The "Chowda" Edition

Clemson heads to Boston College looking for a 13th consecutive win in the series. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Each time for Clipson Sports Talk with Lawton Swann. Now finally,

(00:45):
Clemson Sports Talk has come back to drive time. Hell everybody,
Lowton Swan back in the saddle once again. It is
the show that Shakes the south Land. Clemson Sports Talk
for you every afternoon as you make your way around
the great State of South Carolina and beyond, listening to
us on incredible radio stations like Fox Sports Radio fourteen

(01:08):
hundred the Midlands, her around the world on the iHeartRadio
application downloaded today, it's free. The website. Put the dot
com on it, doggonet that's clympses Sports Sun dot com.
And of course, the Show that shakesa south Land brought
to you in part by our good friends over at
Mets Plumbing mets plumb dot com. Two two six seven
one o eight Give them a call today two two

(01:31):
six seven one eight. That's Mets Plumbing. Out of the
gates on a Friday. Will Van derwoardt the Clympson insider,
hanging out with us here today, willye V. What's up,
big guy? How are you?

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Man? I am has just been joining a nice, beautiful
fall afternoon in the Great State of South Carolina. Looks, uh,
looks like it's gonna be a great weekend. And uh,
this is what it's all about, right, This is what
football is to me, is you know, kind of cool temperatures,
you get the leaves changing colors, You've got the blue guys.
You know, that's the way it's supposed to be.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Buddy. Let me tell you. The windows are up at
my house right now. I mean, I'm letting the fresh
air flow. I love it. It's it's the best time
of the year in my opinion. And what has disappointed
me just a little bit. And I know this is
a small potato item, though it feels like it's getting
a little cool, a little faster than I expected it too.
Like last night, I was trying to sit out watch

(02:25):
some baseball under the gazebo, and I was like, I
think I'm gonna have to light the little fire pit
in front of me because I'm getting a little chilly
out of here.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
But that's what you want, though, Light the fire pit.
I mean, that's that's the way it's supposed to be. Man,
I love this, dude. That's that's it. Watch a little
baseball with the fire pit. Maybe throw in some Marshmallows
or Cocoa's Perfect Man.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
So talking about baseball, we know you're a Steeler fan.
Who do you follow in Major League Baseball?

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, so there's two folds. Okay. So obviously I'm a
die hard Bucks fan Pirates fan and followed the Buckers forever.
My dad huge Pirates fan his entire life, and he
loved the Pirates more than the Steelers, and a lot

(03:13):
like pe Yanity. If you know p Yanity, Pyanny is
a big Pirates fan. Loves the Steelers too, but it's
a bigger Pirates fan. And that's what my dad was.
And so listening to the baseball games with my dad
growing up on the old FM radio dial am radio
dill excuse me, we get w kt K, and so
we listened to as many games as we could that

(03:34):
that it would allow us to. And so, yeah, so
I was the only guy in school with Sid Breens
slid into home base for the to send the Braves
to the World Series back in ninety one. I was
the only guy that was upset. You know, in my
entire school, everybody else is happy, like, yeah, did you
see that game last night? I'm like, yeah, shut up,

(03:55):
I want to talk about it, and uh so, you know.
But then, but my family, I don't know if you
know this about me. So my dad was from Pittsburgh,
and so my mom was from Greenville. My dad was
in the Air Force, and so all my brothers and
sisters were born in California. Uh So they were born
in Los Angeles. And my dad being a big baseball guy,

(04:18):
he would go to Dodger games, and so the Dodgers
were kind of like his second team, and so I
kind of in the same way, adjusted that way as well.
Like that, so I pulled for the Pirates when they're
playing the Dodgers, but I'll watch the Dodgers and pull
for the Dodgers throughout the year as well. So that's
why I said it's two full. I'm still okay guy
first and foremost. But you know, obviously I was very

(04:40):
happy with the win last night. Well, you, Dodger Blue.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
You're breaking one of my established principals and rules on
Major League Baseball by doing so, I I would freely
allow you to pull for an American League team and
the National League team will, but two National League teams
that's a little much.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah, but there's ties there. It's it's personal, it's it's
it's because of my father, and so you can hold
that against me when it's when it's I.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Will not I tell you or something. You know, it
goes against social norms when it comes to supporting baseball,
I too follow a team in both leagues. I my
thing is this, Like several years ago, when I got
on the radio, I kind of recognized with this program,
obviously the genre was going to be more Clemson in

(05:33):
college football, and I didn't really love talking about the
Atlanta Braves. So I kind of made it my goal
to never watch a live baseball pitch during the regular season,
only keep up with the playoffs for our listeners. And
I've pretty much done that. I've been pretty solid in
that approach. But I pull for the Atlanta Braves in
the National League and I pull for the Red Sox

(05:53):
in the American League. So those are my two teams.
Who would you if I forced you to say, you
got to pull for an American League team?

Speaker 3 (06:00):
Who do you root for?

Speaker 2 (06:02):
I couldn't do it. No, I'm a National League guy.
I hate everything, I hate everything americanly, so I couldn't
do it. And so you know, so I would just
you have to pull the trigger, you know. But yeah,
the also understand and I'm sure Pirates fans out there
emphasized with me on this man. Had the Pirates really

(06:24):
been a baseball team the last oh, you know, two decades?
I mean we let mean, come on, we don't do anything.
You gotta give me something that has fun so I
can watch baseball.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
I will say, when we were kids, I think they
had the coolest hats in baseball. They had kind of
those flat cloth hats by comparison to everybody.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
Else back in the We Are Family days.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah, that was great stuff. All right. Will Van de
Board again the Clemson insider on Twitter at Steeler will
talk with him about the Clemson Tigers as they get
ready to head up to Chess in the Hill to
take on the Boston College Eagles this weekend. Will a
little more life from the Clemson offense, certainly in that
first quarter at North Carolina. But I've said this all week,

(07:09):
and I know the Clemson people don't want to hear it,
but sometimes that's my job. I thought the twenty eight
point first quarter and the way Clipson won that game
had a heck of a lot more to do with
North Carolina than it did Clemson.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
It did. But I want to bring this to you
to the point, Clemson, North Carolina's defense is not much
worse than Syracuse's defense. And you know, go back and
watch Syracuse play defense. They're horrible. I mean they're horrible.
They're just not very good. And North Carolina is not

(07:46):
very good on defense either. The difference was you executed
against North Carolina. You hit the layups as that but
likesa said and likes to say, and you made plays.
So and I know a lot of guys are like, oh,
it's a high school defense. Of course they did well.
You know, they had a high school defense against Troy
and don't look very good, and they played a high
school defense against Syracuse and didn't look very good. Take

(08:09):
what you got. You got a team that showed improvement
in week five, and they took advantage of a high
school defense and put twenty eight points up on them
right off the bat and took them just like basically
took a heart right to their soul. You know, it
took a knife right to their soul. I mean, so like,
appreciate what happened and understand, Yes, it is North Carolina

(08:31):
horrible Yeah, probably the worst ACC team I have ever seen. Okay,
now I've been covering PO so I'm telling you. I mean,
it's the worst a SEC team I've ever seen. Yes,
you understand that, but I also understand execute it finally,
and that's what And I know some people and I don't.

(08:51):
I don't get this. You know, some people complaining, well
they could have they look good in the suck ad
half at all, Like they played a lot of backups.
They played seventy two players. Do you know Clemton is
still the only team that really does that. They're the
only team in the ACC that does that. Very few teams.
Do you think Miami was putting all their backups in

(09:13):
against Florida State when they were up twenty eight to
three and the fourth quarters, No, they weren't, you know,
and they still on Florida State still made a run
on them, right. Teams don't do what Dabo does. He's
always done that. He always puts he wants to see
what other guys do. Put him in situation because he
don't ever know if you're gonna need that guy and
you want that guy to be able to go do

(09:33):
it against somebody else's starters. And I get it, and like,
you know, some people get upset about that and they know, oh,
we could have scored seventy. They couldn't scored seventy. Davin
could have put his number on it, but he called
off the dolls in the second quarter, and it was
obvious they went very vanilla with their offense after that.
Where they in the first quarter, you know, they weren't
vanilla at all. They were like doing things you hadn't
seen them do all year on off, coming off and

(09:54):
right right, and the play call. The play calling was great,
but they went very vanilla in the second quarter after
they went up thirty five to three, they went very vanilla,
and then they stayed vanilla the entire second half.

Speaker 4 (10:03):
And you know, and.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
Christopher Zena, you know, he doesn't work with the starters
that often, so he played in there a few series
with the starters, but you know, you could tell that's
not his thing, that you know, And they only ran
so many plays with him because he didn't know all
the plays like Kay does. So there's there. You're very
limited when you start putting the backups in on what
you can do. And I know fans wanted to score

(10:26):
seventy I get it, but dude, you won thirty eight
to ten. It was thirty five to three. That game
was never even in any doubt. And and I'm always
for play the other guys because you know what, they
practice all week long too, and they get the snot
knocked out of them by the starters all week long,
so they deserve to get it in place in football,
you know.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
Yeah, yeah, will van with us here on the program.
So let's keep with this North Carolina team for a minute,
because obviously, when you get a Wednesday, you know, one sentence,
short release from the coach and the administration, that typically
not a great thing. What's kind of been your take

(11:07):
of how this is playing out up in Chapel Hill?
And do you expect Bill Belichick to be the head
coach for the tar Heels this time next season?

Speaker 2 (11:20):
Somebody told me someone up there, they said that because
I talked about the buyout right, the buyouts you know, expensive,
And I said, I said, well, what do you think?
They said, well, they can't afford for him to be
the head coach next year, and they can't afford the buyout,
so they really just can't afford for him to be around.
So it's more like they're gonna I think they're gonna

(11:41):
eat the buyout because they really can't afford to have
another season like this, and that's gonna be more detrimental
to them than the actual buyout in the long run.
So I think you're gonna see a different head coach.
I think you're gonna say, hey, we tried it, it
didn't work out. You really didn't know what you were
doing in college football. This is a different game, and

(12:01):
we're gonna go move forward and find somebody else. I
think Bubba Gunningham, you know, he wants to work it
through the year, get through the season, and then make
a change. And I think, you know that's where they're
going to go that route. And so I think he
did the typical I support my coach, you know, and
what they're doing, blah blah blah. But I mean, it's
one embarrassing thing after another. Not only are they getting

(12:21):
their butt kicked on the field, but you know, you
got the whole thing with Belichick and his girlfriend saga
and then you you know, the big joke in the
press box last week was like after they got their beat,
after they got their bus beat back Clemson, you know,
a big joke in the press box was, well, I
guess they're going to Nantucket again this week during the
open day so we can recover from this butt whoop
and he took here, you know, and that's not North Carolina.

(12:43):
That's not what they want to hear, right, And then
one of your coaches gets in trouble and they have
to self report it.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
It put it out there, yeah for people that don't know,
giving additional sideline passes to a recruits family, yep.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
And so that's another black eye on the program, like
you know. And then that Michael Lombardi's letter like everything's
gonna be good, be patient with this that came out
last week prior to the Clinston game, Like that didn't
look good, Like what are you doing? Like you admitting
that we don't know what we're doing. In his letter,
if you read it, it's like, hey, yeah, we're kind

(13:23):
of like playing through this. Be patient with us, we're
gonna get this down, and we're you know, that's what
a good look either. So it's like they've just done
one thing wrong after the other. And I give William
Qualker Bush this credit for this because qualk always Caulkers
said you know that. You know, North Carolina says they
were gonna be the thirty third NFL team and they

(13:44):
were gonna show what it's like they could come into
college football and do every and it was like it
was so snobby of Bill Belichick and Michael Lombardi and
so like you kind of like, see, college football is
not as easy thought it was. Guys, it's pretty hard.
And it's even harder now because it's like, you know,

(14:04):
the nil and everything like that. And you know, to
have a coach come out, an SCS coach come out
and say, for some reason, we were trying to get
players that are a bottom group of five teams. I
should say we were trying to get the same players
out of the transferport of that North Carolina was that
we should never be competed against North Carolina for players.
That tells you how the bottom of the barrel North

(14:26):
Carolina was going to get players.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
Will Van on the program on a Friday afternoon, talking
about the situation up at North Carolina. Let's talk about
Virginia and Tony Elliott for a minute. Will Channel of
Morris leading the way they get another overtime victory, this
time against Louisville this past weekend. And it's funny because
two weeks ago when they beat Florida State, and Clemson
fans are obviously, you know how fans are, right, they're

(14:51):
looking at every route to climb back into the ACC Championship. Potentially,
they're like, oh, right, Florida State got a loss, that
means if we beat them, that we've you know, we
were one up on the Knowles. And so you go
a little bit further down the line. And then this weekend,
regardless of the fact that that Florida State just lost
to Miami to lose their second game, but Tony Elliott

(15:15):
goes and beats Louisville, and all of a sudden, I'm
looking at Tony Elliott in Virginia and their schedule, and
I'm thinking they might be favored in every game the
rest of the way except for maybe the Duke game.
Tony Elliott in Virginia might become a problem now for
Clemson people that were hoping to climb back into the
ACC Championship game conversation.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
Yeah, absolutely, now they, like you mentioned, I think they
got a couple of games that they could fall on
the sword for and fall out. But you're right there.
You know, you look at it, it's North it's Virginia,
Georgia Tech, and Duke at the top of the AEC
standings right now. Miami's right behind. They're undefeated also, but

(15:59):
Miami's just one conference game. I think that that is, yeah,
just one conference game, so like, but it's but Duke
and but those other three, Yeah, you know those bols.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
So let me give you Virginia's Virginia's schedule, all right,
So they're off this week, They've got Washington State the
following week at North Carolina at cal versus Wake at Duke,
and versus Virginia Tech. I mean, it's finding two losses

(16:30):
is pretty tough there, in my opinion.

Speaker 2 (16:33):
Yeah, it is. Duke is the one, as you mentioned,
But then like this Duke, like you, when you look
at Duke's schedule, Duke controls its own destiny, right because
Duke plays Georgia Tech and Virginia. But you know, maybe
Duke gets a Duke loses a game or two. I
don't know, Clemson plays Duke, so they can give m

(16:54):
a lost. Maybe Tech gives them a lost. I don't know.
You know, you kind of play that card and see
how that works. But You're right with Virginia, And the
only other game I could say Virginia could lose there is,
in my opinion, is the UH and I don't think
it's gonna happen, but they do have their number obviously.
It's Virginia at Virginia Tech.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
Virginia Tech.

Speaker 2 (17:14):
Yeah, that's that's the only one I could see where
they stumble just because of the it's a rivalry game
and Virginia Tech is gonna be up for it, and
you just never know what's gonna happen in a rivalry
gram and Virginia Tech holds them so, so like that's
maybe the other possible one, though I do believe this
is here Tony in Virginia beat Virginia Tech.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
Yeah, what specially, don't I see maybe one loss there?
That's it. Yeah, what a special run for Tonya Elliott
and the Virginia Cavaliers so far this season and obviously
just you know, I think fans really pulling for him,
the story with the three players being killed this first
year there at Virginia and now to have them where

(17:57):
they are, man, it's it's been really really awesome to
a guy that we all are rooting for and they
do have a lost to NC State for the people
that are looking at the schedule, but that's one of
those scenarios where that game was played as an out
of conference game. We've seen that done a couple of
times by teams in the ACC. And with the expanded
league and the way things are going down, the line

(18:17):
will to nine conference games, I would imagine you might
see even more of this kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
Especially when like you saw last week Miami and Florida,
Miami and South Carolina canceled their series that starts to
start next year, by the way, so they got to
find a game. It was twenty six and twenty seven,
so they got to find a South Carolina's got to
do the same thing. Miami and South Carolina gotta find
somebody to replace that, right, and you got Yeah, you
got Clinton host in Georgia here in a few years

(18:46):
as that game happened, because Clinton's playing Notre Dame and
Georgia and South Carolina that season in twenty twenty seven.
So we'll see what happens there with that. And so
with this, yeah, and so the a SEC rule is
what they got to play nine conference games plus one
more Power four opponent. So You're probably gonna see that

(19:06):
because it's gonna be hard to schedule, like for some teams,
hard to schedule that tenth opponent because they just not
everybody has the relationships that Clinton has with the SEC. Yeah,
you know Georgia Tech Place, Georgia Tech Place, Georgia Clinton Place,
South Carolina and then you've got Florida State playing Florida
and then Louisville playing Kentucky. So those four teams got

(19:29):
that relationship to get that tenth game in automatically, right, Well,
NC State and North Carolina and Duke they don't have that,
so it's gonna be hard to find it. And it's
not like the SEC schools are going to volunteer to play.
So it's basically what happens in those teams trying to
schedule that extra game against the power tent, a power
for opponent.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
We'll hit a quick break and come back with more
with Will Vanderwort from The Clemson Insider right here on
the show That Shakes and South Lay and Clemson Sports
Talk called Fox Sports right you, fourteen hundred, The Show
That Shakes is South on a Friday, Will Vandervoort, the
Clemson Insider on Twitter at Steeler Will the website the
Clemson Insider dot com.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
Will.

Speaker 1 (20:09):
You were talking about scheduling and people are probably wondering,
what do you mean, Swane? Why would two teams play
against each other that are in the same conference. And
the thing is, it's in addition to the fact, right
for some of these schools like North Carolina and say
Wake Forest, they like to have a relationship, they like

(20:29):
to face off against one another. I might argue Clemson
and say Georgia Tech are two teams that might want
to do this at some point down the line, just
because here's a historic rivalry and you can do it
out of the conference. It kind of makes sense when
you're trying to do exactly what you said before the break, right,
like fill the schedule.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
Exactly, Like you know, next year, Miami's got to find
somebody to play, you know, another game. Now. I don't
know if Miami's playing Florida again next year or somebody
like that, and they already have that. I don't know
how it looked at the schedule long, right, but South
Carolina's like, we played Clinton already and we got to
play another We gotta play nine SEC games? Yeah, bye
bye you know, bye bye Miami, We're done. Uh, you know,

(21:10):
we're gonna find a group of five team to play
or something, and and so yeah, it's gonna be interesting
to see what these other schools that don't play an
SEC opponent in the don Con do. You know, do
they are they able to find somebody out of Big twelve.
I don't know if they're gonna be able to because
the Big twelve's been playing nine games for a long time, right,

(21:30):
and so they already probably got their conference their non
conference games set for you know, up into the twenty thirties, right,
so it's gonna be difficult for these teams to find
each other. So you're right, Like, so North Carolina, Hey,
we'd like to play wake Forest every year, Let's go
play wake Forest. Or we like to play Virginia every year.
Let's make sure we're playing Virginia every year to keep
the rivalry going. You know, the same thing with NC State,

(21:54):
you know, and I think you could see a Clinton
NC State do that in the future. You you mentioned
Georgia Tech. I think Clinton would love to do that
with NC State as well. So not that Clemton's going
to because I don't think Clemson meets to it at
the moment because they got the twelve year deal with
Notre Dame, so they're gonna play Notre Dame in South
Carolina every year through twenty thirty eight, starting the twenty
twenty seven and then they got deals with Oklahoma and

(22:15):
Georgia in there as well. So I don't see. That's
what I'm saying. It's gonna be see what they do.
I think what for Clemson standpoint, Well, you're gonna see
Clemson probably cut the schedules because I think Clempston wants
to keep those other matchups together because your strength to
schedule is a big deal now, right, And so if
Clemton can play at the Georgia's and Notre Dame in

(22:35):
the same year and beat them, then what's that gonna
do for Clinton strength to schedule? Well?

Speaker 1 (22:40):
It lest so well, I was gonna say, and let's
be honest with the way this thing is currently formatted.
You can play big, powerful team from other leagues. All
you gotta do is win your conference. All is be
the AC champ.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
Exactly, So they can play that game and then not
only be the a SEC champ, but didn't get credit
for playing those games and helps them in the seeding,
and maybe they're you know, going they're getting a buy
in the first round. All those things come into play
and it's a big deal. But where in Graham Neft
told us this a few months ago when this question
was asked as a possibility, he said that the areas

(23:17):
where it would hurt Clemson is playing the Furman's in
the South Carolina States and Waffwards. That's not where they
have to make the cuts. It's playing the SCS state teams.
And that sucks because I know Clemtson and South Carolina
want to help those teams out because that helps their
football programs. But they may have no choice but to
cut those games because you know they're not gonna have

(23:39):
enough weeks to play them. Right.

Speaker 1 (23:42):
So the O'Rourke McFadden Trophy will be on the line
tomorrow night up in Chestnut Hill. Kind of unique matchup
obviously with Clemson in BC over the years. But give
me your thoughts will just about this game. I know
neither team is playing the type football that they would
have like to have played. Both coaches made the opponent

(24:03):
sound like their record was. You know, Bill O'Brien made
Clemson sound undefeated. Daboswen, you made a one to four
team sound four and one. What do you make of
this matchup that we'll see tomorrow night.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
Well, Bill O'Brien has some credibility with what he's done,
Not that I don't mean it the South that way,
but what Dabo is saying, it's kind of like, yeah,
Davo's doing the low Holtz approach, right, you know, I'm saying, like,
oh my gosh, this is the greatest team we've ever
played when you looked at them and they're not really
that good. Well, Boston College's kind of being honest because
preseason top fourteen Clinton still has a lot of talent

(24:36):
on its team. They just aren't playing well, right going
up to the North Carolina again, they just weren't playing well,
whereas Boston College is just like the talent is not
where Clinton is from talent standpoint. Now, they got some
good players though, So I don't want you to think, oh,
Clinton's going to go in there. This is this is
not a good football team, but it's not an awful
football team, if that makes sense.

Speaker 4 (24:57):
Right.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
North Carolina was an awful football team. Like there's a
big jump from North carou Boston College in North Carolina.
There's a big jump there, there's a bad drop off
is large, and so Boston College is a team that's
capable of Clemson's not playing well to either a give
Clemson a really close call or beat Clemson. They are
We've seen it. Syracuse is not very good. Syracuse defense

(25:20):
is horrible. Yet Clemson could't goron. I mean they why
because because they did execute right and then they didn't
play up to the level that they need to play.
So Clinton's got to play a good game and kind
of played the same way they did against North Carolina
last week. Because when you look at this team, you know,
you know Dylan long game Longer. How do you say
the quarterback's name.

Speaker 1 (25:41):
They don't have the pronunciation guy on Boston College's website.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
I'm sorry, Buddy, I put you on the spot. But
but but he's a he's a good quarterback. You know,
he's eleventh in the country and passing yards you know,
you know, he's got a good arm, he stands in
the part. Now he's he's not a very mobile quarterback.
I've watched him play. So that's gonna be a good
advantage for Clemson. I think that they're not again second
we can roll. They don't got to worry about a
quarterback taking off and scrambling for fifty yards right like

(26:08):
they're gonna have to worry about later in the season
when they play Duke and SMU Duke in Florida State
these next three weeks because those quarterbacks can do what
I just said. Uh, you know, they got Lewis Bond
I think is one of the better receivers in the ACC.
He's gonna he's got a chance to be their all
time leading receiver at Boston College at some point this
coming year. And then they're flight in and by the way,

(26:29):
tight ends give Clemson fits. Jeremy Franklin is a guy
that Crimson's got to pay attention to that he loves
to go to him, and so it's a guy that
can give them issues. Now, where their problem is is,
I don't know if you've seen the report last night,
but Boston College is like it's a walking mash unit

(26:50):
on the defensive side of the ball. I mean, they're
just really right now reeling from injuries, and that's why
they're not very good defensively because they just could need
to have these injuries and you know when you look
at it, like right now. On the questionable list, defensive
back MaTx Tucker, defensive back Ashley Cunningham, defensive lineman Quinton Hutchinson, linebacker,

(27:14):
Von Peterman defensive back of Mauri Jackson defensive back, Cameron Martinez,
defensive back TJ. Green, defensive back, Zach Kelly, linebacker, Pale Foo,
defensive lineman Sterling Sanders.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
Hey, Well, hold on one second, let's s we got
a hard time break. We'll come right back, Will Van
der Voard back will us Will you were talking about
Boston College's injury report. It's substantial for sure, I.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
Mean, and I got one two, three, four, five more
guys that are all questionable, every single guy just named.
That's I mean. It's one two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen,
fourteen defensive players are questionable before tomorrow's game. And oh,
by the way, one two three more that are probable,
which means they're gonna play problem.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
More life and three more they are out, yea so,
and then.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
Three more that are out. So that's how that's how
banged up they are. That's twenty players on defense that
are injured. And it looks like more than half of
them won't play. So that's what Boston College is suffering
on defense. That's why if you're Clemson, like who's going
to play in the secondary for Boston College? Is O'Brien

(28:24):
and his coach is gonna get out there? I mean,
it's crazy how banged up they are in the secondary.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
Yeah, well, look at just defensive back. Six players on
the questionable, two on the out. That's eight. I mean,
I don't know how many dbs a team typically carries,
but it's not much more than that. It's really not.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
Usually you're about thirteen defensive back that's counting safeties. Thirteen
to fourteen defensive backs counting corners and safeties combine.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
There you go, Well, yeah, what a storyline to follow there.
Final couple of things with you will here on a
Friday afternoon, all right with you know, Clemson and Adam
Randall kind of getting into the flow offensively downfield in
the passing game, something that I think we all anticipated
would happen. Two touchdowns from a running back wide receiver

(29:18):
that's been pretty rare in the history of Clemson. What
have you kind of made of his development? Because it
does feel like he's getting better at this job. Certainly
the timing, get the line of scrimmage, but now kind
of showing what he can be in terms of the
passing game. I mean, this is an ideal scenario kind
of developing for Clemson. I think on the offensive side

(29:40):
of the ball.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
For your football fans thirty five and older, you understand
this reference. I've said it before on the show. He
looks like Travis Zachery. He looks just like him, you know.
I mean they both wear number eight, and he's out
catching passes and running routes and you know, runs the
football very similar in the way their style is with

(30:02):
that straight up run that they do. If you remember
Travis Zackery and they're using him the same way Rich
Rodriguez and back in the day and Tommy Valden use
Travis Zachery, you know, line him up everywhere, have them
in motion, have them in the backfield, put them in
the slot, put them out on the field side, put
him out on the boundary side. Last week, they showed

(30:24):
so much on film, and that's what the whole point
of what they did against North Carolina was not only
to use it to work against North Carolina, but also
to put it on film where teams now got to
practice it and they're like, oh crap, we got to
practice against this, and now you can do so much
more off of it, like you didn't show and so
that you know, that is the thing that stood out

(30:44):
to me the most, Like, Okay, they're using Adam Randall
the way I thought they should, which is used in
his dynamic ability. And you've shown he can run between
the tackles because you've done that this year. Now you're
showing you can use them a lot in the passing game.
And now Deepen are like, okay, when he lines up wide,
they got to pay attention, you know, and you saw

(31:06):
North Carolina doing that. They start running towards him. And
that's why guys were so wide open because they would
run to where Adam Randall because they thought Adam Randall
was getting the ball. Yeah, and that wasn't what's gonna happen.
So now defense is they anytime you can make a
defense think you're winning as an offense, because a defense
never wants to think, it wants to react. And when

(31:27):
a defense is thinking, you got them right where you
want them.

Speaker 1 (31:30):
Yeah, the Alam Randall stuff is wild man, like, and
I know you are a what's the what's the word?
You're a stickler for reading through the game notes, but
you know the game note about the fact that Adam
Randall just needs two more touchdowns to set the single
season receiving touchdown mark by a running back. That's kind

(31:51):
of wild.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
That's and think about the running backs. He's gonna break
that off, right C J. Spiller, Travis Zachary, Travis tra
I mean you know think I mean those Andre Ellington.
I mean, they got some good running backs in that
group that were good pass catchers, and so that says

(32:13):
a lot about his abilion. He could he could break
it this week. He really good, I know. I mean
you saw how they used him last week. I mean,
he really could break it this week or at least
tie it.

Speaker 1 (32:23):
And I'll be honest, if I'm the coach, I have
him break it. This is a guy like when you
talk about a guy that deserves to be in the
record books for what he's done, the commitment to the school,
get him in the record book.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
Absolutely, I'm with you one hundred percent, and Dabo's going
to trust me. You could see there was an asserted effort,
a concerted effort to get him the football last week,
whether they were gonna hand it off to him or
whether he was gonna be in the passing game, whatever
North Carolina was doing to defend him, they were gonna
find a way to get him the football. And that's
what they did. And I think you're gonna see the

(32:56):
exact same thing this week because when he's getting the
ball and he's all the action of the offense is
centered around him, Look what everybody else has been doing,
Like you know, you saw, you know again, Brian Westcoe
being Brian Westcoe Now second week in a row. You've
seen TJ. Moore doing his thing. You're seeing now Christian
Binchecuer stepping up and being a guy that's actually gonna

(33:18):
help Clemson too. That you got this guy being a
weapon in the offense now, and that's gonna make defenses.
So I think what people need to pay attention to
is the way Clemson's using these different players. Yeah, that
it's going to allow other things to open up. And
it starts with Adam Randall. And as long as Adam
Randall can keep doing those things, and now he's something
you gotta worry about in the passing game and in

(33:40):
the running game. Now, that allows Clemson to do a
lot of different things with him, and then that allows
everybody else to be getting one on one opportunities. And
I'm gonna be honest with you. You know, we saw
it with North Carolina last week where a guy like
Brian Westco but there's nobody in North Carolins team that
can hang with him. Well, there's nobody on Boston College
team that can hang with him this week either. And

(34:02):
so you get that guy the ball's face, he's gonna
do stuff like you saw like he did last week.
And you know, because he's that special kind of player. Well,
the way you get him the ball involved is you
get Adam Randall going. And then by said, they got
to focus on Adam Randall, and then, like I said,
it's going to open it up for guys like Brent
Westco and TJ. Moore to do their thing.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
Will Vanderwart the Clemson Insider, Will Man enjoy the game tomorrow.
We'll talk to you next week, all right, Man Lowton,
thanks Buddy, top you later. There you have it. Will
Vandiwart from the Clemson Insider hanging out with us here
on a Friday afternoon a little extended segment with willye
v talking about Adam Randall looking at those numbers. Randall
needs one touchdown reception to tie Travis etn in twenty nineteen, CJ.

(34:42):
Spiller in two thousand and nine, and Travis Zachary in
two thousand for the second most touchdowns caught by a
Clemson running back in a single season since the Tigers
transitioned away from the single wing in nineteen fifty three.
He is two touchdowns shy of Clemson single season record
during that span, five said by Ray Yoger back in

(35:03):
nineteen sixty nine final segment Hour one. Right after this
final segment of hour one, Tommy Balden said, to join
the program in hour number two. So I was thinking
about that stat we were talking about with the touchdown
mark for the most touchdowns by running back in a

(35:26):
single season in the history of Clemson football, and the
thing about it, it's kind of wild. I don't know,
and I tried to look during the break. I don't obviously,
I have four minutes to dig, but I wanted to

(35:50):
see what the all time mark is because as I
read that out loud to you, and I went back
and reread it during the break. Obviously, there is a
running back that has more touchdown receptions than five in
a season with the way that's worded the first time

(36:14):
since Clemson left the single wing in nineteen fifty three. Now,
the other problem that I kind of have is, quite frankly,
I always tell you guys, I'm not an offensive coordinator.

(36:35):
I don't really know what the single wing offense look
like and what the single wing offense would have entailed
in terms of the statistical numbers for a running back
catching the ball. Like when I think single wing, I

(36:55):
think you're running the football a lot, But maybe there's
more to that. I tried to thumb through as quick
as I could, and again it's hard. Clemson put out
a beefy I mean beefy supplement to the media guide.

(37:16):
I scrolled through that pretty rapidly, and yes, I know,
Swani you can use a search feature. I understand that,
but still I didn't really know what I was searching for.
So I was kind of hoping to find like the
all time stats, and it might be in the media God,

(37:39):
I can actually because I knew that supplement had a
bunch of stats. But either way, what is the all
time mark. Like if you say, okay, well forget forget
after nineteen fifty three, what is the all time mark

(38:02):
most touchdowns most touchdowns reception? That word only shows up
one time in the media guide, So that's under Antonio Williams.
So that's again, this is gonna be a this is
gonna be a tough one here we get hold up.
I think I think I saw something here, all right.

(38:25):
This is a problem though, because this is just like
if you talk about touchdown receptions, it's it's going to
be including the running backs, I mean including the wide receivers,
not just specifically the running backs. So I don't really

(38:46):
know how you would find that stat like most most
touchdowns receiving all time by running backs at Clemson. You
have no idea. I wish I did, but I don't.

(39:08):
I mean, there's a lot of great juice, a lot
of great stats here, but I don't know how I
would find that. I'm kind of saddened by it because
I kind of wanted to understand, like, what are we
talking about? Maybe? And I don't even know if there
is like outside the ones I mentioned, like is there
a comprehensive list, what was that dude's name that I

(39:31):
said to will Uh that that might be the starting point.
Ray what was his name?

Speaker 2 (39:38):
Ray?

Speaker 1 (39:41):
Somebody somebody, an older tiger than me that remembers Ray Yager.
That might be a good search, all right. That that's
I'm gonna reference Ray Yager here now. In the release
this week, his name is mentioned three times, and it
shows up under the category of touchdown receptions by a

(40:01):
running back, but then it says since nineteen fifty three,
and then there's a note that says since Clemson abandoned
the single wing in nineteen fifty three, And there's not many.
And this is why that stat about two touchdowns from
the white out and two touchdowns from the tight end
are so rare together in a game, and it may

(40:22):
have been the first time ever, because if your running
backs have only ever at most in a season says
nineteen fifty three caught five, the odds that two of
those five happened in the same game are pretty slim.
And the same thing with Adam Randall now having touchdown
receptions in back to back games, but two touchdowns this

(40:45):
past weekend, putting him currently in third place all time,
and if he gets two more, he will be on
the top of that list, but still that is since
nineteen fifty three. Yager's name does show up. However, thirty
times in the media got he must have been a
heck of a player. Looking at some of the stats
that he, like most carries in the game, I think

(41:09):
he had thirty six. I think that's still a Clemson record,
tied for the Clemson record, you know, plenty one hundred
yard performances. I think he played at Clemson from like
sixty eight to seventy somewhere in there. This guy must
have been a baller because even when I got to
a list of minute ago, I was looking over like
the most yards gained as a running back or whatever.

(41:33):
I mean. He he the only I mean, there are
people ahead of him, but like Phil Maffa just passed him.
Like the names that he's amongst the top fifteen are
the elite of the elite at Clemson. This guy must
have been balling back in the day under hoody Ingram
Ray Yoger. I'm saddened. As much as I do this

(41:55):
show and have followed Clemson and talked about the Times
and looked over these historical GUIDs. I don't remember Ray
Yauger's name ever jumping out to me anyway, I guess
I'll have to dig a little deeper, maybe even as
Ross Davis, who's on that list of yo if we
include the seasons before nineteen fifty three, maybe they don't

(42:16):
have those stats. I don't know. Coming up, Tommy Bowden
around the band, keep it locked.

Speaker 4 (42:22):
Each time for Clipson Sports Talk with Lawton Swan.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
Swanny, it is our number two. That's a dry time.

(43:06):
Ready're on the show The Shakes the south Land Clemson
Sports Salt Lot and Swan ain't know with you. Tommy
Balden coming up in just a minute, and the show
The Shakes the Southland brought to you in part by
our good friends over at mets plumb in mets plumbing
dot com. Two two six seven one o eight. That's
two two six seven one oh eight. I'm not gonna

(43:26):
lie to you. I think the voice sounds better. I
think the throat coat recipe the way of qualking Bush
got me. Let me hit that again mets plumb in
mets plumbing dot com. There you go to two six
seven one oh eight. All right, Tommy Bouten joins us
on a Friday Coach welcome in Hope.

Speaker 4 (43:45):
You're well, yeah, everything's going good. If you're not a Clemson,
Texas or Penn State.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
Well okay, so we can start there, because I think
it's an interesting topic. Those two, those three teams all
top five out of the gates this season, and I
think the big question on the minds of everybody is
is this maybe the norm now that there's just going
to be parody in the world of college football because
of the portal and maybe other influences in IL And

(44:18):
could this kind of be the nature of college football
where hey, you're projected to be at the top, but
maybe you're just not there or has this been going
on forever and I just didn't recognize it quite as much.

Speaker 4 (44:30):
I think these are three good indicators because there's three.
You said top five, I just wanna stay top ten,
but top either one, top five of the top ten.
Not only have fallen out of the top ten, I've
fallen out of top twenty five, which I think reflex
on the points you were making the parody now and
how quickly teams that you may be conceived as nothing

(44:53):
an average year are being averaged because the transfer of
portal also puts them within striking and the SUPERB Texas
been State, Clemson all offt the teams. Maybe I'm not
as talent as them, but out of enough if you're
not on your game where it could be cost the
portal where we're gonna see some more of this and
a little more parody.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
One interesting thing that I think has gone on with
Clemson this past weekend, and we talked with Tim Ray
about it, and he said that it may be the
first time that this has ever actually happened. Clemson had
two touchdowns to a running back in the passing game
in Adam Randall, and two touchdowns to the tight end
in the passing game to Christian Bettencore to the same player,

(45:37):
And it does beg the question, what can that type
of versatility, in your mind do for an offense If
you can further involve the tight ends and the running
backs in the downfield passing game.

Speaker 4 (45:50):
Well, if you've got a tight end, that's that's one
of the bigger mismatches physically than maybe a back out
on a nickel defensive back because a little more athletic comparison,
But a tight end that can maneuver with wide receiver
skills is a physical mismatch for a nickelback because of

(46:11):
size and ability to enable him to have a little
more contact and still have success, but also the building
out skill and they'll be a little more athletic and
the linebacker. So I think that the tight end would
be a position that would be more productive than the
running back. But a running back that can catch is

(46:32):
really both those guys. Presidentia a lot more opportunities wide receivers,
it's assumed, but a productive running back and tight end
really makes it more difficult to defend.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
Now, how is that? How is that position a tight
end changed over the years, you know, when you were
playing versus when you were coaching versus maybe where it
is today where you know, you see guys like h
Brought Bowers in what he did at Georgia, or you
go to the NFL and look at like Rob on
Kowski and Travis Kelcey and some of those guys. I mean,

(47:04):
how has that position developed through the years as you
kind of have followed the sport.

Speaker 4 (47:10):
You know, if you just say I played the early seventies,
but even say the seventies, maybe on through the eighties,
a tight end, if I were to give you a
percentage of probably seventy thirty here maybe eighty twenty. And
by the eighty percent, I mean blocking skills, a glorified
offensive tackle, passing skills twenty twenty five twenty percent, And

(47:31):
it's just about been flipped. The script has been flipped
to a probably sixty five seven percent passing skills minor
receiver skills for abcent blocking. Now I love that blocking
percentage where tighting can still be effective. The running game
has changed. He might slip inside and down the linebacker
as opposed to be involved with a lot more man

(47:52):
blocking at defensive tackle or double tinging with an offensive tackle.
You know, so the blocking schemes have changed, which is
allowed a tight end to be effective with a eighty
twenty agecent passing skills twenty percent receiving a receiving skills,
twenty percent blocking skills as opposed to years ago. It's
be completely opposite. And I think that's how much it's

(48:14):
changed the running and passing skills of a tight end.
More mind with wide receiver than an offensive tackle.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
Tommy Bowmen of the show on the program, And I'm
trying to think back, and you you certainly can remind
me if I'm wrong, But I feel like in rich
Rod's system, the tight end was not utilized a whole lot,
was he or am I am? I completely wrong on that?

Speaker 4 (48:36):
No, No, you are completely right. I used to kill
the tight ends. If you want to get some receptions,
making sure you get them a pre game. Yeah, because
once the game started they as far going to touch
the ball's way office of change and at that particular time.
Now they have changed now. Yeah, but when I remember,

(48:59):
I remember going to Tulane and I had a really
good tight end, but he was but a great tackle.
I'm moving off into the tackle and his dad came
in to see me and really fought me hard on.
I said, listen, I'm sorry. It was my first year.
I knew I had to stamp as a tight end.
I said, I'm moving your son. If you don't like it,
you and you feel free to leave, I'll give you recommendations.
He went to tackle and then got drafted by Steelers

(49:21):
and played the NFL as well. Oh wow, so so
it has changed the throat.

Speaker 3 (49:26):
Boy.

Speaker 4 (49:26):
They hate to go inside their tight ends. They see
themselves as glorified steal people and to bump, to bump
them inside to a tackle or something like that. Or
getting involved with rue blocking that they don't like that
that that that hurts their chances to get the cheerleader.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
Now, remind me just a little bit, because obviously you
recalled the offenses that you guys ran at Clemson. It
wasn't one back right normally a one back set, was
it four wide receivers.

Speaker 4 (49:57):
My first couple of years we were heavy, we were
we were out of I don't want to say fifty fifty,
probably six sixty seventy thirty with a thirty cent being
I formation because my before background my father Florida State,
was I formation and I studied that early in my career.
That was everything was tight in two back offense. So
even at Tulane we carried some formation, and then even

(50:20):
at clupson and uh boy, when you jumped into an
I formation after heavy doson four wide receivers, they had
a hard time adjusting to it. So my first up
years two three years, we usually utilized the tight end,
but we were a little more uh in use of
the I formation, tight end, pull back, traditional full back,

(50:41):
tail back to bide receivers. We jump in and out
of it.

Speaker 1 (50:44):
Now with a guy like Woodrow Danceler at quarterback. Did
was there a point where you shifted to, you know,
having him take snaps in the back the or was
Woodrow under center? I can't really remember, coach, I'm gonna
be honest.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
No, no, no, no, he was.

Speaker 4 (50:58):
He was in the shotgun. He was a okay, Brian
Brandon Street or Bandon Street. You graduated, we'll go dancers
and man, just what a what a great gifted athlete.
Because that was a particular time where offenses were ahead
of the defenses. But but but really not with a
running quarterback. It was just more of a spread offense,
no huddle, fast paced. Then all of a sudden, you

(51:20):
throw us a one back offense with a quarterback and run.
That's some in formation tendency. If you got a tailback
that could block, where a quarterback that could be a
tailback just present all kinds of problems for the defense.
Wind Road was a quarterback. Pay all your quarterback for me.
And then as he became more ingrained to the position

(51:42):
than we used him and designed running back counters, running
back draws, and things of that nature.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
Former Clemson Hey coach Tommy Balden with this year on
the program. So let's talk about the team that Clemtsond
played last week. I know there's been a lot of
conversations about Bill Belichick that job. Anytime you get like
a midweek release I was talking with Will Van Devoort earlier.
Anytime you get like a midweek release from the ad
and everybody saying, oh, we're supportive and YadA YadA, that
doesn't always give you the warm fuzzies. But this is

(52:13):
a coach that's the most decorated NFL head coach in
the history of the sport. But I felt like that
North Carolina team just looked lifeless. They didn't look like
they had much talent. Your perspective if you watch that game,
coach on what you saw from the Tar Heels, because
it really looks like a bad situation.

Speaker 4 (52:34):
Well it really does. And then you know so much
his success, all his success has been a business type environment,
and it's a little bit like that couge now, but
not as extensively as what he's used to. Whereas, hey,
he doesn't perform by high I will cut him. You
don't have to have a lot of personalities to be
an NFL head coach because it's all based on results

(52:56):
and how you perform on the field, districts and data
that were incentives are built into your contract. So and
firston it had Coase really doesn't have to have a
lot of motivational skills or any of those skills because
those guys are at the age professionally where he they
got put food on table, they better perform and for

(53:20):
him to have that type of any of that personality,
I think around a college player seventeen eighteen, nineteen, twenty
twenty one running around there. I think he may be
experiencing some of that effect on this team because they
surely performed. You know football's you know the dab emotion, enthusiasm, energy,

(53:44):
all that's things that his teams traditionally play like that.
That is not a part of Bill Feljet's personality, and
his team has performed the aus quatch his personality.

Speaker 1 (53:55):
Yeah, it's it's a rough situation. I don't know what
the solution is for Tar Hills. I know their fan
base showed their interest in the matchup. At halftime, it
was pretty much empty in the stadium. Again, tell me Balden,
with a year on the program, Clemson will go up
to Chestnut Hill to take on Boston College. You were
the head coach at Clemson the first time they played

(54:16):
the Eagles as a conference foe. What is it like
going up there that environment? It'll be a little cooler
temperatures I think fifty seven to fifty four. I mean,
that's football weather in my opinion. But what is it like, coach,
when you're taking on Boston College up in that venue?

Speaker 4 (54:34):
You know, it's the thing that my first impression was, Man,
where is the stampers in the RVs coming on Wednesday
around Clemson's And why is Alabama or Auburn? Where is
that excitement that starts building throughout the week on our
home game where the stores kind of decorated and great

(54:54):
vapor up and you don't see that this is Boston
and there's there's not any of that. And you sense
it Friday when you pull up to go through a
little workout at the stadium, and you sense it when
you pull up to the stadium on Saturday for the game.
There's no excitement, no electricity, no enthusiasm, And man, you
really have to be good to prepare your team to

(55:16):
overcome that, because at that age, that's a big part
of what gets you motivated to play. Now, Dado has
been up there several times. He knows how to overcome that.
But you have to address that with your players because
it's a law and it's a different environment. It's hard
to explaining with your experience around Clemson, with minor and Alabama,

(55:37):
Auburn or Clemson some of those places, it's just a
totally different environment. And go to be careful with your
players emotionally.

Speaker 1 (55:44):
What's the purpose of that pregame walk or not pregame walk?
I guess the day before when you go to the stadium.
I mean, is that fairly customary? Every school does it?
What's that all about? Is that like walking the golf
course before you go out there and play around at
the Masters?

Speaker 4 (56:02):
Very very much so. You know a lot of coaches,
most coaches don't don't want to prefer players the first
time to see these stages on Saturday morning. They want
to see it. Let the receivers steal people walk the
end zones. Look at the distance between the corner of
the end zone and a wall or maybe some kind
of obstacle. Uh, there might be a crown on the field.

Speaker 2 (56:22):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (56:22):
That's one of the things about when you played Clemson.
You know, I remember my father out there on a Friday,
walked through that and to meet him out to the
one time and told Hi about that crowd, said, man,
I hope your quarterbacks got to make an adjust before
that crowd on our field, right, I'm gonna get it corrected.
I just hadn't threatened it yet, but quarterbacks got a
comp state. I hope he's ready. You know, I know
he went and talked to his quarterback. We might have

(56:46):
beat him out year, but you know, you just you
want your players just to get a field, get in
the locker room. Don't be shocked and all of a
sudden you're bad because you got a locker room, closet, bathroom.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
This just get a micamate well, And that's a great point.
So for some listeners who might not know, maybe they're
new fans to Clemson, you know the field is flat now.
It is flat now. It was not flat at one point.
I don't know what the vantage point would have been
like from where you were to the opposite side of
the field, but I know this, if you were at
midfield and you were heading towards the hill, if you

(57:22):
were running to the right, you were running downhill. And
if you were running to the left, and you're you know,
you were running downhill. I mean, when did that change happen?
I really don't remember.

Speaker 3 (57:32):
Well.

Speaker 4 (57:32):
Often teams warned the big crown because they usually, you know,
were pitching the ball and the running back was headed downhill.
I remember coming coming to Clemson and going on one
side line and getting on my knees and looking over
to the other side line, and if you put your
head down there close to the feel, you could have
see it about up to the other guy's kneecap. It

(57:55):
looked like about three or fourth four foot crown. Where
you look straight across and put your head. It was
a significant, significant crowd on the field. Of course, we
took an office quickly secure when I got here. But
if option teams a lot of time really liked a
large crowd because they're pitching them all out the tail
back and they were headed literally.

Speaker 1 (58:15):
Downhill, why do you think the option went away? Coach?
I mean, what happened? I mean I loved watching that offense.
I even liked it when Paul Johnson was running at
Georgia Tech. I mean, what what happened to that offense?

Speaker 4 (58:29):
I think from a coaching perspective, you know, a lot
of them want to advance, want to advance the bigger jobs,
and they like the passing game. There's more excitement in
the passing games. And if you want to advance in
the profession as a coach, you better have exciting offense.
Those office traditionally, whereas I like them because they were

(58:51):
hard to defend, I mean I hate to play them
because they're hard to defend and they are kind of
fun to watch as a tremendous amount of execution in
Bob and the ball handing skills on especially triple option
now the wishbone, things like that. But I think more
so the fans want to throw in the ball. They
want to see the ball in the air. They won't
see what they call it foot ball, you know, the

(59:14):
deep ball and the stamds go oh, and you know
they want the balls in the air. It's just they
lost some of account of the excitement, uh, with the
with the running games three runs, maybe a play action
and pass, it just wasn't very exciting and kind of
the game got away from a lot of us coaching
and they wanted to advance the profession. You're not going

(59:34):
to do it. Paul Johnson, you know he stayed at
Georgia Taylor a long time maintain for jobs. Sometimes it
wasn't some of the bigger jobs where they want something
different offensively.

Speaker 1 (59:45):
You know what's funny about it is it's it's kind
of like it. It was such a natural skill for
kids my age when we were playing football, we would
even in the backyard, we run the option for me
to pitch that ball. And now I want these quarterbacks
whenever they get you know, they got the random option
play built into the system that they'll run every once

(01:00:06):
in a while. These guys look like they can't walk
in cho bubblegum when they get asked to pitch that
ball to a running bag. It's wild.

Speaker 4 (01:00:14):
They spend very little time. I spent very little time
if I put an auction play in, which is very seldom.
You might run at two times of practice and maybe
spend about one minute in your drill on auction pitching.
But I don't imagine just being around some teams when
I was coaching coming up at the Auburn back in
the eighties with the inside veer, you spend a lot

(01:00:35):
of time with a pitcher at quarter they're running back
and the pullback fixed relationship and I would imagine you
did in high school also into practice, but they don't
spend any time on it, and it looks like that
when they when they when that part of the auction,
you know, comes.

Speaker 1 (01:00:49):
Up in Yeah, we can't say what it looks like
on the air, but it doesn't look good. I'll take
that much. It does not look good. No, coach, always
appreciate you. Join the weekend the college football and we
would definitely talk to you next week.

Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
All right, I have a good wish.

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
Yeah, there you go, Tommy Ballad. Yeah, the option pitch.
These guys now they look like a baby giraffe trying
to pitch the ball to their running back. I mean,
guys are discombobulated. I don't even know. I don't even
know what's happening. Oh man, Yeah, I love it. A

(01:01:26):
zero three four five, zero zero eighty six text line
phone line again the show The Shakes of South Lane
right here on Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred. Oh do
have a topic. It looks like some breaking news out
of the world of sports surrounding the Big Ten. We
might cond get into that. Plus when we come back,

(01:01:47):
I want to talk about starting to look at this
thing like you guys do as fans like, what do
you need to have happened? My sister's always you know,
she'll text me, won't I won't do her voice. I'll
just say she texts me and she'll say, who do
we need to win this weekend? What's the best case scenario? Like,
it's it's not fun to be that side. It's nice
when you're eight zero the league and you know just

(01:02:08):
whether we need to have happened when well, that's still
the case for Clemson, but they're gonna have to have
some luck along the way. All right, With a quick break,
we'll tell you about what needs to happen this weekend
in the ACC to help the Tigers. Right after this
longd and swan back with you. That was Tommy Bowden
before the break ado three four five zero zero eighty six. Hey,
don't forget downtown Clemson on the corner of campus on

(01:02:30):
College Avenue. Alumni Haul or online in alumni haul dot com.
And I think one of the best things about it
is it's not just Clemson gear when you go online.
So you got a friend, you got a cousin, you
got a relative that roots for another team out there.

(01:02:52):
Alumni Haul dot Com Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Tennessee,
North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Virginia. If you know somebody that
roots for those teams and others, go to Alumni haul
dot com let them know we sent you. And again,
if you are in downtown Clemson and you're a Clemson student,

(01:03:14):
faculty member, or in the military, you get ten percent
off when shopping in store in Alumni Hall. It's Alumni
Hall where Tiger fans shop. All right, Clemson Boston College
coming up this weekend tomorrow. You know the temperatures down
here right, you can already see and feel the turn

(01:03:36):
of the weather. And I love it. I mentioned it
with Will Van Dervoort earlier. It's just always nice when
you've got cool autumn temperatures. Stadium temperatures at kickoff tomorrow
in Alumni Stadium seven point thirty for that matchup on
the ACC Network between the Tigers and the Eagles. At kickoff,

(01:04:00):
the temperature set to be fifty seven degrees, a little
cool evening, very cool evening, and the temperature is during
the ballgame. It looks like will hang around mid fifties.
I think by nine o'clock it's supposed to be fifty

(01:04:23):
four with a what they call a real feel temperature
around fifty two, so gonna be chilly. I'll be interested
to see how many Tiger fans make their way up.
It's a great vacation spot and opportunity. I wish I'd
have been smarter and booked this thing to go there
myself this weekend, given the fact that we've got Monday

(01:04:47):
off from the day job. That would have been nice
to go up to Boston, get some chowda, some lobster.
But you know what, I can't even crash for my
buddy Mike. You, Mike, you is now down here. He's
you know, if you miss that episode and you're wondering
where in the world Mike went. And while we're talking
to a guy named Jack Veltrie now and not Mike,
you'va from Gamecockcentral dot com. That's because Mike is now

(01:05:10):
working for the Coastal Carolina Athletic Department. So good on
Mike for that opportunity. And maybe the Tigers and the
Chanticleers will cross paths in some way, shape or form
over the next few years, and we can always get
Mike on to come hang out with us. Head over
to our website, Clemson sports Selle dot com and check

(01:05:30):
out the article on Stephilindgreen sponsored by Great Southern Homes.
You can check them out as well on Great Southern
Homes dot com. But Tyree s Ingram and myself and
some of our other staff members, we've been pretty busy
putting together story after story for you. And then the
podcasts of the show are also available, and those are

(01:05:53):
typically found if you're over on our site looking for him.
They are on the far right side at the top
of the page under an area called Clemson Sports Now.
So if you want to listen to Clemson Sports Now,
you got it right there on the our website. Now
for the Tigers and the Atlantic Coast Conference, I mentioned

(01:06:17):
you know, as fans, you guys always eyeball in the
schedule and trying to figure out, okay, swannye what has
to happen to improve I think that's the best way
to do it. Like Clemson has put themselves in a
position that they can't really earn the right to go

(01:06:43):
to the a SEC Championship. Okay, that's the position that
they find themselves in. They need everyone to back up
to the pack. And last year, in fairness, Clemson got
fortunate and everybody sort of backed up to the pack.
So what do you need to take place this weekend

(01:07:03):
in the world of college football in the ACC, Well,
it doesn't really matter all that much about what happens
with Florida State henceforth, because they are already oh to two.
They are on an even field with you and you
play them. But PITT is currently one in one in
the ACC. Now, I understand you'd probably probably be happy

(01:07:25):
to have Florida State get beat just to knock them
out of the way. But your best bet this weekend
would be for FSU to win over PITT. That would
give Pitt a second loss in the ACC, and any
team you don't play you need them picking up losses.
Stanford and SMU face off. Stanford is one and one
in the conference, SMU is one and zero. Ideally, here

(01:07:47):
you would like Stanford to win over SMU. SMU has
a chance to be a problem for Clemson later in
the year, but right now that would be your best
case scenario is Stanford over SMU. Of Virginia Tech and
Georgia Tech. Virginia Tech is currently one and one. Georgia
Tech is currently two and zero. Absolutely, you got a

(01:08:07):
root for VT this weekend over Georgia Tech, because Georgia
Tech you need them to lose three games because they
have the tiebreaker over Clemson. NC State's at Notre Dame
this weekend. That game doesn't matter, it's a non conference game.
Wake Forces at Oregon State that is a non conference game.
We'll come back to the Beavers real quick before we

(01:08:27):
get out of the segment. And then Clemson is at
Boston College obviously this weekend and every weekend before. You
need Clemson to beat BC. Now talking about Oregon State
for a second, and we might could come back to this,
but this feels like an abandoned Let's say that you

(01:08:48):
live in a neighborhood and everybody else moved out and
nobody moved in. That's what that program feels like right now.
They are zero to six and most recently lost twenty
seven to twenty three in boone against app State, and

(01:09:09):
they host Wake Forest this weekend. It's like a piecemeal schedule.
I know they're trying to hold on in not just
Oregon State, but Washington State as well to the PAC
twelve by adding all those new teams in. But man,
it is hard to see what's happened to those schools.
I mean just decimated, decimated by the rest of their

(01:09:31):
conference members. I mean it's one thing of Oregon and
Washington leave or if U, s LA and Southern Cali.
But once the whole thing broke apart and those teams
were left for dead, man, that's that's tough. All right,
keep it a lot right here. We'll keep it on
the West Coast theme. As Indiana and Oregon face off,
we'll give you some of the stats on that match
that might blow your mind. After this London Swan Clempson's

(01:09:54):
sports talk on a Friday, don't forget bout our friends
at Alumni Hall on the corner of Campus on College
An right there in downtown Clemson for all your officially
licensed Clemson merchandise. Those sweet Nike drive Fit polos. I
have what on yesterday River Bluff Gator Nike drive Fit Polo,
but they got them in Tiger style. If you will

(01:10:14):
up in Alumni Hall online as well at Alumni hal
dot com, don't forget to ask them about their Alumni
Hall Rewards program so that you could save some money
while you're in store right there downtown Clemson. It's Alumni
Haul or online at Alumni Hall dot com. All right,
talking about matchups this weekend, Indiana taking on Oregon, I

(01:10:37):
mean that is a huge game for the Hoosiers, and
I mean it's a big game for Oregon too, Don't
get me wrong. But you're starting to look at what
Kirk Signetti has done at Indiana. Their only losses have
come against top five opponents. How about that. They are

(01:10:58):
sixteen to oh under Signetti, scoring forty six and a
half points per game. But in their two matchups against
top five opponents since he's taken over there zero to two.
And here come the Oregon Ducks into this matchup. The
Ducks are favored sixty seven point eight percent of the

(01:11:19):
time going into this game. And again it is one
of the marquee matchups this weekend in college football. That's right, Indiana,
marquee matchup Indiana, they don't have a mascot. Indiana taken
on Oregon three point thirty on CBS. The Ducks favored

(01:11:40):
by seven and a half out in Aughtson Stadium or
at Aughtson Stadium in Eugene for that matchup. Indiana get
this one and seventy two. All time versus AP Top
five teams, They've dropped forty six stre eight games against

(01:12:01):
AP top five teams. That is tied with Wake Force
for the longest top five losing streak ever. So can
Indiana shocked the country, shocked the world. They are seventh
ranked Indiana. They are undefeated. And when they hired Kurt Signetti,

(01:12:27):
everybody wondered could he have the same level of success
that he has had throughout his career. And not only
did it happen, it happened fast. He did a great
job at James Madison and he's parlayed that into an

(01:12:52):
opportunity at Indiana. And given the fact that he, like
Tommy Bowden, like Rich Rodriguez, he's a West Virginia graduate
and played quarterback for West Virginia, I would venture to guess,

(01:13:13):
if things don't go well for West Virginia with Rich Rodriguez,
that Signetti is the next name up, and I would
imagine if they can put some big coin in his pocket,
they would. He was the quarterback, tight ends and running
game coordinator at NC State back when Chuck A. Moato

(01:13:34):
was the head coach. There and quarterback Philip Rivers was
the ACC Player of the Year. He also recruited Russell
Wilson to the wolfback So this is a guy that's
been around. He was a part of Alabama staff from
seven to twenty ten. That was when the Crimson Todd
beat the Tigers in the season opener in eight against

(01:13:57):
Tommy Bouten squad that would eventually lead to Davosweeney taken over.
But the Hoosiers are undefeated. They beat number nine Illinois
sixty three to ten a couple of weekends ago. That
one really jumped out. But again against top ten teams
since Signetty's been there. They got beat by Ohio State
thirty eight fifteen last year in the regular season. That

(01:14:18):
was a second ranked Ohio State team that got beat
by Notre Dame in the playoffs twenty seven to seventeen.
We'll see how they hold up in this game. It
was that top five Hold up, hmmm, I don't think
that's right. Let me check something here. Yeah, that's that's

(01:14:43):
that top five stat I gave. It is not right
because Notre Dame was not a top five team. Notre
Dame was number seven, So scratch that stat scratched that stat.
They that was not a top five opponent just looking
at it, looking back at it, that was not It
was the top seven opponents. You might want to say,

(01:15:05):
but either way, it doesn't change the you know, the
situation in terms of this game coming up for them,
as they faced third ranked Oregon on CBS at three
thirty this weekend. Well, it wasn't long ago that we
taught with you about sister Sister Jean from Loyoil that

(01:15:29):
hate that word, Loyola Chicago Sister Jane, you may recall
back on September the twenty fourth, just seventeen days ago,
it was announced that she was retiring due to health concerns,
and sadly, she passed away earlier today at the age

(01:15:50):
of one hundred and six. Sister Jean was a Catholic
nun in the campus minister and the official chaplain for
or the Ramblers men's basketball team for sixty years. Sixty years.
It's in some ways probably fitting that the basketball season

(01:16:13):
has not started yet, but I can guarantee you that
the tributes for her are continuing to pour in. She
became a March Madness icon when the Ramblers made their
run their shocking run to the final four back in
what was that twenty eighteen? Maybe I feel like we

(01:16:35):
just did this segment not that long ago. In my brain,
my brain just can't recall. I think it was twenty eighteen.
But yeah, thoughts in prayer, certainly to that entire community
and the world of college sportsman. The number of tweets
that came out talking about her were spectacular. Just it

(01:16:55):
was insane how many people that story outside of the Ramblers.
I think that was probably the second biggest storyline during
that March Madness run that they had was Sister Jean,
and she was a legend for sure. All Right, well
a quick break, we'll come back. I'll give you my
prediction on Clemson and Boston College last week, going into
that game against North Carolina, I told you I didn't

(01:17:17):
know what to think. I really didn't. I gave the
Tigers twenty eight points tops. They put that up in
the first quarter. What do they do in Chestnut Hill?
We'll talk about it when we get back. Keep it locked.

Speaker 3 (01:17:30):
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? And what have
you done? Always are the same. We win.

Speaker 1 (01:18:42):
Final segment on a Friday afternoon Clemson Sports talkt the
show The Shakes of south Land. So the Clemson Tigers
taking their road shown north to face off with the
Boston College Eagles this weekend. Tomorrow Night's off seven point
thirty on the ACC Network, and Will Vanderbort mentioned that

(01:19:06):
injury report and we will get another update today the
initial report for Clemson. Though nobody on the questionable list,
the Tigers do have people on the out list, including
Jarvis Green, Peyton Streco, Jay Haynes, armand Mason, Billy Wilkes,
Elijah Thurman, Makaiah Williams, Lee Easton Ware, Tristan Martinez, and

(01:19:32):
Ari Watford. None of those surprises. That's basically the same list.
I think it's exactly the same list that Clemson had
out a week ago. But Boston College and Will vanderwork
brought this up. Okay, out there are eight players. I

(01:19:52):
went back and recounted I think I miscounted earlier, but
eight total players. I think I was looking at the
defensive side of the ball. I think I said three.
There are actually four from the defense out eight players
out fourteen players questionable, and that's a two deep. That's
twenty two players. Now, I don't know what percentage of

(01:20:14):
those guys will and won't play, and will Van Dervoort
mentioned just the sheer numbers from the defensive side of
the ball. I mean, of those fourteen players listed as questionable,
thirteen are defenders. Only offensive lineman Kevin Klein is the
offensive player on that list. And then they have five

(01:20:37):
players on that probable list. You know, I think Clemson's
a superior team to Boston College, much like Clemson was
a superior team to North Carolina, much like Clemson has
been a superior team to everybody they have faced this
year except for LSU, except for LSU. And the thing

(01:21:07):
I talked about on the program, what was that Wednesday?
I believe that was Wednesday's episode. Was it effort or misevaluation?
And I think it's been effort? I do, and and
I'm gonna go, well, I'm gonna go one step further

(01:21:28):
here with the move to bring in Tom Allen. You know,
Tom Allen didn't bring anybody with him, right, I mean
Tom Allen didn't. I mean in terms of the actual
like on field coaches, like those guys were already they

(01:21:50):
are working under West Gibwin. And I think the mistake
that was made more than anything on the in the
A lot of this has been on the offense, but
on the defensive side of the ball. Just hear me
out on this. I think the mistake of Tom Allen
being in the booth. I think the mistake of that

(01:22:11):
was the fact that in that scenario he's relying on
individuals that he didn't hire to have the fire and
the passion that he has. And I'm not saying it's
like a saboteur thing right like that Nick Eason and

(01:22:32):
those guys weren't fired up and passionate enough, Okay, But
I think it doesn't hurt that the guy who is
in charge, and I think it was way would ass
that said this, you know, the guy that speaks to

(01:22:53):
us at every meeting, the guy that is the leader
of this defense. I think being on the field was
a big deal, and I think that will continue to
be a big deal. I think this defense will continue
to play better because of accountability to the guy that's
running it. When he's up in the boot. That's like
having a boss that's in another area code, but when
that dude's in the building and more specifically in your office, yeah,

(01:23:18):
big deal. And I think that's the case in this scenario.
So I love the fact that Tom Allen is out
in on the field. I think we will continue to
see him out in on the field. I think the
Clemson offense continues to turn. My hope is that the
coaching staff will continue to try to implement and even

(01:23:40):
force the ball a little bit to Adam Randall. Let's
see we can get a couple of more touchdowns for
him in the passing game. That makes Clemson's offense more
versatile and more difficult to account for. And I'll say
that that will be the case this weekend. Based off
the injury reports, based off of the talent gap, I

(01:24:00):
think Clemson goes up. And I'll say it based off
of what we saw this past weekend, I'm gonna kind
of stick with a similar number. I say Clemson goes
up to Chestnut Hill and beats Boston College thirty eight thirteen.
I will say I think it could be worse, but
I've seen enough this year with Clemson to throw a
little caution to the win when it comes to my

(01:24:24):
projections on what they will score. Thirty eight thirteen final score.
Clemson brings home another victory, this one from the state
of Massachusetts. We'll talk to y'all on Monday. Until then,
as always, y'all take care now and go Tigers.