The "Coaching Failure" Edition

Coming off an open date, Swinney said the Tigers are healthier and refocused but admitted the 1–3 start is on the staff. “We have failed as coaches,” he said, while stressing the issues are “football stuff” that can be fixed.

Episode Transcript

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

(00:44):
Clemson Sports Talk has come back. Two 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 each 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

(01:08):
fourteen under the Midlands, heard around the world on the
iHeartRadio application. Downloaded today, it's free the website. Put the
dot com on it, dog gonet that's Clemson Sports Talk
dot com Mato three four five zero zero eighty six.
We'll hear from Dabo Sweeney today on a talking Tuesdays.

(01:28):
He called clemson struggles a coaching failure. You can go
watch that full video on our website. You can also
read through some of our notes on it. We've also
put out a clip on social media. Certainly with more
to come on that front. We'll get into that in
just a little bit. As the Tiger's head up to

(01:50):
Chapel Hill for a noonkickoff against the Heels, Clemson still
heavily favored. That game is gonna be on ESPN Clemson
one and three, North Carolina two and two, the Tigers
zero to two in the ACC North Carolina with their
first game in league play. Clemson favored by thirteen and

(02:14):
a half, that number holding the over under actually dipping, however,
from forty eight and a half down to forty five
and a half, meaning less points in the mind's eye
of the betters, but Clemson still basically two touchdowns to
the good in their mind in this game. Also, some

(02:36):
other games coming up this weekend. ESPN College Game Day
going to be in town for Alabama and Vanderbilt. The
Commodores are five and Oh that game is on ABC
at three thirty five and Oh, Commodores. Clark Lee Man,
what a story that program has become. With Diego pave

(02:56):
A quarterback. A year ago, it was their victory over
Alabama that sort of awokened those fans of Vanderbilt to
the fact that, hey, you know what, we might can
do something special here. This season really has a chance
to be a special year for them if they can
win this game. Winning back to back games against Alabama

(03:19):
pushing the Crimson tied to three and two, especially after
the Crimson Tide went into Georgia this past weekend and
came away with a twenty four to twenty one victory.
That game is going to be the site of ESPN's
College Game Day five. And oh Vandy versus three and
one Alabama, sixteenth ranking Vandy versus number ten Alabama. We

(03:43):
didn't even talk about the polls yesterday either, but that's
that's neither here nor there. There's also a big game
with Florida State, a team to beat Alabama who has
since dropped ten spots in the polls with their loss
to Virginia. Florida State now eighteenth of all. They faced
third rank Miami. That's a seven thirty start this weekend

(04:05):
on ABC, the Hurricanes are four to zh. Florida State
now three and one with a big loss in the
Atlantic Coast Conference, Clemson needs all the help they can get.
I'm taking losses at a premium for everybody in the conference.
The good news is, I would say for Clemson at

(04:25):
this point, is Boston College, the team you play next weekend,
already has two losses. You can go check that box
next weekend as a team you've passed. You can put
a loss on North Carolina and recognize that with their
next loss, you would jump past them. I think that's
the way you got to look at it. If this

(04:48):
is a long distance race, right now you are at
the bottom and all you can do is just continue
to work your way up and hope that you can
get high enough to somehow qualify for the ACC Championship.
When I ran cross country in high school, I played
basketball too, but I ran cross country so that I

(05:09):
didn't have to do preseason conditioning. And I think I've
told this story before. There was a guy on my
team called Jason Wills. I called him robo runner. I
spent more time looking at the back of Jason's shoes
than I did leading any race. Jason would go on
our senior year to win the state in the miles,

(05:33):
So that tells me enough about why I was looking
at the back end of his feet all day. I
could just see those things. It was like a treadmill.
They were just churning right in front of me. I'm like,
I can't run this guy down anyway. To make a
long story short, my strategy in cross country was probably

(05:56):
not the best. I conserved a d bit, but then
at the very end, once I thought it was reasonable
that I could pull out a full on sprint. That's
what I would do, and maybe it shouldn't be surprising.

(06:20):
I finished pretty well on a lot of races with
that strategy, conserve and then blast past the competition. And
I can remember, like going around the turn, like if
I was Clemson right now and I'm looking at the
a SEC standings, I pick out the team, now we go,

(06:42):
that's the one I'm running down right now, and I
was like, I'm gonna catch that person before we cross
this finish line. And most of the time I would
do it. So if I'm Clemson, I'm looking at those
standings and I'm saying, look, we've got this list. We're
gonna pass as many of these teams as we can,
and if we we'll give ourselves a chance to possibly

(07:04):
play for the ACC title. Even with the horrendous start
that the Tigers have, you're one in three overall. The
positive is you only have two losses in conference and
other teams are currently collecting losses and Florida State was
one team that appeared to be a flying the ointment

(07:26):
for you. But guess what Florida State because of their
loss to Virginia. If they lose to Miami this weekend
all of a sudden is at zero to two as well,
and that means when you face them, there's the potential
that that gets you in front of the seminoles. What
happened this weekend with Virginia knocking off Florida State was

(07:46):
a big deal. It would have been nice, It would
have been really nice if wake Forest could have helped
you out with Georgia Tech a little bit. The Yellowjackets
are looking like a problem. But maybe, just maybe you
could point somebody and run them down. Then we'll see
what happens, all right. Dabo Sweeney today though called clemson

(08:09):
struggles quote a coaching failure, and he was asked a
question about the soul searching comment that Dabosweeney made just
about having to kind of find themselves, the Clemson Tigers

(08:35):
find themselves during this bye week. And so here's what
Dabosweeny had to say about that whole thing, and this
is where he dives into eventually accountability of the coaching
staff as well as the players.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
My soul is cleansed. It was a lot of soul searching. Yeah,
I mean yeah, I mean you look at everything.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
Obviously really disappointing and where we are.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
And I mean, I mean it's just, uh, I mean truly,
you look at everything when when things aren't going well,
and I mean the reality of it is were it's
it's it's never too far away from one side or
the other. You know, you're not that far away from
being on the right side of things. But when you're
on the wrong side of things, everything stinks right and
everything is magnified.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
And that's kind of where we are.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
And you know, everybody wants to hear, well, a couple
of plays here, a couple places there, and it's we
are what we are, and you know we this is
a you know, but from a big picture standpoint, I
mean it' is a I mean, it's just been a
coaching failure, honestly. I mean that's just that's the best
way I can say it. I mean, we have just
failed as coaches. I mean, and I'm not taking accountability

(09:49):
away from the players. I mean they got accountability in
this too. I mean, you know, you've got some guys
that got to play better. I mean they're not just
on scholarship anymore. I Mean some of these guys are
paying a lot of money to perform, and you know,
that's everybody's got accountability.

Speaker 3 (10:02):
But I mean it's just an absolute coaching failure. That's
just I.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
Don't know another way to say it. And I'm not
pointing a finger, I'm pointing the thumb. I mean it
starts with me because I hire everybody, and I empower
everybody and equip everybody. And when players don't play to
their potential, to me, that's coaches.

Speaker 3 (10:24):
That's that's on us, like when you have a when
you don't. Because our problem is really a football stuff.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
I mean I mean that that's I mean, you know,
big picture, our program, our program is great, Our program
is built right, our program has never been better that
When you when you talk about a program, I mean
to me, it does two things. One, your program should
drive consistency, and your program should whatever your purpose is,

(10:52):
your program should fulfill that whatever your everybody has their
you know, like, this is what we're about. And so
as you holistically build a program, then does it get
the job done?

Speaker 3 (11:06):
Well? The number one thing is consistency.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
Well, obviously we've had fourteen great years here in a row,
and some people might say, well, how you say it, Well,
we've had fourteen great years. We've had some bad moments.
We've had some elite years, but we've had fourteen great years.

Speaker 3 (11:22):
Thirteen of those ten plus win seasons, you know.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
Fourteen great year, eleven championships, and I'm not talking about
fourteen years ago. I'm talking about as recent as last year,
you know, but eleven championships in fourteen years, nine conference titles,
two national championships, and played for two more national championships,
and played for another conference title. So the program is
driving consistency, you know, That's that's what the program is doing.

(11:49):
You know, that's that's what it's set up to do,
you know, consistency and everything. And then when you talk
about fulfilling the purpose and the program doing that, well,
it's doing that.

Speaker 3 (12:00):
The number one thing in our purpose is graduation, and
we lead the nation in that.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
The second thing is equipping them as men, using you know,
our program to build great men, and we have that
in place. We have a bunch of great young people
that have been equipped through the program here. But also
part of the program is winning championships. That's a part
of the program too, and you know we've done that.

(12:26):
I mean, every signing class in seventeen years here has
won a championship except for this year's rushman. Every coordinator
that's ever worked here has won a championship except for
Tom Allen.

Speaker 3 (12:37):
So the program is doing its part.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
It's built right organizationally, structurally, processes, procedures like that stuff.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
We're in a really good spot, probably never been better.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
But from a team standpoint, this year like this is
a football coaching failure. That's what it is. And it's
football stuff. It's not program, it's football stuff. And that
to me, when you have guys that don't play like
they're capable of playing, that is a reflection of us
as coaches.

Speaker 3 (13:11):
And again I'm not excusing the player from it.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
They've got accountability to but but you know, our job,
your job as a coach is to get your guys
to play to their potential.

Speaker 3 (13:20):
And we have failed in.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
That, just that simple, and so that's why we are
where we are and we haven't gotten it done as coaches.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
And that that's again that starts with me. It's football stuff.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
It's it's not like it's I mean, it's blocking, it's
getting off blocks, it's making the critical play at the
critical time. It's routine plays, it's it's routine decision making.

Speaker 3 (13:44):
It's that stuff and all that stuff we can fix.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
So the good news is we can coach and we
can play our way out of it. But we got
to do we gotta be better. You know, it's just
and that's the frustrating thing. Again, program wise, I don't
think we could be better. I mean, like, you know
what what the function of the program is driving consistency,
uh and and fulfilling the purpose and it's doing it.

Speaker 3 (14:08):
But this team, in this moment, we had failed as coaches.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
DeVos when he was asked if they had made any
changes in terms of coaching responsibility kind of given his
his terse comments, they're about the coaching staff.

Speaker 3 (14:24):
No, no, we just got to be better. It'll be better.
There's it's not time for that.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
I mean, like we need to We got good people,
but we've not done a good job.

Speaker 3 (14:34):
But we have good people.

Speaker 2 (14:35):
And again it's that's it's a it's a result business,
right like so I mean, you know it's and again,
when you're in an outhouse, everything stinks, right when you're
in the pipe penthouse, you still got a pile of
crap on the floor, but you just don't notice it, right,
Like it just magnifies things and and we.

Speaker 3 (14:52):
We it's on us. That's our job.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
That's what we get paid to do, is to is
to bring out the best in our player. And we
haven't done that. And again that's that's point of the
thumb at me again, I I I make.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
The decisions on who who runs the rooms.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
And you know, again, but we got good people, and
we got good coaches.

Speaker 3 (15:15):
It's not like they've never been a good coach.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
We just hadn't got a job done at this At
this point in time in the season.

Speaker 1 (15:22):
Sweeny was asked to kind of identify what he thought
it was about the players that wasn't taking place.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
Football stuff. This is football stuff. It's just it's truly
football stuff. It's making a third down catch. It is
playing your gap, it is the proper angle. It's playing
over the top instead of underneath. I mean, it's just
it's football stuff that we have to do a better
job of. It's really that, it's decision making. The read

(15:54):
tells me to give it, I give it, you know,
just doing what you're what we're coaching you to do.
And when it's not happening, Oh, that's that's on US's
coaches and again, players have accountability to these are these
in middle school.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
But but it starts with us as coaches.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
And again the good news is, hey, we gotta we
gotta reset, and we can we can coach our way
out of it, you know, just like we've coached our
way into it.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
So there you go. We'll hear more from Dabo Sweeney
in our number two of the program, and I got
a little bit more from him coming up for you
uh in the next segment. But man to hear him
say the things that he said there about the coaching staff,
and he was quick to say, look, I'm pointing my thumb.

(16:41):
I mean, I'm pointing my thumb at myself, right, Like
he recognizes that he makes these hires. And so after
we hear a little bit more from Sweeney, I mean,
I don't think it's any secret the guys that are
in trouble, I really adult. I think there are four

(17:05):
coaches maybe five on this staff that are or have
dug themselves a hole. And so with that we'll see
how it all shakes out. But an absolute coaching failure

(17:28):
is what Dabosweeney called it. And so we'll hear a
little more from him. Okay, now, number one. Then when
we get back in that following segment, that's where we'll
dive into some of my thoughts on the coaches that
are definitely on the hot seat. And you know, it's

(17:53):
funny because we were talking to Qualk what was that
yesterday about this and can I sort of chuckled at
the odds that Dabo Sweeney gets fired, and you know
how all of a sudden people are jumping down this thing.
I'm telling you, Dabo Sweeney can decide when he leaves Clemson,

(18:14):
and I don't care what you think about it. I
can't validate any reason that a man who's won two
national championships, have done all that he's done would not
have every bit of opportunity to decide when he leaves.

(18:35):
I'm telling you you might not like that fact, but
that is the fact. Dabo Sweeney will be at Clemson
as long as he chooses to be. And I know
caught brother, well, you know if they had a couple
of two and ten years back to back or something.

(18:55):
I think if that happened, Dabosweeney would choose not to
be there again. I don't think this will ever well,
I do not think we will cross a bridge. Hold
me to this if you will. I don't think where
we will ever cross a bridge where an athletic director
looks at Dabo Sweeney says, hey, you're fired. Dabo Sweeney

(19:17):
might fire himself and say hey, I'm done. I can't
motivate these guys. I can't get everything out of these
guys that we need to get out of them. So
I am going to step away. But I do not
believe in any way, shape or form that there will

(19:37):
be a day where I will write a headline that
says Dabo Sweeney fired. It's just not gonna happen. Dabo
Sweeney resigns, Dabo Sweeney hangs it up. Yes, I will
never have to type Dabo Sweeney fired. I just don't
think that's possible. Quick Brandt will hear more from coach
Sweeney right after this. I can enrolling along with you

(20:01):
on a Tuesday afternoon Clemson sports talk. So you heard
a good portion of Dabosweeney and his comments about this
Clemson Tiger coaching staff and the way he kind of
sees it. But what we didn't get to is his

(20:22):
opening statements and what he had to say about the
bye week and getting prepped for North Carolina. Here's Dabo
Sweeney in his opening comments earlier today up in Tigertown.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
Okay, good morning, appreciate it, Ross, So excited to get
back at it this week.

Speaker 3 (20:43):
It was a good open day force and you know,
much needed.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
We would have definitely had some guys out this past
weekend if we would have played. So glad, glad to
have everybody, you know, I think at this point ready
to go. Obviously we got a tough Tuesday Wednesday practice
coming up, so hopefully, but at this point going into it,
we feel like we're probably in as good as spot
as we've been in a while from a health standpoint,
So excited about that.

Speaker 3 (21:07):
And then just you know, taking uh some time.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
This past week to obviously do a lot of self
scouting and uh, you know, just evaluation on everything and
it's really not complicated, uh on what we got to
do better. It's really football stuff that's that's got to
get better. And uh so, uh, you know, again, good week.
I think everybody is in a good space as far

(21:32):
as uh where they are, you know, from a mental standpoint,
as far as hey, this is.

Speaker 3 (21:38):
Where we are and it's what we've got to go do.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
Uh, we got a chance to play and coach our
way out of a hole that we put ourselves in
and and everybody understands that. But just just a kind
of a reset, honestly on what we want to try
to go do, uh starting this week, and that is,
you know, do something we haven't done outside of literally
just a couple of moments, and that's play together and

(22:03):
play complmentary football. We talked about it all the time
and we've done that very little, you know, where we're
really truly pulling in the same direction.

Speaker 1 (22:13):
Again. That's just a portion of Dabo Sweeney's opening comments
earlier today up in Tigertown. He also talked about what
these guys are obviously facing this week in North Carolina,
which has not been a very good team if we're
being honest, but neither is Clemson, and really just how

(22:35):
the guys responded over the past week in preparation for
this week's matchup in Chapel Hill.

Speaker 3 (22:44):
A lot of the guys and how they responded.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
You know, obviously last week it was a long week,
and you know that I think they handled it well.
I've been really pleased with the leadership and not surprised,
not surprised at all, But again you can. You always
assume things, but until you really see things and get confirmation,

(23:07):
you know, you never really truly know. And sometimes you
don't get opportunities like we have right now to be
in a really adverse situation and kind of see how
what you're made of and who's going to help people
don't respond.

Speaker 3 (23:20):
So I've been really pleased from that standpoint. The guys
have really you know, responded the right.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
Way and eager to get back out there and start
playing some football and see if we can again.

Speaker 3 (23:33):
You know, it's still not too late for them to
beat the team that they.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
Want to be and and to play together and to
play with precision in what they do, and so tough
challenge this week.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
That's Dabos. When you talked about this matchup with North Carolina,
they haven't been up there since twenty nineteen pre COVID.
That was a tight ball game. Here's Debos weened kind
of walking through that one a little bit.

Speaker 3 (23:57):
It's been a while since we've been up there.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
I think I think I think it was I think
it was nineteen maybe was that was it when went
up there twenty nineteen? Remember was Isaiah Simmons maybe and
Chad Smith on a two point conversion over on the
right side. It was a tough game, came down the
last play, and I know it'll be a tough game
this time.

Speaker 3 (24:16):
This is there.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
They're a team that's improving. Uh, you know, they're a
team that is you know, they're two and two and
you know, I think for them, a lot of change
obviously change with their staff. Had a bunch of guys
come in you know, January and May you know, so
now they're playing some games.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
They're starting to figure out who they are. They've had
some change at.

Speaker 2 (24:39):
Quarterback to a couple of different guys there that had
been playing. Obviously, seven got hurt against Central Florida, but
you know he's had They've had an open date as well,
so I'd be surprised if he doesn't play. But we
will probably expect both of them to play. And they're
very different, so that creates some challenges from a preparation standpoint.
They've got skill outs. They got some kids that can

(25:02):
really run, I mean really really run. Number three Uh
is a burner, you know, one, eight, nine, all those guys.
They're doing a good job with them. Really impressed with
the backs. You know, four Hood's been around for a while,
but this kid, June thirty five, he's a he is
he's been impressive and he's kind of really come on
for them.

Speaker 3 (25:23):
He's a downhill runner. Physical.

Speaker 2 (25:25):
Uh, they're they're big up front, really big in the trenches.
So uh, you know a lot of r pos built
into their to their system shots and a lot of
play actions what I call climb routes with with deep.

Speaker 3 (25:40):
Overs in, et cetera.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
So they do a good job, you know, as far
as how they put it together schematically to challenge you.

Speaker 3 (25:47):
They know what they're doing.

Speaker 2 (25:49):
Uh, But you know, again, I think they're still kind
of growing into their identity of who they're doing it
with because they've had some they've had some change at
quarterback on a couple of occasions.

Speaker 1 (25:59):
For him, that's debos. When you're talking about the North
Carolina offense. Here's his thoughts on North Carolina's defense. And
you're one under Bill Belichick at this point.

Speaker 3 (26:09):
On the defensive side, same thing as the office.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
On the big, big, thick guys strong, you know, you
don't see ends usually typically as big as as number
eight for them. He's two hundred and eighty plus pounds.
He's a good football player. Nine has got some got
some some twitch and skill to him, thick inside. Two's
leading them with explosive plays linebacker, and then got some

(26:35):
couple of experienced guys in the secondary. They brought number
one with them from Washington. You know Coach's son there,
that was the decordinator out there. So he's a he's
a really good player. So you know, again, schematically they're
mostly a four down. They will jump in in and
out of smoky stuff and multiple with their coverages and
kind of you know, a week to week type of

(26:58):
a game plan, deal on who they're playing and what
they're seeing.

Speaker 3 (27:01):
So I think it's a team that's getting better.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
Again, there's some unknowns with the quarterback that you just
don't really know right now. And a lot of times
when you have multiple quarterbacks they can run they're similar
and they run the same system. But this is a
little different scenario as far as style of play.

Speaker 1 (27:18):
There you go. Dabo Sweeney talked about the North Carolina
it's our heels. We'll have more from Sweney in our
number two as we've give you a good bit here
on the show. The Shakespeare South play and Clempson Sports
TALT right here on Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred and
on the iHeartRadio Lawton Swan Clemson Sports TALT the show
The Shakespare south Land. Hey, don't forget. Next time you're
up in Tigertown, stop by our friends in Alumni Hall

(27:41):
right there on the corner of campus on College Avenue.
You can catch me in there on game days as well,
checking out those sweet Nike drive Fit polos that you
know I love so much, plus their incredible hat wall
tailgate gear. Right now, if you are a Clempson student,
faculty member, or in the military, you go in store
and shop at Alumni Hall, you get ten percent off

(28:03):
lemn no swanee sent you. Plus don't forget. You can
shop online at Alumni Hall dot com as well, And
if you want to support us, find an article and
typically at the bottom of those articles we will have
that Alumni Haul information. Maybe it's not the shirt that
you want, but you click that and it'll take you
to their website. We'll get credit for that purchase. And

(28:26):
then we have articles like the one about Jack Smith
climps upon her faith over fear that's also brought to
you in part by Alumni Hall with the advertisement there
that you can click to get to their site. So
go check them out when you're up in Tigertown. All right,
we were talking before the break well earlier, but in
segment one we were talking about the possibility of coaches

(28:49):
who I thought were on the hot seat, and first
and foremost, I think it's pretty easy to see that
Garrett Riley Climpson off his coordinator, has to be at
the top of that list, not solely at the top,
but at or near the top. And the thing about

(29:11):
it is, I don't think and I've said this for
a few weeks now, like I was willing to give
him the benefit of the doubt. In year one, you're
bringing a new system in. You have a situation where
you've got to embed that system and make whatever changes, etc.

(29:33):
That you feel necessary in order to implement that system
and to get your players to understand it. And then
in year two, right like things seem to be excelling
under k Klubnick, and you think yourself, all right, there
you go, that's what you're talking about. This is the future.

(29:57):
But now it's pretty obvious that things have backtracked quite
a bit. For Clemson significantly putting this thing in reverse,
and we're back to like this nineteen fifty five looking

(30:18):
offense that can't get out of its own way. It's
just frustrating. And so I think, first and foremost, the
question is something I said earlier in the year. Do
we know that the system that TCU was running was
not Sonny Dyke's system, and that Garrett Riley was a

(30:40):
part of it, but not the biggest part. And I'm
not saying that you could have hired Sonny Dikes from TCU.
I may have said SEMU a minute ago. Of course
they were at SMU before going to TCU, But you
don't know for sure that Garrett Riley was the main

(31:02):
reason that TCU made a run to the College Football
Playoff national championship, and that was the reason that Clemson
hired him. I mean, that's what you thought you were getting,
was this offense that was creative and could potentially put
your quarterback in the Heisman Trophy conversation the way that

(31:26):
they did out at TCU, and that just has not
materialized this year when you should have had everything available.
So Garrett Riley number one, no doubt this offense. Look

(31:47):
at the points scored by this Clemson offense given everything
that you had ten points against LSU, twenty seven against Troy,
twenty one against Georgia Tech, and twenty one against Syracuse. Now,
if you're traveling the highways and byways, I'll crunch the

(32:12):
numbers for you and let you know that's a grand
total of seventy nine points. And seventy nine divided by
four is less than twenty points per game for this offense.
There's no way Garret Rally's not on the hot seat
number two. And I think complicates it further for Garrett

(32:38):
Riley is that he's the quarterback coach and k Clubnick
is I think the lead issue in terms of regression.
We actually put out the podcast a couple of days
ago called the Regression Edition that was Friday Show, and

(33:00):
he has taken major backslides. And that's the scary part
of what's the rest of the season look like, because
if Kate Clubney continues to play this way, Kate Clubney
can't continue to play. You pick up what you smell
when I'm shoveling. Okay. Now, one of the things that

(33:25):
is also I think gotta be out there is a
storyline We wrote about at the beginning of the season
about this being a money year for CJ. Spiller at
running backs coach, And I know running back is a

(33:45):
bright spot. Adam Randall is a bright spot. But Adam
Randall was not recruited to play running back. Adam Randall
was a wide receiver that has now been convert to
a running back and he is the best running back.

(34:06):
And that further exacerbates the issue that Clemson has with
in my opinion, CJ. Spiller's recruiting and the guys that
he's bringing in not panning out. Name one running back

(34:28):
that CJ. Spiller's brought in that's really panned out. And
even if we go back, I was never overly impressed
with Will Shipley, never overly impressed with Phil Maffa. They
certainly had their moments. I don't mean to discount their
their talent, but I thought both of those guys underperformed.

(34:50):
As a matter of fact, I believe that every running
back this has been in that room has underperformed, and
a guy like Gideon Davidson's not getting opportunities this year
to prove me wrong. We'll look at those carry numbers
when we get back. Stay with us final segment of
our one coming up Jack Veltree game. Concentral dot Com

(35:11):
joins us, and so we were talking about coaches and
jobs at Clemson, and I mentioned CJ. Spiller, and so
just look at the numbers from an offensive standpoint at
this at this time of the year, and I get it, like,
because of the scores, et cetera, maybe the way some

(35:34):
of these games have played out, you haven't felt comfortable
getting some of your backups opportunities. But you guys listening
to this program, you know the things that I've said
about this running back room. I mean, Dabosweeney would talk

(35:54):
about Keith Adams as if this was this next hammerhead run.
Keith Adams Junior has one carry for negative two yards.
You know, David Azimumey has been on campus for a
couple of years. He has three carries for five yards. Like,

(36:20):
think about that. Two seasons on campus. You're supposed to
be a solid running back and you've only managed to
get three carries this year for five yards. Gideon Davidson,
the freshman everybody thought was gonna take off three carries
for eleven yards. That's it. Davidson is the Mumey and

(36:47):
Keith Adams Junior. The three backup running backs have seven
total carries. Tyler Brown has four. Tyler Brown has more
care as a wide receiver then those other guys individually.

(37:09):
And you just shake your head at the recruiting that CJ.
Spiller's doing. Now. In fairness to Spiller, again, I don't
think Spiller would be fired. I think Spiller would be promoted.
And I know Larry Williams posted the bloated salaries of
some of those guys, no doubt, but Spiller would be

(37:31):
promoted to some sort of ambassador position. He would not
get a raise, but he would not really have to
do a whole lot and make good money. But I
am stricken to by the fact, and I think you
do have to at least yield this in his in CJ.

(37:54):
Spiller's favor just a little bit, is the fact that
Jay Haynes is injured and a year ago when Phil
Maffa got hurt, Jay Haynes was the number two. Like
Jay Haynes was ahead of Keith Adams Junior easily. Jay
Haynes was ahead of David Izziomu May easily. So they

(38:14):
really don't have their second best back in their mind.
Maybe their top back. Maybe Jay Haynes would be the
starter right now for Adam Randall if he was healthy.
We just don't know. I mean, Haines averaged six point
nine yards per carry last season on forty three attempts.
I mean, for anybody that got a modicum of Carri's

(38:39):
he blew their numbers off the you off the map,
So that would tell you that maybe maybe that's a
part of it too. And then I think the other
guy that's really in trouble, I think it's gotta be
why were sever coach Tyler Grisham the regression at wide out?

(39:07):
Maybe a part of it is because they don't believe
in Kate Klemnick anymore. And maybe they'd give you more
juice if they felt like their quarterback was more capable
than Kate is. I mean, that's a that's a hard
place to be as a listener to the show The
Shakespeare south Land, but it's possible, and you just wonder

(39:35):
if those guys would respond a little better to somebody
else throwing them the football. Either way. For TJ. Moore
to have fifteen receptions for one hundred and sixty four
yards in four ballgames, I mean TJ. Moore should have
one hundred and sixty four yards at some point in

(39:55):
a single game, not not four games combined going into
your fifth game of the season. I mean, I'm not
trying to tell you he's gonna have fifteen catches in
a game, but one hundred and sixty four for that
dude ought to be a number that he's putting up
maybe once or twice in a season. He's that good,

(40:18):
and I don't think he's the one that's regressed, but
the effort fighting back to get open when your quarterback scrambles,
whether it's an ill advised scramble or not, the body
language I'm blocking downfield. He did do a good job
blocking downfield on that big play against Georgia Tech. That's

(40:40):
seventy three are play for Bryant westco in that game
against Georgia Tech. But you gotta be better in that regard.
And I think you know, there are certainly other names
out there that might should be considered, maybe Kyle Richardson
tight end coach. I don't think the tight ends have

(41:03):
performed since Danny Peerman was a tight end coach. Seriously,
the last time a Clypson tight end really to me
felt like they were making a huge impact. Was Jordan Leggatt.
It's been a decade. I mean maybe a lot of
that was Deshaun Watson just being comfortable with throwing the

(41:25):
ball to the tight end. But between you and me,
a tight end play has been lackluster, And it's not
about the blocking really. For me, it's about being a
playmaker and being a part of the offense consistently to

(41:49):
the point of where teams have to really worry about you.
If I'm playing Clemson, I'm not worrying about the tight
end because I know Clemson is not targeting the tight end.
I know Clemson is not gonna work the ball to
the tight end. And you might see, yes, Swanny, but
a year ago Jake Brenningstool had a good year. Yeah,
singular forty nine receptions, five hundred and thirty yards. Go

(42:13):
stack those up against what Jordan Lago was doing. All right,
Our number two, Jack veltri Gamecockcentral dot Com joins us
stay with us each time for Clipson Sports Talk with
Lowton Swan Swanny. It is our number two. That's drivetime

(43:06):
right on the show The shakesa south Land Clemson sports
on Swine Hang out with you on a Tuesday, and
of course on Tuesdays we peek over the fence into
the backyard of the South Carolina game Cocks as Jack
Veltrie from Gamecockcentral dot com joins us part of the
A three Network. And again, don't forget the show that

(43:26):
shakesa south Land brought to you in part by our
good friends over at Mets Plumbing mets Plumbing dot com.
Two two six seven one o eight. That's Mets Plumbing
online at mets Plumbing dot com. All right, the game
cox this past weekend get a win in Southeastern Conference
Southeastern Conference Play thirty five thirteen, dominating Kentucky, getting a

(43:49):
couple of defensive scores, a pick six and a fumble return.
The game Cocks lead the country in non offensive touchdowns
the post. This is a big question. We'll talk with
Jack about South Carolina's offense, which continues to be pretty
stagnant this season. I was looking at ESPN's matchup predictor

(44:12):
it does South Carolina favored to be Clemson sixty nine
point nine percent of the time to thirty point one
percent of the time. We'll talk perhaps about what Jack
see's from Clemson as well. In just a few minutes,
but without further ado. Jack Veltrie Gamecockcentral dot Com. Jack,
what's up, buddy, how are you?

Speaker 4 (44:31):
I'm doing good, Man, doing good. Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
Yeah. Thirty five thirteen two defensive scores for the game Cocks.
They lead the country in non offensive touchdowns.

Speaker 3 (44:40):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
That's Beamer Ball at its finest.

Speaker 4 (44:44):
Yeah, No, it definitely is. Again, that is what you
want if your South Carolina and you know, you want
the offense to continue to come along, obviously, but you know,
considering they haven't as quickly as you'd like, and then
the defense and special teams are doing what they're doing.
I think you can live with it. And you know,
it's never a bad thing when you're getting touchdowns in

(45:04):
other ways from those guys.

Speaker 1 (45:06):
Yeah. So you know, when you're kind of watching it unfold, Jack,
I mean, what is it that's kind of holding this
South Carolina offense back right now? Because I mean, if
it broke through, right and they've got Lenor Sellers, who
a lot of people still consider to potentially be the
best quarterback in college football, if it were to break through,
the sky's the limit maybe for this team. You and
I talked a week ago. Hey, look, if they lose

(45:29):
this game to Kentucky, there might not be a conference
game on the schedule that they will win. Well, if
the defense and the special teams play the way they're
the way they are playing, and the offense continues to
get better, there might be some other games on the
schedule that are certainly winnable. But what is it that
is holding this team back right now?

Speaker 4 (45:50):
I think it's continuing to develop that run game, right
I think that's probably the main thing that I would
say it's kind of holding.

Speaker 3 (45:58):
South coront back.

Speaker 4 (45:59):
But passing attack has been pretty good and the numbers
won't pop out at you from what Lenora's sailer. He
did the other night against Kentucky. I mean he went
for I think one hundred and fifty three passing yards,
which is about half of what he had against Missouri,
But he completed seventy nine percent of his passes, and
Andre Vishak has had another one hundred yard receiving games,

(46:19):
So I think the passing attack is fine. It's just
continuing to develop that run game. And he took a
big step in the right direction with Lenoris starting to
run the football like he did last year. We all
know how that Clemson game went, the A and M
game Missouri. I mean those games down the stretch in
November Vanderbilt, he was so dynamic in the run game,

(46:42):
and that's what you saw the other night. He was
breaking out of tackles, breaking out sacks, making some really
big plays. But it's the other guys you're kind of
waiting for to come along. So you need to get
fays on going. You need to get out away going
a little bit more. And you saw the emergence of
Matthew Buller, a red shirt freshman, the other day. That
was good to see. He scored a touchdown at forty
eight yards. But you want more from your big guys again.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
Jack veltrigamecoccentral dot Com with this year on the program.
South Carolina on a bye week and then they hit
one of the toughest stretches that any team in college
football will face. And there are a lot of teams
in an expanded SEC. Once you added Oklahoma and Texas
to the mix, this conference got increasingly more difficult for everyone.
But you know, the bye week, coming off of the

(47:27):
heels of a victory, you know, sometimes I don't know
that you want that right because you're just kind of
picking up a little momentum. What's Shane Biembers kind of
mindset on having this break and what did he have
to say about sort of getting ready or having an
extra week I should say to get ready for this
matchup on the road in Baton Rouge.

Speaker 4 (47:47):
Yeah, I mean, don't forget LSU is also going to
have an extra week to get ready for this game.
So both teams, there's no team that really isn't advantage
in that way necessarily, But I think South Carolina does
have some things obviously work on that they I think
they got a lot better this past weekend against Kentucky League.
They played about, I think as a complete football game

(48:07):
as you could want. Obviously, you want the run game
to continue to grow and develop, But what I saw
was less penalties, less misstackles, things that hindered them so
badly against Missouri a few weeks back. You want to
continue to grow in that way and be better. I
mean you had six miss tackles, five penalties, one of

(48:28):
which was only pre snap, so that's a marginal improvement.
And you saw how South Carolina was able to be
long butter They won the time of possession, in this game,
and obviously they scored enough points to win. So continuing
to just do that, I think is the main thing.
If South Carolina didn't look good in some some of
the ways I just described, Yeah, if they hadn't aggressed

(48:49):
after the Missouri game, I think there'd be a lot
more issues, and they still are. But you're feeling pretty
good to where you go back, look at what's went
wrong over the course of the season, try to fix
it this week row as a coach estaff as players
get out on the road recruiting this weekend. I know
that's something Shane's gonna be do. I think he say
he's going to five different states on Thursday and Friday

(49:09):
and then start implementing a little bit of LSU this
week before really picking it up next week.

Speaker 1 (49:16):
You know what's kind of fun to watch from the
standpoint of South Carolina the plays that they are making,
whether it be special teams or in these interception returns
and fumber returns, etc. Is the guys that don't have
the ball right, the effort that they are giving in

(49:36):
order to make something happen. Because if you take those
fourteen points off the board, and I understand that you
don't do that in sports. That's not the way it works.
But if you take those points off the board, I
mean that Kentucky South Carolina game feels like such a
different game as you maneuver through and when you have
a little cushion because of effort Jack, I mean that

(49:56):
goes a long way to make a season work out
to be a lot better or that maybe the experts
and analysts think it will be from the jump.

Speaker 4 (50:05):
Yeah, no, totally. I mean, like it can't survive off
the facts of Hey, like our defense is gonna score
a touchdown, Like you don't know that if that's not
always going to happen where your defense is gonna get
two scores. And I mean your special team wasn't as
effective on Saturday quick Franklyn and you had a fake

(50:28):
punt that did end up working out and you gave
the ball back to Kentucky in most territory luckily at
that point in the game drew up by eighteen points.
So it's like, I don't agree with the decision necessarily,
but I but I get what they were going for.
It just didn't work. So you can't necessarily rely on
that stuff to go your way.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
Every single week right.

Speaker 4 (50:47):
The thing I will know is, I mean, look, I
think this offense is going to get better. I think
at some point this run game maybe it is just
what it is at this point and there's nothing that
they can really do about it. But I do think
this run game is going to get better at some point.
I'm still very high on I think Matthew Fuller is
going to be really good for South Carolina here pretty soon.

(51:09):
It's just they gotta get it figured out, and I
don't know what the answer is. I think there needs
to be less called runs up the middle. I think
they need to get a little bit more creative with
how they utilize the run game. But I'm liking some
of what I'm seeing from the offense. It's just not
all the way there yet.

Speaker 1 (51:24):
Final thing with Jack veltri here, we got to get
him out of here quicker today than usual. But that's
all right, We'll make it work. Jack. When you look
at the Southeastern Conference right now, obviously it's kind of
a muddled mess outside of Old Miss sitting on top
of the league at three and oh you got Vanderbilt
taking on Alabama this weekend. The Commodores beat South Carolina

(51:46):
earlier this season, they're five and zero, a chance to
go six and oh if they were to go down
to t Town to get a win there. When you
look at this league, where do you think that team
in particular shakes out and what would a win this
weekend maybe mean for Van and what the upper tier
in the SEC looks like.

Speaker 4 (52:04):
Yeah, I mean this is gonna be a real big
weekend to them. Like you said, man, I mean, they
have a chance to go six and l and clinch
Bowl eligibility already at this point in the year. I mean,
that's something that is crazy and it proves a lot
of the doubters wrong. They thought that maybe last season
was just a fluke, but it really hasn't been. They're
a good football team, and yeah, they get a lot
of points against Utah State this past weekend, But to

(52:27):
go into Brian Denny and essentially slay the Beast for
a second time, quite frankly, I think that would be
more impressive than what they did last year because last
year nobody expected it, right, and I think you have
a lot of people that are kind of still not
expecting it to happen this year. But to go into

(52:48):
Brian Denny, a place that not everyone can say they
come out and win at I think that would be
really really big for that program and continuing to build
an upward trajectory of success.

Speaker 1 (53:00):
For all our game Cocks hanging out with us, peeking
over the fence to the show that shakes the south Land.
Make sure you check out Jack's workover on gamecoccentral dot com,
part of the on three network. Jackman, have a great week.
We'll talk to you next Tuesday, my guy.

Speaker 4 (53:13):
Thank you, all right, thanks so much.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
There you go. That's Jackveltrie from Gamecockcentral dot com. Three
four five O zero zero eighty six. That is the
text line and the phone line. Again, you can be
a part of the program me anytime, any place, anywhere.
So as we kind of sit here today, I mean again,

(53:40):
it was a fiery passionate Dabo Swingey today essentially calling
out the coaching staff saying hey, this is this is
on the coaches and saying that you know, look, he's
the guy, like he's the guy if you if you

(54:03):
didn't hear it now at number one, we'll drop it
in right here for you in our number two.

Speaker 3 (54:11):
My soul is cleansed.

Speaker 2 (54:13):
Uh yeah.

Speaker 3 (54:15):
It was a lot of soul searching.

Speaker 2 (54:16):
Yeah, I mean yeah, I mean you look at everything
obviously really disappointing and where we are, and I mean,
i mean that's just, uh truly, you look at everything
when when things aren't going well, and i mean the
reality of it is, we're it's it's it's never too
far away from one side or the other. You know,
you're not that far away from being on the right

(54:36):
side of things. But when you're on the wrong side
of things, everything stinks right and everything is magnified. And
that's kind of where we are. And you know, everybody
wants to hear, well, a couple of plays here, a
couple plays there, and that it's we are what we are,
and you know we this is a you know, but
from a big picture standpoint, I mean it is. I mean,
it's just been a coaching failure, honestly. I mean that's

(54:58):
just that's the best way I can say. I mean,
we have just failed as coaches. I mean I'm not
taking accountability away from the players. I mean they got
accountability in this too. I mean, you know, you've got
some guys got to play better. I mean they're not
just on scholarship anymore. I mean some of these guys
are paying a lot of money to perform, and you
know that's everybody's got accountability. But I mean, it's just

(55:21):
an absolute coaching failure. That's just I don't know another
way to say it. And I'm not pointing a finger,
I'm pointing the thumb. I mean it starts with me
because I hire everybody, and I empower everybody and equip everybody.
And when players don't play to their potential, to me,
that's coaches.

Speaker 3 (55:40):
That's that's on us, like when you have a when
you don't. Because our problem is really a football stuff.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
I mean, I mean that that's I mean, you know,
big picture, our program, our program is great. Our program
is built right, Our program has never been better that
When you when you talk about a program, I mean
to me, it does two things. One, your program should
drive consistency and your program should whatever your purpose is,

(56:08):
your program should fulfill that whatever your everybody has their
you know, like this is what we're about. And so
as you holistically build a program, then does it get
the job done?

Speaker 3 (56:22):
Well? The number one thing is consistency.

Speaker 2 (56:24):
Well, obviously we've had fourteen great years here in a row,
and some people might say, well, how you say it, Well,
we've had fourteen great years. We've had some bad moments,
we've had some elite years, but we've had fourteen great years.
Thirteen of those ten plus win seasons, you know, fourteen
great Ye're eleven championships and I'm not talking about fourteen

(56:45):
years ago. I'm talking about as recent as last year,
you know, but eleven championships in fourteen years, nine conference titles,
two national championships, and played for two more national championships
and played for another conference title. So the program is
and consistency, you know, that's that's what the program is doing.
You know, that's that's what it's set up to do.

(57:09):
You know, consistency and everything. And then when you talk
about fulfilling the purpose and the program doing that, well,
it's doing that.

Speaker 3 (57:16):
The number one thing in our purpose is graduation and
we lead the nation in that.

Speaker 2 (57:20):
The second thing is equipping them as men, using you know,
our program to build great men, and we have that
in place.

Speaker 3 (57:27):
We have a bunch of great young people that have
been equipped through the program here.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
But also part of the program is winning championships. That's
that's a part of the program too. And you know
we've done that. I mean, every signing class in seventeen
years here has won a championship except for this year's rushing.
Every coordinator that's ever worked here has won a championship
except for Tom Allen.

Speaker 3 (57:53):
So the program is doing its part.

Speaker 2 (57:55):
It's built right organizationally, structurally, processes, procedures like that stuff.
We're in a really good spot, probably never been better.
But from a team standpoint, this year, like this is
a football coaching failure. That's what it is. And it's
football stuff. It's not program, it's football stuff. And that

(58:19):
to me, when you have guys that don't play like
they're capable of playing, that is a reflection of us
as coaches.

Speaker 3 (58:26):
And again I'm not excusing the player from it.

Speaker 2 (58:28):
They've got accountability to but but you know, our job,
your job as a coach is to get your guys
to play to their potential, and we have failed in that,
just that simple. And so that's why we are where
we are and we haven't gotten it done as coaches.
And that that's again that starts with me. It's football stuff.
It's it's not like it's I mean, it's blocking, it's

(58:51):
getting off blocks, it's making the critical play at the
critical time. It's routine plays, it's it's routine decision making.

Speaker 3 (59:00):
It's that stuff, and all of that stuff we can fix.

Speaker 2 (59:03):
So the good news is we can coach and we
can play our way out of it.

Speaker 3 (59:07):
But we got to do we gotta be better, you know.

Speaker 2 (59:09):
It's just and that's the frustrating thing again, program was
I don't think we.

Speaker 3 (59:14):
Could be better.

Speaker 2 (59:15):
I mean, like, you know what what the function of
the program is driving consistency, uh and fulfilling the purpose
and it's doing it.

Speaker 3 (59:23):
But this team, in this moment, we had failed as coaches.

Speaker 1 (59:29):
And so I think and again I mentioned it, I mean,
I think Garrett Riley is on the hottest of seeds,
followed just behind that by CJ. Spiller and Clemson wide
receivers coach Tyler Grisham. And I you know, I think
back to the Grisham thing, like even a year ago,
it felt like maybe if west Coat and Bryant, no

(59:54):
Westcoat Bryant and it feels right though martapis Bryant right,
but it does feel like a year ago, if Westcoine
Moore don't pan out or don't put up numbers that
perhaps you were looking at a situation where something could

(01:00:17):
have happened in that room at the end of last season,
but those two guys kind of proved to be breakout stars.
You still had a good year from Antonio Williams running
back to me, if I'm looking at the positions, is
probably next up. And the worst case scenario for Dabbo

(01:00:37):
is that the guy there is a legend in CJ. Spiller.
But I think because of that, Spiller knows that he
doesn't want to lose the fandom, right. He doesn't want
the fans to be against him, and it would be
tough to turn against CJ. Spiller because of what he
meant to the program. But I think you also have

(01:00:57):
to say, well, think about how long ago that was
and and how many players today. I know this is
gonna hurt Dabbosweeney's feelings.

Speaker 5 (01:01:10):
C J.

Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
Spiller played before high definition television was regular and routine,
and the videos of like just try to go find
a high quality video of CJ. Spiller playing college football.
They don't really exist. And I hate to be this
guy for a second here, but you might as well

(01:01:32):
be like the four horsemen in Notre Dame, like it's
old news. These kids grew up on video highlights of
players that came along after CJ. Spiller once the the
YouTube generation took over. I mean, these guys are are they?
You go find some videos now on social media of
a guy named Traves ETN. And honestly, let's say you

(01:01:56):
thought CJ was the best running back in Clemson history.
You didn't that after ATN, did you. So there's there's
been some wear and tear, I would say, not to
what CJ did, but to the recognition of who he is,
probably by kids across the country. He's just not a name.
A bunch of those kids would know. Quick break stay

(01:02:16):
with us, Lawton Swine clemses Sports Talk again a Tuesday.
So last night in the NFL, we had a little
double header, if you will. And quite frankly, I watched
so much football on Sunday that I didn't even turn

(01:02:37):
the dial to football yesterday. And I'm thankful that I didn't,
because it only took one view of the injury to
Tyreek Hill on my social media account for me to
just cringe and close my eyes. I didn't want to
see it again. His agent saying today though, that Tyreek

(01:03:00):
hill surgery went well and he will play in twenty
twenty six. It's ironic that that is the quote that
came out today because at work, that's what I told
some of my friends. I was like, man, I don't know,
I don't know if this guy will play again. And
quite frankly, why, like, I don't other than to say

(01:03:20):
that you came back from that gruesome injury, why and
if you didn't see it, I don't suggest watching it.
It was akin to kind of how I felt when
Marcus Lattimore, South Carolina game cock running back back in
the day, got injured and listen for all our fine

(01:03:41):
feathered friends hanging out with.

Speaker 5 (01:03:42):
Us, so you could continue to peek over the fence
at the best radio showing the.

Speaker 1 (01:03:46):
Nature that was one of the worst, right the late
great Cleveland may Man. They're dropping that dime back in
the day. Yeah, Tyreek Hill had to repair his dislocated
knee multiple torm ligaments, including his ACL Drew Rosenhaus saying

(01:04:06):
that it's about the rehab. He will play next season.
The realistic goal is the start of the season. Yeah,
I mean it was gruesome. Miami got their first victory
of the season, twenty seven to twenty one over the
New York Jets last night. But again I am thankful

(01:04:28):
that I did not see it. Only justin Jefferson has
more receiving yards than Hill does since he'll joined the
Miami Dolphins in twenty twenty two. Just a terrible, gnarly injury.
And it got me thinking about I hate to go

(01:04:50):
down this path, but what I will label like gnarly injuries.
I think the kid's name was Devin Ware, Kevin Ware
maybe something like that. For Kentucky basketball, do you remember
his Oh? Just awful, Like you know, when the other

(01:05:10):
players can't see it, they don't want to look at it.
In wrestling, Uh, Sid Vicious, the late Sid Vicious. Now
he jumped off of a like the middle turn buckle

(01:05:31):
and snapped his leg into and oh if he didn't
have a boot on. The boot was Oh, I can't
even think about it. Man. Oh the boot was the
only thing that kept it on. I mean, anytime you
get an injury that snaps both bones, and I'm not

(01:05:52):
a doctor, and I didn't stay at a holiday and express
last night, so I don't even know. Tibula fibula whatever
to be a few anytime you break those, But you
don't have to be a doctor to know that's bad news. Unfortunately.
I would say in sports, given the high speed and

(01:06:18):
the nature of the games, especially football and basketball, all
the jumping, it's probably more impressive that we don't have
more of that stuff collectively. Now A I'll give you
one though, that I don't really you don't really see

(01:06:43):
all that much, really, or you don't really view it,
but you know it happened. Steve Angelie, quarterback at Syracuse.
The second that dude went down, I said, that's that's
the achilles and that it's been a fear of mine, man,
the achilles injury. Being a guy that played basketball, there

(01:07:05):
were a couple of times when I was playing later
in life, in my thirties and later where my achilles
would start to hurt. And I don't know if that's like,
was like a partial tear or just something else. I
never went and got it checked out, but I know this,
I'm glad I hung up the old tennis shoes before
that that bad boy ever popped, because that looks like

(01:07:27):
a terrible injury. The fact that Kobe Bryant went and
shot a couple of free throws with a torn achilles, Yeah,
that's impressive. I mean, being a guy that has played
basketball his whole life and knows just the force that

(01:07:48):
you're exerting on your you know, from your thighs down
to play that game on a consistent basis. I mean,
we probably, honestly probably are fortunate that there aren't more
injuries like that. But yeah, those are a couple of

(01:08:10):
those are a couple of bad ones. I see some
people say in the Tyron Pro throw injury at Alabama,
I feel like, was that an ankle? Let me throw
that in the Google machine? A career ending injury? Oh?

(01:08:32):
Career ending? Oh there's a photo high that was career enduring.
A career ending for that guy. Oh Man. Prior to
the two thousand and five season, Pro Throw is named
second team All SEC. Oh Man. He did graduate two

(01:08:57):
thousand and eight, A season in career injury against Florida
October one, two thousand and five. Dude, I remember that now,
but seeing the photos, I don't want to see it,
just like I didn't want to see the one last night.
Oh Man. Let me tell you what you don't want
to do. Don't google Tyron Pro throw an injury. Do

(01:09:18):
not throw that in your Google machine. Okay, you don't
want to see that. Eleven surgeries to repair his leg.
Ah geez, man, I'm telling you that Tyreek Hilly injury.
That was rough. I've seen some rough ones. I would
not come back. I could tell you I wouldn't come back, man.

(01:09:39):
I'd be counting my money on the beat somewhere with
my repaired knee, and that'd be it. You wouldn't see
Swanee out there. I was born at night, but it
wasn't last night. Quick break, quick Break. We'll come back
with more here on a Tuesday afternoon, Lawton swan with
you the show the Shakes of south Land again. Don't
forget about our friends in Alumni Hall on the corner
of campusl College Avenue, downtown Clemson. It's Alumni Haul for

(01:10:03):
all your officially licensed Clemson merchandise, hats, t shirts, till
get gearmore. Go check them out today or online at
Alumni haul dot com. Don't forget they are just a
stones throwaway from historic Riggs Field, home of your Clemson
Tiger soccer team. And speaking of the Clemson Tiger soccer team,

(01:10:30):
those dudes went up to Wake Forest and beat the
Demon Deacons four to three over the weekend Nate Richmond
capped the victory with a couple of goals. In that game.
He was named the ACC's Offensive Player of the Week
for the first time in his career and was the

(01:10:51):
third offensive player of the Week for Clemson this season.
The Tigers with a thrilling four to three win over
thirteenth rank Wake Force. Remember this Clemson team was number
two in the country just a few weeks ago, have
hit a little bit of a skid. Soccer can be
that way. It's a funny sport like that. The Tigers

(01:11:13):
will host Elon on Saturday night, kickoff set for seven
pm in that game, and you know, when you think
about the sports on campus at Clemson, there's no doubt
behind football. In my opinion, it's not even close. Soccer
is the second most successful in recent years. It feels

(01:11:36):
like softball, maybe basketball, then maybe baseball. And again I'm
kind of cutting out Olympic sports for the most part
in this conversation. But the Tigers soccer team, with just
six regular season games remaining and only three games over

(01:12:01):
the next three weeks as they face elon this Saturday,
NC State in Raleigh, next Friday, and then the following Friday,
October seventeenth, they'll be back at historic Reeks Field for
a matchup against the Duke Blue Devils. The good news
is if you like soccer, which of course I do.
My son plays, and I've just kind of grown to

(01:12:24):
love the sport over the years. I would not say
that I grew up watching soccer, and quite frankly, we
really didn't have the option to really watch the Premier
League the way we do now. But I think the
exposure the ability to watch it has definitely made has
definitely made it much more open to the American public,

(01:12:50):
and so I do watch it a lot of times
on Saturday morning. Quite frankly, I'll be honest with you,
during the fall, instead of sitting there for three hours
of college game day, I'll watch a two hour soccer
match and then kind of fast forward through game day
and watch the highlights. I mean, Saturday has just become
a day full of sports. And I pull for Liverpool.

(01:13:11):
You'll never walk alone. And so it's you probably say,
front runner. Let me tell you when I started pulling
for Liverpool, they were not at the top of the
table now however, but there they are tough, fun to watch,
fun to watch, but yeah, European soccer certainly, you know,

(01:13:33):
the Premier League making a statement, making some buzz here
in the United States, and I do. I try to
watch as many of those games as I can. Plus,
I'll tell you the other thing I like about it.
I think soccer has kind of become my golf, you
know what I mean. Like I think about my dad

(01:13:53):
when I was a kid, my dad watching golf, and
he'd have it on and he's watching, but you could
kind of napped during the game if you want it,
and you could during the match and kind of wake
back up and pick it back up. Soccer like that
for me is similar now Clemson soccer. I tend to
lock in and watch, but I can throw on a

(01:14:13):
Liverpool match. I could send in the backyard, you know,
under the gazebo doing some work and if I hear
like you know, like the build up, right, Like soccer
has a cadence and a build up that tends to happen. Now,
the problem is sometimes with soccer you do get some

(01:14:33):
guys that just hit a ball right on the screws
and you know it's a shot that when it's called
the announcer immediately their volume just oh, criks one, and
then you might look up and catch the tail end. Now,
sometimes sometimes when somebody criaks one, they're not it's not close.

(01:14:54):
I gets just over the net. But because of that cadence,
I can kind of do some other things and watch it.
I don't have to be totally locked in, and you
get a kind of a feel for how the game's
gonna flow, if you will. But yeah, there's no doubt
this Clemson Tiger soccer team fun to watch. Let's see
that game is gonna be on the ACC Network extra

(01:15:14):
on Saturday. The next Friday's game against NC State, that's
gonna be on the ACC Network. As a matter of fact,
so too will the Duke game the following Friday night.
Clemson is getting a little ACC Network exposure, and I'll
be interested to see kind of where this team positions

(01:15:35):
themselves in terms of the national rankings and how they
perform at the ACC tournament, because this conference is tough
as nails, like it's the Atlantic Coast Conference. A couple
of years ago. I won't be able to remember the teams, okay,
but it was kind of like the Southeastern Conference in football,

(01:15:58):
like Pitt was one, Clempson was too. Wake Forest was four.
I'm just picking some teams now because we're getting a
little further down the list. Virginia was six and Syracuse
was eight. It was like five of the top eight teams.
So I mean, you can get beat up. You can

(01:16:20):
get beat up in conference play and still be a
really good team, which is why it was so important
that Clempson go on the road and beat wake Forest.
The Tigers' most shocking loss came back on Tuesday, September
the sixteenth, when Queen's College beat Clemson one nil. I mean,
that's that's one of those where, again, as somebody that

(01:16:44):
watches a lot of soccer, you might shoot eight nine
more times than they do. They shoot twice on score
on one of them, and their goalkeepers up to par,
and you're just a little bit off frame, and all
of a sudden, the game where you might have dominated
offensively goes in the other team's favor. And there aren't

(01:17:05):
many sports like that. There aren't many sports where you
dominate offensively and lose. Soccer can be one, no doubt
about it. I have seen many a match where a
team is dominating offensively and gets beat two one, one
to Oh it's just the nature of the beast. Final segment,
flip side, keep it locked.

Speaker 5 (01:17:28):
What have you done for me lately?

Speaker 3 (01:17:32):
It's a fair question.

Speaker 5 (01:17:34):
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 (01:18:41):
Final segment on a Tuesday.

Speaker 3 (01:18:42):
Again.

Speaker 1 (01:18:43):
Thank you to Jack veltre Gamecockcentral dot com for joining
us abbreviated conversation with Jack. We'll try to get them
all for twenty next week when we had him for
about ten this week. Anyway, Let's see a couple of
text messages. You can text us as well. Eight of three,
four or five zero zero eighty six. Laura listening to

(01:19:06):
us in Greenville, says Swanee. I actually appreciate dabosweeney owning it.
This is talking about Dabosweeny's comments. You want to go
read them article on Clemson sports Talk dot com right now.
Tyree Ingram's actually just put together one on Garrett Riley
that I've gotta look over after the show. But top

(01:19:28):
of the top of the fold, if you will, on
your on your website screen Dabosweeny calls Clemson struggles a
quote coaching failure as a reset after bye week. That's
the article, full video notes in little highlights. If you
will over on our site, go check that out again

(01:19:50):
on Clemson sports Talk dot com. But let's see, Lara
says Swaneye. I actually appreciate debo owning it, calling it
a qui coaching failure takes guts. Now we'll see if
that honesty turns into results against North Carolina. True. I
think you're right about that, Laura, Like, and it's just

(01:20:12):
kind of stunning that this is where this Clemson Tiger
team currently sits and how they respond after continually digging
themselves into a hole further is something that I'm anxious
to see, Like what moves do they make to fix
things off of the bye week. I mean, it's like Quicksand,

(01:20:37):
And I'll be honest, based off of the way I
grew up and the cartoons I watched, I thought Quicksand
was going to be a bigger problem in my life.
Then it turns out it's going to be like I
gotta thought, that's where I end up at some point. Well,
it feels like covering Clemson right now that I'm kind
of in the quicksand and watching a team that's in

(01:21:00):
the quicksand, and how are they going to get out
of it? I mean, I think that is the sixty
four thousand dollars question for the Tigers right now, because
I haven't seen much in any game that made me
go this team is going to play collectively well together?

(01:21:23):
Like the only good thing that I see about this
weekend is that they're playing North Carolina Because, as I
tweeted over the weekend, and as I said on this
program last week, name one team playing good right now
that wouldn't beat the breaks off of Clemson. I can't

(01:21:43):
think of one. That's how bad the Tigers have been
sinking into the quicksand And do they have an answer
this week and beyond? I guess we'll have to find out.
But did the I guess guts? As Lara said that
Dabosweenen had to call out the team, Will that make
it difference? All right? Trent in Columbia says, so it's

(01:22:07):
a coaching failure, but no changes. That's the problem. Admitting
you're in the outhouse is one thing, Fixing it as another.
At some point you just can't keep saying be better
they get Trent for the message. Yeah, Like, first off,
I think if we're being fair about you know, the

(01:22:30):
firing stuff at this point, I do think it's kind
of ridiculous to make some sort of bold coaching move
right now. But I don't think there's a problem with
sitting down with Garrett Riley and saying, hey, Garrett, listen,

(01:22:50):
cut the hubbub bub Like this is it you You
either fish or were cutting bait. And that's kind of
where we are with it. Like, three years is not
long at any job. I think that's reasonable to say. Like,

(01:23:14):
if you took a job working somewhere, you might say
it would take you three years to really get settled in.
Like I'm in a new school. It's year two at
this new school and you're still kind of everybody still
settling into the place. But even if you've done a

(01:23:34):
job a ton and you go somewhere else, I mean,
three years you ought to be pretty well settled in.
But when you're making the money that these guys make,
you should be settled in on day one. You got
to perform like it on day one. You can't have this. Well,
you know, we're still trying to figure things out. Nah,

(01:23:57):
bull Butter, you know the type money you're making and
the type money other guys on that stat for making.
Holy smokes, what you're talking about. I mean, look, compensation
is through the roof, and when compensation is through the
roof and performance is below standard, people get fired. People

(01:24:20):
get fired. There's no way around it. And Trent, I
don't think Dabo's gonna make that decision now, but I
think everybody knows they're on the clock, speaking the clock.
So we got to get out of here. We'll be
back tomorrow four o'clock. Until then, it is always I'll
take care now and go Tigers.