick a field goal
to win the game, albeit a chip shot. Would you
rather put it on the kicker in that moment? Or
would you like to believe that your team is gonna
drive eighty yards give or take right in thirty some

(11:43):
mid seconds and potentially tie the game. The game Cocks
would not do that, and it would end on another
sack of Lenora Sellers, and as phenomenal as Sellers looked
at times in that game, for South Carolina fans, a
bitter disappointment. They are now three and five overall, one

(12:03):
in five in the Southeastern Conference, and the nightmare scenario
that we brought up here on this program after Carolina
lost to both Vanderbilt and Missouri. By the way, still
those are two very good teams right based off of
what we saw in Nashville over the weekend. Two very
good teams, two teams that will certainly be mentioned in

(12:24):
the college football playoff conversation. But South Carolina now has
to go to Old Miss this weekend to face off
against the Rebels, who are hot because they're up next
on our list. As they went into Oklahoma and top

(12:45):
the Sooners. It was a back and forth affair, really
good football game, kind of similar to the South Carolina
and Alabama game where Old Miss led twenty two to
ten of the break and then Oklahoma gets a resurgent
sixteen point third quarter. They get a field goal with

(13:08):
eleven sixteen left in the third to make it twenty
two to thirteen. Ole Miss counters with a twenty nine
yard field goal to go back up by twelve to
make it twenty five thirteen. Then back to back touchdowns
in the final five to forty five in the third
quarter by Oklahoma gives the Sooners a twenty six twenty
five lead. They failed on a two point conversion attempt

(13:32):
to try to make it twenty eight twenty five, so
Oklahoma had a one point lead into the fourth quarter.
Ole Miss would get a touchdown with eleven thirty three
to take a five point thirty one to twenty six
advantage as they failed on a two point conversion after
an eleven play seventy five yard scoring drive, and then

(13:52):
they would ice it with four h nine remaining with
a field goal from thirty seven yards out to make
it thirty four to twenty six. In oklanne really would
never threaten to tie that game up after being down
by eight late in the game, but a back and
forth game and another one of the top teams in
the country now squarely in South Carolina's vicinity as they

(14:16):
head out to Oxford for the Old Miss Rebels seven
o'clock on ESPN SO at night game this coming weekend.
Lenor Sellers is going to have to be superman for
the game Cox and if they lose that one their
final Southeastern Conference game November fifteenth, they get a bye week.
Then they'll go to College Station to face one of

(14:38):
the top teams in the country in number three current
number three ranked Texas A and M, which would mean
the game Cocks have a very legitimate chance at this
point of entering the Coastal Carolina game at three and seven,
and it's a South Carolina team based off of what

(14:59):
I saw Clempson fans, I don't know if they would
beat the breaks off of you, But if they gave
the effort that they gave against Alabama, and you give
the effort that you've given all year, they beat the
breaks off of you. They play harder than Clemson plays.
I'm convinced it's it's an effort thing with Clemson one

(15:22):
hundred percent. There's certainly some deficiencies in some of the
position groups, but it's effort and that says a lot
about the coaching staff when your guys aren't given everything
they've got, and I just don't see it. I just
don't see it. Anyway, some other big games this past
weekend for sure that I want to get in here

(15:46):
in the opening segment, especially since Clemson was on a
bye week and I had a chance to sit down
and enjoy some college football with my dad and my son.
This weekend, we went down to Buford to see my dad,
hang out with him and watch a little football. What boy,
did we ever watch it? We barely got up off
the couches, locked in checking out all of those different games.

(16:07):
But that Vanderbilt Missouri game ends up being a great
when Vandy wins it seventeen to ten. It's a tight game.
You know, you feel bad about the situation that took
place with Bo Prabulah. He kind of got rolled up
on down near the goal line. I think it was
early third quarter, three to three ball game, as I recall,

(16:29):
and on a fourth and goal at the two yard line.
Instead of lighting him to kick a field goal, Missouri
goes for it and Prabulah gets kind of rolled up
on and dislocates his ankle. Now, their backup quarterback came

(16:53):
into the game Zolars and played pretty well, certainly gave
the Missouri Tigers a chance to win that ball game,
but they come up just a little bit short. And
I mentioned Texas A and M. Well, now you've got
to also start to talk about this seven to one

(17:14):
Vandy ball club. They're at Texas this weekend. You talk
about huge heading out to the forty Acres to take
on the Longhorns. You win that game, you're left with Auburn,
Kentucky and Tennessee. And honestly, at that point, I don't
think it matters what happens in that Tennessee matchup. I mean,
you should beat Auburn, you should beat Kentucky. Those are

(17:36):
two of the worst teams in the Southeastern Conference. But
if you lose the Tennessee in that final game, I'm
not sure that's still not enough for you to be
in the College football playoff. And crazy things happen in
this sport. We talk about these scenarios every year, and

(18:00):
something something happens that crops up that changes the outcome
or the feeling surrounding a certain team. We'll see what
this logjam in the Southeastern Conference looks like in terms
of the college football playoff because there's only twelve spots.
We're not at fourteen yet and it's gonna be tight.

(18:23):
I think if things continue the way they continue, I mean,
if teams like Virginia continue to live on the edge.
The Cavaliers winning an overtime again their third overtime victory
of the season seventeen sixteen at North Carolina. North Carolina
goes for two and overtime and comes up about an
inch short, and Tony Elliott and the Cavaliers continue. They

(18:48):
are still undefeated in the ACC. They are seven and
one overall. By the way, one of the other teams
that beat Clemson this year, Georgia Tech. Yeah, they're eight
to o and five and zer in the Atlantic Coast
Conference as well, And could we be destined for Georgia Tech,
Virginia and the ACC championship. The yell Jackets Haines King

(19:09):
three hundred yards passing ninety one yards on the ground
in a forty one sixteen victory over Syracuse, And it's
looking more and more like Miami could be on the
outside of the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game because they
don't play Georgia Tech or Virginia. And if those two

(19:33):
teams keep winning. There's nothing the Hurricanes could do. In
a year where it looked like it was almost certain
that Miami was gonna win the ACC Championship. They could
win out, have one loss and be left out of
the ACC Championship, which would create a crazy dynamic and
could affect the Southeastern Conference. We'll tell you why after this.

(19:56):
Lawton Swan back with you on a Monday afternoon Clemson
and Sports Talk. All Right, so we don't know where
this thing is going, right, we can all admit that
in this crazy world of college football and college football playoffs,
expect the unexpected to try to pretend that on October

(20:20):
the twenty seventh, I know who's going to be in
the college football playoff is beyond certain. Anything can happen,
Injuries can happen, and an injury to a quarterback at
this point in the season is a game changer. And
we kind of talked about the Bo Probula situation at
Missouri as just a small example of that. But I

(20:44):
want to talk about and we do have college football
playoff rankings coming up shortly. It won't be long till
we'll get our first batch of c if B playoff rankings,
which I would guess most people are anxious to see
where these teams stack up. There's obviously been a ton
of shakeup since the beginning of the year. Clemson, Penn State,
Texas all we're thought to be top five teams. You

(21:06):
couldn't throw a hand grenade right now and really hit
any of those teams in terms of making it into
the College Football Playoff at this point. But if we
had to look at the rankings and the understanding of
how the College Football Playoff works, there's a bit of
a problem, I think for the Southeastern Conference. And he

(21:26):
said a problem. How could there be a problem for
the SEC? All right, we know there are twelve teams
that get in, we absolutely know that. But one of
those teams has to be from the group of five. Now,
that team could be anybody from the group of five,
but it will not be a Southeastern Conference school. That

(21:48):
takes our number of available spots mathematically speaking here down
to eleven. Now we know that the winner of each
conference is going to get in. Now, if we project
out the conference winners from the Big Ten, if we
just go with number one Ohio State in the Southeastern Conference,

(22:12):
if we just go with the highest ranked team in
the league currently, we'd be looking at Texas A and M.
If we go with the highest ranked team in the
Big Twelve currently, you'd be looking at BYU winning that league.
And then if you went with the highest ranked team
in the Atlantic Coast Conference, you'd be handing a postseason
spot to Georgia Tech. And this year it's not what

(22:34):
it was in the past where well really only one
season of it, where the conference champs, the highest ranked
conference champs got the one, two, three, four, five, Right,
they're going to receive this thing, and so you could
have multiple teams from the Big Ten that are there
and available now. I would assume that Indiana, who is

(22:55):
currently the number two team in the country, they are
undefeated at eight tom. I know they have remaining games
at Maryland, at Penn State versus Wisconsin, and at Purdue,
that they are going to get into the college football
playoffs and they may very well go undefeated through the
regular season. Look at what they've done to some teams.

(23:16):
They beat Power five and number nine right at the time,
Illinois sixty three to ten. They went on the road
and beat Oregon thirty to twenty. They walloped UCLA this weekend.
It's not a good UCLA team, but they beat them
by fifty. I just don't see them losing more than
one of those remaining games, and the likely loss might
come at Penn State, just because the Nitney Lion fans

(23:39):
or poured in hoping that they can pull off a
miraculous upset, salvage you know, some something from this season.
But let's just assume that Indiana wins out like they
probably will even if they lose one. They've got the
game advantage over Oregon in league play, so they're probably
in the Big Ten Championship. And if they even if

(24:00):
they lose to an undefeated Ohio State team in the
Big Ten Championship, I'm gonna tell you Indiana, you can
pencil them in. They're gonna be in the College Football Playoff.
At that point, we have six of the twelve teams
in the field. Now, many of you would believe that
both Alabama and Georgia would get in the field, assuming

(24:22):
that these two teams continue to play the way they have.
That's number seven and eight, right, Alabama and Georgia from
the Southeastern Conference. That gives the SEC three teams in
number nine would likely go to Oregon at this point,
now there are three spots remaining. Would in a one

(24:43):
loss Virginia team that goes to the ACC Championship game
be left out? Would dare I say, a one loss
Texas Tech team that either wins or loses to BYU
be left out? Would a two loss Notre Dame team
who has two very close losses, a one point loss
to Texas A and m who's likely at that point

(25:06):
maybe the number two team in the country, And a
loss to a Miami team that, if they keep winning,
could be left out of the ACC Championship and could
also be an eleven to one team. I mean that
I think is the problem is that there are so
many teams currently and I do believe this. I think
it will work itself out. But here's who Heather Dinnich projected,
because I think you struggle with how do you get

(25:27):
in Missouri? How do you get in Vanderbilt, how do
you get in maybe Old miss if teams aren't going
to be punished perhaps for playing in conference championship games,
et cetera. So projecting in the top twelve. Here's what
ESPN said in an article on Sunday. Ohio State out
of the Big ten, Indiana out of the Big ten,

(25:49):
Alabama out of the SEC, Texas A and m out
of the SEC, Georgia out of the SEC. They did
put Old Miss in as a fourth Southeastern Conference team,
Miami as an ACC representative, Oregon out of the Big ten,
Vanderbilt that's a fifth SEC school. I just don't see

(26:09):
that happening. Then they've got BYU Georgia Tech and number
twelve is Notre Dame, but Notre Dame would be left
out because of the group of five situations. But if
Notre Dame wins out and is in, I mean, I
think it could be three Southeastern Conference three Big Ten,
two ACC two Big twelve. That's ten, a group of

(26:33):
five and Notre Dame that's twelve. And I know people
will look at that SEC schedule and say, how can
there only be three? But there's some logjams out there
that currently present themselves because of what Georgia Tech's record is,
what Virginia's record is, what Miami's record could potentially be
and not be in an ACC championship game, and where

(26:56):
they are currently ranked and where they would be if
they continue to win out like Miami is currently number ten.
If the Hurricanes continue to win out again they're at SMU,
they take on Syracuse, North Carolina State, Virginia taking Pitt.
If they went out and they're sitting there at eleven
and one, they're gonna be a top seven, top sixteen.

(27:18):
I don't know, man, A lot of football have to
be played if they play like they did at the
starting at Stanford, though they might lose one of those
games for sure. Speaking of SMU, Holy smokes, how bad
is Clemson? We'll tell you what happened to the Mustangs
right after this. London swan back with you on a Monday. Well,
I went through the scenarios of the college football playoff,

(27:40):
and look, you can disagree. Maybe you think they'll be
four SEC schools in. To me, it's not a matter
of how good that league is, Okay, it's a matter
of how many spots are available. And I don't know
that there's gonna be enough damage that happens in some
of these other leagues to eliminate teams that are likely

(28:00):
going to be pretty well thought of. We'll see, we'll see.
Maybe the SEC does get five out of the twelve spots,
but I'm not saying they don't have five out of
the twelve best teams. But you got some spots that
have to go to certain leagues, and there are gonna
be some other teams that are gonna be right there
that are on par with some of those Southeastern Conference schools.

(28:21):
And boy, let some upsets happen in some of these
conference championship games and then all bets are off for sure. Nonetheless,
we'll turn our attention to the Atlantic Coast Conference. I said,
how bad is Clemson? Did you see what happened this
weekend SMU? Remember this is an SMU team that again

(28:42):
against a backup quarterback in Christopher Vizina this past weekend
or two weekends ago, I guess now, and Clemson really
controlled that game against the Tigers. Clemson had their chances,
but SMU pulled away and an eleven point fairly convincing
victory in Death Valley is nothing to sniff at until

(29:07):
they go on the road to Wake Forest and get
beat thirteen to twelve. You can't tell me it's not
effort man. Clempson's defense at home gave up thirty five
points to the same team that went two Wake Forest
and scored just twelve against the Demon Deacons. But let

(29:31):
that soak in for a minute. You think Clemson can't
beat SIMU If they can hold that team to twelve points,
Holy moly, a fifty yard walk off field goal or
a fifty yard field goal late in the game, I
should say, lifted Wake Forest to a victory. And the
Demon Deacons were at the goal line going in to

(29:51):
score and fumble the ball. They fumble the ball at
the goal line like at the five, and SMU thinks
they're gonna win and survive, and the Demon Decons get
the ball back and kick a field goal. Tip of
the cap. Wait force five and two right now? Two

(30:11):
and two in the ACC, but five and two overall,
playing with heart, playing hard. They're at Florida State this weekend.
The Seminoles are zero and four, and I would not
think that they feel very good about the Demon Decas

(30:33):
showing up at seven thirty at night on the ACC
Network this weekend. But the Deeks held SMU to twelve points. People,
this is the same SMU team that you saw move
up and down the field. SMU had two field goals

(30:57):
in the first half and trail ten to six at
the break. They scored a touchdown late in the third
quarter to make it twelve to ten after a pat
was blocked, and that block pat turned out to be
the difference in front of a whopping twenty eight thousand,
three hundred and fifty eight fans. You heard me right,

(31:19):
twenty eight thousand, three hundred and fifty eight fans. That's
how many people witness Wake Force beating SMU twenty eight
thousand and Clemson just watching SMU go up and down
the field. I don't I don't know what to tell you.

(31:49):
They're going to be changes on this staff. Some of
it is the effort from the players, though, And I
get it you're disappointed with where you are, Like I
am understand that. But you know, before that SMU game,
before that loss, while your your chances of winning the

(32:11):
Atlantic Coast Conference were slim, while the chances were incredibly slim,
you've got if you flip that record right now, right
and you win that game, you're three and two, all right.
You would currently be ahead of an SMU team that

(32:33):
would be three and two as well, and you'd be
sitting in the spot where you're just still kind of
lurking and hoping for a little a little luck. Instead
you're just lifeless, I mean, and looking at the effort
that you got, it's almost like they it's almost like
they quit before that SMU game. Based off of what
I saw from Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons win that game,

(32:58):
turning the ball over five five times. They hold SMU
to just eight first downs in the entire game. By comparison,
SMU had twenty one first downs against Clemson. They put
up four hundred and twenty nine yards. They had two
hundred and forty six this past weekend against Wake Forest,

(33:20):
and the Demon Deacons turned the ball over five times,
five five times, and SMU still only manage two hundred
and forty six yards. Now, SMU fans likely today listening
to the radio in Dallas and calling the inner saying, well,
we you know it's a trap game. We had a
big game begaus Clemson. We overlooked them. The travel blah

(33:42):
blah blah. Either way. Either way, if you're a Clemson fan,
you have to look at that defensive effort from the
Tigers and say yourself, how is it that SMU can
look like a hot knighte through butter against US and

(34:02):
then can't get out of their own way against wake Forest,
because I don't think that's what it is. I think
Wake Forest played better and played harder. The Tigers are
not playing as hard as they can play. They're not
giving the effort that they need to give, and it's disappointing.
And maybe there's some talent, like I said earlier, certainly,
but you gotta get more out of your guys. Speed

(34:25):
to getting more out of your guys? How I get
more out of your weekend? Up in Tigertown in 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, hats, T shirts, Tailgate, gar Moore
go check them out today or online at Alumni haull
dot com. And if you're in store, let them know
we sent you. It's Alumni Hall where Tiger fans shop.

(34:48):
And while you're in there, by the way, check out
those sweet Nike dry Fit Polos that you know I love.
And the hat wall it is flat out amazing. It's
Alumni Hall online, in Alumni Hall, right quick break, we'll
come out. We'll put a bow on our number one.
William Kuwalkinbush joins the program in hour two. Stay with
us final segment of our number one again, Clemson this

(35:09):
weekend at home against the Duke Blue Devils, both teams
off of a bye this past week. Lots of great
college football though around the country. We've talked about a
lot of different games out there in our number one.
But how about what happened to Colorado? Remember when Deon
Sanders took that job. Listen here, here's here. Let me

(35:31):
tell you best case scenario for Deon Sanders right now.
Best case scenario right now is for Colorado to hope
that Brent Key goes to Penn State again. He's a
he's a Georgia Tech graduate, and that Dion goes to

(35:54):
Atlanta the coach Georgia Tech. Because I knew the Deon
thing wasn't gonna work. They got absolutely steamrolled this weekend.
Utah smashed Colorado fifty three to seven. And that's just
a part of the story. Deon Sander's saying after the game,

(36:18):
this is bad. This is probably the worst beating I've
ever had, except when my mama whooped me as a kid.
A forty six point margin, the largest in the seventy
two year game history. I should say of the Rumbling
the Rockies between Colorado and Utah. The Utes led that
game at the half forty three to zip Deonzay, and

(36:38):
sometimes you just dumbfounded.

Speaker 4 (36:39):
Man.

Speaker 3 (36:40):
You just look at this day and say, wow, what happened?
There's no way you know, Deon always wears that shirt,
and you know how I feel about him, my favorite
player growing up watching him. That says, I mean I
ain't hard to find or I'm easy to find or whatever.
You gotta recruit man in this sport. Just because your
name is Deon Sanders, You're not gonna win in Boulder, Colorado.
You're not gonna win in Boulder Colorado. I don't care

(37:03):
who you are, I don't care where you played, I
don't know how good you were. You're not gonna win
in Boulder, Colorado. It's not gonna happen. So what I
will say is this, get to a place like Atlanta,
and I think you can do much better. You could

(37:25):
just recruit that area. You wouldn't have to go far.
Your name because of your time with the Braves and
Falcons is huge, and it's not Bolder Boulder, Colorado. I
have been to Boulder, Colorado, not much there. It's called Boulder.
It's just it's just not gonna work. It's a tough place.

(37:45):
You gotta work hard. Diona's got all those health issues.
I don't think that's helped. And that's look, I don't
know if that's gonna be the norm over his career,
right Like, that's a little bit, it's a little much.
But they're three and five. It's a disappointing year. They're

(38:08):
one and four in the conference, and Dion's team looks lifeless.
Males lifeless, get crushed. Man down forty three, nothing at
the half. That'll do it. That's the way it goes.
And if you don't find yourself a safe landing spot,

(38:30):
you'll be like Brian Kelly. You'll be like Brian Kelly.
You'll be like James Franklin. We're in a weird time,
like Dabo. Sweeney's success has certainly bought him, bought him
some leeway with fans, and it should buy him leeway

(38:51):
with fans. I think the bigger conclusion on Sweeney probably
has to come from Sweeney. Meaning, this was supposed to
be a year where Clemson shined. This was supposed to
be a year where we saw that the limited transfer
portal and keeping guys in your system and coaching these

(39:12):
guys up and developing your players a developmental game as dabos.
When you would say this was supposed to be a
year that would pay off, it has not. It has not,
and it is looking increasingly more likely that the game
between Clemson and South Carolina after Thanksgiving is not going
to be a game perhaps for either team to make
it to a bowl, but more or less the bowl.

(39:35):
Can you imagine this Clemson Tiger team starting where they
started the polls and not making a bowl game. That
would legitimately rank, in my opinion, as one of the
And I don't know all the flops in the history
of college football, but to me, that would rank as
one of the biggest flops in the history of the sport.

(40:00):
To go from where they were in the thought process
of who they were to not making a bowl game.
Holy smokes, it's unprecedented. There can't be too many out there.
I need to look it up. Let me throw this
in the Google machine. Let's see teams. Let's say the
past twenty years they started in the top five but

(40:23):
failed to make a bowl game. Maybe maybe fail to
win six games too, Because like if you win five
and get into a bowl game, does it really count.
That's like you know, if a tree falls in the woods,
nobody's there to hear. It doesn't make a sound. See
Florida State, where were they last year? That just popped
into my head, the recency of that debacle. Let's see

(40:49):
twenty twenty four. They started tenth. They start tenth, so
they weren't in the top five. Let's see two thousand
and five. It looks like Tennessee. They were ranked number
three in the AP. Their final record I think was

(41:10):
five and six. I do have the two thousand and
five rankings in front of me. Number one was Southern
cal then Texas, than Tennessee, and according to this, Tennessee
that year did not make a bowl game. That was
their first time missing a bowl game under Phil Fullmer.
It says twenty ten Texas also pulled off this feat

(41:32):
that is staring clips in the face. Texas was ranked
number five to open the season. I do not see
them in the top twenty five. It says they finished
five and seven with no bowl, their first losing season
since nineteen ninety seven, but no other AP POL preseason
top five team since two thousand and five that have

(41:54):
failed to reach six games unless it or a bowl
game unless they were sanctions. Notable other slides twenty twelve,
Southern Cal twenty fifteen, Auburn twenty twenty two, Texas A
and M. I'm thinking this is pretty rare air for Clemson.
Maybe we'll mention some of this with qualk when we
get back the possibility that looms not only for Clemson

(42:16):
at this point, but perhaps Penn State as well. Stay
with us.

Speaker 1 (42:23):
It's time for Clemson Sports Talk with luwten Schwan. Call
me Swanny. It is our number two. That's drive time

(43:08):
right here on the show This Shakespeare south Land Clemson
Sports Talk long and swam with you on a Monday.
Wim qualkin Bush set to join the program momentarily and
of course the show that Shakespeare south Land brought you
in part by our good friends over at METS Plumbing
amets plumbing dot com.

Speaker 3 (43:24):
Two two six seven one oh eight. That's two to six,
seven to one zero eight, all right out of the gates,
hour two on a Monday. Following on Twitter at qualk
Talk every day noon until three o'clock out the man
I was qualking bin on the five to five, the
roar in the upstate qual what's going on? Buddy? Welcome
in man?

Speaker 4 (43:44):
How are you Swanny? Was a nice weekend? You know?
At one point I had we have two cars and
our family and both were in the same service department.
So I'm thankfully we got both cars and thankful that
we made it. How was your weekend, dude?

Speaker 3 (43:59):
I heard you talk about that. Actually tuned into your
show a little bit today on my way home and
I heard you say that, And I've been doing the
same thing like I. You know, there was a time this, okay,
this kind of ages me a little bit. There was
a time where if a sock had a hole in it,
I would consider it, maybe a couple of wares, and
then get rid of it. I know more, I immediately

(44:22):
that socks gone and the partner and I am now
to the point in my life. I'm not saying I'm
wealthy by any means, but if my car's got to
hitch in the gide up, I take it to get
it fixed. I have crossed over into the realm of
of where I feel like I just take care of
the things I need to take care of.

Speaker 4 (44:40):
It is. It is a great place to be. Man,
it's a great place to be. Like I'm not I'm
not living eye on the hard or anything. Like I'm
the poorest poorest family in our neighborhood. And I know that.
You know, I take my car in what I think
is going to be very minor work and it is
to be a little more serious and then you know,
I w is gonna blow up or not. So I

(45:02):
mean like sometimes you gotta just do that stuff. And
you know what, Thankfully I'm not gonna have to take
out a second mortgage to do it. I was able
to manage the weekend and here we are. It's you know,
life's blessings.

Speaker 3 (45:14):
It's all listen, you know the other life lesson I've learned.
I'm forty eight. This is when I've just learned over
the past year and a half or so. When you're
working on a project at home, quak and if you're
not here yet, listen, cross this bridge today. You'll be
the better for it. When you're working on a project
at home, just go get the correct tool. Don't, oh boy,

(45:34):
don't try to hammer the nail into the wall with
the back end of a screwdriver. Just go get the
right tool. You will be better for over the long haul,
I promise.

Speaker 4 (45:47):
Golly great advice. I'll say I should have learned that
one the sooner because that has gotten me in trouble
many times. So I'm where you're pretty to acquire on
that one.

Speaker 3 (46:00):
Walk hanging out with this today. So let's talk about
the biggest news in the world of college football, and
that's the situation down at LSU. Now. I think we've
got what ten openings at the power five level already
and we're not even the Thanksgiving. Just a situation there.
The way things unfolded, and obviously when you get shell
ACKed at home the way they did by Texas A

(46:22):
and M, that's a big part of it. But the
more I'm hearing it really feels like Brian Kelly was
never really bought in to LSU.

Speaker 4 (46:32):
Yeah, you know, I think Brian Kelly was never bought
into LSU. I also think LSU was never bought into
Brian Kelly. Think about who he replaced. He replaced the
most LSU guy that there ever has been. If a
guy doesn't work at it, like if you're looking, because
people talk a lot about cultural fit, you know what's

(46:53):
a great cultural fit? And they fired him twenty months
after he won a national title. Okay, this is never
about cultural this is about winning. And to me, what
I thought was, okay, LSU with that quick trigger on
ed order on. They just want to win, and Brian
Kelly can win. He's won everywhere he can win there.
The reality is the shifting sands and the world of

(47:15):
college football. It changed so much, and Brian Kelly was
just behind, and it feels like he was behind for
different reasons, behind different programs, and it all came to
a head on Saturday, where I just think the whole
thing was so thoroughly embarrassing that it was even gonna
be now or later that this change was made, like
they tried to go fire. Joe Sloan at the start

(47:36):
of the meeting reported lead from Scott Woodward, which, by
the way, this isn't aside weirdest meeting I've ever heard.
They going to the meeting, Woodward says you need to
fight the OC. Brian Kelly says, great, I'm also gonna
do more stuff to fix this, and the ad like
splits out. He hits the roof, but he's like, absolutely not.
He storms out. All the coaches leave the facility, like,

(47:59):
what is that. Those meetings go like this by your OC. No, okay,
well then your next fine, and I'll resigned great off
of great am. I called your lawyer. That's how it goes.
This is never like, hey, I'd like to fire more
people than you think and the ad breaks out. I've
never heard that before. But anyway, so he goes into
this meeting and they're gonna fire the OC, but eventually

(48:20):
it was always gonna be Brian Kelly and this is why. Okay,
he fires the strength coach who goes to Texas A
and M, a team that just physically punked them, and
it's now won the second half like sixty to six
in the last two years. Okay, so that looks real bad.
They can't figure how to get out of their own
way offensively with an NFL quarterback two years after they

(48:42):
couldn't figure out how to get out of their wrong
way defensively with a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback who's also
winning in the NFL. So they literally have that great
quarterback played the entirety of his time there. They have
played in zero playoff games. They're not even remoting continent
of the candidate or even a team worthy on paper
or I guess based on the results. For after eight weeks,

(49:05):
they're not even considered the team that's worthy of inclusion,
not even one of those teams. He's like, well, the
schedule guy on them, or well, I can't believe they
played that tough game early and that you know they're
not gonna be able to overcome that. No, they're just
seeing as a colossal disappointment. And here's the final thing, Swanny,
if you are going to be a jerk, then you
have to win. We are now like twenty four hours

(49:25):
out from this happening. If anybody come to Brian Kelly's defense,
any coaches, like half the known world as coach for
Brian Kelly, Any coaches come out with statements saying, hey,
lovey coach, you know, pre appreciate you who you are, whatever.
Any former players come out and say, hey, you know,
appreciate you. No, I think that's telling. Hey, you know,
there's a Bible verse that says, what is it benefit

(49:48):
of man if he gains the whole world and four
fits his soul? And I kind of feel like that's
where Brian Kelly sits right now. He has no relationships
with his players, at the point that anybody's even saying
good luck to you, like publicly saying I wish is
that going to happen in the middle of the year, Pluny.
Everybody that's got fired, Billy Napier and Britz Bryant and
Mike Gunny, every coach has had people come out and say, hey,

(50:09):
bluddy coach supporting you whatever, except this guy. And the
bottom line is this. You can be a poor cultural
fit and you can be a little bit phony and
you cannot care about I'm knobbing with the right people
or recruiting the way out to recruit whatever met rugs.
If you win, and if you don't, they're gonna fire you.
The lesson in this one and even the James Franklin moments,

(50:31):
Dame Fringlas have players come out and support of them,
and you know, a couple former Savage or whatever. But
the reality is James Franklin was considered a jerk to
the people at Penn State, so they were ready to
fire him. Brian Kelly is a jerk, and LSU was
ready to fire him at the first sign of trouble.
And man getting punked in your own stadium by your
old strength coach while the opposing team celebrates like the

(50:55):
game's over before the start of the fourth quarter with
their fans and bands, and Brian Kelly is just f
bombing every coach on his staff and if he doesn't
know why this thing's going back, it is a horrific
look for a proud football program at LSU.

Speaker 3 (51:10):
William qualking Bush with us here on a Monday, and
I will say I thought that was one of the
interesting things. And I know in recruiting it will change
over time, but the majority of the players who were
committed to LSU have still come out and said, hey,
I'm committed. It's more than Brian Kelly, which I thought

(51:30):
was pretty telling. And then today the news that Clemson
loses a four star commit in Blake Stewart at safety
at a position group which I went through on I
guess it was Wednesday or Thursday last week walk I
went through the coaching staff, their commitments, how their position's playing.
And this is a kid I talked about and a

(51:51):
position group I talked about because I feel like Mickey
Kahn is one of those names that's out there on
the hot seat. But what does it also say that
Clempson at three and four, and no staff changes that
we are aware of at this point that are certain,
and yet you have a commitment fall off like Blake Stewart.

Speaker 4 (52:12):
Okay, so there's a couple of things going on here potentially. Okay,
I don't know the ins and out of this particular situation,
but this is a kid who probably clinched a guy
in on early who was a little bit of a
late bloover like that that's been or at least a
guy that that was a little bit under the radar,
which he didn't play at a tiny high school. So
it's a little bit shocking to me that he was
under the radar as long as he was. But this
is the guy who interests sort of ramped up and

(52:33):
he stuck with Clemson. You know, he had over church
from Miami, having Michigan was in there or whatever, some
big deep pocketed schools.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
Yeah, here's the thing to going on here.

Speaker 4 (52:43):
One is that increasingly we're seeing kids and their representatives
using commitments as a way to make a baseline price.
And then the door's not really shut. Like I don't
know if you noticed, but you don't have to take
an official visit elsewhere to be soliciting offers from other people,
so that I think is happening with commitments all day

(53:04):
long everywhere. People are trying to see who is coming
with the biggest back, and we'll lock in our spot,
which is kind of what Davos Sweeny's you know, till
graduation to do a part we're supposed to avoid. Right, Well,
now they're following all Dabos rules. We've seen this with
recruits all the time. They're following all Dabos rules. But
you can't keep a guy from answering a phone call.
You just can't do that. So there's no way to

(53:27):
sort of ward this off. But here's the way you
worn it off oneing. I really do believe this. You
have to swim with the shots in recruiting, no question
about it, but dog gone it. If you don't want
to play these stupid games with recruits with seventeen year
olds you don't know if they're going to be good
or not, then you play these stupid games with twenty
year old And that's why I have not understood Clemson's

(53:49):
approach to the portal for the last two years. It's
obvious that recruits are being big bag all over the place, well,
you know when that's not necessarily happening is in the
transfer port and by the way, the recruit sometimes you
get stuck with recruits. Think about Clemson's roster right now.
You've gotten start with a lot of players that you
probably thought we're gonna be better than what they are.

(54:11):
You know, where that's not increasingly not the canvas, say
at all time of increasingly not the case is in
the portal, where you kind of what you're gonna get
in terms of a player, you've seen him play against
college athletes for one or in some cases like four years.
That's why you should be in the portal. It's because
you don't want to play these stupid games with freshman
you'd rather play if visit a game you have to play,

(54:31):
you'd rather playing with juniors that you know more about
that You've got an opportunity with Kevin Kelly and runs
of film and let them scalt these guys. That's what
I've been saying. Clemson, though, has kicked me either. Lay
Clemson has said, we're not playing any of these games
with anybody, and so you see what the roster looks
like now. I also think this can be a hardbander
things to come, because the position group that arguably has

(54:53):
been the worst of the tea so far is safety.
I mean, a lot of folks are ridley pointing out
that Mickey Kahn is probably feeling a little litle bit
of heat under his seat, and so it may not
be a bad thing to let somebody else if that's
the the I don't know that that's where they're going,
but I would not be shocked if that's the direction
that they go at the end of the season, if
they let somebody else get their hands on a couple

(55:14):
of quarter acquisitions at safety after what as you mentioned,
Tom Allen said last week about the physical specs aren't
matching the Spina lesidents assent there. So I think Blake Stewart,
I think Blake Stewart's a good player, But like I
don't think we should, you know, freak out over losing
a freshman as long as we're seeing that Clinton is

(55:35):
willing to do what it takes to put that talent
back in an older model.

Speaker 3 (55:39):
On Twitter again at qualk Talk, go follow him. Today's
William Qualkin Bush hanging out with us for a few
more minutes on a Monday afternoon. Let's talk about Tony
Elliott and his squad for a minute. Those dudes have
won three games in overtime, Like, I don't know if
there's ever been a team that it just seems like
is gonna find a way more in them. I mean,

(56:00):
they win that North Carolina game when Bill Belichick decides
to go for two and the balls about a cineme
well about an inch from from the goal line. I mean,
good for Tony Elliott, But what a story this has been.
And and you know, to watch the resilience of that team,
it really does fit the measure of the man that's
coaching them.

Speaker 4 (56:21):
You know, we talked about this today. I mean there's
seven and one right now. They feel like an eight
and four football team, right, I mean, they just don't
feel like they're gonna up hitting two because they really
have been messing around. I mean three of their last
four games have been an overtime game, and the one
that wasn't that won by two.

Speaker 5 (56:40):
Game.

Speaker 4 (56:40):
I mean, he was this man, So I mean I like, yes,
they're kind of getting away with it some degree. However,
if there's ever like we talk about turnovers, like a
lot of years you have bad turnover lock. Like you
lose a lot of fumbles and your your sideways and
the giveaways, and then it turns around the next year.
Or you know, in what one score games, one run

(57:04):
games in baseball, you lose a bunch of one run games.
The law of average says you're gonna win a munch
the next year. Just sometimes you don't get the breaks. Man,
Tony Elliott hasn't gotten any breaks at Virginia. Some of
that is self inflicted. Some of it, though, is not.
And I'm talking of course tragically with the loss of
life on the team, but also in games. Just he

(57:25):
hasn't got a break. So I am good if you
say the guys that are real fortunate, yeah, you think
he's kind of heard it right. I mean, he's been
real unfortunate since the moment he got there, So I
am okay with Like, I'm not gonna talk about Virginia
the same way it's like about Georgia Tech or Miami
or a team like that. But I am gonna talk
about Virginia as a good, solid football team that is

(57:46):
finding ways to win and might be getting fortunate. But man,
sometimes fortune favors the bawls. Sometimes fortunate favors those who
are in the right spot, who put themselves in a
position to capitalize. And I think beyond anything else, you
can say that about Virginia that they put themselves in
a position to win every game on the schedule this year,
and that is something I think to be proud of

(58:06):
for a program that's been struggling to get to a
bowl game the last few years.

Speaker 3 (58:10):
Yeah, I'll tell you what, I just root so hard
for that team. I've enjoyed watching Brent Vinables. It's really
been a nice It's kind of a nice space to
be given the season that Clemson has had, right that
you can kind of root for those two guys and
the job they've done, because it's been rare in my
life that I've really been able to follow a Clemson

(58:31):
coach that's had you know, what we would call success,
you know, outside of occasionally, you know, Chad Morris a
little bit of smu a little bit at Arkansas. But
this has been pretty cool, I think for Tiger fans.

Speaker 4 (58:43):
Yeah, you know what's funny, like the Tommy Ballden coach
and Tree was basically Rich Rodriguez, so you know he
was only cletson a couple of years, but like Tony Elliott,
Brent Vnables, I mean I'm watching like Zach Ally the
defensive coordinator at West Virginia now cam Akin was a
staffer for years to opensive coordinator at East Tennessee State.
You look at the Oklahoma staff, like bren Vinables and

(59:05):
Miguel Chavis are there, like uh, James Kalski is on
the staff, Bears, Theigre Brewers on the staff there. There's
there's a lot of good reason to do that. Like
you say, this is not something the like if you
went to school and you did or even when I
did that, like a lot of your contemperar that like
the coaches that were there at that time, uh, weren't
exactly like getting filtered out and sent other places. But

(59:27):
I do think it's cool to root for Tony and
Brent and their staffs, right, and then some of these
others coaches who have proven their worth not just that
Clemson in the back of house roles that they were
in like that, Like you know, Alli and Aken and
some of these guys are my age, so I like
I sort of came up with them and was the
sort of friends with them when we were at Clemson.
But like, there's a bunch of players who have paid

(59:48):
their dues, have been on other staffs, and you certainly
I'm the George watching Willie Findons and he's gonna take
FIU to a bowl game. I think now again they
might be a little airy, they might go six and six.
But watching a former Clenson quarterback as the head coach, right,
he has paid some dudes did a really good job
in a tough spot at FAMU, who is now FYU
a place where coaching dreams go to die, a place

(01:00:10):
that at one time until Mario Christoval, he was too
ambitious and fired him for wanting to win too much
to get them to a bowl game. I think it's
awesome thing. Again, if that happens, it'd be great. And
I do think that's been a cool part of this season.

Speaker 3 (01:00:22):
Yeah, I think Jay Giermo might be coaching one offensive
line at Navy. I mean, it's really neat right to
see these guys all over the place, and you know,
it's not just players in the NFL. There are guys
that are doing it at the collegiate level and it's
a lot of fun. Well, final, a couple of things
for you. First, let's talk about the quarterback situation at
Clemson after the performance at Christopher Zina had this past weekend.

(01:00:44):
You know, maybe regardless of how healthy Kate is heading
into this duke game, in my mind, the Zena earned
more opportunity, and I think at this point in the
season it's okay to roll with that, and I think
fans would be okay with that. I'm not saying by
any means that you bench Kate Clubnick, But do you
think this weekend, if Kate Clubnick is healthy and playing,

(01:01:06):
that we will see the Zena get some opportunity or
is this just if Kate's good, he's the man?

Speaker 4 (01:01:13):
So I do think I think that's a great way
to put it, that he's earned more opportunity. I think
a lot of people see it as a binary, like
you have to choose one, and the reality is it
would be irresponsible not to play both of them. For
this reason, Number one, I still think Kate Clubby gives
you the best chance to war football games. Okay, now
it's not by much based on what he's showing you
what Zina showed you. But Zina thrown forty some passes

(01:01:33):
over three hundred yards and that's great at three touchdowns
and no intersections.

Speaker 3 (01:01:37):
Hey, Qua, let me cut you off right there. I'll
tell you what. We'll hit a quick break. We'll come back.
We'll let qualk finish his thoughts on Clemson's quarterback situation
as the Tigers get geared up for a matchup against
the Duke Blue Devils this afternoon, up this weekend. They
haven't played so long. I want him to play this evening.

(01:01:57):
All right, we'll hit a quick break. We'll come back
with more from Wim Qualkin Bush right here on Fox
Sports Radio fourteen under the Middins. And of course you
can listen to the show anywhere in the world on
the iHeartRadio app. And you know this. We have a podcast.
We do the podcast every day. It is a little
bit frustrating when people say, Swanny, how's your podcast going.
It's a radio show. Okay, we just podcasted. Stay with us,

(01:02:21):
rocking and rolling along with you, Clemson Sports Salt, Lawton Swan,
Wim Qualking Bush on the guest line, Qualky, you're talking
about my question to you about Kay Klumnik and Christopher
Vezina and whether or not Zena should get you know,
some snaps the rest of the way.

Speaker 4 (01:02:37):
But if you look at the yards per tempt, he
was roughly what Kate Klumnick has given you this season. Now,
I thought he was better quick gang. He made some
better decisions. He also was I had a horrible pocket
a wearing as somb like. There were lots of things
that you ain't have a nitpick to see problems there.
So I agree with you. I think we need to
see more of the Zena. I think the coaches need
to see more of a Zena so they know their
specific need in the portal. I still don't think you

(01:03:00):
absolutely know what the deal is in twenty twenty six
at quarterback. Maybe the coaches have made that determination already.
I think as fans, I don't think you have to
give up on the season, play with Zena, lose a
bunch of games just to figure out whether he can
play in twenty twenty six. These coaches getting paid a
lot of money departing that middle ground, and I do

(01:03:20):
think for the program, I think you have to play
k Club in a time because he again gives you
the best answer win the game, in my opinion. But
you don't have to just sit Zina over there because
there is incentive. I think there is zena in legitimate
game situation. Did not run it on second and two
straight up the centers, But like we're not doing that.

(01:03:41):
I'm talking about give him a series, give him a
few plays, give him some packet to plays that he
can run, because you still have to be sure that
he can do the job before you go into the offseason.

Speaker 3 (01:03:52):
And I guess the final thing, Quaul, as we head
into this matchup against the Duke Blue Devils, you know,
the the odds that Clemson was gonna make a bowl
game at the beginning of season seem like a laughable conversation.
I mean, I thought they were gonna finish with probably
nine to three being the worst case scenarios. What I

(01:04:13):
sort of thought, based off of what we believed was
gonna return to the field, Do you think this team
makes a bowl game? Because what they've got remaining with
Louisville and Florida State, and that's South Carolin. Let me
tell you if that's South Carolina team that I watched
this weekend play against Alabama, even though it looks a
little bit like a one man wrecking crew with Lenor
Sellers being the best player on the field, If that

(01:04:36):
team shows up in plays as hard as they did
against Alabama against Clemson, they'll beat the Tigers by twenty
five points.

Speaker 4 (01:04:44):
You know what, I will agree with that. I do
think Alabama is in a bit of a tricky spot
because they've been they going off a four straight ranked
teams and they've been playing so well. I also think
it's a great spot for South Carolina. I'm trying to
figure out if I can actually extrapolate a lot from
that game, or if it was more than one off performance.
Because of those things, I do think South Carolina looks
way better than Clinton right now. What we just saw

(01:05:05):
from South Carolina is better than any performance that Clinton's
put out there all year long. I think Leonora Siller
is a huge problem, especially given what Tom Allen thinks
about his personnel and defense. Obviously it's a major major
issue there. And so I would say it's gonna come
down to that game because Florida State is the corpse.
You got to be Florida State to home. I mean,
it's a night game. We know that. Now you got

(01:05:26):
to be the corpse and Furman should be winning. That
gets you to five. I think they can score on
Duke I don't know that you're stopping Duke if you
couldn't really stop Smu and critical moments with a one
legged quarterback, two legged dari and Mins is better than
two legged Kevin Jennings. So I think they're passing in
conceptually is really good. And then I just don't see

(01:05:47):
any way you're going to Louisville of winning. So they
give me five and six going to Columbia where they
have had tremendous success in keeping South Toronto off the scoreboard.
Can you winner as the seventeen Maybe? I just don't
know if that defense is gonna I mean, if I
had to put money on it right now, I'd say no.
But I think six and six is still on the
table for this team, even if you're not looking like

(01:06:07):
you know, Dabo level sunnysidep type projection.

Speaker 3 (01:06:10):
You know what, Bloke, You know what really blew my mind, Like,
of all the things we saw this weekend, whether it
was Indiana just absolutely demolishing UCLA and some of the
other games that that happened this weekend, what Waye Force
did defensively to SMU made me think to myself, how
bad is this Clemson defense? Like that was a like

(01:06:32):
that was the biggest concern I got the whole weekend
quall was what SMU looked like against way Force. And
I think Wake turned the ball over five times in
that game.

Speaker 4 (01:06:42):
Oh yeah, that game was a mess. That was an
awful game. There were eight here's fun staff in that game,
eight turnovers, seven combined points off turnovers. It was you
win it, No, you win it, No you winn't, no,
you winn'. That's all that was. I don't listen. I
don't blame clech you for being mad about that, because
I think I think a Clemson defense should do that
to what SMU was thrown out theater. I would also

(01:07:03):
say this, like I think read lastly, I think Red
last year is a really good steamer. And I also
think this, I think that, uh, I think that playing
at Clinton is still like you're you're going on the
road back to back. You're playing in front of tens
of people at Wake Forest as SMU. Like that's a
tough back to back. Like I almost feel like if
Clinton was in the second of that back to back,

(01:07:25):
they would have a little less in their legs, you
know what I'm saying. So you know, one of the
one thing that Clipson has contend with is that they're
still getting everybody's best shot. Kind of like when Florist
Day went two and ten last year. There was no mercy,
there was no less than game plan. Letges get in
and get out. It was lets people can embarrassed these
fools and U. So I do think that's part of it.
But there's no question that Clinton should have been better

(01:07:47):
defensively against SMU and the wake Forest game does nothing
to dissuade me of that.

Speaker 3 (01:07:53):
Well, I'll leave you with this and you can double
check my research if you want, But last year Florida
State was a top ten team. Clemson this year started
in the top five in one of the polls. It's
only happened a couple of times that a team has
been ranking in the top five and not made a
bowl game. Two thousand and five, Tennessee was preseason number three,

(01:08:14):
didn't make a ball game. They were five and six.
In twenty ten, Texas was number five and finished five
and seven in their first losing season since nineteen ninety seven.
And Buddy, what we've seen, I got a feeling it's tragic,
but we might be adding Clemson to this list and boy,
what a turn of events that is for those of you,
those of us that cover them and talk about them

(01:08:37):
all the time.

Speaker 4 (01:08:38):
Swinny, that's the most depressing way that we can end this.
I don't know a better way. I don't know a
better way to end It's that's where we sit. And look,
you know, Davo was four and four going into November
two years ago and he won four straight, including over
a ranked team that there was no way going to
stop at Notre Dame. I've been containing in North Carolina quarterback. Look,

(01:08:58):
he does some crazy stuff. So uh, you know, when
when you're in the Prince of aara udiney, you're you're
probably wanted to see if the labbit jumps out of.

Speaker 3 (01:09:05):
The hat at some point there we go follow him
on Twitter, folks at quald talk every day out of
bounce with Qualking been one o, five to five of
the roar in the Upstates. William Qualkin Bushquak, have a
great week, man.

Speaker 4 (01:09:16):
Thanks buddy, you did the same. Man's gonna be with you.

Speaker 3 (01:09:18):
Great stuff from William Qualking Bush again on a Monday
afternoon eight zero three four five oh zero zero eighty six.
That is the text line in the phone line. And
again you can be a part of the program anytime,
any place, anywhere on outur website. Again we mentioned it
during that segment William Qualkin Bush the Tigers getting some
bad news on the recruiting trail as safety Blake Stewart

(01:09:40):
de commits from Clemson. Again, the tough sledding. This is
the thing, this is the things that will happen. And
it's no surprise to me, uh that guys are backing
off of their commitments after Clemson has had such an
atrocious year. Lowton Swine, Clemson's sports talt welcoming you back
on the Monday. Don't forget about our friends at Alumni

(01:10:02):
Hall right there on the corner of campus on College
Avenue in downtown Clemson. We all your officially licensed Clemson merchandise,
has T shirts, Telgate gear more. As a matter of fact,
head over to clempsonsports dot com right now. Click on
our article that we wrote about Chad Morris and the offense,
and in there you could see some of the sweet gear,
the Nike dry Fit polos you know I love. Click

(01:10:25):
on that advertisement that'll take your right to Alumni Hall's
web page and from there you could do your shopping,
we'll get a little support. But if you're in store
and you're a Clemson student, faculty member, or in the military,
you get ten percent off. It's alumni Hall where Tiger
fans shop, all right. We mentioned this with William Qualkinbush earlier,
and I, you know, I kind of went down this

(01:10:46):
rabbit hole the other day about coaches and the commits
that Clemson currently has in the twenty twenty six recruiting
class and some of those names that might change based
off of, you know, whatever scenarios take place. And one

(01:11:07):
in which did take place was the de commitment of
Blake Stewart and we talked about it with William Qualkinbush
just a little bit ago. You know, I think the thing.

Speaker 4 (01:11:22):
That is.

Speaker 3 (01:11:25):
So disappointing about this situation one is that back in
the day, and some people will say, hey, well, Dabo
Sweeney's you know kind of the old methods. You know,
they kind of had a rule where you didn't go
take a visit somewhere else, and a lot of players

(01:11:47):
abided by that rule, and that was the occasional Deshaun
Watson gonna take a little sneaky sneaky off the peaky
peaky and go out to Auburn. Right. But when these
guys do this, you know when they decommit, especially given

(01:12:07):
the nature of your season that Clemson has had, it
throws up red flags, and it throws up a red
flag about the position group and a coach at Mickey Kahn,
who when I went through the roster the other day,
I kind of talked about just how bad that group
has been, not necessarily whether or not guys would be decommitting.
As a matter of fact, you would think that if

(01:12:30):
your position group weren't good on the football team, that
you might want to go there so that you can
play sooner. Here's what I said last week. I think
it was the twenty third. Maybe this is what I
said last week about it and didnt. Mickey Kahn, safety's
coach at Clemson. You look at the group of safeties

(01:12:51):
Clympsons currently got a four star Kentavion Anderson committed out
of Dorman. They've got Blake Stewart committed out of Fairborne, Georgia.
Both of those pross are four stars. And you've got
Kayden Gebhart, who a lot of people have talked about
also being a kid that could potentially be a four
star prospect. So the recruiting at this point at the

(01:13:16):
safety position is not bad for Mickey Kahn. But I
do feel like the performance at safety has been atrocious,
and I mean atrocious. And that might be why Mickey
Kahn would be a name that I would look for
Clemson to make a change on. I brought him up
earlier in the week. It's more about the productivity and

(01:13:38):
not the recruitment. It's about the productivity and not the recruitment.
And that's what I said before and I'll stand by that.
You know, I think that when you look at some
of the guys maybe that have stepped away from the
program or transferred out, Yes, that's a hit. And the
fact that you are also having to play a converted

(01:13:59):
wide rescis as one of your safeties is also a problem.
But Mickey Kahn, the list that he had out there
when we did that segment not terrible. But dropping Stewart
or better yet, having Stuart drop you as a program,

(01:14:20):
I mean, that's a big hit. And I think Qualt
makes an interesting point about, you know, do you address
this now through the transfer portal or do you try
to do some damage control a little late in the process.
I mean, most of these guys will likely be trying
to get on campus in a couple of months. This
has been a kid that's been committed to you for
about three months, but he busited Vanderbilt over the weekend,

(01:14:41):
and he also went apparently to a game down at
Miami as well. And anytime you're taking those visits, it
could be a little bit of a two way street
where where Clempson says, hey, look, we we didn't know
about these visits. We don't like these visits. You're gonna

(01:15:02):
have to decommit. I mean, it could be something where
Clemson forced their hand a little bit, But I don't
think so. I don't think you've got that luxury. I
mean you're a three to four team that may not
make a bowl game. I mean, think about this. Dabo
Sweeney should almost immediately be a name that you would

(01:15:25):
put on the radar for this LSU job, right, just
given what he's done. And I'm sure you could find
the list that has him, but from one of the
sites that covers LSU, Lane Kiffen Clark, Lee, Eli Drinkwitz,
John somemerl Josh Heipel, Marcus Freeman, Kirk Signetti. You know

(01:15:47):
what name he didn't hear there, Dabo Sweeney. And I
think this is interesting because it might further reflect something
we talked about a week ago that Dabo Sweeney has
not shown success in the NIL transfer portal era. He
has not Dabo Sweeney has not shown success in the

(01:16:09):
NIL and transfer portal era, and because of that fact,
I think some people are hesitant to put him on
the list. Now, the other reason that you might be
hesitant to put him on the list is because you
feel like there's no chance that he's leaving Clemson. And

(01:16:29):
for the Tiger fans, like I know some of you
are frustrated and you're prepared to bail on Dabo Sweeney.
But as I've no demand, I think the guy could
be here until he wants to leave. I'm sure that's
probably hyperbole at this point given what we've seen in
the world of college football, but yeah, I think part
of the reason his name's not showing up is because

(01:16:51):
Sweeney hasn't proven that he could navigate this this part
of college football and have the success that he did previously.
And this is the era that you're in. It's kind
of like believing and this is a weird correlation, and

(01:17:11):
there's probably a better one out there, but it's like
believing that because you're a great putter on a golf course,
that you're gonna be a great putt putt player. That's
just not the case. Daboswingi was great in one era
and hasn't proven to be great in this second era.
We'll see if he can fix it. Final segment, flip side.

Speaker 5 (01:17:33):
What have you done 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?

Speaker 4 (01:17:51):
And what have you done?

Speaker 5 (01:17:52):
Always are the same. We win.

Speaker 3 (01:18:46):
Final segment on a Monday, the show The Chase of
south Land. Again, thank you for being a part of
the program. Thank you for supporting us. Thank you for
supporting our sponsors. They are a key part of this
program and we certainly appreciate them. I hope you support
us as well. One way you can do that is
on our website. Clemson supports taut dot com. Just get
you that sixty three seventeen. That's what it costs for

(01:19:09):
a year sixty three seventeen. That's right, we said it
so you.

Speaker 5 (01:19:11):
Could continue to peek over the fence at the best
radio showing the.

Speaker 3 (01:19:15):
Naked Just get that sixty three seventeen membership. Support us there,
share our work on social media. That's a freeway to
do it. We'd love to have you subscribe and support
our website and help us grow and pay the bills
and keep the lights on and all that. But I
get it, man, it's tough sledging. I got two kids.

(01:19:37):
I understand what you're dealing with, man. And it's not
getting any cheaper, that's for sure, Holy smokes, not getting
any cheaper. But we're just continuing to work and grind
and hustle, and I hope, and I know my team
hopes that you appreciate what we do and how we
do it. We try to do everything with the utmost
amount of respect. Speaking of respect, people starting to respect

(01:20:01):
the Indiana Hoosias, the number two team in the country.
Double O says he is down with the Hoosiers. He
says that's his team. He's picking the Hoosiers to win
it all. Kirk Signetti to bring home a national championship
that came be a text you could text us eighth

(01:20:23):
three four or five zero zero eighty six as well
and smack myself on the wrist because I have done
a bad job of reading text to you over the
past couple of weeks. I apologize. I don't know. Sometimes,
like I have three monitors in front of me, sometimes

(01:20:44):
I think I need four, as ridiculous as that sounds.
Sometimes I think I need four because I'll have like
the one screen is taken up by the recording, another
screen is taken up by the phone line, Another screen
is taken up by the stats and the data and

(01:21:07):
the storylines. And that doesn't leave me a screen free
to just keep the text lineup. And I should and
I apologize. So for all you Texters, I'll try to
get to that for you over the next couple of days. Again,
the big news in the world of college football today
Brian Kelly out changing of the guard At. I think

(01:21:31):
certainly one of the top programs in the country in
college football. Like if you're putting together a list, if
you are putting together a list of the top programs
teams in the country, LSU would be there, no doubt
about it. LSU would be there now outside of Brian

(01:21:54):
Kelly being fired. The news did come out today as well.
They fired offensive coordinator Joe Sloan. He is the offensive
coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Sloan, in his fourth season, joined
the LSU staff in twenty twenty two as quarterbacks coach
and was promoted to the offensive coordinator following the Reliaquest
Bowl win over Wisconsin in January before after Mike Denbrock

(01:22:18):
left the position for the same job at Notre Dame.
So Alice Atkins excuse me. Alex Atkins, who was the
tight ends coach and run game coordinator and formerly the
offensive coordinator at Florida State and Charlotte, will take over
as LSU's play caller, according to the school. So LSU

(01:22:40):
comes to Clemson, wins seventeen to ten, and just a
few weeks later fires their head coach, and I tweeted.
I tweeted out about like, man, what a what a
sport to cover when you talk about and people, well
he needs to be fired. What has he done? And

(01:23:04):
I get it, like the success has not been with
LSU fans expect. I get all of that, but much
like Penn State, I mean, they were a top twenty team.
Top twenty, and it begs the question whether or not
the college football playoff is healthy for the sport like

(01:23:25):
it felt like back in the day. And I think too,
it begs the question whether high priced salaries are healthy
for the sport. And these coaches. I'm waiting for the coach,
like I said last week, I am waiting for the
coach that says, pay me less. I don't need twelve
million dollars a year, give me three, but give me time.

(01:23:49):
Give me three million dollars a year in time. That's
what I want. I don't like. At some point somebody's
gonna do it. Somebody's gonna man up and say I
don't want you fifteen million. I want three million, and
I want guaranteed time. Forget guaranteed money. Give me a
chance to build this program, and I'll build it. It's
got a switch because this is just absurd. What's happening

(01:24:12):
in all of this. By the way, this whole buyout
deal with Brian Kelly all set up by the same
athletic director who set up the deal for Jimbo Fisher,
Scott Woodward. He is now responsible for two of the
largest buyouts in the history of college football. It is absurd.

(01:24:38):
All right, We'll be back to talk about it more tomorrow.
Till then, as always, y'all take care now and go Tigers.