The "Coaching Staff Norms" Edition

Swanny wonders what the norm is in college football with staffs being hired by the head coach or do the OCs and DCs tend to bring their own staffers? 

Episode Transcript

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

(00:44):
Clemson Sports Talk has come back to drive time. Hell
everybody and Swan back in the saddle once again. It
is the show that shakes the south Land. Clemson Sports
Talk for you each and every afternoon as you make
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(01:04):
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(01:25):
Land brought to you in part by our good friends
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a call today two two six seven one zero eight.
That's METS Plumbing. All right out of the gates on
a Tuesday afternoon. Want to get into a couple of

(01:45):
things with you, most notably and update on Bryant Westco.
Dabosweeny as I mentioned yesterday met with the media after
our programmer, actually during our show, but Sweeney saying the
prayer that prayers were answered as Brian Westco clips to
wide receiver sophomore has been released from the hospital, but
he is out for the season. We'll hear Dabosweeney's full

(02:09):
comments on west Co right here on Clemson Sports Talk.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Injury wise, everybody wants to know about Westco really just
you know, prayers answered. I mean, just a blessing, uh,
you know, kind of best case scenario. It was a
very very scary, scary injury. And the doctors did an
amazing job, doctor Kanos and a Greenville just amazing doctor.

(02:37):
And you know, again a very scary injury and a
lot of kind of unknowns for the first twenty four
hours or so. But he's actually out of the hospital,
back home and uh again kind of you know, best
case scenario.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
Uh, you know, this is he's done for the year
for sure.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
But but doctors, you know, are very confident he'll make
a full recovery and and you know so, but definitely
something that will that will keep him out for the
rest of this season. But thankful that you know, all
indications are he's going to be okay, and and uh,
you know, just just a real blessing for that. So

(03:18):
hopefully he got home today and was just kind of resting.
So hopefully he'll be back over here tomorrow and uh,
you know, just uh continue uh you know, getting better
one day at a time.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
Just call it a back injury.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
I won't get into the details of it, but you know,
you didn't have a fracture or anything like that.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
It's not a justin raw situation, not a not a
Mike Williams situation. Uh, we dealt with these.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
But but it was a very very serious injury and
and he's very fortunate, very fortunate, and again the doctors
did a great job. Was very scary, and like I said,
he's he's uh, he's doing well, and you know, expect
him to make a full recovery, but he'll be he'll
be always going to take a huge amount of precaution

(04:05):
with with you know, injuries of that nature, and so
he'll be out the rest of the season.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
So again you hear Dabo Sweeney saying, very fortunate, prayers
answered a very scary injury. Just a real blessing that
he's okay. And Sweeny did not elaborate much on it. Obviously,
after the game, he called it a very serious deal.
Westco had been really, really good for Clemson this year.

(04:35):
I mean, there's there's no doubt about it. Look, he
was Clemson's leading wide receiver going into that game against SMU.
He's still the leading wide receiver after the fact. Obviously TJ.
Moore had a big day, but Bryant Westcoe, we actually
wrote an article on him potentially emerging as a Bolitnikoff

(04:57):
type player. I feel a little bit like I gave
him a bit of the Sports Illustrated cover Jinks or
the Madden cover Jinks, because we actually had him on
the game day photo going into that matchup against SMU
thirty one reception, six touchdowns, five hundred and thirty seven
yards to lead the way for the sophomore from Mid Lothian, Texas.

(05:21):
But at this point, like we said yesterday on the program,
look with Clemson being three and four, not in the
hunt for an ACC championship or college football playoff, and
this is a kid you're gonna sit, and you were
likely going to sit him even if you were in

(05:44):
the mix for that because of the nature of this injury.
Though the way. You know, it's kind of explained there
from Dabo Sweeney, and for most people, I think they
openly acknowledge that this is still just a game. I
know you want to win, I know you want to
be seven to oh, you want to be in the
college football Playoff. I get all that, But it is

(06:06):
still just a game. Yes, these guys get paid, Yes
they make money, the coaches make a ton of money.
It's still just a game. And Bryant Westco's health, regardless
of your circumstance, is greater than any ball game that
you could win. And so at three and four, this

(06:30):
is the right move. At seven to oh, this is
the right move. Now at seven to oh, I think
Bryant Westco probably would be fighting more to get back
out there on the field if he could, if the
doctor said maybe. I think at three and four Bryant
Westco Would likely want to fight to get back out
there if the doctor said he could, or even said maybe.

(06:50):
But at three and four, my hope is that the doctors,
and we don't know the nature of this injury exactly,
are saying no, you don't need to get out there.
And my hope is that west still saying no, I
don't need to get out there. I've got bigger fish
to fry down the line. I got a bigger, bigger
fish to fry as a junior, bigger fish to fry
as a senior. And so that was perhaps some of

(07:14):
the biggest news for everybody. And positive news again on
Brian Westco. Not positive enough that he's going to be returning,
but positive in the sense that it's not career ending. Positive,
I would say, in the sense when DABOSWENI talked about
the situation with Justin Ross and Mike Williams, you know,

(07:34):
not those kind of deals either. I did think it
was unique. He caught it a back issue, which again
spinal neck back. I don't know enough about it, but
maybe he was fortunate enough that it wasn't the neck
and then it ended up being some sort of compressed
vertebrae or something in his back. That's gonna be okay.

(07:54):
But again, he will be out the rest of the
year after that awkward landing in the second half against SMU,
but not out for the career. And that's big. I mean,
that's good news for Bryant Westcot for sure. And we'll
hear some more from Dabos Sweeney coming up in just
a little bit here on the show. The shakesare south
Land again Clemson Sports right here on Fox Sports Radio

(08:16):
fourteen hundred and of course heard around the world on
the iHeartRadio application. All right, we'll hear some more from
Dabos Sweeney in a little bit, but I do want
to talk about the potential coaching changes and some of
the things that we've talked about here on the program,

(08:38):
and I want to put together an article. I haven't
had time to do the shit on clemsons sports sauw
dot com, But one thing I was thinking about is
the introduction of new staffers as offensive and defensive core
dators at Clemson. And I bring that up for a

(09:05):
couple of reasons. I don't know what the norm is
in college football and I want to research this. And
if you say, what do you mean what the norm is? Like,
I want to know traditionally speaking, what are or what

(09:29):
is the what's the right word here procedure at most
universities when it comes down to staffing, and how many
universities exchange for whatever reason, an offensive coordinator or a

(09:54):
defensive coordinator, but do not exchange anyone else on the staff,
meaning the new offensive coordinator when he comes in like
Garrett Riley did three years ago, doesn't bring any official staffers,
no tight ends coach, no wide receivers coach. Those guys
were there. Same thing for Tom Allen when he's hired

(10:16):
last season. I mean everybody on that staff outside of
Ben Bullwear who took over for linebackers, because Tom Allen's
job is Wes Goblin's job, and Wes Golblan was coaching linebackers.
I mean outside of that, everybody that's on this staff
has been on this staff before the coordinator arrived. And

(10:38):
how impactful or important is that that a guy brings
to people he wants to work with. And is that
something that should be considered when you look at the
job that you think Garrett Riley has done or not done,
when you look at the way things are playing out
for Tom Allen at this point or not playing out,

(11:01):
whichever way you want to feel about it. Would it
be better if those guys brought in and it was
a full car wash where they brought in their team
and they're guys that they're accustomed to working with for
so many years, And I'd like to look around the country.
This is what my research is going to be on.
I'd like to look around the country and just see

(11:23):
kind of what the norm is. Is it normal to
have multiple guys that come in and you don't change
out the you know, you change the tire, but you're
leaving the same lug nuts, so to speak. And should
this be something that's a little bit more common at

(11:45):
Clemson when you make these kind of changes. And Clemson
hasn't made obviously a ton of changes over the years,
but I was working on a little spreadsheet trying to
put all of it together, starting with Tommy Bowden and
the transition to Dabo Sweeney back in two thousand and eight,

(12:06):
and then just kind of go from there to see
how this has maneuvered. And there are plenty of coaches,
you know, that have been there for a long time.
I mean, Mike Reid in his thirteenth season at Clemson,
Mickey Kahn in his tenth year, Kyle Richardson tight Ends

(12:28):
coach in his tenth year. So there are several guys
on staff that have been around for a long long time.
And are those individuals at this point with the changing
of the guard, not what's the right word not lethargic.

(12:51):
Certainly the word is is not saboteurs. But you've been
surpassed by an individual that hasn't been a part of
this program. And so it's not to say that you
don't want to listen if you're Mike Reid to Tom
Allen or Brent Divinnables when he came in, or whoever,

(13:14):
right like Brent Vinables came in, and some of these
guys were already there. But I just wonder if that's
has anything to do with continuity on the coaching staff,
and if that lack of continuity on the coaching staff
has filtered down to a lack of continuity on the

(13:36):
grid iron. And so I'm in the midst of putting
all that together, in the midst of seeing if there's
something to that. And it's also weird because now you
don't just have, oh, this is the offensive coordinator. Yes,
that is Garrett Riley's title, but you've got these co

(13:58):
offensive coordinators as well, Mike Duke, excuse me, Matt Luke.
I'd come by Mike Reid and Matt Luke's names together.
Matt Luke is a co offensive coordinator. Kyle Richardson is
a co offensive coordinator.

Speaker 4 (14:15):
And so.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
Are there too many? You know, is there? What was
the what was the phrasing that? And you know what,
I guess we can kind of talk about this tomorrow
here on the program with former Clipson Tiger offensive coordinator
Chad Morris. Chad Morris said something about you know too much.

(14:42):
I don't think. I don't know if you said crapping
the system or clogging up things or whatever, but you know,
could you just have too many people, too many cooks,
so to speak, too many ideas? And maybe if when
Garrett Riley came in he brought all of his staff

(15:02):
that he wanted from SMU, or when Tom Allen came
in he brought all of his staff that he wanted
from Penn State outside of maybe a coach or too
who got held back for financial reasons or being promoted
or whatever. Would that make this Clemson program performed better

(15:26):
on the field and in preparation for big games than
they have this year. And Dabo Sweeney was asked, well,
here's some all year from Swingy again he was asking
about staff changes. You know, he pushed that all that off.
I think the expectation is there going to be a
lot of staff changes coming up this season, if the
media is reading the tea leaves correctly. Again, there are

(15:50):
several names that I would put out there that need
to be changed, and I put a couple of them
out there yesterday. And it's really hard, but we knew.
I feel like we knew that this was a big
year for CJ. Spiller. And now I'm going to continue
to beat that drum about CJ. Spiller. I know how
valuable that he was to Dabbos Sweeney's tenure as a player,

(16:16):
but at some point you gotta look at his five
seasons as the offensive run game coordinator in the running
backs coach and you gotta say to yourself, it's just
not working. It just hasn't worked. Recruiting that position has

(16:38):
been what's the right word here. Recruiting that position has
been a disappointment. The performance of that position many seasons
has been a disappointment. The development of players at running
back has been a disappointment. And what else are you

(16:59):
suppose to do other than that? If recruiting is a disappointment,
performance is a disappointment, and development is a disappointment. Love CJ. Spiller,
but that whole room is a disappointment. And there are
other rooms that are disappointing and have been consistently disappointing.
Quite frankly, you know, Kyle Richardson's tight end room has

(17:24):
really been a disappointment for many years. And at some
point you have to see development, you have to see
players make plays, and you have to be able to
look at that position and go man. Tight end is
a real strength for Clemson. When is the last time
somebody legitimately said that about this clemsonentire team. They got pieces,

(17:44):
they got guys I think can be strengths, but they
haven't been a strength. Some of it comes back to
the quarterback for sure, some of it certainly comes down
to the offensive coordinator. But at the end of the day,
these coaches are the coaches, and it's their job to
make sure that the players are in the best position
to be successful, that the players are in the best

(18:04):
spot and best prepared to perform, and that they get
better year in and year out. And I'm not certain
that that has been the case. And I think a
lot of people would agree looking at a number of
these positions that they haven't improved. I mean, Nick Easton's

(18:26):
making over a million dollars a year, and that defensive line,
especially the defensive tackles, do not perform to the same
level that those guys did perform to under Todd Bates.
And I know it's probably unfair to compare anybody to

(18:47):
Dexter Lawrence, who may very well be the best interior
defensive lineman in the NFL currently, or even Christian Wilkins,
but you just don't feel like you're getting the disruption
that those guys created. The same could be said for
the defensive ends. But I think, if I'm being honest,

(19:08):
the fact that Chris Rump's only in his second season,
do you have to give a little more, you know,
a little more leeway on some of these guys that
haven't been there all that long. But either way, how
different would it be if Tom Allen had been able
to bring his staff or who he wanted or put

(19:30):
those guys in place. And I know Dabosweeney would say
and he did say this about Tom Allen and be
in the box like, I'm not going to micro managed things,
But in your mind, is that micro managing things? If
a coach has individuals that they keep on staff when

(19:52):
they hire a coordinator and the coordinator doesn't bring in
his own guys. Is that micro managing? I think some
of you might say, yes, stay with us. Lawton swam
back with you Clemson sports talk. So I'm into Dabos.
When we heard from him earlier, talked about the Bryant
WESTCA situation. I will jump into some of that conversation

(20:12):
from yesterday as he had a chance to watch the
tape from Clemson's thirty five to twenty four loss to SMU.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
We got through the tape and all that, and uh,
you know, certainly disappointing outcome for us. Bottom line is
we didn't learn the right to win, and SMU did.
We did not play confimentary football like we did the
past couple of games.

Speaker 3 (20:35):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (20:35):
Just defensively we stopped him, and then we didn't score,
and then offensively we would score and the defense didn't
stop them.

Speaker 3 (20:43):
So we just could never really put it together.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
And they just they out executed us and out coached
us on some critical plays and you know, we just
did a.

Speaker 3 (20:57):
You know, just again got stops in the first half.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
I was very disappointed with a couple of big plays,
just really a couple of bus and uh, we did
holding some field goals, and we got a lot of
guys that are playing well. I mean, there's a lot
of positives. We do have some guys that I think
it really improved. And you know, obviously you win and
loses a team and that can get overshadowed.

Speaker 3 (21:19):
But there are some good things. But we didn't stop
the run.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
They were they were efficient there and you know, just
too many yards per completion and.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
You know, big plays.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
We busted cover three on a seventy yard touchdown we
get we get the option with no leverage and the
tight end cross or play that was just a bad
call we put We put them in a bad call.
We busted on a man coverage, had a critical penalty,
and just you know, too many uh positive first down

(21:54):
plays for them.

Speaker 3 (21:54):
That was something that we didn't do a good job with.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
And probably the biggest thing defensively is we had three
opportunities to you know, again get it going. I mean,
sixteen to fourteen in the third quarter with eight forty
something left and we got all the momentum and they
go and score in a minute thirty on fourth place.

(22:17):
And then we got again twenty three to seventeen, fourteen
minutes in the fourth quarter, they go six place seventy
five yards and then down five with six forty four
and four timeouts and we couldn't stop thirteen play seventy
five yards. So it was just really really frustrating. And
the flip side of that again is when we stopped

(22:38):
them in the first half, we didn't answer with scores,
so just didn't play comperenty football. But the guys competed
their butts off all the way to the end. Had
plenty of opportunities offensively. CV was a bright spot.

Speaker 3 (22:52):
Really.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
You know, this kid has not played any snaps with
the game on the line at all. You know, last
year's a redshirt freshman, very little opportunity, and then this
year got to play a couple of games, but games
that were in hand, and I was proud of it.
I mean, definitely some things that he'll learn from in
the game, but to walk out there and throw for

(23:13):
you know, three hundred and something yards and three touchdowns,
he got better and better, made some big plays. He
was twenty nine to forty two and we had four drops,
so very efficient.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
That's Clemson head coach Davos Sweeney. Yesterday, after being able
to watch the SMU film spending some time with the media.
He also talked about some of the other players that
he thought did make some plays throughout that game to
help out, and there were plenty of guys that didn't.
But here's some more from Swingy's time with the media yesterday.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
Some guys playing well, some guys stepping up for us,
and though TJ had another good game, Tristan making some plays.
Blake Miller has continued to be a very steady guy
for us. But I thought they beat us up front.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
We didn't.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
We obviously didn't run the ball well and you know, again,
we don't have to rush for two hundred that we
got to be efficient in what we're doing.

Speaker 3 (24:02):
Gave up some some poor sacks, too.

Speaker 2 (24:05):
Many three and outs, the short yardage was a problem,
and so just you know, again, just overall didn't didn't
earn the right to win, and by not doing what
we needed to do from a complimentary standpoint, but we
but we were in positioning it and again they competed
the butts off, but I didn't get the result. We
want open dates coming at a good time for us,

(24:28):
a lot of work to do. We got a lot
of guys banged up, so this is a good time
for that to get some guys healthy and uh see
if we can get this team, you know, back on track.
We had a couple of good weeks playing well and
then we did not play well. We had some moments
where we did some good things, but we didn't play
well enough as a team. Uh but hey, we got

(24:48):
five more days to go play. We'll rallying and see
if we can find a way to win and win
a ball game. Gotta flush this one and and keep
moving forward. And that's what this team will do.

Speaker 3 (24:57):
You know.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
We all the opportunity in the world five games in November,
and we got to work our butts off to find
a way to have a great November.

Speaker 3 (25:05):
That's that's what our focus is.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
And the way we do that is have a great
day today and try to have a great game against
Duke and see if we can get back on some momentum,
you know, coming off this open date.

Speaker 3 (25:16):
So that's that's our focus.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
And so we'll see. I mean, for this team, the
limited about momentum they built at BC in North Carolina
was certainly shot down when Gabe Club was injured. But
as I said yesterday, and yeah, I think based off
of the fact that Christopher Zena threw for three hundred

(25:40):
and seventeen yards. He had the performance that he did.
You could probably count on the fact that with k
Clubnic get quarterback Clemson, being more aggressive out of the
gate probably makes them a lot better in that game
and they probably never trailed to nothing. But I thought
that the Zeno looked more poison k Clubnic has looked

(26:02):
at any point this entire year. And I don't believe
that he's as good of a quarterback as k club
Nick right now, but I think that poise under pressure
and quick decision making and things of that nature go
a long way, and cade club Nick has had a

(26:28):
lot of issues with that where you've just been like, man,
why is that checkdown coming so late? Why is he
missing this guy on this route. It's not to say
that Christopher of Asina was perfect by any means, far
from it, but that was his first career start, and
we put out a graphic on our social media accounts
earlier today just about some of those numbers. You know,

(26:55):
Christopher of Azina became the first Clubson quarterback to throw
three or more touchdowns in this start debut since Deshaun Watson.
In twenty fourteen, vezina Is three hundred and seventy passing
yards were the fifth most by Clempson quarterback making his
starting debut since nineteen fifty three, and Vazina became the
fifteenth player in Clemson history to record at least one

(27:16):
three hundred yard passing performance at any point in his career,
and he did in his first start. Only fourteen other
players have ever thrown for three hundred yards in Clemson history.
I mean, I'm not saying you gotta make this guy
the starter, but let's not. Let's put a little bit
of respect on Zina's play. How about that? Stay with us,
rocket and rolling along with you on a Tuesday, Jack

(27:39):
Veltriegamecockcentral dot Com coming up on the program in our
number two, and we're gonna hear a little bit more
from Dabosweeney now on the program, because obviously you want
to hear his thoughts on the potential staff changes and
questions that he's asked about. That we may even leave
some of those questions in because it wasn't like this

(28:01):
nasty exchange by any means, but you kind of you
kind of hear the question and the way it sounds
more so than me asking it and then his response,
so gives you a little more context, as they say,
And we heard what he had to say about or
what Davos when he had to say about Brian westco earlier.
But here's his updates on some of the other guys

(28:21):
that were banged up this past weekend.

Speaker 3 (28:24):
Sadler, same thing, kind of best case scenario on him.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
We thought that was a little more serious than it
turned out to be, so anticipate he'll continue to improve
each day.

Speaker 3 (28:35):
Again, lucky that we got an open date. And same
thing with Kate.

Speaker 2 (28:38):
He's better today as well, so he's making good improvement.
So this is a good time for us from an
injury standpoint.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
Davos when he was asked about staff changes, as I mentioned,
and here's what he had to say on that front.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
No, man, we're just trying to get ready and see
if we can just get everybody doing a better job
to all of his players and coaches.

Speaker 3 (29:01):
And we've got good people, and you know we're gonna
We're gonna rally.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
And work our butts off to put a good play
together see if we can go win win the next one.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
Dabo Sweeney was also asked about his thoughts on TJ
Moore's play. Obviously, now with Bryant westco out some of
that attention from the defensive standpoint, we'll shift to more
and other players will get opportunities, like Tristan Smith. But
here's Sweeney kind of talking about what he thinks TJ
Moore did or how he played last weekend.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
Yeah, TJ's TJ's had a good year and a couple
of good games, and what a great game he had
had one missque down in the red zone area, but man,
just some big plays and Tristan Smith really stepped up
for us.

Speaker 3 (29:40):
He's had he's had two or three games where he's
really been a spark.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
For so uh please with him. Every time Antonio touches it,
something good happens. Same thing with Cole He's been a
good player. And Tyler Brown, you know, we all know
what he can do, and and uh so it's you know,
we got we've got a good still got a good
group and they got a rally together and get it done.

Speaker 5 (29:59):
Going back to Chapel's question, I know you might not
want to answer this. I'm just curious, like, have you
considered staff changes in the middle of the season and
I'm not saying you should. I'm just curious, Like.

Speaker 3 (30:13):
I'm just focusing on having a good money practice, Larry.
That's it. That's all I'm that's all I'm focusing on.

Speaker 5 (30:18):
I got you.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
So there's the exchange I wanted to play for you
from Dabo Sweeney. Larry Williams asking for a second time
about potentially shifting guys around in terms of the staff,
and Sweeney's response sort of, Oh, just you know, I mean,
the writing I think is on the wall. Let's put
that way. I think the writing's on the wall. Sweeney

(30:41):
was also asked about Clemson's play calling and if there
was anything he would have changed from the game on
Saturday after watching the tape.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
Yeah, there's always changes after a ball game that you'd
like to have back. And you know, there's definitely things
that that you know, definitely need to be better from
a play calling standpoint or everywhere. So and then there's
there's good calls that we got to execute better too.
So it's it's everybody in it together. We're all in
it together, and wasn't good enough to win the game,
and we'll see if we can get get better and

(31:08):
go win.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
This next Sweeney was also asking about what he saw
on the tape that maybe he led to some of
the issues they had in the short yardage run game
on Saturday.

Speaker 4 (31:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:16):
Well the first one we got blown up at tidy end,
had play was there, and the second one we cut
it back to stay front side.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
You know.

Speaker 2 (31:23):
We had another one where we dropped the ball, and
then we had a fourth down where we got to
stay in. We got to stay with seventy four, got
to stay with him and we're going to get it
for a good dirty yard right there. We just kind
of bounced it and we got to stay got to
stay with our pollo there. So just execution, this poor
execution got it got to be better, you know, And
that's that's on all of us coaching it and executing it.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
Final thing from Sweeney, he was asking about the offensive
line playing some comments from Marrick McLean about how bad
he thought the offensive line played. Here's what Sweeney had
to say about it.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
Well, they're coming off two good games, so but they
did not play well. I mean, Blake played well, Blake
had one bad play.

Speaker 3 (32:00):
Blake.

Speaker 2 (32:00):
Blake Miller's that guy's been He's been great for us
all year. Uh, Brat actually did okay. I mean he
had he had for a first start. He had some
some couple of little things here there that he's gotta
he's got to fix and footwork. But we didn't play
good inside. I didn't think we played well inside at all.
But it's definitely, you know, we just we don't have
any excuses. I mean, we we we've got good players,

(32:22):
and I thought they just they won that matchup and
you got to give them credit.

Speaker 3 (32:26):
So we've got to do a better job.

Speaker 4 (32:27):
And you know, he.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
Certainly, you know, wish wisht some guys out, but we don't.
We've got enough to go get the job done. Just
gotta play with a little better fundamentals, a little better
technique and and uh you know, and again we still
had a chance to win the game at the end
if we get a stop. You know, I couldn't get one.
But it definitely was not our best game up front
of the year, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
So there you go. That's all of not well, I mean,
that's not all that, but that's all we're gonna give
you today. Again, thinking about what he has to say there,
I mean, there is the fairness of the fact that yes,
some guys are injured. I mean that. But this team
and the one thing that kind of bugs me about it,

(33:12):
and maybe it's just flat out that this is the coaches,
but Dabo always talks about how good these players are,
how good these players are. And I am not trying
to say these guys are bad either, but they are
being outplayed. There. You can't convince me that these players

(33:38):
are better than these other guys unless you admit that
they are being outplayed and consistently outplayed. Nearly week in
and week out. The Tigers have been outplayed, and that's

(33:59):
incredibly just a point to be out played with the
frequency that Clemson has been out played with at this
point in the season, it's just a sad, sad scenario.
Great teams do get out played occasionally, but they win
those games. Great teams do not get out played every weekend,

(34:19):
and Climpson has been outplayed every weekend. A zero three
four five O zero zero eighty six. That is the
text one in the phone line. And hey, don't forget
about our friends at Alumni Hall right there on the
corner of campus on College Avenue in downtown Clemson. It's
Alumni Hall for all your officially licensed Clemson merchandise. They've
got that incredible hat wall and those sweet Nike dry

(34:40):
Fit polos that you know I love. Stop in today
and ask them about their Alumni Hall rewards program. And
don't forget the Clympson students faculty in military all get
ten percent off when shopping in store at Alumni Hall.
It's Alumni Hall where Tiger fans shop. When we come back,
we'll talk a little bit more about the scene of

(35:02):
college football with all the changes, and in our two,
Jack Veltrie joins us stay with us. Final second of
our one, jackveltregame concentral dot Com joins the program. In
our number two, just thinking about like where we are
in this world of college football with the coaches being fired,

(35:23):
and how quickly guys go from the penthouse to the
outhouse like James Franklin. I mean, honestly, it almost feels
like we'd be better. And I know you guys don't
want to change things, but it almost feels like we'd

(35:45):
be better with a larger playoff. Just hear me out
for a second, Okay, with a larger playoff, and I
think we were gonna have to consolidate the leagues a
little bit. And what I mean by that is, maybe
you partner the Southeastern Conference in the Big twelve, and

(36:05):
you partner the ACC and the Big Ten, and you
kind of have a scenario where and I know this
is gonna sound weird to you, but you have a
scenario where Clemson in South Carolina would never play in
the playoffs unless it was in the national championship game.

(36:30):
That just wouldn't be something that could happen, kind of
like the New York Giants can't play the Kansas City
Chiefs in the playoffs unless it's in the Super Bowl.
And I know we want to worry about players in
their health and safety and the number of games people play,

(36:54):
but I want you to imagine a scenario where we
maybe pull back a week, maybe two even from the
regular season, dropping those non conference games from your schedule furthermore,

(37:14):
and that would be right, the group of five games
from your schedule furthermore now when some even play lesser
than group of five. But then you take it to
the next level and you say, Okay, why is that
good for the sport and coaches? Because ultimately, right now,

(37:42):
there wouldn't be so many guys fired. Guys would be
able to work out most of their contract. And yes,
coaches still get fired in the NFL, and sometimes coaches
get fired early in the season in the NFL. But
even if you made a move to fire a coach

(38:03):
in season, in most situations, that team might still be
in the mix to make it to the college football
Playoff if it were a little more segmented. And so
let's say that it was a twenty four team playoff.
What if you got rid of conference championship games and

(38:24):
you just took the top six teams from each conference
and you put them in a playoff. That's twenty four
teams from the power for and I get it. I
hear you, Big Ten, we want more spots for our league.

(38:47):
I hear you Southeastern Conference, we want more spots for
our league, and well everybody does. But if you made
it six from each conference and it was the six
teams from those leagues, what I think would eventually happen
is something fairly similar to the NFL, where you'd get

(39:07):
a pretty random mix of who's in the playoff. And
with that random mix would come opportunity for Vanderbilt in
South Carolina and Kentucky and teams that even in this
scenario are likely to very rarely make it into the
twelve or even fourteen team playoff. Not to mention what

(39:31):
you could do to perhaps protect the interest of those
bigger leagues like the Big Ten and the Southeastern Conference
is with the seating on either side, meaning that you
take and do the seating exactly like you would want
to do it in this fourteen and twelve team model.

(39:54):
You think that the top four teams are all from
the Big Ten, then have a committee that ranks them one, two, three,
and four, and then have that committee ranked the remaining
teams on that side, meaning that the top team would
play against number twelve, and maybe when all those teams

(40:15):
start to advance, you end up where in round two,
the second round, you've got a much larger percentage. Maybe
now it's seventy five percent of those teams are from
the Big Ten, and then maybe to get to the
championship game, it's one hundred percent of the teams from

(40:36):
the Big Ten, or maybe a Big twelve team is
just really good, and maybe on the other side it's
all SEC or maybe there's an ACC school that can
crack through. So your conference, what you the protection that
you would afford the Big Ten in the Southeastern Conference.
In that scenario is the belief that because you think

(40:57):
your league is better and you're getting an equal amount
of spots, and we're going to rank these teams based
off of how we you know, kind of power ratings
or behind closed doors in grape Vine, Texas, you're creating
the potential that your league is going to have a
representative in the National Championship Game quite frequently, maybe every

(41:21):
single year, every other year if you're the ACC or
excuse me, if you're the SEC or the Big Ten,
and they might like that, that might be appealing to them. Now,
you never have both teams from the Southeastern Conference or
both teams from the Big Ten. But I don't think
that's the worst case scenario. It's worked out perfect for

(41:43):
the NFL, and it would protect the coaches a little bit.
It would give fan bases a little more leeway to
not be so nuts so about getting rid of somebody
because of how large the opportunity would be to make
the playoffs and how frequently your team would probably get in.
Very few teams would miss the playoffs every single year

(42:04):
for eternity. If the top six teams from each league
got in and eventually your team's gonna play in a
big game in the playoffs. And I think that's important
for the sport more so than what we're doing right now.
Our two, Jack Veltree joins us. Keep it a lot
right here on Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred and on
the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 6 (42:25):
Each time for clips.

Speaker 7 (42:26):
And sports talk with Luwton Swan.

Speaker 1 (43:06):
It is our number two. That's drive time right here
on the show. The shakespare south Lande, Clympson, Sports Talk,
Low and Swan. Hey now with you coming up. Jack
Veltre Gamecoccentral dot Com joins the program. We'll talk about
the South Carolina game Cocks. They are three and four,
much like your Clemson Tigers. And don't forget the show
that Shakespeare south Lande brought you in part but our
good friends over at Mets Plumb in mets plumber dot

(43:27):
com six seven one o eight. That's Mets Plumbing two
two six seven one oh eight.

Speaker 4 (43:32):
All right.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
Jack Veltree joins us here on the program today from
Gamecockcentral dot Com, part the on three network. Jack, welcome in, man,
how is your weekend?

Speaker 4 (43:39):
Alright? Not too bad? Man, not too bad? Tough football
game for the game tax but nice that was an
afternoon game for one, So I got to enjoy most
of my Saturday night watching good college football this weekend.
And it's all back Rater all.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
This week Man, what a weird situation for the entire
Palmeadow State. Two teams everybody thought would be in the
mix for the college football playoff, two teams that everybody
thought might be playing a game at the end of
the season that had who knows maybe Top four playoff
implications on it, and now it's two teams that may
not be going to a bowl game, as both Clemson
and South Carolina are three and four, and based off

(44:16):
of the way both teams have played, I don't know
that there's an easy game remaining on the schedule for anybody.

Speaker 4 (44:23):
Yeah, definitely not for South Carolina. I think in particular,
when you look at I don't know Cunson schedule off
the top of my head, I know they play Florida State,
I know they get Louisville. Still, obviously South Carolina at
the end of the year.

Speaker 1 (44:36):
Got to play Duke Yep and Furman. So I mean
you got you got the you know, the non conference game,
so to speak. The non Power four games. But still,
I mean, it's just the way both of these teams
have played. It really doesn't matter who's out there with you.
I mean, Clipson was down sixteen to nothing Detroy.

Speaker 4 (44:54):
Yeah, no, you're right. I mean Clemson is in a
tough spot. R I know, they just lost Bryant west
co for the season and yesterday. I hope he is
gonna make a full recovery from his injury. But you
look at South Carolina, Yeah, I mean the schedule is
far more brutal than anything you could play the ACC
for sure. Carolina over the next three weeks, will get
number four Alabama at home this weekend, and you go

(45:16):
on the road to play a really good ole miss
team number eight in the country on November first, you
get a bye week, and then you go to Kyle
Field on November fifteenth to take on number three Texas
A and M. It's all part of this gauntlet of
schedule they've been through. Man, it's been like this for
weeks now. Where it started with Missouri on the road,
you got the the easier game against Kentucky that you

(45:39):
handled your business in, and then it was right back
to it with a near top ten lebab right. It's insane, man,
it's crazy, and it's no excuse because South Carolina has
had chances to win some of these games. But the
end of the day, the schedule is what it is.
You play who you play, and for the game tacks.
Right now, you're three and four on the year. You

(46:01):
realistically need to win one or more of these games
to have a good chance of making a Bowl game,
because right now, you lose these next three games, your
ball hopes are pretty much done. And I know five
seven teams can get in from time to time, but
in my opinion, you gotta be six and six just
to be safe.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
Listen, I'm with you. I don't I can't stand the
fact that five and seven teams. I'd rather shut down
bowl games instead of putting five and seven teams into
a bowl game. But anyway, taking a look at this
past weekend's matchup against Oklahoma, you know, I know South
Carolina made a change on the with the offensive coaching
staff on the offensive line, but I think the big
question becomes when you kind of watch what's going on

(46:43):
with the North sellers. One of his bad habits, I
would say, and I'll get your take on it. You
let me know if you see it too, Like when
when things break down in the pocket, because he's such
a good athlete, he thinks that he can continue to
drop back and roll around and make a play, but
he's just losing a lot of ground. I mean, South
Carolina one of the worst, if not the worst teams
in the country right now in terms of SAT yardage

(47:04):
in part because of that. I mean, how do you
clean that up when you've got a guy that is
super athletic and is just trying to make a play.

Speaker 4 (47:13):
It starts with the offensive line that anyone in South
Carolina will tell you that. It does definitely start with
the blocking up front that we've said all year it's
got to improve. And I don't know what you do.
I mean the offensive lineman that we talked today media availability.
We're talking about how they're still trying to figure out
what their identity is. So it's not necessarily great right

(47:37):
now up front on the line, but you got to
give them an rs more time. That is as clearly evident.
But at the same time, he's got to be I
think a bit more away. Like everyone plays a part
in this, he's got to be a little bit more
aware of like, hey, like when you need to throw
the ball away, throw the ball away. When you need

(47:57):
to take off and run, you do it. You do it,
like try to avoid pressure as best you can, but
be cognizant of Hey, look, these guys are going to
come after you up front on the defensive line. You
got to be aware of it. So it's that, But
it's also like the receivers. I mean, they're running so
far downfield to the point where he can't even make
that throwdown field because he's write so much pressure in

(48:18):
his face. So, like I said, it's a real combination
of things. I think it's also you know, I would
blame the play calling a lot, which play calling does
deserve criticism in its own right, But I have a
feeling like the block you can only do so much
with the play calling when the offensive line, for that
profection breaks down so fast. So I say that, more
than anything, is something that they got clean up and

(48:40):
not sure exactly how you do it other than you
just got to go out there and play better.

Speaker 1 (48:44):
Jack Veltrie from Gamecockcentral dot com, part of the own
three network hanging out with us here today. Obviously, Shane
Biemer is going to be asked, no matter how many
years go by about that job at Virginia Take anytime
it comes open because of his father's connections to Virginia Tech.
Give us some insight from your standpoint on I know

(49:05):
he talked about it this week, but what do you
think the best case scenario is for Shane Beemer this
season if the game Cocks don't make it to a bowl?
I mean, would he be what's the right word. Would
it be a better landing spot for him than the
potential of being fired. I mean, we see coaches all
across the country being fired left and right. I think

(49:26):
nine vacancies right now, maybe at the power for level.
I mean, what are your thoughts on where Shane Beemer
is just internally with the South Carolina job and the
opening again at Virginia Tech for the second time and
what four seasons.

Speaker 4 (49:40):
I know there's some stuff out there about Shane Beemer
having some interest in the job. I don't know what
is going to happen with that. That is something that
the rest of the season needs to play out first
and foremostly his full focus right now is on South Carolina.

(50:00):
He said it before, he loves this place and he
knows it's tough right now, but his focus is on Carolina.
That's going to be interesting to see how it plays out,
especially if the rest of the season does not go well.
Right and Virginia Tech is going to be crazy not
to get in contact with Shane. I'm sure, without knowing
for sure whether they have or have it, I'm sure

(50:24):
they're getting going on that process, so at least reaching
out and seeing what he would say, right, And it
would be hard not for him to turn that down.
I mean it would be he'd have to at least
think about it for a second, right of like, hey,
this is like my alma mater, I love Virginia Tech.
All these different factors, But for Shane, I think it
really depends on how the rest of this season goes,

(50:46):
what the state of the fan base is, is where
they're at with him and going from there. Again, he
just signed a contract extentsire with South Carolina earlier this
year after the twenty twenty four seasons, so is the
big buyout. There's a smaller buyout if he ends up
leaving for another school like Tech. But I don't know,

(51:06):
I mean, I don't know who else Virginia Tech is
necessarily looking at. But I feel like Shane is probably
their top priority. But I wonder how much what they
would have to do to be able to get him.
That's that's what I kind of wonder.

Speaker 1 (51:20):
You know, what's intriguing about to me is what you
just brought up a minute ago about the schedule, right, Like,
Shane Beemer has proven in his time at South Carolina
that he can get a ton of juice out of
the Orange right Like, I mean, he may not have
all five star guys, but he gets the most out
of his players, and that's something I think has really

(51:41):
made him special, especially a year ago with the run
they went on. But the schedule is so brutal, I mean,
every person, right, Jack me, you, whoever has to go
look at like Virginia Tech schedule from this season. If
you're Shane Biemer, go, I can navigate that I can
get to the playoffs, I can win the Atlantic Coast
Conference and at some point, like being in the SEC

(52:02):
is great until you look around and realize that five
and seven and six and six seasons are much more
frequent at certain schools than they are at maybe some
schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference. If you have the
right coach.

Speaker 4 (52:17):
That's that's a great point you bring up there, And yeah,
Shane's talked many times before about how the SEC is
the greatest conference and the competition is what you want
to be and he knows the competition comes with this conference.
That's that's what he wants is to be playing competitive
games every single Saturday. It's been tricky for him, no doubt.

(52:39):
There's been a lot of ups and some downs. And
you're right, I think the ACC schedule will be a
lot more manageable. The thing I worry about Tech though, is,
and he's done a pretty good job recruiting at South Carolina.
If he ever actually decided, hey I'm gonna go I'm
gonna go Viga, I'm gonna go Alma Motern stuff, it
would be very tough, I think to rebuild that program right,

(53:01):
and I just it would take a lot more time
and stuff, and I'm just not sure where his headspace
is at. Yeah, with that sort of thing. I just
think at the end of the day, I do think
he's gonna up sticking at South Carolina. I don't see him.
We're ruining a good thing he's got going here with
the game Cocks Now, in his fifth.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
Season again, Jack Veltrie with us here on the program.
Now this not specific to Shane beem Er Jack, but
I will say, I think here's what we're on. Here's
what we're on. The prespice of though, with the way
the rules in college football are, because people will look
at the situation and say Old Miss, right, like they'll
they'll look at that situation and they'll say, well, why
would Lane Kiffin leave what he's built it Old Miss

(53:40):
to go to Florida to try to rebuild that? Well,
because we're in an era where he can take as
many of those guys that he wants from Old Miss
and go to Florida, and so like there there comes
this point where the coaches don't have to worry about
like the work they've done at their previous destination. As
long as you can convinced enough of the guys that

(54:01):
you recruited there to make the move with you, then
all's well and good.

Speaker 4 (54:08):
Oh yeah, you're right. I mean that's the other thing
that he can take a lot of the recruits he
wants with him to Virginia Tech, and that may that
would make it a little bit easier, but there's no
doubt Virginia Tech's in a much different place right now.
Whatever coach goes there is going to have some difficulty
to be at the start of getting that program off
the ground, and so that will be a challenge if

(54:29):
whoever takes that job takes it. But I think for
Shane he's got a good thing going here. And you know,
this season has not been good so far, there's still
time to turn it around. And again, the one thing
I'll say is they are still missing that one signature
win of the year that not everyone expects them to get.
They've got some opportunities the rest of the way to
do that, So I wouldn't completely rule it out, even

(54:52):
with how tough things will look at times, and that
one win whenever it comes, if it comes, it could
really change the course of the season if it happens
to pretty soon.

Speaker 1 (55:01):
Game coccentral dot Com is the website part of the
on three network. Jack veltrie with us, and you're exactly right,
and that's what I was saying about Beamer earlier. He
just gets a lot out of the players that he has. Again,
fourth ranked Alabama coming in this weekend to WILLIAMS. Brice Stadium,
that's a three thirty kickoff on ABC. Then they're on
the road at number eight, current number eight Old miss
in current number three A and M. And that'll wrap

(55:24):
up their Southeastern Conference schedule. And you could keep up
with Jack Veltri and all his work on game Coccentral
dot com. As I mentioned all right, Jack, So final
thing with you here today. I know you got to
get over to a little baseball action. But Billy Napier
fired mid season at Florida after a win. Look, it's
weird enough a week ago when we're talking about the

(55:45):
fact that a coach whose team was previously what number
what was Penn State ranked under James Franklin, two or
three and ends up getting fired three weeks later. I mean,
this landscape that we're currently in, it doesn't seem like
it's one that we could continue down this path. Something's
got to change, whether it's coaches, salaries, buyouts, you know,

(56:08):
something's got to change, I think in this sport, because
right now it's just an absurd situation we're in.

Speaker 4 (56:15):
It is coaches are getting fired right and left, and
especially this early in the season. I know we're midway
through it now, but there were a lot of coaches
getting fired three four weeks into the season, and I
can't really tell you a time where I've seen it
happen at this pace. And I think we're only scratching
the surface of it. And I don't know how many

(56:36):
coaches will be gone by the end of the year,
but I'll be interested in seeing what that number does
end up looking like. And I think the thing is
about it is that you're seeing a lot less time
to build your program. Like typically, I think it really
takes you know, three four five seasons to get it
to where you ultimately want to be. Sometimes a little

(56:57):
bit quicker. Sometimes you can fix it in a year,
like see Indiana with Kurtzignetti, but not everyone's Kurt Signetti,
not everyone's Nick Sabing. There. It takes time to build
these things, and that's the amount of time you're getting
to build it. And if you don't have it built
within three years, four years, guess what, you're out the
door and they'll pay your buy out whatever it is.
We see it at schools of Florida now, where you know,

(57:19):
billions in the sports season and then obviously the results
aren't there. But there's some cases where if Shane Beeing
were fired by South Carolina this year. I don't know.
I think that'd be a bit much considering that the
track record he's had. But that's just an example, right, Yeah,
some coaches are given time, some are not.

Speaker 1 (57:38):
Now you can give us some better insight in this cause. Again,
I personally think Shane Bamber's done enough to stick around
at South Carolina really regardless of what happens this year.
But is there more pressure on that position in your opinion,
because you know, names like James Franklin are available and

(57:58):
things of that nature. Like in your mind, based off
the message boards, maybe based off of what you're picking
up for people you're talking to at the university, is
the fact that coaches are out of jobs and looking
for jobs presenting maybe more pressure from people to make
a move. Does that make sense what I'm trying to
get at.

Speaker 4 (58:18):
Yeah, No, it definitely makes sense, Thank you. It definitely
does make sense that. You know, there's a lot of
good coaches out there who wouldn't want to hire them.
But I think Shane is good for this year. I
think he's going to be here next year and then
hopefully he's able to get this thing, you know, hope
he's able to get turned around this season. But even
if not, even if South Carolina wins the Coastal game,

(58:40):
that's it the rest of the year. I think he's
gonna be back here, and then you just hope the
schedule next year you can play a little bit better
at times and just kind of correct some of what's
went wrong, because again, this team is not that far
off from winning a few of these games. As they
lost again the Missouri game, they had a fourth quarter lead.
The shoot game, you were down by a touchdown in

(59:02):
the fourth quarter. It's just you gotta figure some things out,
and those are decisions that you got to make in the
offseason here. But there's still stuff you can definitely correct
over the course of the season here with five games
left together, even though you're out of a college football
playoff race, there's still a lot to play for if
you're South Carolina.

Speaker 1 (59:20):
There you go. That's Jackveltree Gamecockcentral dot Com again part
of the on three network. He's on Twitter. I think
I said it wrong earlier. It's at Jack T. Veltree.
Don't forget the t all right, Jack man, enjoy the
baseball today. We'll talk to you next week.

Speaker 4 (59:38):
All right, man, Thanks so much.

Speaker 1 (59:40):
There you go. Jack Veltree from Gamecockcentral dot com Ato
three four five oho zero zero eighty six. That is
the text line in the phone line. And again, we
appreciate each and every one of you being a part
of the program.

Speaker 4 (59:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:57):
I think Shane Beam is safe too, unless he wants
to go to Virginia Tech. And you know, his comments
essentially sound like he wants to be in Colombia. But
I just can't look at that schedule, like, you have

(01:00:18):
to be realistic with yourself and you are a competitor.
Don't get me wrong, you are a competitor, but you
have to be realistic with yourself and these schedules that
exist in the Southeastern Conference. And I don't inherently disagree

(01:00:41):
that a team with three losses from the Southeastern Conference
shouldn't be in the conversation for a college football playoff.
I think that's certain. I think they should be and
I think that's okay. Like in the NFL, we deal
with that model and we survive. We deal with the
fact that teams with four and five losses get into
the post. He's in play games. I don't think it's

(01:01:03):
necessarily about being as close to undefeated as possible. It's
about having a good resume. The problem is, there comes
a point where you're not in that upper tier, and
no matter how good you are, you may never consistently
cross into that upper tier in the Southeastern Conference. And

(01:01:27):
the problem with that is if you're not in that
upper tier. You know how many schools, honestly, of the
schools I'm about to name, would you say you would
put South Carolina above in terms of football prowess, just
historically football prowess Texas, A and M Alabama, Georgia, ol
biss Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Vanderbilt, LSU, Tennessee, Florida, Mississippi State, Arkansas, Auburn,

(01:01:57):
and Kentucky. Most of you probably say maybe five Swanee,
maybe six at best. And that's the problem. That's the
problem in maybe four that you put them above, And
therein lies the problem in my opinion, about how difficult
that job is. Not to mention if things get you know, well,

(01:02:19):
I'll tell you I got a break. We'll come back.
We'll wrap this up on the flip side. Stay with us,
rocking and rolling with you, clympses Sports, sal Lalat and Swann.
So back to what I was saying before the break
about the difficulty of winning at South Carolina And this
has never changed for me, all my years on the radio,

(01:02:39):
all my years doing podcasts. I just think that this
is a tough job and it only got tougher. And
I know we said this the day Texas and Oklahoma
came into the Southeastern Conference. It only got tougher for
South Carolina. And so to me, if you were the

(01:03:06):
head coach there and you're trying to convince yourself about
the pecking order or whatever historically, and I know, you
can have a one off and you can get in.
And that kind of goes back to what I was
saying earlier about changing the way we do this. Right, Like,
finishing in the top six of your conference wouldn't be
too bad. You're going to finish there every once in

(01:03:28):
a while, you should, But with the way it's currently
structured and with the conferences, I mean, how often are
you going to make the playoffs if you're one of
those teams that aren't historically a really good football team?
All right, I ask Ai to tell me the you know,

(01:03:52):
the historical significance of programs in the Southeastern Conference. Here's
how it ranked them. Alabama was one, the gold standard,
LSU was two, Georgia is three, Texas is four, Tennessee
is five, Auburn is six, Texas A and M is seven.

(01:04:14):
Florida's eighth, Oklahoma is ninth, Ole Missus tenth, Missouri is eleventh,
Arkansas is twelfth, Kentucky is thirteenth, Mississippi State is fourteenth,
South Carolina is fifteenth, and Vanderbilt is sixteenth. And this
is me just simply asking AI to tell me about

(01:04:39):
these teams from a historical significance in gamecock fans, I
would argue that you're higher than that, Okay, I would
argue that you're higher than where this ranked you. I
didn't know where it was going to rank you. But
here's what it says about some teams that, like, again,
I don't think, I do not think that you're anywhere
above old miss Okay, so that leaves you at eleven

(01:05:02):
or lower, regardless of your thought. But Missouri, it says
saw the football tradition mostly pre SEC success two national
championship claims nineteen sixty in two thousand and seven, which
is disputed, and an occasional front runner back in the
SEC East. Arkansas says story Southwest Conference history, less SEC success,

(01:05:27):
national championship in sixty four. Kentucky traditionally a basketball school.
This is at thirteen, but respectable early era football tradition.
In nineteen fifty they won the national championship under Bear Bryant.
Mississippi State is fourteenth. That says passionate fan base, very
few major titles, sporadic success Jackie Cheryl dak Prescott era

(01:05:49):
South Carolina. At fifteen, it says late arrival to SEC prominence,
few major historical highest before Spurrior era, still building long
term national identity. And then sixteen Vanderbilt says founding member
of the SEC, strong academics, limited football success, an occasional
bright spot in the early twentieth century, but historically bottom

(01:06:12):
tier in football tradition. And I think Vanderbilt's making the
case for what I'm talking about that you could do
and can do, and that if there was a top six,
they'd be in a perfect spot right now over the
next few seasons with what they've done, which would make
a lot of sense. But then if you flip it
to the ACC and do the same thing and ranked

(01:06:36):
teams in the same way, where does Virginia Tech fall
in that pecking order. And again I don't think South
Carolina should be fifteenth. I think they should be a
little bit higher. But some of those teams that I
think they should be higher than do have national championships,
And you might say, well, those are those are in
the ancient days. South Carolina doesn't have a national championship

(01:06:59):
in the ancient like those teams at least have that.
But in the Atlantic Coast Conference it says Florida State
at the top, then Clemson and they call the Tigers
the ACC's modern dynasty. Then Miami, then Pitt. That's hard

(01:07:20):
for me to believe. Then n C State, then Boston College,
then Georgia Tech, and then Virginia Tech. So eighth is
Virginia Tech, and I personally think they should be higher.
I would have Virginia Tech probably fourth, quite frankly, but
there's some old tradition. Pitt has nine claimed national titles,

(01:07:43):
mostly pre World War Two era national titles. They do
have a Heisman Trophy winner in Tony dor Set n
C State. I think they'd be lower than Virginia Tech.
In my mind. Boston College would certainly be lower than
virgin Tech. I could argue about Georgia Tech. I mean,
they have a national championship in nineteen ninety and I

(01:08:06):
think they've got three other claim national titles. But you
know what, what Frank Biemer built at Virginia Tech to
me makes them one that probably the top five in
the ACC, even though even though AI ranks them at eighth,
which is about halfway through the ACC school. So again,

(01:08:31):
that's where I would put them, And you know, I
think they're top five. And if you're top five in
your conference, you're probably making the College Football Playoff more frequently.
And I just think it's easier if you're Shane Beemer.
And I'm not trying to run him out because I
don't know even though who South Carolina would bring in,

(01:08:54):
but I just think about, like, if you're Shane Beemer
and you want to be in the College Football Playoff
more frequently, I honestly think that more frequently would happen
for you at Virginia Tech. And I don't know that
there's anything wrong with having that mindset. I really don't.

(01:09:20):
Aserer three four five zero zero eighty six text line,
phone line, and again, be a part of the program anytime, anyplace, anywhere,
on our website, clemsonsports saw dot com. All right, we'll
hit a quick break. We'll come back. Clemson baseball on
the horizon and Clemson baseball coach Eric Beckich met with

(01:09:42):
the media earlier today. We'll hear a little bit of
what coach Backage had to say, as there's a little
fall ball, fall ball going on in Tigertown. Plus we
know who's gonna be in the World Series. More on
that when we return lowdon swam back with you on
a Tuesday afternoon, don't forget tomorrow. Chad Morris joins the program,
and hey, get this, We're hoping this week to be

(01:10:06):
joined by David Hood, senior writer from Tiger Net. So
we'll see if we can get David on the program. Obviously,
today up at Tigertown, we did get a chance to
hear from Clemson defensive coordinator Tom Allen. But we've talked
a lot of football in the program today. So I
do want to get some baseball to you because I
know we've got a lot of Clemson Tiger baseball fans
and the hope and expectation is that at some point

(01:10:30):
this Clemson Tiger baseball team will kick that door in
towards Omaha again and get themselves back to national prominence.
Eric Beckett certainly seems like the guy the Tigers have
had some good years under him, but just hadn't quite
been able to to finish just yet. Here's Eric Beckett

(01:10:54):
spending some time with the media today up in Clemson.

Speaker 7 (01:10:56):
More.

Speaker 8 (01:10:57):
It just excited that, you know, we're talking baseball in October,
and we've got a great week ahead of between the
Bananas game and Halloween batting practice for the kids on Friday,
and then the Alabama game and the fan fest on Saturday,
and then the Tyler Corbett golf fundraiser on Sunday. I
don't know, if you know, from a baseball standpoint, if
we could have a better week of events planned for

(01:11:20):
so many cool things, whether it puts the spotlight on
our players, or giving back to the community, or getting
to play an SEC opponent, or getting to raise money
for a former Clemson baseball player in need. So it's
just a lot of really good things happening this week.
And I know our staff are players, everyone Clemson baseball

(01:11:43):
fans alike just thrilled to be a part of it.
And we've got a lot of stuff a lot of
stuff on the docket.

Speaker 1 (01:11:49):
That's Clempson baseball coach at back at you, and again
the Tigers will face the Savannah Bananas with banana ball
rules coming up on Thursday. He was also asked about
that scrimmage against Alabama and how important that he is think.

Speaker 8 (01:12:01):
So, I mean, I'm not a big fan of playing
games in the fall. I think our exhibition games should
be when most sports have exhibition games, which is right
before the season starts. Like I would love to see
our sport adopt that model and actually play exhibition games,
you know, the week and week leading up to the season.

(01:12:22):
But you know, we we have our model, which is
we get a couple of games in the fall. And
so if you're going to play a game, you might
as well play quality competition. And you know, Alabama is
as much of a contender as anybody, and they got
a great team, they've got great coaching staff, they've got
one of the best players in all of college baseball
and Justin Lebron. So it's it'll be a great it'll

(01:12:43):
be a great test, great matchup. Now we're not you know,
we're not aiding cannocks, not pitching like We're not going
into it, you know, thinking we're going to have a
starter go six innings. I mean it'll be you know,
probably one pitcher. We'll throw one inning for twelve straight innings,
and we'll script out the you know, the gameplay in
terms of who goes in and the substitution.

Speaker 7 (01:13:03):
So it's not like a typical.

Speaker 8 (01:13:05):
Game, but in terms of the quality of the competition, yeah,
it'll be it'll be really good.

Speaker 1 (01:13:10):
Eric Becket was also asked about the freshman arms that
they have there on the pitching staff.

Speaker 7 (01:13:16):
Yeah, the arm talent is good in this freshman group.

Speaker 8 (01:13:18):
I mean, if you're just basing it off of arm strength,
you know, there's there's some high numbers velocity wise on
the board.

Speaker 7 (01:13:25):
Now that's just one part of pitching. Strikes is a
big part of it, and movement is a big part
of it.

Speaker 8 (01:13:32):
But in terms of just being able to throw the
ball hard, we've seen some pretty big.

Speaker 7 (01:13:36):
Numbers on the board.

Speaker 8 (01:13:36):
And instead of you know, evaluating our players based on
stats and you know, with our scrimmages, we've put the
target more this fall on player development. And if we're
going to evaluate, let's evaluate on how much progress they
made from testing and getting baseline evaluations with our Maven

(01:13:57):
lab that we have now with all the KPI data
we have through track Man and just more charting their
growth and development objectively through data. That's been really interesting
and it's i think a more clear true measurement of
progress versus what are the stats in the few innersquad
games that we've had, But we have seen some big numbers,

(01:14:18):
but more importantly than big numbers, guys improving their metrics
and improving their whether it's velocity or command or whatever
we're testing.

Speaker 7 (01:14:30):
That's where we've seen some pretty good growth.

Speaker 1 (01:14:32):
Backage was asked about the identity. How he would describe
the identity of this Clipson baseball team this season to
be determined.

Speaker 8 (01:14:41):
Don't know, like our identity will be revealed through adversity
in the season.

Speaker 7 (01:14:48):
You know, in the fall, everybody plays.

Speaker 8 (01:14:50):
You know, we're hitting ten to eleven guys per game
and two teams going at it. So you know, then
we got to cut that down to nine in the season,
and it's really got to create some roles where a
lot of guys are playing, but a lot of guys
also aren't, and we'll see how we handle that and
then we'll also see how we handle when adversity does

(01:15:11):
hit and how we can bounce back from that, and
then we'll see how we handle success as well, and
ultimately our identity will be revealed, especially as we navigate
our way through the postseason, because we're at the point
now in our program where that's what is going to
determine the success of this program is how far we go.

Speaker 1 (01:15:30):
In June, final thing from Eric Beckett, she was asked
about the issues that you currently deal with just with
a roster at the collegiate level, from the MLB to
the transfer portal, just everything that they deal with on
a regular basis.

Speaker 7 (01:15:45):
Now, the summer is definitely the busiest time.

Speaker 8 (01:15:48):
You've got portal combat going on over here, and then
you have your normal recruiting cycle where you're still recruiting,
you know, all the high school kids, but then you know,
also having a lot of conversations with your own team
making sure we're retaining the you know, the players we
need to retain. There's obviously happiness and playing time go
hand in hand in today's world in all sports, and

(01:16:09):
so there's always going to be a contingent of people
that are going to want to talk about their future
and what it looks like. Otherwise they would would naturally
look elsewhere. So you have that whole dynamic over here.
And then you still have to recruit the sophomores, juniors,
and seniors of high school while balancing the MLB draft
that's looming a month later.

Speaker 7 (01:16:27):
So yeah, it's it's a lot.

Speaker 8 (01:16:28):
Of balls in the air, for sure, but it's it's
just it's the way the landscape has changed, and you
just have to adapt to it and try to even
be aggressive inside of it so you can stay in
front of and ahead of anything that pops up.

Speaker 1 (01:16:43):
So there you go. That's some comments from Eric Backete.
All right, eight oh three four five zero zero eighty six.
That's the text lot in the phone line. You don't
forget about our friends at Alumni Hall right there on
the corner of campus on College you have to do
a downtown Clemson. It's Alumni Haul all your officially licensed
Clemson merchandise, hats, T shirts, tailgate, Gary Moore and hey,
if you're a Clemson student, you're a faculty member, or

(01:17:05):
you're in the military, you get ten percent off when
shopping in store right there in Alumni Hall. Check them
out online today through our website. It's Alumni Hall where
Tiger fans shop. All Right, we a quick break. When
we come back, we will put a bow on the
Tuesday edition of the show that Shakes the South Lane.
Keep it a lot right here for more Clemson sports

(01:17:25):
talk on Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred and on the
iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 6 (01:17:32):
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 (01:18:45):
Final segment on a Tuesday again. Thinking to Jack Veltree
from Gamecockcentral dot com for joining us to hang out
and talk a little college football, talk about the South
Carolina game cop Tomorrow, we'll hear from Tom Allen. We'll
have Chad Morris on the show. We'll have audio from

(01:19:06):
Tom Allen in video on our social media channels coming
up tonight. And if you don't follow us on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram,
we are where you are, so come join us. Just
look us up, just search for Clemson Sports. We're bound
to pop up at some point in your feed again.

(01:19:27):
The college football world still reeling from the firing of
James Franklin and Billy Napier. Napier by the way, you know,
as I was going through this list that I'm working
on of and Tim Burray did text me that the
information is also in the supplemental part of Clemson's what

(01:19:51):
do you call it? Media guide, Tim texting me during
the show to tell me that I can find it there.
But but the Clemson staff under Dabo Sweeney, remember Billy
Napier was the offensive coordinator. He was fired and that's
when Chad Morris came in. So we'll talk about you

(01:20:11):
know that, and I'll put a story together on it
for sure. But man, with coaches being fired in the
amount they're being paid, like I said earlier, I just
don't think it's a I don't think it's a sustainable model.
I don't think it's good for coaches. And my kind
of selfish hope is that somebody's going to rewrite the

(01:20:36):
way we do it and they're going to say, look, Florida,
I'll come coach there. But I only want to make
three million dollars a year. I know coaches are making eleven.
I want to make three. I want you guys to
take that eight million that you would have paid me,

(01:20:57):
and let's put it towards this roster. And all I
ask is that my three million dollar a year deal
be a five year deal. Okay, that is guaranteed, meaning

(01:21:20):
you will not fire me without calls, not wins and losses,
for five seasons, and we don't have to renegotiate a
contract until say two years are left on my deal.
You know something reasonable? Not oh well, Florida just signed

(01:21:40):
you know whatever coach for one hundred billion dollars, like
it doesn't make sense. Ninety three million for Indiana and
Kurt Signetti and I know they don't want to lose him.
I understand how this works. But at some point a
coach is going to come a lot and say I

(01:22:01):
can make more with longevity, and I want to prove that.
I want to take the money that you would pay me,
and I want to put it towards our players so
we have a better roster and a bear chance to win.
And then down the line, after you know, ten years

(01:22:23):
and two national titles or whatever, if you want to
pay me eight nine to ten million a year we've
already got two titles and we've done the job. That's fine.
But this whole thing where we're just throwing money at
the problem, it's just not gonna work. It's not sustainable.
Only one team can win the championship every year. Like

(01:22:45):
That's the other thing I feel like people forget there's
only one national champion every single season. It's not ten
of these national championship trophies to go around. And going
back to the model I'm talking that I mentioned earlier
with where I'd like to see the say, the Big
ten and the ACC partner in the SEC and the

(01:23:06):
Big twelve and split it kind of like the NFL,
where you're not going to play two SEC teams in
the national title. That's impossible. Might be a SEC versus
a Big ten or SEC versus the ACC. That's all
well and good. But one of the other reasons that

(01:23:26):
I think this would work is that would eliminate those
group of five teams from the Power four level and
they would be playing for their own championship. I have
said this for years, man, those guys should have their
own title. Isn't it better for Tulsa to be the
national champion of the group of five than it is

(01:23:47):
for them to win the the Boca Raton Bowl. And
there's no offense to the Boca Raton Bowl, but the
national championship is better, even if it's not the highest
level national championship possible. Do you really think that the
kids that play one A football in the state of

(01:24:07):
South Carolina don't feel good about their championship because they
are kids that win it at the five A level. No,
you celebrate for the rest of your life about being
the champion at your level, and that to me is
more valuable for college than the Boca Raton bo All right,

(01:24:28):
we gotta get out of here. Thank you so much again.
Tomorrow it will be a fun, fun day with Chad Morris.
I know you guys will love that. Can't wait to
have him back on. We'll be back then at four o'clock.
Until then, keep it locked right here on Fox Sports
Radio fourteen hundred as always, y'all, take care now and
go Tigers.