The "Grandiose Expectations" Edition

The media tabs Clemson as a heavy favorite to win the ACC Championship in 2025.

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Now finally, Clemson Sports Talk has come back to drive time. Hell,

(00:51):
everybody long and Swan back in the saddle once again.
It is the Show that Shakes the South Lay and
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make your way around the great state of South Carolina
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(01:15):
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(01:36):
dot com. That's the website as well. All right, out
of the gates here on a we dive back into
the projected order of finish in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
We talked about it here on the program yesterday. Again,
the top two teams according to the media were exactly

(01:57):
as I projected or predicted, No stra damis if you
will Clemson in Miami. I know what you're thinking. Not
a big lean there, Swanee, not too difficult. Well that's fair.
But over the past twenty two hours or so, and
we'll talk with Tim Ray a little bit about this,

(02:21):
just kind of looking at where Clemson sits in the
teams behind them. I mean, they got one hundred and
sixty seven out of one hundred and eighty three first
place votes. That's just over ninety one percent for Clemson,

(02:44):
and that, further to me, emphasizes the grandiose expectations that
people have for this team. Now Miami coming in second
with the second most as well in terms of first
place votes with seven, followed by SMU and Georgia Tech.

(03:06):
And I find it not interesting. I don't think that's
the right thing, but I think it's validating that I
have been a proponent, a pretty huge proponent of my
concern about Georgia Tech and specifically that game in Atlanta

(03:26):
the third week of the season. Because Haines King is
a playmaker gunslinger, I mean, he is a hardware He
is the type of quarterback that you should be felt
fearful of when the ball is in his hands. And

(03:49):
I think that's emphasized by the fact that the league
voted Georgia Tech fourth overall. Now you compare that I
had them sixth, but even still, I think that's another
indicator that that early season contest against the Yellowjackets is

(04:09):
likely to be tougher than maybe some people out there
believe or expect. Now I do find myself a little
bit surprised at the placement of Florida State. Again, I
understand how disappointing their season was a year ago, but

(04:33):
they did still receive the third most first place votes
in the conference with four They received the same amount
of first place votes in the conference as SMU and
Georgia Tech did combined. And those are the two teams
that were projected to finish third and fourth. And we've
talked a decent amount about Florida State recently, partly because

(04:54):
of Mike Norvell's passionate impassion speech at the ACC kickoff,
and in part because of some topics like DJ Lagway
being injured for Florida. Now that game's at the end
of the season. Obviously, we've talked about them because of
their opener against Alabama, but they I mean, it's hard

(05:19):
to deny the belief that they might very well have
the third most talent in the conference. And I don't
know person for person and player for player what Miami
versus Florida State looks like if you stack those two

(05:41):
rosters up side by side. I do know this, I
think the better of the two in terms of the quarterback,
it's clearly at Miami with Carson Beck over Tommy Castellanos,
the former Boston College quarterback. And I'm taking a sort
of a and see approach on Castellanos simply because even

(06:08):
though he is going to be surrounded by better talent
at Florida State in all facets, offense, defense, special teams, everything,
he starts off with an incredibly tough opponent who he's
already talked about. He stood behind those comments during the

(06:32):
acc kickoff. Here's his comments on that. He didn't reiterate it,
but he stood Tommy.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
You have you know, you said some things this offseason
that of obviously ruffled some feathers, got on some skin
and all that. And as a quarterback, it's a position
that people know for having to have some of that
confidence and whatnot. So how do you balance that line
between or straut of that line between confidence and arrogance
or is there no line for you personally? And it's

(06:59):
just you speak how you feel, and that's just what
it is.

Speaker 4 (07:01):
I know we stand on what I said, but uh,
there's no disrespect between you know, you know that's side
with that team or anything like that. I just the
confidence that I have in my teammates and the way
we were preparing and you know, you know, putting this
preparation together this off season. I just feel confident in
the guys and the work that we've been putting in.
So uh, just feel confidence and you know, me and

(07:22):
my teammates and you know, coach Novella and how he's
getting us ready to work and you know, getting ready
to you know play.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
That's Tommy Castellano's quarterback at Florida State. And if you
look at this two seasons, and obviously we talked about
sort of the way things ended that Boston College for him,
where the feeling by some was that he quit on
this team two years ago. At BC, he was one

(07:52):
eighty nine of three point thirty for twenty two hundred
and forty eight yards, fifteen touchdowns and fourteen interceptions. Now
that's it's not just his game, because that same season,
when he threw for twenty two hundred yards, he also
carried the ball two hundred and fifteen times for eleven

(08:13):
hundred and thirteen yards and thirteen touchdowns. Now, I don't
remember exactly how many games Woodrow Danceler played. I guess
it would have been eleven or twelve during his two thousand,
one thousand year, which remember, Woody became the first player

(08:35):
to ever do that, and it looks like it was
eleven games. So less games and fairness to Woodrow here, okay,
because I did just find the stat But that two
thousand and one season, when Woody Danceler became the first
player to ever do it, he threw for twenty three
hundred and sixty yards, seventeen touchdowns, and eleven interceptions. Not

(08:55):
overly indifferent across the board from Castellanos. As a matter
of fact, Castellanos completed one hundred and eighty nine passes
would he Dancer com completed one hundred and eighty eight
that year. But as for rushing, Danceler carried the ball
two hundred and six times for one thousand and four

(09:18):
Castellanos two hundred and fifteen times for eleven one hundred
and thirteen. Danceler, in addition to his touchdown passes, which
again were seventeen and eleven, very similar to fifteen and
fourteen for Castellanos. That same year rushed for ten touchdowns

(09:39):
and Castellanos had thirteen. So it's I mean, it's not
Hey Woodrow Dancer's carbon copy by any means. I think quarterbacks,
even Castellanos at this point, passed the ball better than

(10:01):
and maybe it's not necessarily the passing aspect of the game,
but it's the nuances of the offense that allows the
passing aspect of the game to be better. And they've
they've probably and I just can't remember, it's been twenty
five years, but it does feel like the ability for

(10:25):
wide receivers, etc. To have a free release and things
like that has been more you know, offense. Offense is encouraged.
Let's just put it that way. But I think if
you factor in Castellanos and say, yeah, you know what,
he's gonna have a great season, if you just say

(10:45):
that flat out, then I think you have to believe
that they're going to finish better than the media projects them.
I venture to guess that the media in the Atlantic
Coast comp It's right now kind of votes Florida State
down because of the train wreck that it appears that

(11:09):
they are. And with that, I think the other side
for Castellanos comes into the fact of how do the
wide receivers, specifically transfers that they've brought in, how do

(11:30):
those guys make a difference? And who knows how people are,
you know the health of individuals. But they've got Deuche
Robinson and I won't I can't say he's like a
big time transfer in the sense of his numbers at

(11:50):
Southern col but he's a guy that's transitioned in his
career from tight end to wide receiver. He's six foot
six two, one hundred and twenty somedd pounds. They've also
got another wide receiver of freshman Jabon Bogs, that they're
extremely excited about this season. I don't specifically remember Bogs

(12:16):
in the recruiting process, but he is expected to play
in the slot and have an impact. Deuce Robinson saying
after Florida State's practice yesterday, Javon's incredible. He has everything
it takes to be the best player in college football,

(12:38):
or the best freshman in college football. He literally has
everything you need to be a great receiver. He can block,
his ball skills are unbelievable. He makes plays every single day.
That's Deuce Robinson being very complimentary of the freshman fellow.
And then finally, the other transfer that they brought in,

(13:00):
Squirrel White, who you might recall from Clemson's Arms Bowl
matchup against Tennessee a couple of years ago. Squirrel White
five to ten, one hundred and seventy eight pound senior.
In thirty eight games at Tennessee, he called one hundred
and thirty one passes for sixteen hundred and sixty five

(13:21):
yards and six touchdowns. And again, you do not know
the health of the players. You have no idea how
healthy these guys will be, not only throughout fall camp,
but then once they get into it. And that's the
same for Clemson. But it's tough to imagine, first off,

(13:44):
that many of you would even consider giving what you
saw from DJ Willunglod during his time at Clemson, It's
hard for me to imagine that many of you would
stand in the arena and try to point to me,
it's a swanee. You do know DJ's a better quarterback

(14:04):
than Tommy Castellanos. I just I don't see it like
DJ had arguably one of the greatest games that we've
seen on the road at Notre Dame, and the only
shame of that performance is that it wasn't in front
of a packed house because of COVID nineteen. I guess

(14:29):
the other shame of that performance is that there was
never another performance like that in DJ's repertoire, and the
frustration that comes from remembering the commitment and how promising
his career looked. I think, if anything, in the run
of incredible success, dj Oui Unglolei's fizzling during his tenure

(14:56):
at Clemson probably said a lot of Tiger face back
to a degree in the sense that you can't get
to hype because it felt like Clemson could not miss
even Kelly Bryant. Like I saw a clip. I can't
remember if I was on TikTok, I can't remember if

(15:19):
I was on Twitter. Somebody put out there the Kelly
Bryant twenty seventeen hype film, right, like Kelly Bryant leading
Clemson to the College Football Playoff, and Kelly Bryant was

(15:40):
not as adept to Pastor as Trevor or Deshaun. I
don't think Kelly Bryant was as adept to Pastor as
Kaye Clubneck or Taj Boyd, But in terms of sheer
athleticism at the quarterback spot, he might supersede every name

(16:04):
I just mentioned. He might be the most athletic quarterback
Clemson's had not named, perhaps Woodrow Danceler. I mean, Kelly
Bryant was sneaky, quick, pull the ball down, make a
man miss into the open field. And what I really

(16:27):
what I really hate for KB two And I do
think in fairness, and I don't think I knew this
in twenty nineteen or twenty twenty, but I do think
there has been a little bit of a softening of
the heart for Kelly Bryant. For some I thought the
way he left the team in twenty eighteen was a

(16:50):
tragic disappointment because that team would go on to win
the national title and he could have been a part
of it, and he could have had two national championships
while he's in college. And I would make an argument
that in twenty eighteen he would have done more to

(17:10):
help Clemson win that national championship than he did in
twenty sixteen. And you might also make an argument that
if Kelly Bryant sticks around, Chase Bryce is just another
name that played quarterback at Clemson, a la say Tucker

(17:33):
Israel versus Chase Bryce being who he is in the
minds I have so many of you because of his
play against Syracuse. And so, with all of that being said,
in all of the great years that Clemson has had

(17:54):
in the past decade, to see Clemson being this well
thought of in the Atlantic Coast Conference, it's not unprecedented.
As a matter of fact, during the COVID season, when

(18:14):
the ACC had one league including Notre Dame, Clemson got
one hundred and thirty two of one hundred and thirty
four first place votes. Now other years where it was
a multi division league gets a little more difficult to project.

(18:38):
I guess Clemson the year prior got one hundred and
seventy of one hundred and seventy three first place votes.
That doesn't really project out. I guess the final tally
in their division one hundred and thirty nine the year
prior in twenty eighteen, one hundred and thirty nine of

(19:01):
I believe one hundred and forty seven something like that,
or one hundred and forty eight first place votes. So
Clemson's been the significant favorite in this league for a while.
But for this group to be as well thought of

(19:26):
is it's not shocking given the hype and given the
build up, for sure, but a ninety one percent clip
in terms of the ACC championship in a seventeen team
league says a lot about how well thought of Clemson
is going into the twenty twenty five campaign, which they

(19:48):
kick off today in Tiger Town. All right, with a
quick break, we'll come back with more or The Show
that Shakes is Clemson Sports saw the show The Shakes
the south Land Lawton swan with you on a Thursday afternoon.
Timber Ray set to join the program an hour number two,
and of course the Tigers getting on the practice field today,

(20:09):
which has everybody all a buzz. You know, you used
to say has everybody all a Twitter? But then Twitter
came about. Now Twitter's X, but I still call it Twitter.
I'm never gonna call it X. As a matter of fact,
on my phone, it's still the Bluebird. But this is also,
as we have documented here on the program quite a bit,

(20:33):
it is also Award preseason watch list time of year,
and we've had several of these come out over the
past few days. And I know many of you will
certainly say, hey, Swannee, look that's the preseason award watch list.
That's I don't want to say not significant, but you

(20:58):
know there can be and we kind of talked about this,
there could be names that pop up and earn their
way onto the board at some point along the way. Anyway,
I do have if you are interested, what the awards
watch list looks like. So today we'll get the Paul
Horning Award and the All State Danny warfol Trophy Award.

(21:21):
Tomorrow it'll be the Lou Groza and the Ray Guy
Award preseason list, and then next week you've got the
Walter Camp on Monday, the Doke Walker on Tuesday, the
Bulittnikoff on Wednesday, the Devut O'Brien Award on Thursday, and
the Mackie Award and Remington Award on Friday. And then
next Monday, August the eleventh, you'll get the bed Nerrick

(21:43):
Award watch list put out. So that's all coming and
I'll give you a couple here from Tiger Town. In addition,
to be a name to that Bronco Bronco Negirsky Award list.
Avionterrell was also announced to the Jim Thorpe Award preseason

(22:07):
watch list. The Jim Thorpe Award goes to the best
defensive back in America, and so Abon, following in the
footsteps of his brother A. J. Terrell, in contention for
this award and again preseason only, but it is the

(22:28):
second recognition that Avionterrell has at the position. Now, some
of these, some of these awards put out like the
by conference, and actually I think most of them do.
And one of the things that stood out to me

(22:51):
is that the Atlantic Coast Conference has four in the
Bronco Negirsky excuse me, in the Jim Thorpe Award, and
the Southeastern Conference has five. The Big Ten leads the
way with six, and the Big Twelve also has four.
So I feel like the you know, I don't know
if this is like a byproduct of the transfer portal

(23:17):
or what, but it does feel like even though the
Atlantic Coast Conference is oftentimes sort of looked down upon
by some of these other leagues like the Southeastern Conference
and the Big Ten, it does feel like the more
you see these award watch lists come out and how

(23:41):
balanced they are, that maybe there's been a distribution of
talent across the country that's maybe equalized to a degree
players at the top, and maybe a part of that
equalization comes from the fact that god don't want to
sit on a bench for a year or two. They

(24:03):
want to get out there and play. Now. I don't
really have like data other than kind of how these
numbers are, and I haven't looked back to see what
it was in the past by any means, but it
does feel fairly balanced now. When it comes down to

(24:25):
a more broad award like the Bronco Negirski where you're
including basically all defenders, the Southeastern Conference and the Big
Ten stand out. The SEC has eighteen on that list,
the Big Ten has fourteen. I think the Big Twelve
had ten. In the Southeast end, this Community Atlantic Coast
Conference had seven. So the across the board defense defenses,

(24:51):
it seems like the Southeastern Conference has and the Big
Ten for that matter, has better talent. But when you
start to individualize the awards, you start to make those
lists a little bit smaller and you start to trim
some of the fat maybe that might be the best
way to put it. It does seem to stack up
pretty evenly by position amongst these leagues like the And

(25:18):
let me see if I can explain this a little
bit better. The top end players in the Atlantic Coast
Conference are right on par with the top end players
in the Southeastern Conference and the top end players in
the Big Ten. And I think this is where we
get this discrepancy in. Like I said the other day

(25:39):
about ranking the Atlantic Coast Conference, I really struggle with
the middle tier. The top tier is pretty clear to me,
and those top tier teams have top tier players that
would likely play at the top tier schools in the
Southeastern Conference in the Big Ten. Now where maybe the
advantage comes in for the Southeastern conferences. Say you've got

(26:00):
a middle of the tier team in the league that's
not great, but they might have a great player that
has desire to go play in the Southeastern Conference. But
when it gets down to hey, we're gonna trim it up,
that player sometimes gets eliminated because maybe his team's not
on the same level, which creates the perception that he's
not as good as the star safety at Georgia or

(26:24):
the star cornerback at Ohio State because he's playing and
he's a really talented kid, but he's playing at and boy,
I hate to do this to my Auburn friends, but
he's playing at Auburn. Got that met. Auburn's not not
where many people would expect them. But yeah, So those
preseason award watch lists continue to come out and will

(26:46):
continue to come out. But congratulations to Abon Terrell for
making the Jim Thorpe Award watch list. It seems like
just the other day Aviyon Terrell is in the stands
at Tiger Town watching his brother play. Quite frankly, all right,
we'll hit a quick break when we come back. I
know the South Carolina game Cocks open up with Virginia Tech.

(27:07):
We sat down with Virginia Tech head coach Brent Prior
at the ACC kickoff. We jump into that conversation when
we get back right here on the show, The Shakespeare
Sally and keep it locked on Fox Sports Radio fourteen
hundred in the Midlands, and of course you can listen
around the world on the iHeartRadio application. Lawton Swan back

(27:27):
with you on a Thursday. Timberrey coming up around the bend.
But We're still diving through some of the audio from
the ACC Kickoff, and I have been listening a little
bit to Serious XM because they've been playing audio from
all of these different media kickoff events, and you know,
they're rehashing some of those things. So we're gonna do
that too, just because I know some of you can't

(27:48):
listen every day, and you don't all of you don't
subscribe to the podcast, although I'd love to have you subscribe,
And so next week will be similar in that not
only will we have audio from Clemson's and my thoughts
on that, but we'll also have some of the audio
from the floor of the ACC Kickoff in a in
a mashup, if you will, a little bit differently play

(28:09):
them on different days things like that, because I know
sometimes like radio listening can be habitual in the sense of, hey,
maybe it's easier for you to tune in on Monday
or Wednesday and tougher on Tuesday Thursday. So we'll do
some flip flopping on some of that stuff as well.
But we sat down with Brent Prye at the ACC Kickoff,
the head coach of the Virginia Tech Hokies, and man

(28:30):
he was phenomenal. Now this is a guy that was
born in Altoona, Pennsylvania. You're not gonna believe this accent.
We jump into that conversation right here on the head
coach of the Virginia Tech Hokies, Brent Pride, joining us
here at the ACC kickoff. Coach, it's winded down. How's
the day being talked to me?

Speaker 5 (28:47):
Fantastic?

Speaker 6 (28:48):
Man.

Speaker 5 (28:49):
I love the energy around this place. It gets you
excited to start the season. And I'm so proud of
our guys the way they went. I mean, this is
an intimidating day for them and they dive into it
with a little trepidation. Bit man, they crushed it today.
Very proud of him. And you know, obviously we love
talking to Virginia Tech football.

Speaker 2 (29:08):
Sure well, Jaden Keller came over a little bit ago,
and you've been around defensive guys for so long. And
here's the thing I told him, There's like two types
of linebackers out there, right. There's the one that maybe
you don't bring the media day, there's.

Speaker 7 (29:22):
The ones that you do.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
Yeah, and man, he is one that is sharp. What
a great kid.

Speaker 5 (29:27):
He is a class act, mature, selfless, you know, leader
by example, but also you know, willing to say and
do the right things. And I'm very proud of him.
He's grown and had to pay his dues, He's had
opportunities to start and then been demoted and has had
to work back and just you know, he's really had

(29:49):
to make a major investment to make this thing work
for him. So I'm awful proud of him.

Speaker 8 (29:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
And I got to talk to Kyrin a year ago
when he was here, and he was, you know, top
of the line as well. And the thing about it,
and I think I think that Jaden said this to me.
You know, last year, expectations were through the roof, right,
and maybe the season this year has led people to say, Okay,
let's wait and see. But he said he likes it.
He's like I like people, you know, maybe thinking less

(30:15):
about us. He said, I'd rather be the hunter than
the hunted.

Speaker 5 (30:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
And so from that standpoint for you as a coach too,
has that shifted a little bit this year versus maybe
the expectations that the outside people not what you're doing internally.

Speaker 5 (30:29):
I understand that we had We're a confident team and
there's a lot of belief, but at the same time,
we know we have something to prove, and that's a
good place to be. I told him the other day,
I said, I don't want you to ever lose that.
I don't care if we win twelve games, you better
come back feeling like you got something to prove. Yeah,
you know, staying humble and being appreciative of it. And
we got a great group of kids that way. The

(30:51):
voice on our team right now, the voices are guys
that have come up in this program. They're wired the
right way. You know, they get it. Our fundamentals, accountability, communication, competition, details, mentality,
you know, they're they They've embraced that for years now,
and so to see guys like that have a chance

(31:11):
to lead this football team has been really excited.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
Brent Probable with us here at the ACC kickoff. Now,
you guys open with first off. I do want to
start with the South Carolina game, obviously, because I know
that Frank Beemer is going to be honored before that.

Speaker 5 (31:23):
Game, which is awesome.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
Yeah, Shane obviously what he's doing down in Columbia, South Carolina. Obviously,
I'm in the Midlands. I cover I have to, I
have to keep the game cock straight, right, I'm talking
Clemson in Columbia.

Speaker 5 (31:35):
So you got a challenge, bro.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
Yeah, So anyway, that's so unique. But I think Shane,
like his father, like what you're doing, what coach Sweeney's doing.
You know, they're there are coaches out there that are
doing it the right way right. And so when you
have a chance to meet up with those guys in
the press conferences and everything leading up to it, I mean,
what is it like to kind of be one of
the guys on that side of the argument.

Speaker 5 (31:58):
I hope that that's how people see me and see
us and how we're doing it.

Speaker 6 (32:01):
I do that.

Speaker 5 (32:02):
That's that's why I came back to Virginia Tech because
it's the place that you can do it that way right,
you know, and they can appreciate it and embrace it.
And I want guys to come to Tech for the
right reasons, coaches and players, because of what we're about
and what's important in our place and what the experience
would be for them. I tell our guys all the time,
I don't want you to just be successful here. I
want you to be happy too. I want you to

(32:23):
love it like I do when you leave. And so
you know, Shane's wired that way, and coach Beemer clearly,
and you know Dabbo, I mean getting to know him,
it's been awesome being in this league. And so you know,
it's there's still room for programs like that in college
football to do big things on the field and off
the field and have the holistic experience, right we One

(32:46):
of the things we talk about the most is being selfless,
you know, and how challenging it is to truly are
you sitting there and you putting your brother before you
and his success and his happiness you know, over your own.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
Can you do that?

Speaker 5 (33:00):
That's hard stuff, and but we're coaching the heck out
of it.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
Well, I know it's gonna be a lot of fun
for everybody to watch it. Not to mention you guys
with South Carolina and then hit Andanderbilt. You know some
in every year. Sometimes it's gonna happen to your schedule.
It's gonna be all you play team X, I'll play
I'll put the school that you played at or that
you coached at. Western Carolina. You can play big time
power for school then Western Carolina. You guys are going
Southeastern Conference Southeastern Conference round.

Speaker 5 (33:25):
Just so we're all clear that schedule was done long
before I got hurt. You know, I got respect for
Shane and for Clark. I know both those guys. You know,
I coached at Vanderbilt for three years. I know what
a challenge that is. And they did a great job
last year, you know, flipping that thing and winning a
bunch of games and having some upsets. But you know,
fortunately we got Vanderbilt at our place, which I love,

(33:46):
and it's a night game, which I love. You know,
it's pretty cool for our team to go to a
land or playing in the NFL stadium, play on a
Sunday afternoon primetime. I mean, those are the reasons, you know,
they want that they come to Virginia Tech. They want
to play in big games like that, and now we
just got to go win.

Speaker 6 (34:03):
A couple of them.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
So that's a portion of our conversation with head coach
Brent Pry at Virginia Tech again, the Hokies in the
game Cocks. We'll open the season over in Atlanta. We'll
hear the rest of that conversation with coach Priye coming
up in just a little bit. But I hope whether
you are a Tiger or one of our fine feathered friends,
peeking over the fence and hanging out with us.

Speaker 4 (34:25):
So you could continue to peek over the fence at
the best radio showing the nation.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
I hope you enjoyed the chance to hear Brent Prye.
I mean, we've got some more of that interview obviously
coming up. But he just he fits the billing of
what you're looking for. I think there are a lot
of guys that come across as used car salesman's use
car salesman and jerks and and things of that nature,

(34:51):
but not not Brent Priye Man. He seemed legit. All right, Well,
here we'll wrap up that interview plus timber ragel W's
Lynn Ulstern Black Friend final segment our number one Timber
Ray around the Bend to Clemson Sports Talk. Hey, don't
forget about our friends at Alumni Hall on the corner
of Campus on College Avenue in downtown Clemson for all
your officially licensed Clemson merchandise hats, T shirts, tailgate gear, more.

(35:14):
Don't forget to check out their hat wall and ask
them about the Alumni Hall rewards program so you could
save some money when you're in there. By the way,
speaking of saving some money, if you're a Clympson student,
faculty member, or in the military, you get ten percent
off wh shopping in store. Go check them out right
there a stone store away from History at Riggs Field
or online at Alumni Hall dot com. It's Alumni Hall

(35:37):
where Tiger fans shop. All right. So at the ACC kickoff,
we were talking about Brent Price, head coach of the
Virginia Tech Hokies. And let's see, I should have thrown
this in the old Google machine before I started this segment.
But Virginia Tech and South Carolin, I wouldn't sure about
the kickoff time. Looks like it's a three o'clock kickoff

(35:59):
for that alf black kickoff matchup between I guess two
barnyard birds. Is that fair to say at this point?

Speaker 8 (36:10):
Any?

Speaker 2 (36:11):
Well, well played audio guy, fog Horn leghorn there looking
out for you. But yeah, that game between South Carolina
and Virginia Tech obviously one of the top early season contests.
It's part of a handful of great games and matchups

(36:33):
between the Southeastern Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference. And
I do think that both fan bases really need a
win in that game momentum for the early season for
Virginia Tech and what I would call a somewhat surprising

(36:58):
surprising win, and then for South Carolina the chance to
make the statement to say, hey, this is not gonna
be a fluky year. We're legit.

Speaker 8 (37:11):
Now.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
That game is a three o'clock started on ESPN at
Mercedes Benz Stadium on a Sunday, August thirty first. Following
that game, you'll get Notre Dame at Miami South Carolina
currently favored by eight points in that opener. But here's
the rest I should say of our conversation. Now, coach,
when you get to the position that you're in in

(37:33):
this era, it's not just about the kids that you recruit,
but it's also occasionally the kids that you bring in
through the portal in integrating those guys. When Dabo's swingy
and since I cover clips and I know a good
bit about it, you know when he first kind of
went at the portal mindset, it wasn't we're gonna bring
in thirty five guys, And you know it's very minimally,

(37:54):
it's minimally used on both ends. Guys leaving in Stateum,
how have you handled that? Because it is a modern
era versus where you and I both grew up in
this sport.

Speaker 5 (38:04):
So we're invested in recruiting at the high school level.
That's not going to go away. Something that wasn't happening
when we when we took this opportunity, they the state
of Virginia wasn't being recruited heavily enough by Virginia Tech.
And so we have doubled down there, and then we're
going to continue to do that. There's a lot of
quality football being played in our state and quality coaches

(38:28):
and programs, and so we have to do that. But
at the same time, our approach has been we go
to the transfer portal for needs, not just to take guys,
Oh he's a good play, no needs. And then when
we identify the need, we have to know so much
about them guys. You know, we got to We're like

(38:48):
private investigators. I mean, they have got to be right
for our locker room.

Speaker 8 (38:53):
Right.

Speaker 5 (38:54):
I've had many of them sit on my couch on
Sunday at the end of the visit and I just
can't do it. You know, you learn enough, thankfully, and
you go, ah, he's gonna be better off somewhere else.
You know, Hey, you're awful good, but you know that
doesn't mean it's gonna work here, and we've been successful
with that. And we also have a team again of
selfless guys that somehow these young men that we have

(39:15):
on our team are able to drop their egos and
welcome these guys and embrace them and have them rolled
into the family. And they're coming in to you know,
challenge for their reps and challenge for their job. But
in the end, I tell them all the time, it's
my job to build the most competitive roster wee can have.
That gives us the best chance to win. The most

(39:36):
competitive so you gotta want that. If I'm bringing somebody
that's pretty damn good into the room, it's gonna make
you better. It's gonna make us better. So don't fight that.
And they've done that.

Speaker 2 (39:46):
Brent Priye, head coach of the Virginia Tech Hokies coach,
thank you so much.

Speaker 5 (39:51):
Appreciate you guys, thanks for having me on.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
Brent Pride Man, that was awesome getting a chance to
talk with him for the first time. You know, a
year ago, I think I had him on my schedule
of coaches to talk to, and man, with the influx
of teams and the number of people that we had

(40:15):
to talk to and get through up there in Charlotte
last year. By the end of the four days, it
was four days, and here's what happened. And I did
kind of feel bad about it. But I had Brent
Prye and maybe another player. I know I taught to

(40:35):
kyroon drones at one point, the quarterback. But I had
Brent Prant in another player, like an offensive lineman. That
was late in the day and there was like a
three hour gap of where I was just kind of
sitting there and I had interviewed pretty much everybody from
the floor I wanted to. We were there for four

(40:56):
days last year, and so there came a point about
say two thirty, maybe even maybe one thirty, it might
have been earlier where I just looked at the schedule
and I went to the ACC guys and this is
back when they were coordinating, and I said, hey, look,
you can shift coach in this player to somebody else

(41:17):
that's going to be here, because I don't really need
to hang around for three hours to interview them. And
you know, you feel bad about it, but I also
was happy to be home three hours earlier. Not to
mention getting out ahead of traffic in Charlotte, which if
you've been to Charlotte lately, it ain't Atlanta. It's not Atlanta,

(41:42):
but it's much more than Columbia if you're picking up
what I'm putting down from the traffic standpoint. So yeah,
I had to I ski dabbled on that one, but
was glad to sit down with him this year and again,
what a huge game for Virginia Tech and and even
if they don't lose, I think for them more than

(42:03):
South Carolina. I think it's how you look all right
when we come back. Timberray joins. Le's keep it a
lot though, Fox are he.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
Each time for Clipson Sports Talk with Lawton Swan Swanny

(42:52):
It is our number two.

Speaker 2 (42:56):
That's drive time right on the show that Shakes the
south Land climpses sports los one Hey, you know with you.
Legendary Clemson sid timber Ray joins the program. He's a
Clemson Hall of Famer as well. Coming up in just
a minute and again today the opening day of camp
for the Clemson Tigers as they get ready for their
matchup against LSU, and of course to show the Shakes

(43:19):
to South LAMB brought to you in part by our
good friends over at METS Plumbing seven three two drip drip, drip, drip.
You know the jingles seven three to two drip. That's
METS Plumbing, mets plumbing dot com. That's the website as well.
All right, on the Thursday, timber Ray is normal time slot. Tim.

(43:39):
We missed you up at the ACC kickoff last week.

Speaker 6 (43:44):
Yeah, I did. I had a doctor's appointment I had
to go to, so I hated to uh missed that.
But I'm doing fine and got a good report, so
uh uh. Yeah, there's always a I've missed you in
a lot of people from the other schools too, in
the media, so I hated to miss it, but uh,
we're ready to go first practice today.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
Yeah, looking forward to seeing how the Tigers look. And
I know up at the ACC kickoff, Clipson was far
and away and I don't think we should be shocked
by this based off of the way they've been perceived
by the media, but man, they were far and away
the favorite in the selections. They were far and away
the favorites in any topic of conversation that I had,

(44:24):
And that was kind of the thing I asked coach
Sweeney as well, like as good as this team has
been over the years, Tim, it's pretty amazing to me
and you and I have touched on this a little bit,
just how well thought of they are this year specifically.

Speaker 6 (44:40):
Yeah, well, there's been some things that have come out
over the summer that certainly is added to, you know,
the impressions of the brand. Obviously, the thing to jump
out to me the most is mel Kiper's first mock
draft had five Clemson players going in the first round.
That's I guess Miami had five guys go in the

(45:01):
first round back in two or three, so that would
be something. I'm not saying that that's what's gonna happen,
but just at this point in the season, Uh, it
does make people stand up and notice and take a
look at your your depth of talent, and so I
think that this certainly had an impact. And even before that,
a lot of people have the Clemson in the top five,

(45:23):
even even as as a national championship contender. So so
we'll see. But you know, one of the answers I
heard from Kate Klubmik that I really liked, you know,
he asked him about these preseason hype and he kiddingly said,
how he had the same people is that I wasn't
good anymore, Clemson wasn't good anymore, the same people that

(45:45):
say were good. So it's kind of like he takes
it with the grain of salt, but it's kind of
been good. I think it was good a lot of
guys that he went through twenty twenty three when we
started out four and four and you might have heard
him sad, it's no fun to before and four in
Clemson stuff Carolina. So you know, I think having gone
through that is certainly going to help them not get

(46:07):
a big hit, so to speak. And I think they
have things in perspective as we start, Yeah, no doubt.

Speaker 2 (46:11):
And I think the leadership too. The guys that they
had all what I would label is fairly soft spoken,
but certainly playmakers on the field, with TJ. Parker and
Peter Woods and Antonio Williams, the wide receiver from down
here in the Midlands over at dutch Fork High School.
And I want to talk about Antonio for a minute,
because I think one of the things that we're continuing

(46:33):
to see, at least it feels like as an observer
of somebody who follows Clemson recruiting and covers it and
talks about that as well. Is it's not just the
elite playmaker that Dabo Sweeney goes out and finds, it's
the guys who have a little bit different motor maybe
on the inside. And to hear Antonio Williams tim when

(46:54):
when we ask him on my show up about Adam
Randall and Adam Randall's story, and he basically said there
was nobody that deserves it more than Adam Randall and
that he was rooting for his teammate to have a
great season. And I just I found I find Adam
Randall's story fascinating, but I think even more so sort

(47:14):
of the depth of some of these players that Clemson
has as human beings is what really fascinates me when
I get to sit down with them.

Speaker 6 (47:23):
You know, Dadlin talks about how, I mean, I don't
know how this is rated or ranked, don't know who
we've seen ranked, but he does talk about how we
have the number one retention rate in the country, and
that might be true. Real don't seem like we have
a lot of guys that transferred. But I think when
you have that, you have guys to a lot of
guys that stay together. In the same class. We have
a lot of seniors. I think with twenty seven seniors

(47:46):
on the roster. I was going over the football program,
who's going to be on the covers of the different
football programs this year with Ryan Hennessy, and I think
he's got twenty seven guys to work in. We always
have the seniors down there, so that's you know, that's
that's an awful lot. But I you know, I think
that's one of the great things about Davos program is
the is you know, we don't take a lot of transfers,

(48:09):
but we don't lose a lot of guys either. I mean,
you're going to lose some obviously, but you know, I
think the fact that he's gone to war with with
Adam and all these other guys, so I so I
think there's not a camaraderie that leads to quotes like the.

Speaker 2 (48:27):
Ones who just said, Tim Bray with this here on
a Thursday afternoon. Is Clemson kicks off fall camp getting
ready for their matchup against LSU less than one month away.
That's hard to believe. And Tim, Clemson was the heavy favorite,
as we mentioned at the ACC kickoff. I think they
got one hundred and sixty seven of one hundred and
eighty three media votes. That pole came out yesterday. I

(48:48):
had Clemson one in my media pole. I had Miami
two as well, much like everybody else. Is that sort
of where you would lean at this point or do
you buy into maybe SMU making another run to the
a CC Championship game or is there somebody maybe on
the outside of those two teams that you would pencil
in potentially against the Tigers at this point?

Speaker 6 (49:08):
Yeah, I mean Louisville kind of scares me. I think
they've got a good quarterback coming in. I think they've
got a good coach. I think Georgia Tech's gonna be good.
You know, We've got to go down to Georgia Tech.
That's gonna be uh, that's gonna be a tough game.
So Miami obviously with Carson Beck played great against Clempson
last year. We'll see how he is coming off of

(49:30):
that injury. In Miami's had a good recruiting year. So
it seems like those are the uh, you know, the
top teams, as you said, and you know, Miami was
the was the number two pick. I kind of like
SMU maybe for number two of that quarterback coming back.
I think he's a very good quarterback. And then we'll,
you know, we'll, we'll, we'll see from there.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
One of the other things that was brought up in
advance of Clemson hitting the podium is former Clympson Tiger
offensive lineman Eric mcla making some comments, and you may
have been watching on the ACC Network, but he sort
of compared the twenty fifteen season his senior year, maybe
paralleling a little bit to this group in that, you know,

(50:16):
that twenty fifteen team didn't finish the year the way
they wanted to, losing against Alabama, but it was the
next year that Clemson came out rebounded kind of carried
the fuel from that that previous season. Do you feel
that way a little bit about this team as well,
kind of given their run to the College Football Playoff?
Obviously it wasn't a championship game against Texas, but do

(50:37):
you think that's maybe a part of why people are
also buying in this team, not only talent, but maturity
having been there, et cetera.

Speaker 6 (50:49):
Yeah, I think so. I think I think it was
key that we got in the playoff last year, and
you know that experience and you know, playing that game
of Texas. I think was the was was good. Course,
the playoff has changed since twenty fifteen. The way it's
the way it's done. But of course there is a difference.
You know, twenty fifteen we had a junior quarterback. This

(51:10):
year we have a senior quarterback, and now we do
have a lot of alignement back kind of like what
we did in twenty fifteen. You know, I'm one, of
course that was the sid in twenty fifteen. In twenty sixteen,
I'm one of the people who thinks the twenty fifteen
team was better than the twenty sixteen team all over.

(51:31):
The sixteen team obviously won the national championship. If you
really look at the sixteen team, how many close games
that team won, and of course lost the game to
Pittsburgh in a close game. I mean, we should have
lost the NC State in two thousand sixteen. So you know,

(51:53):
I'm I'm a person who thinks a lot of that
twenty fifteen team lost in the championship game. But you know,
if you look at the totality at the season, a
lot of the stats, scores, whatever, I almost look the
better team.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
You know what I'm with you? One hundred percent. I
said for years, you know, kind of as this thing
has moved on progressively, I've gotten away from that conversation
over the past decade, But for years I said that
I thought the wrong team won the championships in twenty
fifteen and twenty sixteen, like or if you're not maybe wrong,
but like I thought the better team might have been

(52:29):
the other guy. I thought the better team in twenty
fifteen was Clemson. I thought maybe the better team in
twenty sixteen was Alabama, And those two titles just kind
of got flip flopped because you did have some elite
talent jay Ron Curse and Green. On the back end,
you had Mackenzie Alexander. I mean that group, that twenty
fifteen group, considering that Nick Saban, like, this is what

(52:49):
I go back to with that game, that Nick Saban
felt compelled to kick an onside kick. That guy that
tells you everything you need to know about how he
felt how that game was played out.

Speaker 6 (53:01):
Yeah, no, you're exactly right, exactly right, And credit him
for making a great call there, because that was that
was a huge difference in the game.

Speaker 2 (53:09):
Tim Bray with us here on the program for a
few more minutes talking about the Clemson Tigers. Is they
get sent for the college football campaign getting underway up
in Clemson. And one of the things that was a
first time as I know it with Radio Row being
at the ACC kickoff, Tim, we'll turn our attention to
Bill Belichick for a moment. He did not talk to

(53:29):
anybody on Radio Row. Now, I understand ESPN, serious XM
and some others I guess sort of occupy a lot
of the time of the coaches and players. I don't
want to see Radio Row and guys like me have
less opportunities to get a chance to tell the stories
to our listeners than we already do. Right, I don't

(53:51):
want any less opportunities. But that was shocking that Bill
Belichick didn't do Radio Row in my opinion, even though
I kind of know, you know who he is from
his time in the NFL. Do you think it's a
mistake for a guy like that to not be at
the forefront for North Carolina at radio stations across the

(54:11):
southeast potentially, Well, I'm not.

Speaker 6 (54:15):
Sure what went into the decision. And of course he
he and his sid would talk about what President would say.
Now I did here. Also, he did not talk to CBS.
Oh wow, that they were the only TVs that they
didn't talk to, which, of course, I think a lot
of it goes back to the sixty minutes thing. And

(54:40):
so now I heard an interview with him on XM Radio.
So he did do that, Rich, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
He did do something. He did do serious and I
think ESPN.

Speaker 6 (54:48):
Yeah yeah, and then he did do the breakout room
because you know, Andrew Aedelson said that it was the
most people she's ever seen around the coach at the
breakout room. So so I don't know if they were
fearful of a gotcha moment from a one on one

(55:10):
interview with somebody they didn't know. Obviously, the gotcha moment
in the sixty minutes interview that upset them was you know,
how did you meet that young lady you're having a
relationship with now? And and so there might have been
some fear about doing a one on one interview with
a local station and somebody wanted to make a name

(55:32):
for themselves going down that road. So you know, I
don't know, you know, I'm not close enough to know
what it was involved in that in that decision.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
Tim Bray with us here on the program, Yeah, I
would have loved the opportunity, but there were some schools
given the number of teams that are there. Now, you know,
when you've got what seventeen people are, seventeen different outlets
and teams to cover, it can be a little bit
of a little bit of a traffic jam trying to

(56:03):
squeeze everything in. But we made it through safe and sound.
Timbray with us had a great chance to talk with
Rich Clark, the executive director of the College Football Playoff.
Tim and I don't know how much you know about him,
but he is a graduate of the Air Force Academy.
He flew, you know, in the military, and man, I

(56:23):
was so impressed. I always liked Bill Hancock. Don't don't
take this the wrong way. I think Bill Hancock spectacular.
But Rich Clark is about as buttoned up as anybody
I've ever been around. Have you ever had a chance
to talk with him at all? Do you know him?

Speaker 6 (56:37):
I have not, and I do not know him. I
do know he did a lot of interviews up there.
I already did one with William kwa and buys here
locally in Clemson. So and he obviously represented well so yeah,
obviously he took a lot of question because you don't
know what the future is going to be of the

(56:57):
playoff and so, but yeah, I was impressed with.

Speaker 2 (57:03):
Tim. One other storyline out of the ACC kickoff and
will shift gears to Clemson in fall camp. Chandler Morris
being the quarterback at Virginia for Tony Elliott, uh and
his ties back to his father Chad being on that
Clemson staff. You know, he's kind of one of those
players that's bounced around and think he's been Oklahoma, TCU
and North Texas and now at Virginia. But kind of

(57:26):
a cool full circle moment for him and his family
to have him playing under Tony Elliott, who I know,
you know very well.

Speaker 6 (57:33):
Yeah, and yeah, I did hear a couple of the
interviews with him. He talked about his time when he
was a little kid at Clemson practices and now daddy
used to move move some drills so the kids could
still play on one of the fields. So yeah, I mean,
he he's had an injury problems, but so but when
he's been healthy, he's been he's been really good. So yeah,

(57:56):
I think that's gonna be I think it's a good
a good marriage there at Virginia between Tony and Chandler.
I'm very intrigued to see how they do this year.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
Yeah, it does make you and hearing you talk about
him as a kid back in the day, I actually
taught with Dabo Sweeney. That was one of my things
I asked him about was coaching his sons in baseball
and other sports and how rewarding that was when they
were little. But it does feel like, and this is
what's kind of bizarre about this business. Even though we've
got in il on the transfer portal, on all of

(58:27):
the things that we deal with, covering it and talking
about it, it is still amazing to me how quickly
some of these kids go through their careers. And then
every once in a while there's a guy like a
like a Jamie Barnett at North Carolina State that I
swear was there for a decade. It's weird how that is.
Some guys just their careers fly by. Is there a

(58:48):
player let me ask you this, is there a player
in the Clemson history, your Clemson history that you say, man,
that guy's career felt like it took forever. And is
there another guy that you felt like that just went by?
In a blink.

Speaker 6 (59:00):
Well, I think the Alzheimer as far has been there
forever's got to be Xavier Thomas. I mean he was
there six years, played on the national championship team, and
then he was still playing in twenty and twenty three.
So obviously because of the COVID years, now you get
more of that. I mean, Chase Hunter is a perfect
example in basketball. His career spanned six years, so even

(59:26):
more so than what you used to have. But in
you know, previous years or previous decades, you know, you
might have had some players that played a couple of
years and then got hurt, so the red shirt of
a year and come back for another another couple of
years after that. The name is Pops the much so
that was a guard for wake Forest named Frank Johnson.

(59:47):
That's kind of what he did. He played two years,
was a good player from the get go, and then
said out a year to the injury, and then played
two more years after after that. So it said the
types of people examples you're talking about gotta be guys
who played a lot as a freshman like Xavier Thomas did.
Remember that sack he had in twenty eighteen against Syracuse,

(01:00:08):
And then you know, had to sit out of here
and then and then you know, came back and did
well at the at the end. See, you know, you
get a lot of examples like that today too.

Speaker 2 (01:00:19):
Yeah, one final thing with Tim Burray, you mentioned kay
Clubnet being back as a senior. You know, if you
don't count I think Cole Stout quarterbacking. What the twenty
fourteen Russell Athletic Bowl. I mean, it's been since Taj Boyd, right,
since Clemson's had a senior starting quarterback going into the
season that should potentially play through the entire year as

(01:00:42):
the starter.

Speaker 6 (01:00:43):
Yeah, you're right, I guess, uh, I guess on this
date in twenty seventeen, we all thought Trevor Lawrence was
gonna was gonna beat out to Kelly and that Kelly Bryant.
That's exactly what happened, even though Kelly had taken this
to the playoff the previous year. But everybody was, OHI
on Trevor and and they were all right, not that

(01:01:04):
Kelly played the you know poorly. I'll go to my
graves saying, you know, we wouldn't have won the national
championship if Kelly hadn't done what he did at Texas
A and M that uh you know that year so
but but yeah, I guess you're right about that. You're right,
we haven't and then you know the three national championships
we've had involved in junior quarterback because Homer Jordan was

(01:01:28):
a junior and then and then at DeShawn Yeah, Lawrence
went pro.

Speaker 2 (01:01:36):
So yeah, So there you go, Tim Beray hanging out
with us here on the Thursday. Tim, thank you so much.
We're always great. Catching up with Tim here on the
program again as the Tigers hit the practice field for
the first time this season today and looking forward to
getting an update later in the week. Ass things continue

(01:01:56):
to roll on aight oh three four five years here
eighty six lot no Fox, Lawton Swan, Clemson Sports Talk
on a Thursday. That was Timberrey before the break. All right,
So I'm looking at my my list of interviews from
the ACC kickoff and I've I've tried to do as

(01:02:16):
best I can. I what I what I tend to
do is I renamed them like I told you and
I but like the day I played them, and there's
just a couple that I don't see that I played,
But it doesn't mean they didn't get played at the
acc kickoff. I just don't remember because at that time
there's so much going on. So Darien Mensa, quarterback of

(01:02:39):
the Duke Blue Devils, transferred to Duke fantastic interview. I
think we did play this last week, and if we did,
this will be the last time we would play this one.
But here's our conversation with Mensa from the floor, Dary,
Welcome in, man, how are you?

Speaker 8 (01:02:53):
I'm good.

Speaker 2 (01:02:53):
How are you from San Luis Obispo. I have been there, man,
that is a beautiful place. I've been there several times.

Speaker 4 (01:02:59):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:02:59):
How'd you end up originally at Tulane from all the
way across the country.

Speaker 7 (01:03:03):
Yeah, San Luis is beautiful. I'm glad that you know that.
I feel like anybody who knows San Luis Obispo, I
got like a special connection with him because nobody knows
where it's at, you know, I really tell people from
Santa Barbara.

Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
But yeah, been to the little there's a little grocery store,
you know it go? Yeah, yeah, that might have been
actually Trader Joe's.

Speaker 7 (01:03:19):
Yeah. Originally wasn't highly recruiter out of high school, only
had three offers out of high school and coach Fritz.
I think it was his West Fritz. His son found
me on Twitter. Wow, I think it was Twitter, and
then his dad, coach Willie, shout out to him. He
offered me, and so that was my first offer, and
then I had up another offer my host state in
Lyndon Wood. But those just those three.

Speaker 2 (01:03:40):
So you end up at Tulane and now you'll end
up facing Tulane in Game three as the quarterback of
the Duke Blue Devils. So when you're making the decision
to transfer, when did you did you already know you know,
based off of being at Tulane that you guys were
gonna be playing Duke the next year, or what's it
when you got to Duke that you realized, Holy smokes,
I'm playing play my old guys this season. Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:04:01):
It was something that like I saw it think, but
I was kind of just shrugged off, like because I
wasn't one hundred percent sure I was going to Duke.
And then when I committed, everyone's like, oh, you know,
you play them next year, and I was like, I
kind of realized that, yeah I do, but yeah, that'll
be an exciting matchup. I think they got a talented
squad this year, and I wouldn't be half the player
I am without that coaching staff over there, so very

(01:04:23):
grateful over them.

Speaker 2 (01:04:24):
Well, I was talking with Brian Parker offensive Lineman earlier
about just you know this, the I think what's so
impressive about what coach Diaz has done, and he's sitting
right there behind you, is the fact that in an
era where so many players can transfer and move and
take advantage of the portal of the way you did.
They had a coaching change a couple of years ago
with Mike Elcho leaving to go to Texas A and M,
and yet it feels like that program at Duke is

(01:04:47):
still moving forward and that's not always the case in
this world because so many players might leave. As a
guy that's transferring in, what do you think it is
about maybe the culture under coach Diaz that has allowed
them to con and you to be successful even with
a change in leadership, even though you weren't a part
of that previous you know, coaching staff.

Speaker 7 (01:05:07):
Yeah, I think it's just a testament to you know,
the coaching staff. I feel like they've done a great
job this year and they're a very tight knit group
and then they really care about their guys. But also,
I feel like our culture starts in the weight room
with coach Phey, and I feel like that's that's what
keeps us so tight knit and together. And so when

(01:05:27):
you have something like that, you know, when we face adversity,
I feel like, you know, we've already gone through it
because our strength coaches has done a great job. So
I feel like that's, you know, definitely a huge reason
as to why we've retained so many players.

Speaker 2 (01:05:40):
Again, Darien Mints, a quarterback for the Duke Blue Devils,
hanging out with us year at the ACC kickoff. So
I believe it's the second week of the season, you
guys will face out of the Big ten Illinois to
fighting a Lione. I just give me some of your
thoughts on the importance for this league for the Duke
Blue Devils anytime you step out of conference and play
a big game like that.

Speaker 7 (01:05:59):
Yeah, definitely high stakes right there. I feel like they're
a great team ranked what are they ranked? Nineteen?

Speaker 2 (01:06:05):
Yeah, they're probably a top ten team. Yeah, there's no
official poll out yet, right right, Yeah, but that'll be
an exciting matchup for sure. I like they got a
great quarterback I met him at a Manning passing great dude,
great leader, and so I'm excited to you know, be
in front of the fans and then play a big
time matchup. Now, as for your game, what do you

(01:06:26):
think made you stand out to Coach Diaz and the
Duke Blue Devil staff And ultimately, you know, how do
you fit into a new ball club where maybe when
you make that first decision you kind of looked at
it and said, this is where you know I want
to go to school. Did you've built your resume up
to the point where other people are like saying, hey man,

(01:06:47):
this guy would really be good in our system. So
how do you kind of pull that all together as
a quarterback taking that next step at Duke?

Speaker 7 (01:06:56):
I feel like some of my traits that you know
were sought after in the porter, just being able to
go through my progressions. I feel like, you know, there's
not a lot of people that can do it as
well as I can. And my accuracy and an ability
to make off schedule plays when needed with something that
you know a lot of teams needed this year, I
feel like, especially Duke, and so I feel like I've

(01:07:18):
been doing that since high school, and you know, I
just was from a small area where not a lot
of coaches could see it. And so it wasn't about
you know, anything else, but that just being under recruited.

Speaker 2 (01:07:29):
Now, when you think about the ability for kids to transfer,
and obviously that's something that's so new to the game.
I mean, guys would you might have a guy that
would be at like one school and then another. But
I mean there's countless guys around the country now that
it's like four schools. They get to the NFL and
they put that blip up. You've seen it, right, that's
a I mean, is there a point where you go

(01:07:51):
there's too much free flowing movement of players or are
you okay with guys that just go, you know, for
schools during a four year period because you're a duke
it's a higher education institution. I mean it's important.

Speaker 7 (01:08:04):
No, yeah, I mean your journey's your journey. I'm not
gonna be like and tell people, now, you guys shouldn't
transfer anything like that. If you feel like you need
to do that, then do what you need to do.
For me personally, it was just about I feel like
I needed to take a step of growth, and I
feel like Duke was a perfect spot offensively, and I
feel like I could take a big step in my game,

(01:08:25):
you know, going from an offense. But it was more
run heavy at Tulane and now we're more I feel like,
pass heavy this year. So again, just excited to go
out and play with my guys this year.

Speaker 2 (01:08:35):
Yeah, no doubt. Again we're talking about Darien Minsa from
the Duke Blue Levels. All right, final thing for you, Darien.
We'll get you on your way. I know you got
a lot of people to talk to today, but you do
play the team that I cover a little later in
the season, the clips of Tigers, and I know it's
weak to week you're focused on Elon. I get it,
I understand all that. But I mean when you look
at this Clympson Tiger team from Afar and you got

(01:08:56):
to see him while you're at two lane as well,
I mean, pretty similar group to what they'll have this year.
I mean, what are your thoughts on Clemson coming into
the twenty twenty five season.

Speaker 7 (01:09:05):
Extremely talented group, got the chance to see cleb Nick
and I think he's as advertised at manning passing, he's
a stud. But I feel like that's a lot of
teams that we play this year, we might not be
as talented, but we're like I said, we're building the
weight room and we're gonna We're gonna we're some dogs
and so we're not we might not be as talented,

(01:09:26):
but we're gonna fight, you know, each and every snap,
and I feel like that's all we gotta do.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
So there go our time with Darien Mensa and that
was indeed the second time we played that all year.
So that one is done in the CAPP Clemson Sports
at Lalt and Swann on a Thursday. Again, thinking to
timber Ray and thank you guys for listening to that
Darien Mensa interview the quarterback at Duke. I believe that
is the first one that we have reset everything we've

(01:09:52):
got in. As I mentioned, I can't remember what day
we played Antonio Williams for whatever reason, but I know
we did play our interview with Antonio Williams. And we're
gonna be putting these interviews, especially with the Clemson people,
up over on our website and over the next week

(01:10:13):
we will work them in throughout the program here and there,
along with interviews and audio from Clemson and Tigertown. As
the college football campaign officially has kicked off with Clemson
getting underway at practice, and tomorrow we'll have audio from

(01:10:36):
Dabo Sweeney and his media availability. That guy going early
on in the program about three twenty five, but because
of some other obligations, I had to go ahead and
knock out this episode of the show as school is
getting back up and we've got some meet and greet

(01:10:56):
stuff going on this evening, so that's throwing a little
bit of a wrench in it. But either way, we'll
have that audio for you tomorrow here on the program,
and there will be there will be select players post practice.
Post practice is expected to end at some time around
six forty five today, so in about an hour they'll

(01:11:19):
be coming off of the practice fields up in Tigertown,
and we'll have you covered on our website as well
clempsessports talt dot com. Tomorrow's practice also begins in the
middle of our program. They'll kick off practice two at
four forty and post practice will be similarly around six

(01:11:39):
forty five ish with select players. Now. Clemson will have
a closed session of practice on Saturday and then get
back on it after a day off on Sunday, they'll
have a practice Monday afternoon that I believe will start
around about the end of the first segment of our show.

(01:12:02):
So it looks like for the most part, these practices
are taking place while we are on the air. Today
is the only day where there was pre practice audio
with Dabo Sweeney. And then they begin Mourning practices over
at Gerviy Meadows I think, or at least they have

(01:12:22):
a morning practice at Gerviy Meadows next Friday, August the eighth,
So the beginning of camp everything, you know. I know
Dabo Sweeney during Clemson's Big Way In said that Talking
season was over, that it was what did he say,

(01:12:43):
production season. I can't remember his exact wording. Let me
see if I can find that audio, though I know
they posted it over on Clemson's Twitter account. Performance Season.
Here's Dabo Sweeney addressing the team.

Speaker 7 (01:12:58):
Man, it's obviously a lot you guys have really bought
into what you need to do nutrition wise, because you
don't just come in here in a day and do
what you need to do.

Speaker 6 (01:13:06):
So great job by everybody involved.

Speaker 7 (01:13:09):
And hey, talking season is over all right, Prediction season
is over.

Speaker 6 (01:13:15):
Talking seasons over, Prediction season over. It is performance season now.

Speaker 2 (01:13:20):
And as of my recording. The Clemson did not release
the Big way in results, which I do find a
little bit strange. They've always put that out and I
don't know if it's going to get dropped at some
point later today. What I what I do know is this,

(01:13:42):
they had a short video that showed Peter Woods during
his way in. Peter Woods a year ago weigh three
hundred and fifteen pounds. Woods checked in at three seven
this season, so Peter Woods has slimmed down about eight pounds.

(01:14:05):
I mean, he was already pretty a fleet afoot and
still for a big guy, his active hands and things
we talked with him about are really what's made him
such a difference maker for this group. But for whatever reason,
the big weighing results have not been put out. So

(01:14:28):
if they do come out, I can assure you we
were run them. One of the things I want to
do is have a side by side comparison of where
the Tigers were a year ago, and I'm hopeful to
do that, but I don't know. We'll see eight zero
three four or five oh zero zero eighty six. That
is the text line in the phone line, and again

(01:14:49):
I would encourage you guys to call give us your
thoughts on this Clemson Tiger football team. What are you
most looking forward to seeing out of this group? Do
you think Kate Klubnick can live up to the hype
and the expectations that Clemson has right now? And again,
all of it doesn't fall on cade right Like, you
can be a stellar performer offensively, but have your defense

(01:15:13):
really let you down. I don't think that'll be the
case given the expectations of the Tiger defense. I really
believe that if things were to not go as planned
and so we haven't even got to the over under
totals on Clemson in South Carolina yet, we definitely need

(01:15:34):
to do that. But I think if we're talking about legitimately,
if Clemson's worse than ten and two, why it's very
difficult for me to sit here with a straight face
and say, well, I think it's because the defense is
going to be an issue. I think the more likely

(01:15:57):
scenario that Clemson is nine and three or eight and four,
which most of you would want to just punch yourself
in the face. If that is the case, I tend
to believe that it will be because the Clemson offense
has troubles and k Klubnick is turning the ball over
and the running backs are loose with the football right

(01:16:20):
like I it's it is very difficult to think it's
gonna fall on the shoulders of like the wide receivers
or the tight ends. It might maybe maybe there's some
offensive line something that crops up, But for the most part,
I think if Clemson's worse than ten and two, you're
probably calling me eight O three four five H zero

(01:16:43):
zero eighty six and saying, Swanny, Kate Clubnick just stunk
this year. Kate Clubnick didn't live up to the hype.
It would be very difficult for me and you let
me know, it would be very difficult for me to
believe that you guys would be calling me going, man,
can you believe Tom Allen in this defense didn't perform
total letdown by Tom Allen in the defense like that
would be a surprising conversation in my opinion. Let me

(01:17:06):
know what you think. Final segment right here.

Speaker 8 (01:17:12):
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. What have you done?

Speaker 3 (01:17:31):
Always are the same?

Speaker 8 (01:17:38):
We win.

Speaker 2 (01:18:24):
Final segment on a Thursday, College football is here, Clemson
on the practice fields today. Players coming up in what
about an hour, they'll be getting off of the practice field.
We'll have audio of that. Susan Lloyd's up there in

(01:18:45):
Tigertown right now gathering plenty of preseason photos. Will have
galleries up on our website. And I do want to
continue to ask you to support what we do. If
you like our show first and foremost, you can and
still support us. Like there are people on social media
that have the followings that like we do, thirty five

(01:19:06):
thousand plus followers that have the little icon open where
you can donate and gift money and things of that
nature if you like something. And I've often thought about that,
but then I thought, man, no, that's cheesy. Get something
for your support, and that would be articles like the
one we have on Clemson's journey with an in state

(01:19:30):
running back in the twenty twenty seven class. That's a
premium article. It's behind the paywall. You can get in
for a dollar. And then when we have those articles,
which we've had a couple this week, you will be
able to log in and read that. And that's in
addition to all the other stuff that we have covered
for you over on the site, and a lot of it,

(01:19:50):
probably ninety percent maybe more is free wide open. We've
got the archived editions of the show and much more.
Go check them out today Clemsonsportstar dot com. So we'll
tell you during the break, I took a moment to
text Ross Taylor, who is the sid for Clemson football,
and ask him about the big weigh in results and

(01:20:13):
whether or not Clemson was going to be putting together
a post about it. Taylor told me Clemson will not
be doing that, that Dabosweeney will be happy to answer
any questions about the weights of the players during his availability.

Speaker 3 (01:20:34):
With the media.

Speaker 2 (01:20:37):
I do find that a little bit strange, if I'm
being honest, just it. I don't really know what the
reasoning behind it would be not putting that stuff out there.
Going to eventually update the rosters on the website, and

(01:21:00):
and I think what I'm gonna do is my plan
will be I know what the weights are now because
I've got that roster, and so whenever I see this
is gonna be my This is gonna kind of be
my my lead. When I see that Peter Woods has
been changed to three hundred and seven pounds versus three fifteen,

(01:21:25):
then I will assume that everybody else has also been updated,
and then we'll go from there. I'll then be able
to take the old numbers and compare them to the
new numbers and have a big Way in result post
of my own. I guess, I guess that's what I'm
gonna do, because I don't really know. As a matter

(01:21:46):
of fact, I'm gonna screenshot do I do have it somewhere,
but I'm just gonna screenshot this post with Olson, pat Henry,
Peter Woods, Brant westco and Corey and Gibson, the two
number elevens and the two number two Wells. And when
I see that Peter Woods is at three seven, I'm
hoping I'll see some change in some of the other

(01:22:09):
guys that'll make me go yep, okay, we've got the update.
Then I'll put together my own big way in results
plus and minus plus the rookie monsters. I don't know
why they wouldn't want to do that. It's like that
post is always an anticipated one. It almost feels like
the Big Way in in some respects became a de

(01:22:35):
facto kickoff of the college football season. I think so
many people just knew when that happens. When you get
the new numbers, you could kind of tell what players
were putting in work. You could see some of the
guys that were rookies a year ago that or even
rookies that came in back at the end of December
and went through springball, how much they transformed their bodies

(01:22:58):
during the offseason. And I would be hesitant to say
that the reason that Clemson didn't put it out is
because they were fearful that the results were not going
to be great. But I also can't really give you
an idea of why. And perhaps Dabosweeney talked about it today,
and if he did, we'll get that to you tomorrow

(01:23:19):
as to why Clemson didn't put out a big way
in But nonetheless, they are practicing and they are gearing
up for a matchup against the LSU Tigers. The other
thing I want to attempt to do this year better
here on the program is make sure that we do
get you some audio from the opponent, the opposing team

(01:23:44):
as we get closer to kick off. On that front
as well, because I think it is important to help
you get a better idea of the landscape. But this game,
in the mind's eye of the fans out in LSU, oh,
it's huge. The opportunity to go on the road get
a win at Clemson. LSU hadn't been in the College
Football Playoff since they beat the Tigers back in twenty nineteen,

(01:24:07):
and now they face off with Clemson for their sakes
to hopefully kick off a run back to the playoffs.
It's an important game for LSU, no doubt about it.
We'll talk to you tomorrow ntil then, as always, you'll
take care now and go Tigers.