The "Best Player" Edition

Dabo Swinney called Antonio Williams Clemson's best player, a week after saying Cade Klubnik was the Tigers' best player. Did he mean best playmaker? We discuss on today's show!

Episode Transcript

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

(00:44):
Clemson Sports Talk has come back two drive time. Hello everybody,
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(01:27):
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(01:49):
METS Plumbing all right today, I'll talking Tuesday up at
Tigertown Dabo Sweeney met with the media talking about this
matchup coming up against the Georgia Tate Yellowjackets, obviously not
going to be an easy one by any means. Certainly,
I think the conversations and Dabloswoheney was asking about how

(02:12):
Clemson handled the expectations coming into the year. We'll play
that for you in a minute, But you know, I
really think that some of this whole hubbub, so to speak,
is overblown. And I get it that you're disappointed, but look,
you're driving a lsu to tie that game late, and

(02:36):
if your disappointment was to be with, well, we didn't
play well the whole game, or we were out schemed,
or as I've said, I think they just were a
little bit more aggressive than Clemson. Like those are all
valid things to be frustrated about. What I think magnified
it though, is just kind of the slow start against Troy.
But as I said yesterday, that kind of stuff doesn't

(02:58):
panic me in this world. Has Clemson played as good
as they can play? No, did Dabosweeney bring up some
things today that make me feel differently about this team?
Maybe a little bit, And I don't know if it
was taken out of context necessarily, But Dabosweeney did call,

(03:23):
and we'll hear it in just a little bit. He
did call Antonio Williams Clemson's best player. And that seems
to me again, if he was talking about best wide out,
that's one thing, But he said best player, and I
don't believe he was asked to clarify. I can double

(03:45):
check on that. But anyway, with all of that out there,
so to speak with Dabosweeney talking about that aspect of
this offense, this team, I mean, it does make you
wonder is he the best player? And if he is,

(04:07):
what does that say about ky Clembney. Because it wasn't
but a week ago right where Davilas when he said,
if you told me our best player was gonna have
his worst game or a poor game or whatever, and
in that context he was talking about Kade so I

(04:29):
in a lot of respects, don't sit here today and
overly scramble and panic about this coming weekend's game against
Georgia Tech. I would still expect Clemson to win that ballgame. Now,
other people might feel much differently at this point, but
I think this Georgia Tech game is probably just what

(04:51):
the doctor ordered for Clemson, quite frankly, just what the
doctor ordered. The Tigers are, of course zero to two
against the spread this season. But this Clemson Georgia Tech
game over in Atlanta is a little bit of a

(05:15):
strange one, so to speak, because there's a belief that
this game is going to be extremely close based off
of the way Clemson has played and in some respects
maybe based off the way Georgia Tech has played. Now,
I gotta say, if you watch that Georgia Tech Colorado

(05:36):
game out of Gates, I mean, Georgia Tech was loose
with the football. That kind of stuff will kill you.
They're probably fortunate that they won that game, quite frankly.
But when you look at ESPN's lines on this Clemson
Georgia Tech game, and I brought this up yesterday, would

(05:58):
intrigue me is that this was a fifty five point
nine percent matchup predictor in favor of Georgia Tech versus
forty four point one for Clemson. And I saw it
as a nine and a half point spread yesterday. Clemson

(06:23):
being favored by nine and a half. How the Holy smokes,
But that's what it was, at least on ESPN Bet
that's what it said today. That line is at three
and a half. Now, I got some theories on this.
I don't know how ESPN sport their sports book works,

(06:45):
but I'm thinking what we saw was the preseason over
under and that's why it said nine and a half
because I don't know what the spread will be for
like Clemson and Syracuse next weekend, et cetera. But I

(07:06):
would imagine whatever that thing was at previously would take
quite a dip now that we've seen Clemson play. And hey,
it wasn't like Syracuse was spectacular against yukon this past
weekend either, and fran Brown had them running after the game.

(07:26):
I'll be honest. I know Clemson. You know, the ACC
put out that new policy about, well, you can't go
down on the field until a certain amount of time.
And so Clemson, I guess they kind of took my
advice and they're gonna do the album mater the way
they did, and they're gonna sing the Alba Mater while
the fans are in the stands and then the fans
can come out on the field. Look, I would have
been okay if they were If Dale Gilbert would have

(07:47):
made an announcement I would have been perfectly fine with
this if he said, Hey, Tiger fans, look, we're gonna
sing the Alba Mater and then dabos swing he's gonna
have these guys run for this performance against Troy and
then we'll have the gathering at the Paw, just like
what fran Brown did to Syracuse. I would have been
one hundred percent okay with it if Dabo Sweeney had

(08:09):
done that against Troy this past weekend, because the lackluster
effort that you got in the first half deserves that
type of your consequence, and it's almost an embarrassment to
have to go out there and run, But that's what
Clemson needs. Like Dabo Swingy today talked about the rat
poison or the you suck poison, Well guess what, coach,

(08:30):
maybe if you had those guys out there dragging up
and down the field just a little bit after the
game this past Saturday in front of the public view,
if indeed that's part of the problem is that they
were kind of feeling themselves a little bit too much
in this nil era, in an era where everybody's taking
them up all off season, maybe just maybe that'd be

(08:51):
the thing that needed to kick them right in the
rear end to get them going in the right direction.
I'm just thinking out loud because I absolutely loved what
fran Brown did to Syracuse this weekend. But enough about
the rearview mirror. We can certainly talk about some positive
things on that front coming up in just a little bit.
I will talk right now the present. Davos Sweeney earlier

(09:11):
today meeting with the media as he does every Tuesday.
Here's what coach Sweeney had to say in his opening statement.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
Appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (09:18):
We're excited to head on a first road game this week.
Got a huge challenge in Georgia Tech. This is this
is a big game for both teams. Obviously, we're getting
into conference play and our first road test. So excited
about the opportunity. Brand's done an amazing job down there.
This is a tough, physical, well coached football team, and

(09:44):
they're battle tested, especially on offense. With that quarterback.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
I mean, he is a he is a the miss
guy's a warrior.

Speaker 3 (09:52):
I have a ton of respect for him as a
player that got really good skill around him. They're tough
and physical upfront. They all really underst stand their scheme
and they take a lot of pride in the execution
of it. So, uh put a lot of strain on you. Defensively,
I mean it's uh, there, there's there's there's multiple options
on every snap and uh, but you know they're gonna

(10:14):
put it in their best players' hands.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (10:16):
So you know they got between their quarterback and zero
and one.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
Those guys. Those guys really strain you.

Speaker 3 (10:24):
They're gonna touch the ball early often in a lot
of different ways, whether it's from the backfield, jet sweeps.
And then they've done a nice job with some guys
on the perimeter that they brought in there that have
the ability to make some big plays too. So some
of those guys didn't play a lot last week with
with the nature of the game. Uh, they blocked a

(10:45):
couple of kicks. So they do a good job, you know,
creating some opportunity there.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
We'll have to do it. We'll have to do a
really great job with our protection.

Speaker 3 (10:53):
And then defensively, uh, you know, they're not giving up
a ton of big plays.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
I mean, they do a nice job of.

Speaker 3 (11:01):
You know, just executing their defense being where they're supposed
to be. They're they're active upfront, they're thick and stout
up front. You know, so again a game kind of
got away last week, but but a good opener versus
Colorado to kind of get a feel for their personnel
over there.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
So a big challenge for us again.

Speaker 3 (11:22):
You know, this is a also a rivalry game, you know,
Clemson Georgia Tech is one of the older ones. Uh,
You've been going on for a long time. Always fun
to you know, be a part of this. This game
been a lot of great ones over the years, and
we're thankful for this opportunity. But look forward to going
down there and having a great, great competition.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
Any questions that's Clemson, hey, Coach Davilas when he was
also asked about the fact that you have to play
so much with your eyes against Georgia Tech, how much
is the mental aspect of the game a factor in
in the way you play?

Speaker 3 (11:56):
Good discipline is I mean, you know, this is critical,
It's all He's critical. Uh, you know, you know, regardless
of style of play, because everybody presents their own challenges
from an odiscipline standpoint. But these guys, I mean in
pretty much every snap, there's a shift, there's a motion,
you know, there's some type of jet and then by
nature of just their scheme. You know, it's quarterback power,

(12:19):
quarterback counter with r pos built into it, with what
we call slash guys coming down the line of scrimmage,
you know, where they just don't block people, they just
control them based on reaction. Keep it, pull it, and
if I do pull it, well there's a pit not
necessarily a pitch player, but there's an outlet pass.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
So it's basically a triple option scheme.

Speaker 3 (12:42):
Uh, you know, from from spread uh spread formations and
just different ways to get to it again. And then
they would run around and you know, turn around and
bam they're hitting you right up the middle with some
type of you know, downhill play. But you know, it's
all about the quarterback. I mean, he makes it go.
I mean because he's the decision maker.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
I mean, so.

Speaker 3 (13:01):
He's it's hard, it's hard to make them wrong as
far as uh, you know, because because he's he's equipped
to make them right. So you have to win matchups.
You know, you got to win matchups. You got to
tackle in space. Uh so I discipline is critical. Uh,
certainly the physical matchup is critical, but you also got

(13:24):
to do a great job in space because the you
know you're gonna the ball gets into space just by
the nature of everybody doing their job, and so you
got to put you got to have some hard edges. Uh,
you know, they're going to challenge you on the perimeter,
and so it's a that's that's what they do best.
I mean, they make you defend the field sideline the
sideline and then they got the shots built into it

(13:46):
in the play action.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
The other concern Clips that might have is the fact
that Filo played this past weekend and they could potentially
run two quarterbacks out there, including Haines King, and the
difficulty in preparing for that.

Speaker 2 (13:59):
Yeah, I mean, you know the backup, I mean he
through for a ton of yards.

Speaker 3 (14:03):
He's a good player. You know, they can both run
the offense. So yeah, you got to be prepared for that.
Those are things that you you know, you always anytime
you see something on tape like that, two quarterbacks in
the game, that puts your antenna up a little bit. So, yeah,
we just got to do a great job again just
taking care of our business, you know, making sure that

(14:23):
we communicate well, odds are in the right place, and
that physically everybody does their job.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
That's that's what it comes down to.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
S when he was also asked to give some insight
into what he thinks has really been holding back the offense,
and he says, look, it's the simple things.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
Routine stuff.

Speaker 3 (14:39):
It's just really poor job with routine stuff. Routine stuff.
I mean, it's really that simple.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
Routine stuff is sex for this game?

Speaker 3 (14:50):
Yeah, I mean practice, I mean and again that's the
frustrating part is it hasn't shown up in practice. And
then you get into that first game, and again there
was a lot there in the first game. In a
game like that, it's it's you're gonna get four or
five plays, and and we didn't take advantage of those opportunities.
And so you know it's gonna come down to a
play or two, and you know, just didn't. We just

(15:12):
didn't perform like we needed to. But this past week, uh,
just some precision in what we're doing. And again, just
you know, defensively, after two games, they've done a good job.
I mean, not that they're perfect, but they've given up
three touchdowns and two games.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
Uh, so you know I can live with that.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (15:30):
You know, the fourth touchdown was on the offense on
a pick six, so we got we gotta we got
to just clean up the execution part. From an offensive standpoint,
that's that's just not played with great rhythm. And guy's
got to make the plays that are there. That's where
it starts, you know, whether it's the quarterback or it's
catching the ball. Uh, you know, just getting every We

(15:51):
got too many nine out of eleven guys doing their job,
and that's you're not going to be a great offense
when that's the case. So played two games, got two
different ex experiences and two opportunities to learn and teach
and grow and our job to go get better.

Speaker 1 (16:05):
Sweeny was also asked sort of about Clemson's offensive identity
and what they've kind of seen at practice in terms
of how those guys have played maybe by comparison to
end the game.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
But right now it's not very good. So it's early though,
we'll see We've got a long way to go. Very productive,
elite quarterback play, explosive receivers, really good run game. You know,
it's been that way all in camp. And then we
just didn't get off to the start that we want.
But I don't mean we can't have the ending.

Speaker 2 (16:33):
We won't.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
Sweeny was also asked about what stood out about Adam
Randall after watching the film from that Troy game.

Speaker 3 (16:40):
Just his toughness, his will to win his heart, you know,
it's physical and.

Speaker 2 (16:47):
Just you know, just this's his first really first game.

Speaker 3 (16:50):
Really, I mean we didn't even really hardly use him
in the first game, so a lot there's a lot
of opportunity for him to grow. And I think the
biggest thing is just his timing and some things, you know,
when especially when it comes to your counter and your
powers and when you've got pullers, you know, there's times
where he's not where he's just he's too fast. All
of a sudden it gets sped up, and that can happen,
especially you know, Spiller used to be that way. Spiller

(17:12):
used to I mean, you know, heck he was the
polar because the pollar was behind him, but he was
so fast it didn't matter.

Speaker 2 (17:20):
But I ain't good football, like I need to be
in the hip of my pullers, all right. And so
there's timing, and.

Speaker 3 (17:26):
Again that's just comes from playing a little bit and
because oftentimes you can get in the game and you know,
you get.

Speaker 2 (17:33):
Sped up a little bit.

Speaker 3 (17:34):
And so I think Adam, you know, and he did
some really good stuff, but I think just some precision,
a little bit more in his footwork and just the
timing and the field of where he needs to be
on some of our landmarks tracks, not cutting on air pressing,
the blocks, just some basic stuff that he's that he's
done well in practice. But you know, again, he's just

(17:54):
got to stick to that when he gets into the game.
So and again his first real opportunity in that regard.
But I mean he's, uh, he's a good football player.
I mean he's he's you know, he just gotta he's
gonna keep going and uh, and then hopefully we can
get some rhythm going in our offense where we can
get the flow.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
A little bit better with some of our other guys
as well.

Speaker 1 (18:15):
Final pay from Sweeney this segment, he was asked about
if he's more confident in Clemson's end game adjustments after Saturday.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
I mean, they did it. They did a nice job.

Speaker 3 (18:24):
I mean it's really again, it's not as much about
the adjustments as it is that's just executing what what
we've coached him to do, and you know, getting eleven
guys to do their job. That's really what this comes
down to. But you know, it's a nice job. I
think the biggest thing Saturday was just calming everybody down
and and just you know, playing through the funk. And

(18:48):
because that was a that was a really weird It
was just a really weird deal. You felt like you
were down thirty five to nothing, and because I mean
it's just you know, you finally get a break. It's
a fumble and you got field position. Next thing you know,
it goes fifty yards that way, and I mean you
get a drop, a drop the fumble pick six. I mean,

(19:09):
it's like, what all could go wrong here? But hey,
that's football. To see them respond like that shows what
they're made of. So great, great test for him.

Speaker 1 (19:18):
Early again, that's Clemson head coach Dabo Sweeney earlier today
up in Tiger Town. We also had a chance to
catch up with several players as well, and as you
know here on the program, we like to try to
dive in and give you the goods on all of
that whenever applicable. We did get a chance to hear

(19:38):
from defensive tackle coach Nick Easton as well today, also
Tyler Brown and Mason tink Kelly, along with Blake Miller
and Ashton Hampton, So busy day up in Clemson to
talking Tuesday, and there'll be more conversations tomorrow coming out
of Clemson as well. Keep it locked, Lawton's Swan, Welcome

(20:01):
back to the show that Shakespeare South Lane, Clemson Sports
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(20:21):
All right. We heard a little bit from Dabo Sweeney earlier.
We'll dive into a little bit more of that, and
then an hour number two we got Mike. You'vea of course, Mike.
I don't know if he's technically still with game Cock
Central yet or still, but he's going to be at
at Coastal Carolina and the new capacity as part of
the Athletic Department, which is really cool for Mike. But

(20:45):
we'll hear from Mike an hour two and we'll give
you a couple of clips from some of the players.
But let's wrap up some with Dabo Sweeney here and
so when he was asked if kave Klemnik had been
as much of a factor with his legs as maybe
he needed to be or they expected him to be.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
No, he hasn't.

Speaker 3 (21:01):
I mean there's been I mean, he's been too much
of a factor with his legs. Uh in the and
and he's he scrambled when he doesn't need to scramble.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
You know, that's where he's got to get better. Uh.
And that's that's that's what he did early in his career.

Speaker 3 (21:14):
And and so and he and he did as the
game especially, you know as we got into rhythm, I
mean he he he was really good. But even the
other the day, there were a couple of plays where
you know, he's running out of the pocket for no reason,
and so and he and he didn't do that all camp.
So that's just you know, it was it was really
bad in the LSU game, but he had just a

(21:35):
couple of plays. And then again once we kind of
got in rhythm, I mean, he was he looked like
had so again. Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully they'll pick up where
they left off from an execution standpoint, and you know,
we'll have a chance to be a good.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
Offense coach, So when he was also asked about the
fact that they've got the opening Atlantic Coast Conference game
and what kind of the message will be to the
guys about this contest being a conference matchup.

Speaker 3 (22:00):
Yeah, I mean, I think you know, there's always a
message when you're going on the road of preparing your
guys that are no different than at home, honestly, and
that you know, external things can't determine your performance, you know,
I mean, just if it does, then you're always going
to be controlled by external things. And so when you're
when you're in the arena, you've got to really be

(22:23):
you know, discipline, you know, with how you think, uh
and and what your focus is on because you know
where your focus goes, your energy flows, right, and so
you know, if you're focused on all these things you
don't control, or they're cheering for you, or they're screaming
at you, your energy goes that way, right, Like, you
just got to focus on what you're doing, one play

(22:45):
at a time and tune all that stuff out. Whether
it's real noise or just noise that we live in
in society, it's all the same.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
So it's it's it's a great opportunity. That's just part
of it.

Speaker 3 (22:56):
You're gonna be a great team, you got to go
win on the road, I mean, And so in this end, know,
you know, we all get eight conference games, and every
game is a playoff game.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
Just how it is. I mean, that's how you got
to look at it.

Speaker 3 (23:07):
Every game, every every conference game is a playoff game
because everybody's got the same goals and aspirations. And when
you lose one, you you know, you put yourself kind of.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
You know, a little win at your face. You're not out, but.

Speaker 3 (23:21):
You you kind of win at your face in your
little uphill.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
Last year, we lost one game, but as it turned out, if.

Speaker 3 (23:28):
If if Miami had beat Syracuse, then they would have
had the tiebreaker, you know, because now you got all
these tie breakers and who played who.

Speaker 2 (23:36):
And all that stuff.

Speaker 3 (23:37):
So you're but Syracuse won the game, and so we
had one loss and s MU was undefeated. So that's
who went to the league. So the best path is
to go win all your conference games. That's your best path.
And so every every conference game is a playoff game
because every conference games has has playoff implications, because every

(23:58):
conference conference game impacts who's going to the championship of
your league.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
So it's that's just the.

Speaker 3 (24:05):
Reality of it, and you just embrace it and let's
go compete and get a result and go to the
next one. Every game in college football, to me, is
every week. It's a season of its own.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
It it is. It's a season of its own, and
then you.

Speaker 3 (24:19):
Learn from it, you study it, and then you put
it away a new season every week, and that just
has to be your mentality. You can't let steff carry over.
I don't care what the circumstances are. And you know,
I've been on you know we've had one undefeated team
or two fourteen and o teams. You know, we've had
a couple of those type of teams where like, that's

(24:40):
just has to be your mentality. And I've also had
a four and fourteen Now that matters that one out.
So it just you just have to just fight every
week to get better and compete and who's in who's
out as far as you know your your players and
your personnel, and put a good plan together and go
try to win that season every week.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
Dabo Swiney was also asking about how his team he
felt it was handling the mental aspect of things. After
a couple of ball games this season.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
Great. I mean, you know, I thought you saw a
lot of that Saturday.

Speaker 3 (25:12):
I mean, these guys, that's a that's a frustrating situation
to be in. And uh again, they're all taken away
from Troy. It's this isn't it's sitting someone double a team. Now,
this is it's a good football team, all right, well
coached team, They're tough, they got they got good players.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
And you're down sixteen nothing. Uh and and it's and like.

Speaker 3 (25:33):
Everything's going against you and your defense is sitting there
going what the heck? You know, Uh, it can it
can challenge you. But I think you saw the grid
of our team, the heart of our team, the resilience
of these guys, courage, you know, got to have some
courage to fight back.

Speaker 2 (25:49):
In those situations.

Speaker 3 (25:50):
And and uh so I think you learned a lot
about the mentality of our team. Same thing against LSU
came down in the last play even though.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
We we me again you know what you're watching.

Speaker 3 (26:03):
We missed a lot of opportunities in that game, big
opportunities that were there, and don't take anything away from them,
but when you had to have it, we get a
part return, and we go right down the field and
we're in position inside the fifteen and we just don't
make a play that's there. Two plays we'll make a

(26:23):
third down or fourth down play and both of them
are there, and so we didn't finish. But their toughness,
their will to win is on full display in both
of our games. So they've got a great will to win.
And when you got that, you get better.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
So there you go. Some final thoughts from Daboswiney. If
you want to hear all of that, we've got it
up on our website as well, Clemson sportsta dot com.
We've really been working to push more and more of
that content to you each and every day as the
Tigers get geared up for Atlantic Coast Conference play. And certainly,

(27:05):
you know it's an important series or an important weekend
for Clemson because like Dabosweeney said, you know this is
in conference play, a single loss or no losses is
the best path to the conference championship, and stumbling and

(27:25):
fumbling out of the gates would not be good for
this Clemson Tiger team. All right, quick breat We'll come
back with more here on a Tuesday afternoon, Clemson sports Talk,
the show that shakes the Southland, or as they said
in the olden days, the show this shake at the
south Land. Hey, let me tell you about our friends

(27:46):
though at Alumni Hall right there on the corner of
campus on College Avenue of downtown Clemson.

Speaker 4 (27:51):
Man.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
I was in there right before that LSU game checking
things out. The place was absolutely packed. They got spectacular
Clemson gear officially licensed merchandise, including those Nike dry Fit.
I told you I loved those. I like them in
Clemson gear, I like them in Riverbluff gear. Anytime I
can get my hands on that Nike dry Fit, love

(28:13):
to do it. And again, they're right there, just a
stoneses throw away from historic Riggsfield. Don't forget Clemson students,
faculty in all military get ten percent off when shopping
in store. Go check them out today online at alumni
haul dot com or get there through our website. It's
the ultimate Clemson shopping destination with all the newest gear.

(28:35):
Alumni Hall all right now, final thing from Dabosweeney because
I did put this out on some of our social
media channels earlier today, but Sweeney was asked about if
this was the most surprised he's ever been that his

(28:56):
camp performance has not translated into game performance, and he
didn't have to flash back too far at all. As
a matter of fact, he flashed back to a very
very good Clemson team.

Speaker 2 (29:08):
No, no dealt with it before.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
I mean, I feel like I'm living twenty sixteen all
over again, honestly.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
In fact, I went back and looked at.

Speaker 3 (29:18):
My notes from twenty sixteen after the Troy game, just curious,
and it was like I could have just erased the name.
I could have just walked into the team meeting with
the same comments because you know, we just weren't playing.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
Different reasons, but same comments.

Speaker 3 (29:36):
You know, the only difference is we made one more
play than Auburn in the opener, came down to a
hell Mary, we played terrible. I think we dropped three
touchdowns in that game. I think we had eleven drops
in our first two games those two years. I think
we had eleven drops again, three touchdowns in the Auburn game.

Speaker 2 (29:55):
That was the game.

Speaker 3 (29:55):
And then Wayne Golman, you know, he ran out of bounds,
and I mean it's just like we just we just were,
we just were I don't know our cour Deshaun was
not playing well, what's wrong with DeShawn. Everybody's beating DeShawn up.
He's terrible. He thinks he's the heisman, he's this and
that he was sixteen, it was his last year. All
the hype and you know, honestly, similar to this team,

(30:19):
that was the first time that they got all the
rat poison, you know, and that's kind of this group.
This group hadn't really this this group ain't had the
rat poison. They've they've they've just had the U Suck poison.
And this is the first time this group's really had
to manage that, and I don't think some of them
have managed it well obviously.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
So there you go, that's Dabo Sweeney talking about it's
not rat poisonous, the U Suck poison. And I do think, yeah,
there will be there will be a lot of people
that will point the Dabo swingy on this stuff, and
they will pretend as if he's been the one that's
hyped this team to this level. And I vehemently disagree

(31:00):
with that because I sat down with him at the
ACC kickoff. I asked the questions about this group and
the leadership, and you know, it's it Davos Sweeney has
never been somebody that believes Clemson is gonna win anything
because of what they say on paper. And the thing
I've tried to stress for you know, the past couple

(31:21):
of weeks, especially after the loss to LSU and the
way things played out in the Troy game, I've really
tried to stress to you the fact that while Clemson
is not playing good, I get that this is still

(31:44):
a team that has more talent than virtually every team
they face on their schedule, and that might very well
include LSU. And I get it. If you're an LSU
fan and you're peeking over the fence and you're hanging
out with us today, you might just say, Swannee, you

(32:04):
have no proof of that, and we came in and
showed you, and that's all well and good. But the
fact is this Clemson team is loaded and they have underperformed.
But loaded Clemson teams have underperformed before, and that same
Deshaun Watson led team that Daboshuney was just talking about

(32:25):
did go on to win the National Championship. Does that
mean this team will? I don't know that. I likely
wouldn't think that based off of what we've seen. I
likely wouldn't have picked Clemson to win the national title
anyway in the preseason, just given the format of the
twelve team College Football Playoff. But I can assure you this.

(32:47):
I can assure you that because it is a twelve
team playoff, they have a better chance of getting into
the College Football Playoff than that twenty sixteen Clemson team
did at the start of the season. Why you might ask, well, naturally,
because there are three times as many spots available now,

(33:10):
winning it becomes increasingly more difficult. And we all know
that because of the number of teams or games that
you have to get through. That is obviously a part
of it, right, Like, you gotta win depending on where
you're seated, you gotta win three games, four games. I mean,

(33:34):
that makes it tough. It's not a cakewalk, and it wasn't.
In fairness, it wasn't a cakewalk when it was a
four team playoff, and I'm sure it wasn't a cakewalk
either when it was just two teams in the BCS.
It might have been easier to get there for the
top two teams by comparison to getting there for one
of the top twelve to win the national title. But dude,

(33:59):
is long as you're still getting your at bats and
you have no losses in conference to play like. That
was the other thing about this weekend that that really
would probably stump some of you because you wouldn't want
to believe this. Clemson. Clemson could have lost to Troy
this weekend and you know, won out and won the

(34:23):
Atlantic Coast Conference, even lost to South Carolina, and they'd
still be in the College Football Playoff as the Atlantic
Coast Conference champ. These non conference games matter and they
don't because of the format. In my opinion, it's great
to see them be played. I hate that teams are

(34:44):
going away from them tragically because if you win your conference,
you're gonna be in the College Football Playoff. That's just
the way the system currently works. So embrace that. Embrace
challenging games, and for fans understand that, yeah, it's it's
bad to lose, you hate to lose, but it doesn't
determine the outcome of your season. There's a lot of

(35:04):
football left to be played. Find those segment of our
one right after this, Find those segment of our number
one Clemson Sports Talk. So I saw an article today
on ESPN that I had to click because I realized
after I clicked it that there are names, there are

(35:26):
names in sports that are synonymous with an individual, and
Julius Peppers has one of those names. Because I saw

(35:47):
an article that said Steelers to sign Peppers in wake
of such and so's injury, and I was like, what,
Julius Peppers. Who? Who's like forty five Julius Peppers, who's
in the NFL Hall of Fame, Julius Peppers, who hadn't

(36:10):
played in the NFL in seven years is coming back? No,
it's Jabriel Peppers when I clicked on it, But that
got me thinking, like there are certain individuals out there
whose name is synonymous with the sport and greatness, but

(36:33):
you can't have a plane name right, Like if your
name is Sanders, sorry for all you Sanders out there.
Like if if I saw an article that said Atlanta
Falcons designed Sanders, I would not think Dion, even though
Deona played for him. I wouldn't even think. I might
think his son maybe, but I know I shouldn't think

(37:02):
that the Chicago Bulls would ever sign Michael Jordan to
another contract again. But if there was another guy out
there named Jordan last name, And there are some and
the Bulls signed him. And I saw an article that
said Bulls signed Jordan to a two year deal. I

(37:23):
would have to click on it because my logical mind says,
there's no way it's that, But my interest, my other
side of my mind goes, no, no, you got a check?
Is that what you think it is?

Speaker 2 (37:37):
Swani?

Speaker 1 (37:39):
I mean I legitimately clicked that thinking that it was
gonna be the return of Julius Peppers, like there was
gonna be this whole thing about how Peppers had been
working for seven years to try to get back and
he's finally getting his shot. And let's be honest. I mean,
it's not like it's not like the Steelers didn't take

(38:03):
quite a risk with a guy like Aaron Rodgers in
terms of his age. I mean Aaron Rodgers. He's an
old guy as well. But no, that one, that one
got me one hundred percent A zero three four or
five zero zero eighty six, all right, real quick? Haines King.

(38:24):
We talked about him yesterday. We heard some of Brent
Key's conversations about King. Of course, he set out last week.
King is a sixth year senior, the former Texas A
and M quarterback who transferred to Georgia Tech, did not
play against Gardner Webb after getting a little bit banged

(38:46):
up in that matchup against Colorado. The medical staff held
him out with that lower body injury. This past weekend, Well,
Brent Key said, looks good, feels good. We'll make a
determination this weekend. King accounted for two hundred and ninety

(39:08):
nine total yards and three rushing touchdowns against Colorado, including
a forty five yard touchdown run with just over a
minute remaining to give the Yellow Jackets a twenty seven
to twenty win. Well a twenty seven to twenty lead.
Freshmen backup Aaron Filo, who are an ACC Rookie of

(39:30):
the Week honors, played in that Gardner web game and
through for a freshman school record of three hundred and
seventy three yards. So, as we mentioned earlier, a little
bit of the yin and yang right, a little mix
there between what you get from those guys. Now. King
played against Clemson back in twenty twenty three and through

(39:54):
four interceptions in the game in a forty two to
twenty one loss, and the Tigers, of course have won
nine consecutive games in the series. But thinking back on
it for a minute, we talk a little bit about
like where Kate Klebnick is right now mentally with this
game with college football, with how quick he's getting rid

(40:16):
of the ball, et cetera. I would wonder, if you're
Haines king, you know how poorly you played against Clemson
two years ago? Does that live rent free in your
mind as well? And not to mention, Clemson's secondary has
been kind of ball hawkish at this point, especially running

(40:43):
in Hannafin, who we've talked about quite a bit. Wrote
an article about Hannafin, all good things coming out about him,
and you know, his ability to influence the game at
safe and quite frankly, I think a lot of people

(41:05):
are pleasantly surprised at what running Handffin has kind of
turned out to be. Like when he I'll be honest,
when he shifted from wide receiver to safety kind of
made me feel like you're probably waiting for the transfer
button to hit. You know. I hate to be that way,

(41:26):
but in fairness, when you've done this long enough and
you've watched you've watched players kind of lose a roster
spot and then hit the portal, you just sort of
assume that that's going to be the case either way. Though,

(41:48):
to see him now man impressive. I mean, he's just
been a lot of fun, a lot of fun to watch.
And you know, if Haines King is playing those defensive backs,
they're gonna have to keep their heads on the swivel man,
because he's so athletic. He's so athletic, and you just
don't know when he's gonna, you know, give you the

(42:09):
look of a run. You step up a little bit
and he's throwing it, or vice versa. He can give
you some headaches. All right, I was about to say,
speaking of headaches, Now, just get Mike Eva Choyses around
the bin. Stay with us.

Speaker 5 (42:24):
It's time for Clipson Sports Talk with Luton Schwan.

Speaker 1 (43:05):
It is our number two. That's drivetime. Right, We're on
the show that shakes the South Alanta Clemson Sports tal lot.
Swan Hate out with you on a Wednesday. Mike Eva
joins the program. Don't forget Mike. With a new job
coming up, I'm gonna be working at Coastal Carolina in
the athletic department. This is his last visit in this capacity,

(43:28):
talking about the South Carolina game. Cocks with us again.
This segment brought to you by METS Plumbing Met's Plumbing
dot Com two two six seven one o eight. That's
two two six seven one oh eight METS Plumbing call
him today, Mike, Welcome in, buddy. How are you.

Speaker 4 (43:46):
I'm doing well?

Speaker 5 (43:47):
Swannye like I told you, left around eleven pm last
night back in South Carolina. Arrived here little left, just
thread this afternoon, so running on fumes.

Speaker 4 (43:59):
But at the same signed too. You see that bo.

Speaker 5 (44:01):
Jangles signed, you know, and all the other fun stuff
that you see in South Carolina, and it motivates you that, uh,
you're back.

Speaker 4 (44:08):
You're back in God's country. So excited to be back
in the town metal state.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
Man.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
That's awesome. And I know everybody's super excited for you
and your family and and to get back here and
to work over at Coastal Carolina. But let's do it
one final time. Let's talk about the game Cocks, sorry
game cognation. Mike's gonna have to give us somebody else
to come join us. Well, I'll tell you what the
swaying kid I mean, his name looks a lot like
Swan on the back of that jersey.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
Mike.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
This guy, he's tough as nails in the punt return game.

Speaker 4 (44:37):
I know I was gonna say, you guys, cousins, Oh here,
here's what I really like about what I've seen with Vacari.

Speaker 5 (44:46):
It's the fact that here's a young man who wasn't able.

Speaker 4 (44:51):
To practice this spring. You know, it was for a
non injury reason, and we'll leave it at that.

Speaker 5 (44:56):
And instead of Sulking, instead of coming in knowing that
South Carolina added, especially at the cornerback position with some
players in the transfer portal, instead of Sulking, he had
a phenomenal fall camp, not only at corner.

Speaker 4 (45:16):
But as a specialist as well.

Speaker 5 (45:18):
And he's earned the role as being one of the
key pump returners.

Speaker 4 (45:22):
And certainly it.

Speaker 5 (45:23):
Is shown with what he's been able to do. Obviously,
you know, three pup returns for touchdowns and five opportunities.

Speaker 4 (45:32):
But I think what stands out to me more than
anything is that this was a young man.

Speaker 5 (45:36):
During his recruiting process that it truly was, okay, what
position is he going to play? What side of the
ball is he going to play? And as we've seen
with him, when he has the ball in his hands,
he looks like someone that understands the lanes and blocking assignments, so.

Speaker 4 (45:56):
You know that's the wide receiver. That's the wide receiver.

Speaker 5 (46:00):
And I also want to give credit to what Joe
de camillis, the special teams coordinator, has been able to do.

Speaker 4 (46:06):
I mean you just see Bacari.

Speaker 5 (46:07):
I mean even the one where it's like, all right,
get away, Peter, Peter, Peter on the bock kick and.

Speaker 4 (46:11):
He comes up and gets it.

Speaker 5 (46:13):
He goes to the right side because he knows where
his blockers are.

Speaker 4 (46:16):
You know that wall was there.

Speaker 5 (46:17):
And South Carolina's we've seen since Beamer arrived.

Speaker 4 (46:20):
These guys are bought in, and certainly they're bought in.
Two games in on special.

Speaker 1 (46:24):
Teams Mike, you've again on Twitter at Mike Underscore UVA Mike.
This weekend, South Carolina and Vanderbilt will face off. But
before we get too deep in the weeds on that one,
I do want to ask you about how you kind
of rate the performance of Lenora Sellers. Obviously, Kate Klubnet, look,

(46:44):
the guy I cover each and every week, came in
with tons of expectations this year and has not delivered.
And I would say that it's fair to kind of
say the same thing about Lenora Sellers at this point.
I mean the fact that South Carolina to me was
down three nothing before those two punt returns and then

(47:04):
a late field goal in the first half against South
Carolina State. If I'm a game conk fan, I don't
feel much better than I did about you know, the
way Clipson fans felt watching their team fall down sixteen
to nothing in Detroit.

Speaker 4 (47:18):
No, and I can I agree it's swanny. I think,
especially over the last couple of.

Speaker 5 (47:22):
Years with South Carolina fans, and we look at the
offensive line and if we wanted to just blame the
offensive line for absolutely everything, and look, I'm not here
saying that USC's offensive line has played where they just
have not been consistent. One of the reasons why I
believe that's the case. A lot of it just has

(47:43):
to do with communications. The fact that when we talked
about this on your show last week, you have three
new interior offensive lineman. Yes, but everyone is working with
someone new next to them in some capacity.

Speaker 4 (47:54):
So I think that starts from But.

Speaker 5 (47:57):
I also think with Sellers, he's not going through his
progressions the way that you would have hoped that he would,
especially after everything we've heard. Going back to springball with
what Mike Shule has been able to do. So I think, look,
I think the first I feel if this happens in
college football when things aren't going well with the offense,

(48:20):
the first two things that get blamed you're going to
blame the offensive coordinator and you're going to blame the
offensive line. Sometimes the offensive lind coach will get thrown
in there as well. I think, certainly it is fair
to put criticism on all three of those things that
I mentioned, But I also think it's fair and it
should be to look at Lenora Sellers and just say, hey, look,

(48:42):
this is a talented guy. He just hasn't been performing
at the level that we had hoped he would.

Speaker 4 (48:49):
And that's not to.

Speaker 5 (48:50):
Say that he can't have a phenomenal season still, he
just hasn't been able to do it. I feel like
in the eyes of many, including myself, that we were
hoping to see, especially after Week one.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
Let me ask you this, This is another theory that
comes out a lot around Clemson anytime the offense struggles.
And again, I don't know if these are the same
whispers that Gamecock fans have, but do do people say, oh,
the head coach is meddling in the play calling, you know,
Shane Biemer's you know, he's meddling with the OC like

(49:24):
do y'all have that, because every time Clemson struggles, that's
always the case that it's dabbo. He's putting his hands
into the you know, in the cookie jar, so to speak.

Speaker 4 (49:34):
So it's funny you bring that up.

Speaker 5 (49:36):
I haven't heard that specifically about Beamer, but going back
to the mush Champ days, talking with some of the
former players, especially on the offensive side of the ball,
when things were not going well with the offense, and
obviously mush Champ had several offensive coordinators, the way that
it was described to me from multiple players was he

(49:56):
would handcuff the OC that it was Okay, we're not
gonna do with that way.

Speaker 4 (50:00):
We're going to do this way. So I don't think.

Speaker 5 (50:04):
That we've necessarily have got to that point. Do I
believe it's happened before in the past with other ocs
here certainly. I think that was certainly the case towards
the end with the Marcus sadderfield there his first OC
when he got to South Carolina. I know that towards
the end of the twenty twenty three season that him

(50:28):
and Clayton White, the defensive coordinator, had conversations, But I
didn't view those conversations to be out of the ordinary
as far as what a head coach.

Speaker 4 (50:39):
And a defensive coordinator would talk about. But as far
as what this is so far.

Speaker 5 (50:44):
I wouldn't say we're at that point yet. But I
would say is if USC struggles to create the consistency
that they're that they need, you know, I mean, look,
we're going in the conference plane now right like you
have your two preseason games in a lot of ways,
or you know, you go again to the Power four

(51:07):
team against Virginia Tech week one, and then you kind
of have your you know, preseason game last week. You
don't have a tune up game anymore. Now you're going
right into conference play. And as we've all seen going
back to last season, but even last week with Vandy,
the Commodores aren't the same Vandy team that we've seen
in the past. Yeah, they're coming in here and they're

(51:28):
gonna they're gonna give USC their best shot.

Speaker 1 (51:31):
Speaking of the Commodores, you know, last weekend they played
Virginia Tech, the same team that South Carolina had played
the week prior. And at the half, as Virginia Tech's
up twenty to ten, I was kind of thinking, all right, well,
for South Carolina's sake, this Vandy game might be a
little bit easier than maybe people thought because of Dina

(51:53):
Pavia and all that's off Diego Poby, excuse me and
all that stuff. And then you look at the second half, Mike,
where they outscore the Hokies thirty four to nothing, and
I'm thinking to myself, they walk away forty four to twenty.
Like I mean, I think it's fair to say that
that Vanderbilt had the better performance against the Virginia Tech team.

(52:15):
And you look at the spread out there, four and
a half right now. You know, when we take typically
talk about a home game, you know, this is no
gambling show by any means, but we're talking about three
points or so for the home team. This is like
a neutral site, pick them game in a lot of respects.

Speaker 4 (52:32):
No, it's fair to say it.

Speaker 5 (52:33):
And look, I think when you look at the the
lack of aufense from South Carolina last week, I think
it's fair to look at it and be like, all right,
Vandy ended the game the way that I mean, Look,
Heuth Carolina was able to generate some offense in the
second half, but at the same time too, three of
their touchdowns came from something that was other than the offense, right,

(52:56):
two special teams touchdowns in the defensive touchdowns. So I
bring that up, Swanny, because Vandy was able to do
something that when you're from a coaching staff standpoint, I'm
sure many fans even probably looked at it. From Clemson
stamp you look at things like, all right, let's just
try to do something good so we can feel better
about ourself heading in the next week. Offensively, I don't

(53:18):
get that vibe from South Carolina. I talked to a
few players over the last couple of days, and they're
not looking at it as, oh, yeah, we feel good
about what we were able to do in the second
half in some capacity. Now, certainly when they put some
of the backups in oscar Adaway was able to score
a touchdown, They were able to move a football a
little bit in that third quarter, but it wasn't anything

(53:41):
like what you would have hoped for, especially against a team,
with all due respect to coach Barry in South Carolina State,
I think coach Barry what he's done even going back
to his days at the Vision two, Benedict, he's a
phenomenal coach, but South Carolina should not have been in
that situation, especially in the second half.

Speaker 1 (53:58):
Again to the Bulldogs, Mike, I got a couple of
things about Coastal Carolina, your new home. I do want
to ask you a little bit about that maybe you've
kept up with just to kind of get your vibe
on it. Are you good if we go down that
path for a moment.

Speaker 4 (54:11):
We'll do our best.

Speaker 5 (54:12):
Now, you know, corporate MIC's going to be here, so
I gotta I gotta do my best. It's gonna be
a little different than reporter Mike.

Speaker 1 (54:17):
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, No. Look, Coastal Carolina offered anyone
who attended every home athletic event in a week span.
There were nineteen events a chance to lead the Chanticleers
out onto the field, and there was a.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
Fan that did it.

Speaker 1 (54:29):
Man, and he led him out wearing a banana suit
this past weekend. Dude, totally awesome.

Speaker 4 (54:35):
It's so funny.

Speaker 5 (54:36):
So when I was down here, I want to hear
it was two weeks ago and I got a chance
to be able to flew me down just to be
able to meet some of the administrators, some of the coaches,
and I'm sitting there as they do their coaches show
on Tuesday with Tim Beck, and I see this man
walk in there with a banana suit, and I'm like,
what's his what's his deal?

Speaker 4 (54:58):
And everyone thinks, Oh, that's Banana Man. So I'm just like, okay.

Speaker 5 (55:02):
And then the next thing, you know, I started learning
more about Banana Man, seeing all these tweets different games
in the past, and he's a student who just truly
just loves this university.

Speaker 4 (55:15):
A lot of these calling shows.

Speaker 5 (55:16):
I'm sure you've seen this twenty At the end they
do like a raffle. Well, of course, banana Man won,
and the whole place just even Tim Beck, the head coach,
he smiled. He was just happy for him because it's
just like that guy really cares. So to your point, yes,
Chance Miller, the old associate athletic director at South Carolina

(55:37):
who's now the ad for Coastal Carolina. He pushed out
a challenge and he said, hey, look, if you go
to nineteen, you have nineteen home games. If anyone goes
and they're able to prove that, we will let you
come up with the team you can leave the team out,
and there was only one man that did that, and
it was Banana Man and Banana Man and Coastal Football
at that entrance.

Speaker 4 (55:58):
I thought that was really cool.

Speaker 5 (56:00):
That was really cool, and that we talk about the
pageantry with collegiate sports, right and certainly about Clemson. You
think about South Carolina, Yeah, there's there's a long history.
Obviously Coastal Carolina. They've only been around for a couple
of decades. But at the same time too, there's a
lot of people in this area that I've quickly learned,
but even going back to my time when I covered

(56:21):
them in Watchbocks, there's a lot of people in this
area that truly care about this program. So to see
someone like that come out there and to see the
national attention it's received, it's been really cool.

Speaker 4 (56:31):
Well.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
And the other thing Coastal put out back in March
was the fact that they were gonna have free concessions
at their game, and I saw graphic where they I
get I can't say sold, but there were twenty seven
thousand hot dogs eating during that game between Coastal and
Charleston Southern. Just a cool concept. I know in Atlanta

(56:55):
they've done a good job of lowering prices on food
for concessions. I know clems this year they've they've shifted
to alcohol sales, but if you claim to be a
designated driver, there's a free station for free coke and
whatever you want to drink at Clemson. But man, what
a cool concept to say to the fans. Hey, look,

(57:16):
the concessions are free, you know, just come out and
enjoy the game and support the team. Like, I get it,
Coastal's not a Power five per Power four program, but
I love the concept to generate energy from the community
to come out and support.

Speaker 4 (57:34):
And that starts with Chance Miller.

Speaker 5 (57:36):
The Chance did the same thing at South Carolina for
men's basketball games in the month of December, and there
was an uptick in attendance because, let's call for what
it is, outside of if you're playing Clemson, you usually
don't have a great attendance for non conference basketball game,
especially for where South Carolina was at at that point

(57:58):
with their program right, and it allowed them to be
able to get some more people out there well in
just a short period of time. Just to give people
an idea of how much of an impact this has made,
ticket sales are up forty percent. They sold out the
other night. That's only happened a handful of times. I
believe the exact attendance from a percent standpoint with like

(58:19):
one hundred and six percent, So they were over capacity.
And on top of that, the concession lines which you
can go up. You can get nachos, you can get
hot dogs, you can get a fount and drink, you
can get popcorn as well, you can get four items
at once, you can do whatever variation when don't feel
like Joey Chestnut to get four.

Speaker 4 (58:37):
Hot dogs had it.

Speaker 5 (58:39):
I wasn't there. I wasn't there because I was finishing
up my TV drop up in Rhode Island. But from
everything that I've been told, and this isn't even again
I joke about corporate mic now, but.

Speaker 4 (58:51):
From just seeing what social.

Speaker 5 (58:53):
Media had put out from fans in attendance, they were very,
very pleasantly surprised at how quick the process was. Because
how many times do we see things where a college,
even a pro team, or even just a company, they
have this great idea, but they just don't have the
manpower to be able to do it efficiently. That wasn't

(59:17):
the case. People were able to go up there, they
were able to get stuff. They didn't feel like they
were missing any of the action. And the reason why
I credit that is the fact that Chance and the
incredible the staff over at Coastal they actually did a
walkthrough of this and a lot of the people that
were working around campus afterwards because they made all the food.
They were just going around giving free hot dogs because

(59:40):
they had all that extra food after because they wanted
to be prepared.

Speaker 4 (59:43):
For that opening night.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
Oh wow, man, that's awesome. It's so cool what they're
doing at Coastal. And now adding might You've into the
mix is going to be even better. My final thing
will turn our attention back to Clemson in South Carolina,
because neither team has really played the way their fan
base expected. I would get. I saw a projection from
Brett McMurphy and on three. I know, technically, I guess

(01:00:05):
you may or may not still be with on three
at this point, but either way, he had Clemson in
Texas Tech and the Pop Tarts Bowl with job. Imagine
Clemson fans would want to throw up in South Carolina
playing BYU in the Liberty Bowl after a couple of weekends,
Mike how the palmdo state teams have fallen in the
mind's eye of Brett McMurphy.

Speaker 5 (01:00:26):
Well, Brett McMurphy, even though he was a colleague for
a short period of time during my stint at on three,
he didn't have South Carolina ranked in the top twenty
five before the season. So I say that because bretton
hasn't been high on them since the beginning of the year,
even before the beginning of the year.

Speaker 4 (01:00:46):
So if the game Cocks, for whatever.

Speaker 5 (01:00:48):
Reason, they don't have a great year, then you know what,
we'll look at him and say, all right, he was
one of the rare people that wasn't drinking the kool
aid thinking they were going.

Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
To do well.

Speaker 4 (01:00:58):
I said this before the season.

Speaker 5 (01:01:01):
I projected South Carolina and I still stand by this,
even though they're not going to be covering them anymore.
I think they're a team that can go eight and four,
nine and three. I'm kind of just in that middle land.
And the reason why is the.

Speaker 4 (01:01:14):
Games that they have.

Speaker 5 (01:01:16):
And I would have said this before you know, the
season started. Missouri, that's a tough place to go to. Well,
we just found out the other day that's going to
be a night game in Colombia, the other Columbia that's
been a place that USC has really struggled at. On
top of that, you got to go play at Old Miss,
at LSU, at Texas, A and m never mind the

(01:01:36):
fact that you have to play Alabama, you have to
play Clemson of course at home as well.

Speaker 4 (01:01:41):
So there's some tough matchups for them.

Speaker 5 (01:01:44):
And you know, look, we know that with that conference.
And I know Clemson fans are going to roll their
eyes when I say this, but we know that conference,
especially with adding Oklahoma and Texas, and it's the other
team I forgot to thrown.

Speaker 4 (01:01:57):
They got to play Oklahoma as well.

Speaker 5 (01:01:59):
They have a difficult schedule, there's no question about it.
But at the end of the day, he's got to
go out there to find ways two wings. If not, yeah,
that's that's certainly a reality for South Carolina.

Speaker 1 (01:02:09):
Mike, buddy, best of luck to you. Always appreciate you,
and I'll get in touch with you this week about
lining somebody up. Man.

Speaker 4 (01:02:14):
Thanks awesome, appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:16):
Tony.

Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
There you go. That's Mike. You've but making his final
appearance here on the show. Quick Break will come back
with some reaction to that right after this Clemson Sports
tal and Swan back with you on a Tuesday afternoon
again talking Tuesday up in Tigertown. Tyler Brown, one of
my favorite interviews out there. Met with the media earlier today.
He's been really solid for Clemson in his return. I

(01:02:37):
don't understand it, man, you can't get Tyler Brown and
Antonio Williams on the field together just to save your life.
It's like magnets. They're like polar They're like when one's playing,
the other's got to be gone. I don't understand. That's
just the way it's been. But Tyler Brown was asked
about where he sees room for growth within this Clemson
offense after a couple of ball games.

Speaker 6 (01:02:56):
Everyone honestly, man, you know, we're just taking a day
by day, you know, going on were the things that
we can do better at? You know, we definitely a
lot of room to grow because we know we have
in that locker room. So just taking it day by day, man,
just trying to get to where we can be.

Speaker 1 (01:03:09):
Brown was asking how he feels like this group can
get off the faster starts during these ball games.

Speaker 6 (01:03:15):
Film, Man, we just got to get in that film
on adjust, Adjust to adjust, faster, I should say, you know,
a lot of slow starts, but got to also getting
in the game well as well. So I feel like
we did that our last game. You know, we're gonna
build onto that and try to keep keep things rolling.

Speaker 1 (01:03:32):
Brown was also asked about what he learned about himself
dealing with injuries last season.

Speaker 6 (01:03:38):
Just just being able to lead different ways, you know,
being more vocal to my younger guys, some of the
older guys too. You know, I've become more of that
vocal leader in that wide receiver room and taking on
that role very well.

Speaker 7 (01:03:51):
And yeah, I'll say that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:53):
Clumps to wide receiver Tyler Brown there. He was also
asked about Davila Sweeney's comments that the team was making
plays of practice but it just hadn't translate the games
and how they can carry that over.

Speaker 7 (01:04:03):
Oh yeah, man, were just as surprised as everyone else.

Speaker 5 (01:04:05):
Man.

Speaker 6 (01:04:05):
You know, we've been killing it all all camp, all practice,
and we're still killing in practice.

Speaker 7 (01:04:10):
So I don't know, we just got to make that translation.

Speaker 6 (01:04:13):
We're gonna we're gonna fix it in the film room,
and you know we're gonna come together.

Speaker 7 (01:04:16):
We're gonna get it fixed.

Speaker 1 (01:04:17):
Brown was also asked to give some insight into how
he feels the leaders on the team kept everybody together
when the guys were trailing Troy sixteen to nothing.

Speaker 6 (01:04:26):
Uh yeah, I mean we have great leadership, great great,
great group. Honestly, we just all bond really well together.
You know, we uh lean on each other when we
most need it. So when in times like that we
don't really know one, no one shies away from stepping
up and keeping everybody as in the game.

Speaker 7 (01:04:42):
You know, our biggest.

Speaker 6 (01:04:43):
Leaders, people Wade, you know, guys like that. They step
up when when guys need to talk to and you know,
handle that in that moment.

Speaker 7 (01:04:51):
So it's good for us.

Speaker 1 (01:04:53):
I mentioned the fact that Brown and Williams can't hardly
ever be on the field at the same time for injuries.
But he was asked what it's been like to play
forty fifty snaps a game.

Speaker 6 (01:05:02):
It feels amazing, man. I'm just blessed, grateful for the opportunity.
You know, those Sundays, those Sunday body feelings. I definitely
don't miss those, but you know I do miss it
in a sense because you know what that means. I'm
back out there playing football, and I'm just grateful to
be out there.

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
Brown was also asked to give an insight into where
he feels he and Cade's chemistry is as a wide out.

Speaker 6 (01:05:22):
Yeah, I mean, definitely definitely still growing. Definitely still got
room to grow. But we were making plays in practice
with each other and getting more throws in practice and
you know, getting more routes on air and stuff like that,
and we're just growing it, you know, just same as
the same way as freshman year.

Speaker 1 (01:05:34):
Brown was also asked about how the absence of Antonia
Williams has affected the wide out room.

Speaker 7 (01:05:40):
Just I feel like having that next man up mindset.

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:05:43):
Of course we missed my brother wanted the best in
the nation. I still believe that. I still staying on
that and we definitely feel that. But you know, at
the end of the day, nobody feels sorry for us,
and we got to have the next man up. So
everyone's prepared like they they're ready to go run out
there first, and that's how we prepared and that's how we.

Speaker 7 (01:06:00):
Go about things.

Speaker 6 (01:06:01):
So just being able to fill those big shoes, man,
you know, just controlling what I can control at the
time and just embrace some opportunity going out there and
just doing my best as I can.

Speaker 1 (01:06:10):
Tyler Brown was also asked if you know he's had
a chance to talk with Antonio and kind of what
his messages to him about bouncing back.

Speaker 7 (01:06:17):
Yeah. Me and Antonio talk a lot.

Speaker 6 (01:06:19):
You know, It's just it just comes down to some
some stuff I like to keep between me and him,
but just very inspirational things and just just personal talks
and stuff.

Speaker 7 (01:06:28):
Stuff of that nature.

Speaker 1 (01:06:28):
Clips some wide out Tyler Brown. He was also asked
about the upcoming conference game and what he feels like
the Tigers are doing to be prepared for that.

Speaker 7 (01:06:37):
You know, conference play is a different deal.

Speaker 6 (01:06:38):
You know, it means something now, you know that first
loss not really in our conference. He likes to say
the games will give us winning our back or winning
our face. We're going up that hill, and I feel
like that first game we could we have a lot
of things we can improve on, but this this ACC player,
it'll definitely it'll definitely put winning our face if we
don't come out on top. So we prefer to get

(01:06:59):
that win behind our back. Can just you know, take
it up a notch and get to what we need
to be.

Speaker 1 (01:07:04):
One question a lot of people have is about when
this offense might finally bust through, you know, when they
break out. Here's Tyler Brown talking about this offense potentially
taking those net next steps.

Speaker 6 (01:07:17):
Oh really close, man, very close. I mean, like I said,
camp camp was great. You know, we're going out there
killing it every single day. Practice is still great. We
just gotta we just gotta settle in. That's that's I think,
that's all it is. You know, I think this would
be a great week for us to do that, you know,
it being conference play.

Speaker 1 (01:07:30):
So Tyler Brown was also asked to give some insight
into Georgia Tech secondary.

Speaker 6 (01:07:35):
A great group, great group, aggressive group in the fast group,
and that know how to that know how to move.
So there's gonna be a great challenge. It's gonna be
great play and I just can't wait to play play
the guys.

Speaker 1 (01:07:45):
Tyler Brown was also asking if he sees any similarities
between Georgia Tech's defense and what the Tigers saw last
season with Texas, because that defensive coordinator at Georgia Tech,
Blake Gideon, was the safety's code for the Longhorns last season.

Speaker 7 (01:08:02):
Yeah, you're talking about the DC.

Speaker 6 (01:08:04):
Yeah, I mean definitely, we definitely got looking at some
Texas film as well as Georgia Tech film him going
coming from there. You know, we we did play them,
so you know, we got some of those clips, and
but we just you know, taking the day by day
and you know, studying as much as we can.

Speaker 1 (01:08:21):
Brown was also asked to give some insight into what
it's like to prepare for hostile environments, especially when you
go on the road.

Speaker 6 (01:08:28):
Just playing out, just living outside in, I mean inside out.
You know, can't let the outside noise affect us in
any moment, rather that be fans, critics, media. We go
to war with those guys in that locker room, and
we take pride in you know, living inside out and
staying within our group and not letting any outside noise
affect how we play, how we think, or just how
we move.

Speaker 1 (01:08:47):
He was also asked about whether or not the offense
feels a sense of urgency to put together four quarters
of solid football.

Speaker 6 (01:08:54):
Yeah, obviously, we got to put it all together. You know,
just just play our games, play the game that we
that we know we can be the so we know
we can be and that's just gonna be our thing
going forward, just starting fast and just being consistent. So yeah,
we're gonna fix some things up in the film room
and practice and you know, get back at it on Saturday.

Speaker 1 (01:09:12):
Final Thing from Tyler Brown almost called me Antonio Brown.
Final Thing from Tyler Brown. He was asked about whether
the absence of Antonio Williams has forced him a little
bit out of his comfort zone.

Speaker 6 (01:09:25):
Definitely, definitely, I would definitely say I got out of
my comfort zone. But you know, like I said, we
prepare everyone preparing to be to go out there first.
So everyone's studying, you know, our scout team guys they
studying and just as hard as the as the ones.
So everyone has to be prepared because you never know
what's gonna happen. And we've seen that over the years
with our injury history and our wide receiver room. So

(01:09:47):
we've learned from that and just everyone just staying ready
has really helped us.

Speaker 1 (01:09:51):
That's clips to why out Tyler Brown. When we come back.
We talked about Brett McMurphy's list I mentioned earlier with
Mike You but keep it locked back at the Clypson
Sports Talk to show that shakes the south Land again.
Don't forget about our friends at Alumni Hall right there
on the corner of campus on College Avenue in downtown Clemson.
Like I said, swung by there for the LSU game. Man,

(01:10:11):
what an incredible facility, the hat wall, everything that they've got.
But remember Clempson students, faculty, and military get ten percent
off when shopping in store. So you know, I want
you to shop in the store when you're in Tigertown.
But you also shop online and if you do that,
go through our website find the links. Most of them
are embedded in the bottom of our stories. Occasionally stories

(01:10:33):
are sponsored by Alumni Hall and support us that way
and support them that way as well against Alumni Hall.
The ultimate Clympson Tiger shopping experience. So I mentioned when
Mike you have was just a little bit ago about
the the post on social media from Brett McMurphy ranking

(01:10:56):
or talking about the bowls, and again Clemson and South Carolina,
those two teams are in the mix in the top
twelve in college football. South Carolina's undefeated, Clemson's got a

(01:11:22):
loss to LSU, the number three team in the country,
and regardless of how they've looked, those are the facts.
But Brit McMurphy, Brett, excuse me. I had a friend
named Britt growing up, Brett McMurphy has Clemson in the
Pop Tarts Bowl facing Texas Tech and South Carolina, and

(01:11:47):
the Liberty Bowl facing BYU. Now, I think both of
those bulls for Clemson in South and South Carolina would
be incredibly disappointing bowl games given the expectations fans had
for these teams coming into the season. Now, the same

(01:12:09):
could be said for the fact that he's got Alabama
currently projected in the Music City Bowl against Indiana. And
I'm sure that Boise State fans didn't expect to be
projected to be in the LA Bowl given the fact
that they were in the College Football Playoff a year
ago and Texas A and M fans and Michigan fans
facing off in the cheese At Bowl. But for Clemson

(01:12:34):
and South Carolina to be in the bowl games that
Brett McMurphy has then projected to be in at this
point was rather shocking for me, extremely shocking because while
neither team has maybe looked up to the expectation that

(01:12:56):
people had for them, neither has done anything in my
opinion too placed them in those bowl games at this point. Now,
mind you, this is just one man's opinion and it's
after two weeks, and it's very fluid and will certainly change.
But I am hard pressed to believe Brett hard pressed

(01:13:21):
to believe that Clemson is gonna end up in the
pop Tarts Bowl. And I got good friends at the
pop Tarts Bowl. I love the pop Tarch Bowl. I
think pop tarts are spectacular. Now, granted, those of you
that those of you that eat the cinnamon flavored I

(01:13:42):
think are completely out of your mind. Those are atrocious.
And what's funny is some of you will say that
those are the best ones.

Speaker 3 (01:13:50):
I guess we both learned a little something about each
other today, didn't we.

Speaker 1 (01:13:54):
You'd be wrong. The frosted strawberry are top of them,
are followed closely by frosted blueberry. And I also do
want to go on the record and say this unequivocally,
those of you that eat the unfrosted pop tarts, you

(01:14:20):
might want to get evaluated just to see what's going
on there, because I can't. I can't quite understand you, guys.
Unfrosted pop tarts should not even be invented. Like that's
a mistake that didn't happen on purpose. The frosting just

(01:14:41):
ran out and somebody on the line ate one and said, hey,
you know what, this isn't so bad without the frosting.
And all it takes is one corporate Yahoo to agree
with that, and the next thing you know, we got
unfrosted pop tarts. Thanks, but no, thanks, not interested in
the un frosted pop tart. By the way, final thing

(01:15:05):
on this I will at least say about the pop
Tarts deal, the way they've built the cooking of the
pop tart into the nuance of college football. I think
it's even in the NCAA college football game like for
so many years the Pulling Weed Eater, Gator Bowl or whatever.

(01:15:28):
You know, they're trying to figure out how to get
anybody to care about who the sponsor is, credit pop Tarts,
credit Duke's Mayo, because those two companies, maybe more than
anybody have have figured it out. Like the first time

(01:15:51):
you saw a coach get that Mayo dumped on them.
I think it was Shane Beamer, wasn't It was he
number one? Because after that they realized, well, we can't
use real mayonnaise. They about killed Chane Beamer. I think
they hit him in the head with the with the
bucket because that mayonnaise was just you know, sticking to
the inside of the to the inside of the thing.

(01:16:15):
But anyway, all that being said, man I get it,
Clemson in South Carolina have not been as good as
maybe people thought. And for every Gamecock fan that was
laughing in the afternoon when Clemson trailed sixteen to nothing
the Troy, those same people were probably stunned to be

(01:16:40):
sitting in Williams. Brice Stadium late in the second quarter
down three nothing to South Carolina State. And I'll put
this on the record, and hey, if you're a if
you're an SEC State Bulldog fan, good for you. But
Troy would absolutely drag set date on the field. And

(01:17:02):
so I know Gamecock fans don't feel much better even
though they bounce back at the end after their performance.
But the Pop Tarts Bowl and the Liberty Bowl, come on,
Brett McMurphy, what are we talking about. It's not like
Clemson in South Carolina got three losses each, right now?
I mean that then that that's Pop Tar Bowl material.

(01:17:25):
Quick break will come back. We'll put a final bow.
On the Tuesday edition of Clemson's Sports Talk, What have you.

Speaker 8 (01:17:35):
Done for me lately?

Speaker 7 (01:17:38):
It's a fair question.

Speaker 8 (01:17:40):
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?

Speaker 7 (01:17:53):
Always are the same.

Speaker 2 (01:18:00):
We win.

Speaker 1 (01:18:47):
Final segment on a Tuesday Clemson Sports tal Swan Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook,
we are where you are. I mentioned the Baltimore Ravens
allowing the Buffalo Bills to make a major comeback on
Sunday night. Well, last night similar deal as the Chicago

(01:19:10):
Bears allowed the Minnesota Vikings to storm pack with a
come from behind victory. But did you know this about
John Harball, coach of the Ravens. And there's a lot
of a lot of times I blame the Ravens and
the issues that they have on Lamar Jackson. Like I've

(01:19:31):
always said, I can't trust him to win the big
game like in the NFL. For me, Lamar Jackson is
the James Harden, He's the Kevin Durant, He's one of
the best players you've ever seen. Can't win the big one.

(01:19:53):
And John Harball may be more respond possible then than
Lamar Jackson for this. But John Harball has seventeen blown
double digit leads as the head coach with the Baltimore Ravens,
and that is the most by any coach since nineteen

(01:20:18):
ninety one. Now, I do wonder how many of those involved,
how many of those involved Lamar Jackson. You know, if
you told me seventeen I'm were with Lamar, then I'd
say it's Lamar's the problem. But that's for me, a

(01:20:46):
stunning and telling fact about why I never trust the
Baltimore Ravens. I mean, you watch that game unfold. It's
precisely and they're loaded. I mean they got Lamar, they
got Derrick Henry, They've had a new Hopkins, they got
talent on the defensive side of the ball. But yet
they can't close it out. Can't close it out. All right,

(01:21:11):
one final thing before we get you out here, you
guys remember MJ. Morris. I know we talked about Coastal
with Mike. You have just a little bit ago. MJ.
Morris is currently the quarterback at Coastal. But what you
might remember is back in twenty twenty two, he was

(01:21:31):
a true freshman at NC State and he was the
backup to Devin Leary. I know, you guys remember Devin
Leary's name. Well, Morris got his first extended playing time
during the eighth game of the season that year against
Virginia Tech. The wolf pat were trailing twenty one to three.
Morris came in for a guy named Jack Chambers, completed

(01:21:52):
twenty to twenty nine passes for two hundred and sixty
five yards and three touchdowns. Then he played in four
games his sophomore season as the starter and the wolf
Pack were three and one. You remember this, and he
decided to red shirt because you get to play four games.

(01:22:14):
So he decided to preserve a red shirt year on
a team that was three and one. It was bizarre.
So he ended up transferring and playing last season at Maryland.
Started one game, played in seven games, threw for three
hundred and fifty yards. Again not much, but in December

(01:22:40):
he announced he would enter the portal for a second
time and he ends up at Coastal. Well again, this
is a guy that was three and one as a
starter at NC State and was a bright spot for
the wolf Pack. He he's now at Coastal with former

(01:23:03):
nc State offensive coordinator Tim Beck, and he's completing fifty
percent of his passes, averaging four point six yards per
pass with zero touchdowns and four interceptions in a total
QBR of six point four. And this is not the

(01:23:23):
make fun of Coastal by any means. This is an MJ.
Morris issue. This to me is an MJ. Morris issue.
And some people have come out in his defense and say, hey,
the wolf Pack told him they were going to move
on from him, But what do you mean there were
even four and one? Who cuts their starting quarterback mid

(01:23:44):
season when you're four and one, So just a weird situation.
I don't know how anybody that loves this sport can
see these stories and think through these stories and go, yep,
this sounds good for a kid. And even if you

(01:24:06):
go back to that moment when he leaves when they're
four and one, I wish I could find the audio
of that on this show, because I guarantee you, I
guarantee you. I was stunned because he was the kid
that quarterbacked against Clemson in that twenty four to seventeen win.
I mean, and then you quarterback the victory over Miami
and then he packed it up Brendan Armstrong came back.
I guess, I don't know. It's just weird and look

(01:24:29):
what's happened, Look what's happened anyway, just wanted to bring
that delight. All right, we'll be back tomorrow.

Speaker 4 (01:24:35):
Hey.

Speaker 1 (01:24:36):
Chad Morris Clemson, former Clemson offensive coordinator, joins us tomorrow
right here on the show. Until then, as always, you'll
take care now and go Tigers.