The "Heisman Hopefuls" Edition

Four players are headed to NYC for the Heisman Trophy ceremony, but who will bring home the hardware? 

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Finally, Clemson Sports Talk has come back two drivetime. Hello everybody,
Lowton Swan back in the saddle once again. It is
the show that shakes the south Land. Clemson Sportstar for
you each and every afternoon as you make your way
around the great state of South Carolina and beyond, listening

(01:03):
to us on incredible radio stations like Fox Sports Radio
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Put the dot com on it, dog on it. That's
Clemson Sports Talk dot Com. Eight O three four five
zero zero eighty six. That is the text line in
the phone line. And again the show the Shakespeare Southland

(01:25):
brought to you in part by our good friends over
at Mets Plumbing mets Plumbing dot Com two two six
seven one zero eight two two six seven one zero eight.
That's Mets Plumbing, mets Plumbing dot Com. All right out
of the gates here on a Friday, A little housekeeping

(01:46):
for you. So, my son's in the big soccer tournament
up in Raleigh this weekend with my wife. My daughter
gets out of school at three fifteen. I obviously have
a day job in the school district as well, and

(02:07):
by the time I get out and get over to
where she is, to get back to you where we
are right now would be impossible if it were not
for the time travel, if it were not for the
ability for me to get and work a little bit

(02:28):
ahead here on the program. And in order to help
me with that, I'm going to lean in on our
interview that we did with William Qualkinbush on Monday in
our number two for those of you listening here now
number one, and then we'll bounce back with refreshed topics galore,
including should Clemson go into the transfer a portal for

(02:51):
a quarterback. I've got some thoughts on that. But first
we jump in to a portion of our conversation with
William Qualkinbush from earlier in the week. I always said,
and I'm sure you did as well. No matter how
big this thing got, people are always going to complain
about who got left out. That's how it is. I mean,
in the NCAA basketball tournament, we have sixty four and
people complain, what do you think about the committee and

(03:13):
where did they get this thing wrong?

Speaker 3 (03:14):
Well, I mean a couple things. First of all, you're
right that people are going to be upset no matter
what it was. The fifth team was upset before. It's
the thirteen team now, and it's going to be the
seventeen team or the twenty fifth team or whatever whatever
system we're in next that team that gets left out,
or maybe multiple teams, they're going to be upset. My

(03:36):
thing is, as long as the process is unimpeachable, it
doesn't really matter. Now if you're asking me, okay, did
they did they get the right teams? I would say,
depending on what you wanted to do. Okay, Now, if
you're asking me, which we've been told before, that how
a team is going to play in the playoff is
the most important thing. Haven't we been told that? The
Florida State quarterback fiasco from a couple of years ago,

(03:58):
that's that's all it was was State's not gonna play
well in the playoffs. We've seen them play without their quarterback.
They can't be in. If you're doing that and all
the other stuff doesn't matter, then Miami and Notre Dame
should have both been in and Alabama should be out
because Alabama doesn't look the part.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Miami, Notre Dame, both DOKA.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
If you're doing if you don't body of work, Alabama's
got the best one in the country. They won at Georgia.
I know how they just looked, but they have the
best win in the country. They have another really really
good win against Bandy that's one of the best wins
among those teams. In fact, it might be the second
best one among those teams except for Miami's went over

(04:37):
Notre Dame. So if you're looking at this body of
work body resumes, Alabama and Miami should be in. Notre
Dame should be out because their body of wins. We've
talked a lot about their losses, but their wins are
very similar to BYU, and nobody's arguing the BYU should
be in. Relatively speaking, so I would say that they
may have stumbled upon a good outcome, but the way

(05:00):
they did it is illogical, and it really it bothers
me that they did it in in a logical way.
Miami did not play this weekend. Notre Dame did not
play this weekend. No team on Miami or Notre Dame
schedule played this weekend. There is no way that you
can tell me that Miami and Notre Dame were close
enough in terms of how you viewed those teams as

(05:22):
peers last week. They were not close enough, even whether
they were touching in the rankings, Which is this the
dumbest thing. They think we're all idiots, whether they're touching
in the rankings or not. The reality is they talk
about clusters of teams anyway. Why would you talk about
clusters of teams that are so far apart. The head
to head doesn't matter. That's a whole other issue. But

(05:42):
there's no way that you can tell me that Miami
and Notre Dame are materially different relative to each other
right now than they were last week when you told
us that the head to head didn't matter. And it's
really stupid for the committee to argue that because of
something that happened.

Speaker 4 (05:58):
To BYU, a third party that played.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
Neither Miami nor Notre Dame, now all of a sudden,
Miami is better than Notre Dame. That doesn't make any
sense at all. So they got to this point in
a way that is indefensible, totally indefensible. They also did
it by dinging BYU for a better loss relative to
the team that beat them. Than Alabama had to Georgia.
Alabama never led the SEC championship game. B. Why you

(06:22):
scored first and led for almost ten minutes in the
Big Twelve Championship game? Why did B? Why you drop
in Alabama did not? Well, it's simple. It's because you
needed to do that with Miami, and you just decided
to put Miami up on top of Notre Dame. Miami
did not play Notre Dame. I'll say it this way.
Notre Dame did not play. No team below Notre Dame

(06:43):
won to get above Notre Dame, and yet Notre Dame
dropped and they dropped out of the playoffs in favor
of a team that did not play and moved up
two spots. I just I'm okay everything Notre Dame is
said and done since the rankings came out. I disagree
with every single word and decision I disagree with, But

(07:03):
I am totally with them in their absolute disdain for
this process because they were basically lied to for an
entire month and there was no reason to do it.
The committee could have said that Miami was ahead of
Notre Dame for a head to have purposes for weeks
now because they were close enough in proximity to do that,
and why the committee felt like they could only do

(07:25):
that if the teams are touching in the rankings is
just laughably stupid and incomprehensible that they would think that
we would fall for that.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
I want to begin with one of the things you said,
and I think you probably know this, and I agree.
I think Alabama should have at least dropped a spot,
maybe more. But I think the reason that they benefited
versus BYU is the fact that they were one in
one against Georgia on the season, sort of a tie,

(07:53):
if I will, and BYU was a clear cut oh
and two against Texas Tech. So I think that's part
of the Alabama stuff that went on. But I do
want to go back to now something you said about
the fighting Irish and how they've handled things since, because
I think it's reprehensible what they have done in terms

(08:16):
of just kind of taking their ball and going home
and saying, well, if we're not in, we're not playing.
And I think they feel like they're gonna hurt the
pocketbooks of ESPN viewership would say maybe otherwise, given what
it looked like a year ago with the College Football Playoff,
National Championship game. But I put out a tweet yesterday, qualk,
because as much as the playoff is interdependent from bowl games,

(08:40):
there are the bowl games that are in the College
Football Playoff. And these guys that we talked to at
the ACC kickoff, like Gary Stoken from the Chick fil
A Peach Ball, they have relationships with the people who
run the Pop Tar Bowl and the people that run
the Sun Ball, et cetera, et cetera. All they have
to do with the playoff is put one line in there.
And I put it out on some social media yesterday,

(09:01):
and I don't know if you saw it or not, quot,
but that the very last little addendum on their you
know what they're all about should say. In order to
qualify for College Football Playoff, a school must accept and
play in an offered bowl game the previous season. And
I don't care what players you have, I don't care
if you've got to run out there the kids from

(09:22):
fight to fill your squad, go play the game, and
you'd have everybody playing these ball games and them sitting
out is just completely embarrassing.

Speaker 3 (09:33):
Yeah, I mean, I agree with what you're saying there,
Like you've got to be a good partner. You know,
everybody talks about being a good partner. The Notre Dame
fans are furious right now. Notre names administration is curious
that the ACC is not a good partner, even though
the AEC was exactly the kind of partner that Notre
Dame's been to the ACC. I mean, it's just it's ridiculous.
But the reality is what you just said needs to happen.

(09:54):
That either it needs to be tied through collective bargaining,
that we're gonna tie player contracts to bowl games, even
give bonuses at a certain percentage of a player's inn
io contract relative to a Bowl appearance or something like that.
We've got to find some way to get people in
these games, because the reality is as much as I
hate it, I mean, Notre Dame one the only one

(10:14):
I were States eight and four they're not playing in
a bowl game. Cantas State is what six and six?
They're not playing the Bulls. I mean, so you've got
these other teams that also are saying, for myriad other
reasons that they're not playing. I understand why Notre Dame
is hurt. I understand why they rash. This is what
I said Swani man coaches. There are things that coaches
say that I go, are you have to say that
for your team, But like that's you're kind of full

(10:35):
of crap about that. Control the controllables is my favorite one.
It's my favorite one. We know if we live life,
that life is defined by uncontrollables. It is ludicrous to
think that I have total control over what happened to
my life. That's just that's an illusion. That's not that's
not a real thing. But I'm told that all I
have to do is control the controllables. And then when
uncontrollable things happening, how do you respond? Well, Notre Dame

(10:57):
had uncontrollable things happen, and their leadership, the coaches and
the administrators have responded horribly. They have responded in a
way that they would say to their teams and the
athletes that they are in charge of is unacceptable. They
have whined and cried and moan and when they're and
they basically have tried to take their ball and go home.
It's a ridiculous notion. It should not be rewarded for

(11:20):
any reason by them, but by the powers to be.
I do agree that there needs to be some way
to tie participation in the playoffs to bowl games to
some degree. I think some of that will happen in
collective bargaining. I think one of the things that would
be I'll be fascinating to see when we actually get
to collective bargaining, which my gots I would sign up
for that two day in a heartbeat get us through

(11:43):
this nonsense. But one of the things that's got to
happen is what do those players contracts look like for
Bowl games? Do we require bowl games to do basically
what the players era games did in Las Vegas for basketball,
where it's like a million dollars per team in NIL
that they can split up however they want, uh for participation?
Do we have bowl games that rather than you know,

(12:05):
basically somebody's gonna get the short end of the stick,
but the players are getting direct money, or at least
some of the players are getting direct money, or the
school is getting direct money they could use to then
give to the players straight away. We've got to have
some system to do that, because I just think, as
much as I disagree in Notre Dame's decision, they're not
gonna be the last team to do it. And you've
got to somehow keep teams from doing this, from basically

(12:27):
breaking all the rules they would have for their athletes.
And you know, it says a little something about society
too that we're there's a lot of people that are
for sure that would tell the kids, you got to
you gotta respond, or would tell their employees you got
to respond. And we're applauding Notre Dame because you're you're
being used by ESPN. Let me tell you what, man,

(12:49):
that is a horrible way to view the media rights
contract that you have. Like you being used by NBC too.
NBC is making money off you, your poor your poor
poor thing, Notre Dame. It is one more things fwanny,
And it bothers me so much that Notre Dame gets
a full voting membership in the ACC. But they could
get a habs the position their little habsy. They get

(13:11):
a full voting position in the Commissioner's room when it
comes to the costwall player for big picture of decisions.
Yukon doesn't rotate in there, so they're not representing independence.
They just represent Notre Dame. They get full financial benefit
of joining the ACC without the without the hands tied
they have to share no playoff revenue from the ACC,

(13:32):
but they get a slick scheduling deal to help them
out with have their their non conference schedule because they're
an independent, and in twenty twenty they got the plan
of conference to keep their seasonal flow so they could
actually have a season with no strings attached. Notre Dame
gets the benefit of every single system that exists in
this country. And the fact that Notre Dame is now

(13:53):
whining and moaning and crying the one time they've ever
been told no in their miserable lives. I'm just I'm
so turned off by this that you know, Vanderbilt never
gets to go to the playoff, and I understand some
of that is why they can say, well, we should
have won more games, But for Notre Dame to do this,
to go scorched to earth like this, like it's everybody
else's fault and they're so aggrieved and they they're such

(14:15):
a pauper in this sport when they get preferential treatment
at every turn, in every step of the way, is
just stupid. It's not even worth arguing with these Notre
Dame bots and these random fans online who are trying
to tell you that Notre Dame's is poor woe me thing,
and oh it's the ESPN apparatus. I mean, let me
tell you them. ESPN didn't put Alabama in last year,
and they could have that. ESPN wan'ts Notre Dame in

(14:38):
the playoff. I don't know what these people think. ESPN
is against them somehow they love for Notre Dame to
be in there for ratings. So the whole thing is
an absolute mess, and we got to find a way
to not let it happen.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
Yeah, and you bring up a good point. Vanderbilt. They
are also ten and two. They lost at Texas and
at Alabama. And when you think about it, like it's
not as if they left out a twelve to zero
Notre Dame team the way they did leave out and
undefeated Florida State team a couple of years ago, and

(15:08):
that Florida State team, and look, I was frustrated beyond
measure that the Florida State players qualk didn't show up
and play in that Bowl game, because I thought, if
you want to prove that you should have been in,
go beat Georgia instead. We know what happened the way
they got flattened in that game by sixty because they

(15:29):
didn't have a team essentially, but they went and played.
Like I don't like Mike Norvell. They went and played.
I felt like, I like Marcus Freeman. But to send
it out, man, you're to me, you're falling into the
realm of how I felt about Mike Norvel when they
refused to play Clemson when the Tigers had one kid

(15:52):
pop a positive COVID test on the way down to
Florida State. Either you trust the test or you don't
Florida State and it's like, dude, get out there and
play the game against by You improve you should have
been in because then you can talk all all the
you can talk the rest of my life. You know
what I mean? You go un you go win that
game against BYU convincingly and the Pop Tarts Bowl. I

(16:15):
will listen to Notre Dame fans rip the system forever.
But when you just pack it up, I don't want
to hear it. Just shut up, Just shut up. I
don't want to hear it.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
Marcus Freeman would be livid if a player came to
him and said, because you're starting somebody else over me,
I'm quitting. He'd be livid. Why why is it not
the same principle when it's your team. You got picked
to go to the Pop Darts Bowl, you didn't get
picked to go to the playoffs. I understand that it
was not fair, and I've said this many times. It

(16:47):
was not fair what the committee did, the Notre Dames, fans,
the players, the coaches, they administrats, the whole deal. It
was not fair to be treated that way. If they
were gonna leave Notre Dame out, they had every opportunity
to do it weeks ago. But in the way that
they left them out, there was no reason for them
not to have been doing it all along, and they
decided to do it right now. Totally unacceptable by the

(17:08):
committee and kind of means spirited. Honestly, it's mean spirited
to do it this way to Notre Dame. With that said,
that doesn't mean that you'd get to just react however
you want. We tell that to our kids as parents,
coaches would tell it to players. Why are the administrators
getting to pitch a hissy fit here and not have
any consequences for that?

Speaker 2 (17:27):
William qualcom Bush again on Twitter at qualt Talk every
day out of bounds, will qualk and be in one
oh five to five there were in the upstate. Now.
Notre Dames athletic director was on the Dan Patrick Show today.
It said that the acc caused permanent damage because he
felt like, you know, kind of I guess in the
back channels they were, you know, talking about Miami beating
Notre Dame. Blah blah blah blah blah. You just mentioned

(17:49):
all the AEC has done to partner with Notre Dame
over the years. Clemson has a great future partnership with
Notre Dame in football. Who knows if that thing stands
now with the attitude that Notre Dame's got. But I mean,
what do you make of it? The permanent damage? You know,
thought process A lot of people yesterday thought, oh well
this will be the end of the bowl games since
Notre Dame is sitting one out. What do you say

(18:11):
about the terminology permanent damage? And what does that mean
for the partnership between the Atlantic Coast Conference and the
Fighting Irish anything.

Speaker 3 (18:19):
Well, I'll say this, where you're gonna go, I mean,
you're gonna go to the Big ten. Well, they're gonna
have a similar deal to this, or they're gonna make
you be a full member. So I mean where you're
gonna go that got you, That saved your a Okay,
right twenty where you were gonna earn zero dollars, you
were gonna be in the red for your entire football
seaed to get nobody's playing non conference game. The ACC

(18:42):
saved your bacon. You don't owe them anything for that.
There were no strings attached to that. The AEC could
have and should have in the moment, they should have
and in hindsight they should have attached strings to that. Okay,
the ACC doesn't make Notre Dame share playoff revenue, which
is directly relevant in this situation, this conversation. So you
get to keep whatever it is that you met your
last year. You didn't have to share any of that

(19:04):
revenue with anybody else in the ACC. But now you
want the ACC to play nice because they just wanted
to remind people thirteen times in a twenty four hour
period or whatever forty at hour period on the AEC
network that Miami a team that does earn four million
dollars for the ACC in playoff revenue, and if they
win a game, it'll be four million at the end.

(19:24):
Win another game will be six million, or whatever it is, right,
it's every successive win. You mean to tell me that
Pepavaka was not making a four million dollar business decision
because of what? Because of a business partnership since Nettingham's
zero dollars? I mean, how many times and how many
ways does the ACC have to bend over backwards for
Notre Dame before Notre Dame goes? You know what's fair?
We understand that we're asking a lot of you, and

(19:47):
we don't expect you to forstake all your other business
interests for people who do want to be full members
of your conference.

Speaker 2 (19:54):
Big That was Williamqwalkinbush from Monday quick Break. We'll talk
about some of the matchups up coming this weekend. Stay
with us and swam with you Clemson Sports Talk on
a Friday again. Thanks for William kaukabush Er. Thanks to
William Qaualkamush for joining us earlier in the week, and
thank you for entertaining that segment with us here on
the program as we get you closer to kick off

(20:17):
of bowl season bowl games. As I said yesterday, coming
up tomorrow, we've also got Army Navy at three o'clock
on CBS, not a bowl game, but spectacular nonetheless, And
I'm waiting for, at least in the rendition of the
college Football Playoff that we have. I'm waiting for the

(20:37):
year that Army and or Navy somehow creeps into that
top twenty five and creeps into being the conference champ
and creeps into being one of the teams in the
College Football Playoff with a game left to play after
the final selections. I mean, it may not matter. I

(20:57):
guess they might be number twelve. But anyway, that's what
we've got going on. And what if they lost, Like
that's the other thing, Like, what if one of those
two teams are in and they lost one of these days,
another potential hiccup in the college Football Playoff landscape eight

(21:19):
zero three four or five oh zero zero eighty six.
That is the text line and the phone line. And again,
you could be a part of the program any time,
any place, anywhere. And I do have several texts to
get to I'll do that here in this hour. But
I feel bad that I hadn't got to him lately.
But man, it's been so busy. And again, as I mentioned, now,

(21:40):
the gate part of the reason we ran with the
audio from William Qualkinbush is my wife's out of the town,
and I'm having to run around like a like a
chicken with my head cut off all the while hosting
the show. The shakesare south Land, so I feel like,
what was what was a guy's name in Mom Michael Keaton?

(22:03):
I feel like a cross between Michael Keaton and mister Mom.
And then in Multiplicity, when he gets to about the
fourth copy, the guy's like, I'm Doug, Like what anyway?
All right? We're talking about Army and Navy coming up,
and yeah, they both can be in the college football playoff,

(22:25):
and it could happen at one point where one of
those two teams wins the American Athletic Conference and ends
up being the highest ranked group of five member But
then what if they were to lose in that final game.
What if they were to lose in that final game.

(22:46):
I just don't know, I really, I really don't know
how that works. But I think the system is probably
stacked against them well enough that it probably won't be
a factor during this twelve team or whatever team era
we end up going to. But coming up this weekend,

(23:10):
in addition to that game, we do have two Bowl games.
As I noted on the program yesterday, we've got the
Cricket Celebration Bowl between South Carolina State and Prairie View
A and M Mercedes Been Stadium in Atlanta at noon
on ABC. And then we've also got Saturday night Boise

(23:37):
State versus Washington at SOFI Stadium out in Inglewood. That's
an eight o'clock start on ABC. That's the bucked Up
LA Bowl. I actually think yesterday I think I called
it the buckle up I mean, listen, gotta be safe
when you're out there on the you know, on the
streets driving buckle up Bowl. That's all we need. We

(23:59):
need more bowl games that provide you with guidance, don't
run with a sucker in your mouth bowl, little life
lessons for kids. Anyway, that's what it looks like this weekend.
And of course for the Clemson Tigers, a lot of
people are wondering heading into the weekend whether or not

(24:25):
Garrett Riley would be named the new head coach for
Coastal Carolina. Well, the news came out yesterday that Coastal
Carolina has hired their new head coach, Ryan Beard. Beard
makes his way from Missouri State. Beard is thirty six

(24:51):
and guided Missouri State in this transition from the FCS
to the FBS, and Missouri State is one of the
teams in the Xbox Bowl, played on December eighteenth against
Arkansas State. Coastal Carolina Athletic director Chance Miller said in
a statement quote, we landed one of the nation's best

(25:12):
young coaches to be the head coach of our football team.
Teal Nation will love Ryan Beard's energy, work, ethic, and passion,
and he's the perfect leader for this program. His track
record of elevating teams, maximizing talent, and developing student athlete
speechs for speaks for itself. Everywhere he's been from Western
Kentucky to Louisville to Central Michigan to leading Missouri State

(25:33):
through a successful FBS transition, Coach Beard has shown an
exceptional ability to inspire, transform and win. Beard served as
Missouri State's defensive coordinator from twenty twenty through twenty twenty
two before being promoted to lead the program at Western Kentucky.

(25:54):
He was an All Sun Belt defensive back and later
coach defensive backs there as well. Coastal has made six
straight Bowl appearances and reached its highest mark under Jamie
Chadwell in twenty twenty when they went eleven to one
and finished number twelve in the final College Football playoff standings.
The Chanticleers will face Louisiana Tech December the thirtieth in

(26:20):
the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl. Beard said in a statement,
It's an incredible honor to be named the head coach
at Coastal Carolina University. This program has built a national
reputation for competitiveness, toughness, and doing things the right way.
So congratulations to the Coastal Carolina Faithful on a young

(26:44):
up and coming higher. And you know, when you talk
about that situation with Garrett Riley and whether or not
Garrett would have been a fit, one of the questions
surrounding Garre Riley in that job was the amount of
money that Coastal would be able to pay in would
it be less than Garrett's already making right at Clemson

(27:07):
as the offensive coordinator. And I know a lot of
people want Garrett to find a job or be fired,
but I am starting to see more and more people
kind of go in on this concept of, well, what
if the issues aren't as much Garrett Riley as it
was Kye Klubnick, and we don't know because we've never
seen Garrett with another quarterback. I think it's a valid question.

(27:31):
All right, quick break. We'll come back with more here
on a Friday afternoon Lawton Swan Clemson Sports Talk Back
with you here on the program. One of the news
items we missed the other day was the Heisman Trophy
finalist being named. The twenty twenty five Heisman Trophy finalist

(27:53):
are Jeremiah Love, running back Notre Dame Indiana quarterback for Mendoza.
I did talk about him yesterday that end of game
celebration after winning the Big Ten Championship over Ohio State.
That was awesome. I didn't know. I didn't know where
it was headed. I mean it. It reminded me of

(28:16):
an old school wrestling promo from back in the day.

Speaker 3 (28:20):
The day WHOA, I've got the stop and profile like
never before.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
The other name out of these four guys is Vanderbilt
quarterback Diego Pavia and then Fernando Mendoza's counterpart in the
Big Ten Championship game, Julian saying it is the ninety
first annual Heisman Trophy and the winner will be announced

(28:49):
during the ceremony presented by Nissan that will air Saturday,
December to thirteenth at seven pm on ABC. Jeremiah Loved
the junior running back from Saint Louis. He's fourth nationally
in rushing with thirteen hundred and seventy two yards this season,
fifth in yards per game with one hundred and fourteen,
third with eighteen rushing touchdowns. Love also has twenty seven

(29:14):
receptions for two hundred and eighty yards and three touchdowns.
He's also fourth nationally in all purpose yards and second
nationally with twenty one touchdowns. He scored at least one
touchdown in each of his final eleven games. Love's twenty
one touchdowns surpassed Jerome Bettis's school record for the most
in the regular season back in nineteen ninety one, and

(29:36):
his eighteen rushing scores matched the program single season record.
He rushed for over one hundred yards six times, including
a Notre Dame Stadium record and best a season best
two hundred and twenty eight yards in a win over
Southern cal He also had one hundred and seventy one
yards on just eight carries against Syracuse to go with

(29:57):
a career high three rushing scores and one hundred and
fifty seven rushing yards against Perdue. As for Mendoza, the
red shirt junior from Miami, Florida, he's the twenty twenty
five Big Ten Offensive Player and Quarterback of the Year
and the All Big Ten first team quarterback leading Indiana.
I think he's gonna win the Heisman, leading Indiana to

(30:18):
the Big Ten championship with the victory over Ohio State
and the number one overall seed in the College Football Playoff.
I think he's gonna win it because he's the story
of the sport this year. He is the story. Sometimes
the quarterback's not the story and they still win, but
he is the story. This is his first season at
Indiana after transferring from cal and he led the Hoosiers

(30:40):
to a thirteen to zero record in the program's first
every number one rating. Maybe another reason to go get
a portal quarterback if you're not confident with Christopher Vezina. Huh,
just saying. He completed two hundred and twenty six of
three hundred and sixteen passes for two thousand, nine hundred
and eighty yards in a nation leading thirty three touchdowns
while rushing for two hundred and forty yards and another

(31:02):
six scores. He's second nationally in total touchdowns accounting for
with thirty nine and second nationally in quarterback rating with
one eighty one point three to nine, and sixth in
completion percentage, completing seventy one point five percent of his passes.
Mendoza's thirty three touchdowns touchdowns passing are school record, as

(31:24):
are his five games this season with four more scoring passes.
He threw four a season high three hundred and thirty
two yards and four touchdowns in a win over Michigan State.
He completed better than eighty five percent of his passes
four times this year and threw at least one touchdown
in each game outside of the season opener. As for
Diego Pavia, whose star is not shining nearly as bright

(31:47):
as it once was, the graduate senior from Albuquerque, New Mexico,
in his second year with the Commodores led Vanderbilt to
his first ten win season this year, and he was
the twenty twenty five Johnny United This Golden Arm Award winner,
completing two hundred and forty two of three hundred and
forty passes for a school record thirty one hundred and
ninety two yards and twenty seven touchdowns, tying him eighth nationally.

(32:11):
Pabia also rushed for eight hundred and twenty six yards
and nine touchdowns. I mean he's a game maker. I
mean a game he's hold up. He's a playmaker. I
mean he might be a game maker as well. I
don't know what he does in his off time. He
might do some coding. He's a playmaker. He's tied for
fourth nationally in total touchdowns accounted for with thirty six.
He threw for over three hundred yards four times, including

(32:33):
four hundred and eighty four and five touchdowns against Kentucky,
three hundred and seventy seven against Auburn, and a year's
worth three hundred and sixty five against Texas. He ran
for over one hundred yards twice, including the season finale
in a win over rival Tennessee with the season best
one hundred and sixty five yards as well as one

(32:55):
hundred and twelve yard rushing in that win over Auburn.
We mentioned where he threw for three seventy seven. He
rushed at Vanderbilt during his two years for sixteen hundred
and twenty seven yards, and finally, Julian's say in the
sophomore quarterback from Carlsbad, California. He helped lead Ohio State
to a twelve to one record, a number one ranking
for most of the season, a berth in the College

(33:17):
Football Playoff as the number two seed. He's the twenty
twenty five Big Ten Freshman of the Year. He leads
the country in qb R at onety two point h
five he passed for threeenty twenty nine yards and thirty
one touchdowns. His excuse me, and those thirty one touchdowns
are tied for second nationally. He's also first in the
nation in completion percentage at seventy eight point four percent

(33:39):
on two hundred and eighty of three point fifty seven passing,
which includes four games completing better than eighty five percent
of his passes, saying through at least one touchdown in
every game this season and had just six interceptions to
offset it. He passed for three hundred yards six times
and four touchdowns in a game three times this season,

(34:03):
and he helped end the Buckey's four game losing streak
to rival Michigan with two hundred and thirty three yards
and three scoring touchdowns. So who do I think is
gonna win it?

Speaker 5 (34:14):
Well?

Speaker 2 (34:14):
I've already said it, and I'll be shocked if it's
not Fernando Mendoza. And for a program, for a program
like Indiana, what a incredible, incredible opportunity and moment for
them to bask in this light and even to have

(34:37):
people out there selecting them to win the national title.
Think about that for a second, not just oh what
a great story, great their number one people are legitimately
picking Indiana to win the national championship in football. That

(34:57):
tells you a coach and a quarter back and you
can win in a hurry. And I know Tiger fans
want that quarterback asap. Will they go into the portal?
I'll tell you why they should when we return Final
seven devour Number one Clemson Sports sal on a Friday afternoon,
all right before the break. I mentioned the transfer a portal.
Why I think it's important that Clemson legitimately make a

(35:21):
run at someone at quarterback once the portal comes open.
It's really I mean, it's pretty simple. Like you and
I can all agree that kay club Nick was not
spectacular this year, and he certainly fell well short of

(35:42):
the expectations. We talked about the Heisman Trophy nominees earlier,
and the numbers those guys put up, and Kate Clubney
was supposed to be a Heisman Trophy guy, the numbers
ugh not great. I mean, here's club Nick two thirty
five of three fifty three for twenty seven hundred and
fifty yards. That sixty six percent completion percentage, with just

(36:05):
sixteen touchdowns at six interceptions. He also took thirteen sacks
in the season. And it's not like he was adding
a whole lot in the running game seventy four carries
one hundred and seven yards. To give you an example,
Chris Dnson, who played one game, had more yards rushing

(36:27):
this season than Kay Clubney. Hat that's right, one hundred
and eight yards for Chris Dnson just one hundred and
seven for k Clubney the whole year. But more importantly,
knowing how poorly, and I think that's a fair way
to say it, how poorly k Clubney was playing your

(36:50):
backup quarterback, especially a guy who is a red shirt
sophomore has been on campus for three years. You would
think that that guy, if he were truly good enough
to lead a college football team at this point, would
have gotten more run than he did. Like we can

(37:13):
talk about Clemson not playing well and that being a
reason that Christopher Verzena didn't get to get in and
showcase what he can do. Or we could talk about
the fact that Clemson didn't play well and Christopher Zena
wasn't good enough to get in and showcase what he
could do. I mean, Zena essentially played in one game

(37:36):
this year. I'll explain what I mean. Against Troy. He
gets one carry in the ball game. That should have
been a game where he gets to play for a
full half. But Clemson gets down sixteen to nothing and
they don't even think that. Okay, maybe we should go
with Zena and see if he can pull Like against
your worst opponent, maybe second worst behind Furman. You don't

(38:01):
feel confident enough that he can be the guy that
leads you back against Troy, or even get a snap
against Troy when your starter struggling. Then at North Carolina
thirty eight ten win, he's six of eleven for thirty
nine yards, carries the ball two times for two yards.

(38:25):
Then against Boston College, another blowout, forty one to ten. Right,
you're blowing Boston College out. This is the game where
kay clubneck gets hurt. I mean, you're obliterating BC and
you don't put him in. You don't trust him in

(38:47):
that game. Not only should kay Clubneck have not been
in to be hurt or to get hurt, given the
way that game played out, with Clemson leading thirty one
to ten in the third quarter and thirty four to

(39:08):
ten to start in the fourth, you still didn't trust
him to go in the game up twenty four. You
kept kay Klubnick in and k Clubnick gets injured. So
what that tells me is that Dabosweeney and Clemson don't
think Vizena's good enough, or you would have put him

(39:30):
in against Boston College when you were up by twenty four,
and k Clebnick wouldn't have been hurt for that matchup
against SMU. And oh, by the way, that matchup against SMU,
not a terrible performance for Verzena twenty nine to forty two,
three hundred and seventeen yards in three touchdowns, not a

(39:56):
bad day for Christopher Vezina. Really solid performance, quite frankly,
and maybe that's enough to make Dabo feel like he
could do that throughout the year. Nine to fifteen, though
against Furman for fifty two yards didn't help. And again
that was kind of late in the season. But the
fact that that's it, and the reason I say it's

(40:18):
essentially one game is because if you total up all
his passes from the five games that he played in,
he's forty five of seventy one. Now that's a little more.
That's a little more, but not much, right, And again

(40:45):
that's why I would say you need to go to
the portal, Like I don't believe that Dabo Sweeney like
ties Garrett Riley's hands. Okay, when it comes down the
play calling, when it comes down to quarterback decisions. Now,

(41:06):
I do think he probably after clumps, has sort of
bailed on the run a couple of times this year.
It maybe felt compelled to say, hey, we gotta run
the football. Year, we gotta run the football. But the
quarterback situation, the guy at the top and the quarterbacks
coach neither ever felt great about the backup, never felt

(41:28):
comfortable enough about the backup. And that's why Christopher Vezina
is in a weird spot where I think, if you're
Garrett Riley, if you're fighting for your job, you're telling
Dabbo we gotta go get we gotta go get a
stud quarterback. We will win if we have a stud

(41:54):
and Fernando Mendoza is a prime example of what you
can do. Diego Poppy is a prime example of what
you can do. And those guys didn't end up in
Indiana and Vanderbilt because they were recruited out of high school.
Those dudes were portal guys. And I think Clemson's gotta

(42:14):
consider it, and if they don't, it could be a
devastating mistake for the twenty six campaign. Our two around
the band stay with us.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
Each time for Climpson Sports Talk with Luwton Swan.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
It is our number two. That's drivetime right here on
the show The Shakespare Southland, Clemson Sports talt Lord and
Swan hanging out with you on a Friday afternoon, and
of course the Show That Shakespare south Land brought you
in part by our good friends over at Mets Plumbing
the Mets plumb dot Com to six seven one to wait,

(43:26):
that's Mets Plumbing two two six seven one zero eight.
All right out of the gates are hour number two.
Will Van Derboort, the Clemson Insider, or from the Clemson Insider,
joins us on a Friday afternoon. Will welcome in buddy,
what's going on?

Speaker 4 (43:41):
I'm doing well. Long how you doing down there? By
the way, do you enjoy watching Bamberg win another state champions.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
Okay, listen, let me tell you. I was gonna ask
you what the results were because I had I have
no idea. Did they win? Good for them?

Speaker 4 (43:54):
They did win. They they end up winning that. They
beat Lamar Levon Kirkland's Lamar team silver Foxes. They beat
them thirty five to twenty one. The game really wasn't
that closed. Pretty dominating performance from Bamberg and first state
championship for the schools in football since nineteen ninety.

Speaker 2 (44:17):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (44:18):
So of course that was the year my senior year
in our class won the state championship that year. So
congrats to those guys down there, and obviously as a
Bamberg alone, I'm very proud and just you know, very
happy for them. And it was fun. I couldn't get
down there because some other things happened that you know,
life happens, but I watched it on television. It was

(44:40):
fun watching them win a state championship.

Speaker 2 (44:43):
Well, you know, that was a decently I guess by
the score, you gave me a decently competitive game. But Man,
one of the things I was noticing throughout the playoffs
and I don't know what the disconnect is, but I
mean there was blowout after blowout after blowout at all
different levels throughout the you know, the quarterfinals, in the
semi final. You know, high school football is not what

(45:03):
it once was. But man, if you can't get competitive
games in the playoffs, what are we doing.

Speaker 4 (45:11):
Exactly? And really the the when you got into the
semi like Bamberg in the semifinals that played I want
to say it was Carver's Bay and they played them
in the in the championship, in the in the semifinals,
and it was a great semifinal game. Bamberg won twenty

(45:31):
eight to twenty six to twenty four I think that
was the final score scored, or twenty nine to twenty four.
That was it scored a touchdown in the last few
minutes to win the game. And so there were some
good like Abbeville Louisville I think beat Abbeville in the
round before that on a two point conversion. So there
were some good games that were you know, spotty here

(45:52):
and there. There was a couple of good state championship
games that were really good, so, but yeah, I mean, look,
you know, when you get the first couple of rounds
of the playoffs, there's too many teams early in the playoffs,
and that's where a lot of blowouts were. I think
Bamber beat somebody seventy to nothing in the first round
of playoffs.

Speaker 3 (46:12):
That should happen.

Speaker 4 (46:12):
That's what the running claws, right, I mean, that shouldn't happen.
The playoff teams shouldn't be winning games like that. I
think they got to figure out something. I appreciated it
more and I know why it happened. But when me
and you were in school, remember only two teams from
each region made the playoffs, and I thought that was
the best way to do it, because the best teams

(46:33):
made the playoffs and you got good matchups and legitimately,
I like a eight seed could be a one seed,
right and so like. It was very competitive games and
better games, I thought in those times. But unfortunately that
changed in the I want to say, in the nineties
and the early two thousands, and they started pretty much

(46:55):
letting everybody in and not the same you know. To me,
it made rivalries more fun and made the regular season
more fun because if you didn't get in the top two,
you weren't making the playoffs, and generally, you know, I
remember it always came down to those last couple of
weeks if we were gonna make the playoffs for mine,
and so that made it fun and extra hard you
work to get there, right, So yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
No, you're you're right, and we'll talk more about that
kind of aspect of it all. I think how you
qualify for things. When we get to the conversation about
the college football playoff here with Will Vanderford, he's on
Twitter at Steeler Will and of course Clemson was already
Bowl eligible, and Will and I haven't talked about the
Tigers beating South Carolina twenty eight to fourteen at Williams
Brice Stadium, And you know the thing about it, even

(47:38):
with the late pick six that kind of put that
game on ice. Statistically, it looked like it would have
been a competitive game in some respects because you had
a late pick six and the ball in the norse
seller's hands with ninety six yards to go, potentially to
win the game for the game Cocks. It should have
been a close game. But I came out of there

(47:59):
overwhelmingly Will feeling like Clempson just dominated in a weird way.
And so from there, what was your takeaway from that
match up?

Speaker 4 (48:07):
A couple of weeks ago, I thought Clemson was the
better team. Coming away from that game, I felt like
you did. I thought Clemson controlled the game pretty much
from the start. They just early in the game just
didn't finish. They didn't finish drives, had opportunities to score
points early in that game and didn't do it. And
I started thinking like, oh man, this is kind of

(48:29):
what we've seen all year out of Clemson, right, like,
you know, just not finishing drives, doing things the right way,
letting the team like Syracuse or Duke hang around and
think they're competitive and they got a chance to win,
and and so yeah, I thought, you know, watching the
game early, I was like, they're gonna blow this because
they're they're clearly controlling the line of scrimmage, but they're

(48:52):
just not finishing things. And even with South Carolina got
the two long touchdowns, those were like that was Clemson
beating Clemson on those two plays. It wasn't you know,
it wasn't like, you know, you didn't come away from
those two plays thinking why that guy's got to take
the game over. You just knew that was like, well,
I mean one touchdowns blown coverage, you know, and and

(49:14):
it happened because Aveon Torell wasn't on the field, but
kudos to South Carolina for executing and getting it done.
And then the other touchdown came on just a player
not playing for the whistle. If he does, he at
least makes the tackle because the Carolina player made a
great catch. But you got to make a better tackle
than that, right, And so I think that was part

(49:36):
of it as well, And just you know, but still
walked away from those two plays. It's seventeen fourteen cleins
at halftime, right, like this is still Clemson's game to win.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
Well that right, but they were back to back plays,
They're right, I mean they were back to back. So
I mean, it's just like that one little thirty seconds
in the game where South Carolina really did something.

Speaker 4 (50:01):
Correct and then the rest of the game was Clemson
controlled by Clemson. Clemson controlled the lines of scrimmage on
both sides. And I said this in a column after
the game that I wrote that Carolina fans need to
stop complaining. And next year I saw their schedule and
what they're doing what they they got to play the
week before Clemson. I get it. Look, they played in
the SEC and they do play harder opponents. However, that

(50:24):
has nothing to do with when that game kicks off,
and nothing, and and and this used this game as
an example of it because South Carolina was the healthier
team going into this game and Clempson had seven starters
that didn't play seven, you know, and how many of

(50:44):
those were on the offensive line, two or three three
I think on the offensive line. And then and then
your top backup on the offensive line is also out
for the year. I mean seven guys out for the
season in this game. And Clemson found the way seven starters,
and Clemson found a way to win without those seven starters.
South Carolina pretty much had all their key players, right

(51:07):
and be keep find one of those players that wasn't
playing for Clemton was Bryant Westco clearly the best receiver,
right And so you know, I said, you know, that's
when you kind of stopped the game. You got to
play the game, and this is why you play the game.
Because Clemson probably from at least from a physical health standpoint,

(51:28):
was not the better team going into the game from
that standpoint, yet played better and the key positions in
the trenches even without those players. And kudos to Clemson
for finding a way to win the game and doing
it in a control in a way in which they
controlled the game for the most part, and never really,
I never really had a doubt they were going to
lose it, to be honest with you, And I also

(51:48):
want to point this out, and I haven't heard anybody
ever say this about the game, but two weeks or
three weeks before, when Clemson was that same situation, they
were playing a mobile quarterback who had some good receivers
and they had to go ninety four yards to win
the game. Guess what happened, Duke What ninety four yards
had won the game? Yeah, this time Clemson town away

(52:11):
to make a play in the end the game. And
that tells you. That shows a sign that the team progressed,
got better, and that's what you want to see. Maybe
a little bit too late, obviously, but they still got
better in the end and they found a way to
win a big game that, let's be honest, everybody in
the state wanted them to win.

Speaker 2 (52:29):
Wear an orange and now they'll get ready for a
matchup against Penn State and the Penn Stripe Bowl up
in New York City. And you know, if you told
most people that Clemson and Penn State are facing off
at the end of this year, they a would have said,
ma'am college football playoff? Baby? Are we playing in Death
Valley or Happy Valley? What are your thoughts will on

(52:51):
this matchup? So far?

Speaker 4 (52:54):
Yeah, I'm with you. I would have been one of
those people. I would have said. I also had thrown
in the caveat are they playing in the semifinals or
the national championship game? With that statement at the beginning
of the year, wow, because those two teams were both
ranked in the top four, right, and Penn State obviously,
you know, fell on their face, lost six straight games,

(53:16):
their their starting quarterback out for the season, their head
coaches fired, I mean, my goodness, with the struggles they
were going through. And then Clemson just never lived up
the expectations, I mean never and up until they got
to this four game win streak where they finally started
looking like the team everybody thought they.

Speaker 3 (53:36):
Were going to be.

Speaker 4 (53:38):
Still with some issues, but you know, definitely playing better
and and playing as a team, which I don't know
early in the season they were doing that as much
and so, yeah, it's crazy. So here we are, New
York City, December twenty seventh at Yankee Stadium, Penn State
versus Clemson, a rematch of the nineteen eighty eight Sisters Bowl.

(54:00):
By the way, the interim coach for the Nitney Lions
played in that nineteen eighty eight Situs Ball, Right, So
that's that's kind of crazy in Terry Smith. So what
a crazy, crazy into a season, and you're going to
do it in a iconic kind of stadium, playing against
one of still the top programs in college football in

(54:23):
Penn State.

Speaker 2 (54:24):
Yeah, it should be a lot of fun. I think
the questions will certainly be who's playing. And that's kind
of what's happening to a lot of bowl games guys
who have opted out. And I've said here on the
show all week, I think it is safe to assume
that most of the individuals who announced that they are
going pro are probably not going to play, especially the underclassmen.

(54:49):
But do you have any updates their will? Do you?
Do you have a just a feeling on some of
these guys that have either opted to turn pro or
announced they're going pro. That will play or won't play
in this game.

Speaker 4 (55:04):
Now the official word, as you know, as coach Twenny says,
they had not discussed that at this time and he
was not aware. And this is as of what two
days ago, I guess, and it's been Tuesday or Wednesday.
Coach Tweenie said that, and and so that's the official word.
He told us during the press conference, which was a

(55:25):
weird press conference, by the way, one of the weirdest
I've ever intended.

Speaker 3 (55:29):
But so.

Speaker 4 (55:32):
That's the official word. I'm with you though, just going
by guys announced they're going pro. Well, if you announce
you're going pro now before the game and kind of
even starting with Antonio Williams right like he announced it,
I believe after South Carolina game, am I right? I
think that's when he announced it. And so so like

(55:52):
when guys have already announced they're not going to pro,
they're not playing in the bowl game. Like so, even
though his eligibility was up and he wasn't you know,
he's you know, you know, he wasn't coming back to
Clemton anyway, and the monte K part him putting out
the news that he's going ahead and going ahead and
putting his name in the NFL draft now tells me

(56:13):
or you know he's or saying he's not you know
he he's basically saying his clinch career is over. So
he's not playing the bowl game. That's how I took
that news last night because the monte K part. Of course,
he's going to delay for the NFL Draft, that's a
no brainer. We knew that because he's he's got no
eligibility left right. But the part, the fact that he
announced that he was doing that now though, tells me
he's not playing the bowl game. That's what it tells me.

(56:35):
So basically he said he wasn't playing the ball game
without saying he wasn't gona play the ball game, which
I don't know why just come out and say you're
not playing the bull game. Yeah, but I guess they
don't want the fans to rip them, is what they're
why they're doing that, and you know, it is what
it is. But I don't expect any of those guys
to play in the bowl games.

Speaker 2 (56:53):
There you go. Will Van der Wart again on Twitter
at Steeler Will speaking of not playing in the bowl game.
Notre Dame's not gonna play in a game Notre Dame's
not gonna be in the college football Playoff. They abruptly
took their ball and went home after being left out
of the college football playoff. Will I don't know your
thoughts on it. I know what a lot of people

(57:14):
have said. I really think my dad used to tell
me when I was a kid. I said this earlier
in the week, you're getting too big for your breitches.
I think there was a time where Notre Dame could
do some of the things they're doing and college football
needed them. I hate to tell them the power for
don't need Notre Dame. And if Notre Dame is only

(57:36):
forced to play group of five teams, nobody's gonna care
about the fighting Irish anymore. They've got to understand to
me that they've got a symbiotic relationship with all of
these power for schools and they need to either figure
that out or hit the bricks go play some G

(57:56):
five teams. Good luck.

Speaker 4 (57:59):
Yeah, ye, you know. I thought it was very the
words that their athletic icor came out with saying that,
you know, talking about the damage with the ACC basically
damage the relationship, and I'm like, really, so the ACC
taking care of its own conference member who plays football
in the conference.

Speaker 5 (58:20):
By the way, is.

Speaker 4 (58:23):
You're gonna be mad at them for doing that instead
of taking up for you and allowing you to get
into the playoffs. And yet you give nothing to the
ACC for any of it. So how does that make sense?
First of all, let's just use monetary reasons. How does
that make sense Notre Dame that you know? So why

(58:43):
would you be mad at AC for that?

Speaker 3 (58:45):
ACC for that?

Speaker 4 (58:46):
And another point I pointed out my column was did
you forget about twenty twenty because here's the dilemma you
were in Notre Dame. You didn't have a football schedule
because nobody's gonna be able to play you because of
COVID and the reasons that lied where they were only
playing the conference teams only, so you weren't going to
have anybody to play. The ACC opened up its conference

(59:09):
allowed you to come in for one season only and compete,
not really to benefit the ACC, because the AFEC didn't
really need you in that standpoint, they still would have
been fine having their same season about you. They did
it as a show of face, right, and you like
happily came in and did it and guess what you

(59:31):
got your twenty two million dollars from NBC that you
wouldn't have gotten had the ACC not agreed to allow
you to play in the conference that year. That's twenty
two million dollars you would not have had because of
the Atlantic Coast Conference. And yet you forget all about that.
You just spit in the face of the conference for
that who then allowed you to go back and be

(59:53):
independent afterwards when they could have really stuck it to
you and made you join the conference that year. I mean,
come on, man, go take your ball, go somewhere else.
You know, I'm tired of another day. Man. I know
everybody else is too. I know I'm talking for everybody
here that's not a Notre Dame fan. We're tired of y'all.
We're tired of your privilege. We're tired of you guys

(01:00:14):
getting the OH next year, if we're one of the
top thirteen teams, we're guaranteed slot. Why is that because
you're Notre Dame. You haven't done anything since nineteen eighty eight.
Do something first, then maybe we'll feel we'll do that,
But we're still not gonna feel that way because we
felt the same way back in nineteen eighty eight. You
just got away with it more. We're tired of you.
Go somewhere else, man, we don't need you. Go on,

(01:00:36):
get out of here.

Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
Yeah. That's the frustrating part is the reality is they
haven't done anything. My nephews who are in their thirties
are like, why is this team even a big deal?
Like they got one good movie about them out there
and Rudy and that's about it. At this point, they
haven't delivered.

Speaker 4 (01:00:54):
Yeah, and Alton, they got on to Jim Phillips and
what the commissioners, I mean, what their ag said. Jim
Phillips has I believe two children that are gonna either
are are gonna be Notre Dame graduates.

Speaker 2 (01:01:06):
I didn't know that that's outstanding.

Speaker 4 (01:01:09):
Though, Yeah, what are you doing? What are you doing?
Come on, man? That guy put what probably what over
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars into your school and
that's how you're gonna treat Hill. Come on, be better
than that, Notre Dame, be better than that.

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
Did not know that when will Vandervore hanging out with
this year on the program eight oh three, four five
oh zeros or eighty six, that is the text line
in the In the phone line, we're gonnahit a quick
break with Will. We'll come right back and talk a
little bit more with him, So make sure you keep
it a lot right here on Fox Sport Traio fourteen
hundred and don't forget about our friends at Alumni Hall
right there on the corner of campus on College Avenue
in downtown Clemson, for all your officially licensed Clemson merchandise, hats,

(01:01:47):
T shirts, tailgate gear, those sweet Nike drivet fit polos
that you know I love. I got them in Clemson.
I got it in River Bluff. They don't sell river
Bluff though at Alumni Hall, but I do love those
Nike drive All right, win a quick right, We'll come
back Will Van Deibort on the line. Plus, get this
a little surprised for you. Tommy Bowden, former Clemson Tiger

(01:02:07):
head coach. He's gonna be with us in our number
two of the program as well. We'll have him on
the show, so to be a loaded hour number two
right here on Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred. And of
course you could listen to the show The Shakepeare south
Land anywhere in the world on the iHeartRadio app run
along Clympson, Sports stal Lawton, Swan, Will Vandimort from the
Clemson Insider hanging out with us on Twitter at Steeler

(01:02:28):
Will all right, Will? We talked about Notre Dame and
of course they were left out in lieu of Miami
working their way in without playing in the ACC championship game.
I've said what I think the system should be. What
do you think? Because I'm a big proponent of an
NFL model, and I don't know how deep in the

(01:02:49):
weeds I need to go with you if I've told
you about my plan, but I would pair the ACC
and the Big Ten. I would pair the Big Twelve
and the SEC. I would take the top four teams
in each league. I would reverse seed them and then truly,
if the SEC is better than the Big Twelve and
the Big Ten is better than the ACC, out of
the final eight, those two conferences would have half of

(01:03:11):
the field. What do you say is the best deal?

Speaker 4 (01:03:15):
Here's what I got, Here's what I think. Okay, and
maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong. You know, it is
what it is. But what I feel like, you know,
there's different ways. First of all, the AEC tiebreaker, you know,
and it was. The ACC is not the only conference
that uses that tiebreaker, by the way, I overbody wants
to trash the ACC, but that tie breakers in the

(01:03:38):
SEC too, and it's used by other conferences too.

Speaker 3 (01:03:41):
So it just isn't a SEC.

Speaker 4 (01:03:42):
They're just using what the standard kind of tiebreaker was
for these situations. And let's be honest, it's not like
they thought it was going to go down to the
number seven typebreaker. Nobody ever expects that to happen, but
it did, and of course that happens to the ACC.
So it just kind of makes it more comical, you know.
But the way I look at this, NCAA basketball tournament

(01:04:08):
used to do it the right way years ago. Now
he grew and people wanted more teams in the field,
and I don't think college football never going to be
that level that college basketball is. In other words, there's
so many college basketball players and they can go to
so many different schools, and that's what allows college basketball

(01:04:29):
to be more competitive at the highest levels. Right See,
years ago, Bear Bryant had this idea. He's like, I'm
going to recruit everybody that I can and I'm going
to sign them, and I'm only signing them that way, Auburn, LSU, Old,
Miss Georgia, Clemson, anybody else can't sign them. That was

(01:04:51):
the whole model, and that's why he ended up getting
roster limits and things of that nature. But still, college
football is way bigger than the NFL roster limits. You
could still sign eighty five plays, right, right, So the
best is always going to be the teams that are
always playing for championships every year for the most part.
And you can, mean you can both name who those
six or seven teams are. You know, that's never gonna

(01:05:14):
change in college football for the most part. Now, Indiana
is the outlier, right, but they're not the norm. Look
at the other teams in the playoffs. Aren't those the
same suspects we always see? Yeah, I mean, I mean,
I'll talk about the teams that not talking about the
group of five teams, but I'm talking about the others.

(01:05:35):
Those aren't those the same suspects? Miami, Georgia, Oregon, Ohio State.
Those are all the same suspects, you know, And so
it's always going to be like that in college football
because college football, the best players can be signed by
the best teams, and they're always going to be and

(01:05:57):
there's there's so many spots on those rosters for those players,
and they also have the.

Speaker 3 (01:06:02):
Money to do it.

Speaker 4 (01:06:04):
My thing to this long winded answer here Lawton is
have the best the top two teams from each conference.
And my thing is you figure a way in each
conference to have a true playoff, and you leave it
up to the conferences to decide who are the teams
in the true playoffs. And these conferences are big enough

(01:06:26):
now you can do that. You can break it into
four divisions, and you can use week eight of the
conference season, which would be week eleven or twelve, or
what however you want to say it, in the regular
season to play. Week eight is used to play a
semifinal game. Right, the eighth conference game is a semifinal game,

(01:06:47):
and then everybody else who falls however they fall in
their divisions, plays each other, right, And then but those
games they just move on to the next round. They
don't win a championship or anything. Right, but the top four,
the four champions of each division playing a semi final game,
and then the champions play the following week in the

(01:07:07):
conference championship games. Then those two teams one gets in
automatic bid, the other gets in that large bid and
there's your sixteen teams. It's just and that's how you
do it. It's easy, there's no committee. It's done just like
the NFL does it. It's who earns their way in
and that's how you do it. And I'm sorry, SEC,

(01:07:30):
if Alabama didn't make playoffs, oh my gosh, Alabama, Alabama
have a chance because they'd be in the division. Win
your division, and you got a chance.

Speaker 2 (01:07:38):
Right, So yeah, I mean that's the best way to
do it. Yeah, I mean that's similar to mine. That's similar.
I mean mine, it's earned because you're one of the
top four teams in your conference. And then I'm giving
the big ten in the SEC the advantage that they're
not on the same side of the tournament any season.
There's no season where oh Hi Io State would play

(01:08:01):
Alabama outside the Foreign National Championship, much like there's no
season where Pittsburgh would play Dallas outside of the Super
Bowl and in terms of postseason play, right, So, I
mean that's kind of it's similar to my model. It
would it would say the teams, and this is my
main thing with the way I want to do it.

(01:08:22):
It would say to a team like save Vanderbilt, who
feels bad that they're on the outside. Look, Vandy, you
just have to be the top one of the top
four teams in the SEC. And anytime you're one of
the top four in the SEC, you're in. I mean,
if you can't be top four in your league every
ten years, you didn't deserve to be in a playoff
at any point anyway.

Speaker 4 (01:08:41):
Exactly, And you're we're talking the same thing, and it's
all just how you earn your way in. And the
reason I like the divisions because then you're not worried about, well,
this team didn't play this team or that team didn't
play that team. Well, if you get in a playoff,
you're gonna play somebody. And that's the only reason I
used the playoff form because I think you can do that.
I think it's doable if one conference would do it.

(01:09:03):
And plus a long guess what, ESTM would love that
because they would have more television dollars.

Speaker 2 (01:09:12):
That's a good point.

Speaker 4 (01:09:13):
And so everybody's happy, you know, and so like you know,
ESPN is happy, The conferences are happy because more television
revenue is coming in.

Speaker 3 (01:09:21):
You get the.

Speaker 4 (01:09:22):
Extra games because now the semifinals mean something some more
people gonna watch it. Right, he had semi final weekends,
and I know everybody's like, hey, Will, what do you
do with the Clempson Carolina game? Well, it gets moved
and we could talk about that another day if you
want to.

Speaker 3 (01:09:35):
But I got on that too.

Speaker 2 (01:09:36):
Yeah. Hey, look, man, I got to get you out
of here. We're up against the break. Take care. Well,
I'll text you the link to my story I wrote.
You can let me know what you think.

Speaker 4 (01:09:45):
All right, sounds great, buddy, look forward to it.

Speaker 3 (01:09:47):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (01:09:47):
Will Vanderwart from the Clipson Insider hanging out with us
here on a Friday afternoon. Right, we'll hit the quick break.
We'll come back. Tommy Balden, former Clympson Tiger head coach,
joins the program. Back at it on a Friday afternoon,
Clemson's Sports Talk. Tommy Bowden joining us. He's down in Auburn, Alabama.
The Dave is visiting with his mob coach. Welcome in Hope.

(01:10:10):
All is well and we missed you last week. I
was under the weather, not feeling too good. But man,
glad to get get you back on the horn.

Speaker 6 (01:10:18):
Well, didn't lose last week, so that's good.

Speaker 2 (01:10:20):
Yeah, Hey, hey, they did the beat news. They didn't
lose the week before. That was two weeks ago. Yeah,
that's what I was gonna say. That's the best. Dudes. Well,
let me ask you this, Uh, with the situation with
Clemson to South Carolina, I assume you watched that game.

Speaker 6 (01:10:42):
Oh yeah, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:10:44):
Even though South Carolina had the ball coach down seven
with ninety six yards of opportunity in front of them,
I never really felt like that game was all that close.
And then you go and look at like the statistics,
and I mean South Carolina put up tons and tons
of yards. They had two big plays that gave them
their fourteen points, actually back to back plays offensively for him.

(01:11:05):
But Clemson just controlled that game from the start.

Speaker 6 (01:11:10):
Yeah, it looks like it looked like Clemson, at least
from a watching the game, they you know, I don't
say no, they're going to win. Looks like they were
confident in what they were doing and coming out with
a victory. It's just you know, they the game kind
of went sometimes like the rest of the season, they
had to work so so hard to get it and

(01:11:31):
then something would happen, and something would happen, and something
happened and all of a sudden, it's a reflection of
the season, and I kind of in one game with
South Carolina is just kind of what's been happening all year.

Speaker 2 (01:11:46):
And I know it had to be frustrating for the
game Cocks because you know, Clemson obviously gets the win.
They'll go into the offseason feeling good about themselves, or
at least going into the postseason to take on Penn
State in the Pinstripe Bowl. And this is a matchup
that when I was a kid, these two teams met
in the Citrus Bowl several years before you arrived in Tigertown.

(01:12:07):
And I really do feel like giving the complexion of
what the season was supposed to be, and I think
how much both of these fan bases love college football,
this is arguably one of the better matchups outside of
the college football playoffs.

Speaker 6 (01:12:20):
Oh, I think it definitely is. I think you know,
after you get that twelve those twelve teams played in
the playoffs, this is probably the premier game, which would
be good for Clemson that Clemson had so much success lately,
they really got a good draw, not only in the bowl,
but playing Penn State, another traditionally strong program, So I

(01:12:42):
think it's really a plus for Clemson to be playing
a team like Penn State, and then it's just when
you like, say, the season didn't go how you want,
but you won your South Carolina game. Then you go
into the season playing a really attractive or going to
bowl season playing a really attractive bowl game.

Speaker 2 (01:12:58):
Well, you know, talking about the opportunity. You know, Notre
Dame turned down a bowl bit. I get it. They
were disappointed they were left out of the College Football Playoff.
I know people don't like the way it was done,
but they would have been playing BYU in the Pop
Tarts Bowl, which has become one of the more fun
and entertaining bowl games. But maybe more than anything, it

(01:13:19):
would have been between the two teams that were just
outside of the college football playoffs. Instead, Georgia Tech's going
to go to that game. I just I really struggle
with this turning down bowl games. Coach, I know that
it's something that's becoming more commonplace, But what were your
thoughts when you saw that news.

Speaker 6 (01:13:39):
Yeah, you know, you really hate it because deep down,
I think the players enjoy it and it's a little
bit more at work, but it's not real hard work
as far as ball preparation, it's just more keeping your
players fine tune and maybe working some of the red
shirt players or the younger players. You know, they worked
them a lot harder really to do the guys that
are going to play in the ball. But you know,

(01:14:00):
and I know the last I heard law that the
number was ten teams that have turned down balls. I
don't know if it's any more than that now, but
just very disappointing. And I can't tell, maybe you can.
It got to feel for it. Whether it's going to
grow or decrease. As far as the number of teams
that are turning down.

Speaker 2 (01:14:18):
Balls, I don't know. There's talk obviously, people have talked
about what if we just move some of these bowl
games to the beginning of the year, you know what
I mean, Like it's just a good matchup. You know
how we have the games that we already have. Chick
fil A kind of does this. They have some games
over in Atlanta, the Chick fil A kickoff games. But
maybe you could do the pin Stripe Bowl kickoff game

(01:14:41):
instead of a Bowl game, and that would certainly get
people in them and participating. The thing I suggested, And
I mean, you might know guys like Gary Stoking over
at the Chick fil A Peach Bowl. He's the executive director.
You might know some of these guys. I think they've
got to protect these smaller bowl games, and the way
they could do that is by getting the College Football

(01:15:01):
Playoff to say, if you want to be in the
playoff the following season, you have to play in a
bowl game if you get extended and offer. Some people
say that's ridiculous, but coach, I think if your players
are going to sit it out, just see it as
a chance to grow and tell your fans we're gonna
be playing our young guys. You will come see some
of the youngest players in Notre Dame history. I don't know.

(01:15:24):
I just for the life of me, I think what
used to be great.

Speaker 6 (01:15:28):
There needs to be more structure, more regulation, and what
you're saying would incorporate that. But somebody needs to take charge.
NC double. They've messed up the NIO, they've messed up
the portal. Now even the playoff. I know that under
contract they had to pick a group of four a team,
but Old miss and Tulane, who've already played once and
been for and Tulane lost forty five to ten. Just

(01:15:52):
think of what a've attractive Ole Miss and Notre Dame
would have been, or instead of Vanderbilt and James Madison Vanderbilt,
or and James Masson, Oregon and Vanderbilt, and those would
have been the twelve best teams in college football. But
they need some structure and like you, like you said,

(01:16:12):
you know, they need to tell some teams. Okay, if
you don't do this, you're not gonna be able to
do such and such. That would take strong leadership. But
that's what we need because the way this is gone
now with the you know law, and you can actually
take the season and start August twenty third and play
a twelve game schedule. You could have a sixteen team
playoff and be through by January the first, have your

(01:16:35):
national championship game, and then after January January the first,
just like the NFL, no coach could be talked to
before January the first, no player can. You can't tamper
with players like the do you know the NFL's got
those rules. You can't do that until January the first,
and then you'd fix a lot of these issues. But
what you suggested about putting some pressure on some of

(01:16:56):
these teams. You're not gonna be able to go to
this ball if you don't play this and it would
take strong leadership, and that's what we've lacked leading college
football from the n standpoint.

Speaker 2 (01:17:07):
Tommy bald with this year on the program. We got
a break coming up. We're gonna put coach on whole.
We'll come back. We'll wrap up the show with him,
and he coached the Tulane so maybe he can give
us some thoughts on my suggestion that the group of
five teams should have their own college football playoffs and
have a national championship. That's got to be more important,
I think for those guys then going to some of
these bowl games, even though they might be great destinations.

(01:17:28):
We'll talk we coach abound about that when we returned.
Stay with us, what have you done for me lately?

Speaker 5 (01:17:37):
It's a fair question, just on 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?

Speaker 3 (01:17:52):
And what have you done?

Speaker 5 (01:17:53):
Always are the same. We win.

Speaker 2 (01:18:47):
Final segment on a Friday afternoon, Tommy Bowden with us
here for a few more minutes, coach. We were talking
before the break about the group of five teams, and
you know, my suggestion has been for a long time
and and I got this idea from the fact that
when North Dakota State and those guys are winning their
Division two national championships, they feel great about it. They're
not concerned that Alabama's winning the national title. And I

(01:19:07):
just think that the two Lanes of the world and
the Tosses of the world would feel better if they
were hoisting a national championship of their own and not
going to some bowl game or getting a you know,
an invite to the College Football Playoff that you're probably
just gonna get bludgeoned.

Speaker 6 (01:19:25):
You know. About thirty years ago, I was on a
trip with Jackie Sheryl and Philip Fillmore and they talked
about what you just mentioned, that there's gonna be a
six five sixty year sixty five teams that have better resources,
they have more money, they have more facilities, and they're
gonna break away. And we I think we've discussed that before,
but I think that's gonna have to be the answer,

(01:19:46):
because there's a oren thirty six Division one eight teams,
but it's not all the same. The Uffert half have
a lot better resources in AL money, in IL money facilities,
which make it more attractive. You could have two different
leagues and divisions and a national championship game, and I
think that would be'd be a great idea. I wish

(01:20:08):
somebody to push that because it's I just think missing
out on an old Miss Notre Dame and having a
repeat of an old Miss tu Lane which is forty
five to ten, just's that's not right. It's not based
on merit, it's based on feel good. Let's make people
feel good.

Speaker 2 (01:20:25):
Well, and you were at two lane, so you have
a it's been a while, obviously since the late nineties,
but you have a little bit of a read on
the fan base. How do you think those fans would
feel if something like that was suggested, that hey, we're
gonna have a different division and you're going to play
for your own national championship. Would they embrace that back
or do they like the fact that they can get

(01:20:47):
to a bowl game and maybe get to the college
football playoff that currently exists.

Speaker 3 (01:20:52):
No.

Speaker 6 (01:20:52):
I think the group of the five, I think they
would embrace it, because, yeah, it's really competitive for the
for the dollar at a major car academic dollar their
scholarships or research and athletics and those other schools they
just don't have the resources and some of these other schools.
So I think it would take tremendous pressure off the
Memphis East Carolina's two lanes you go on down the

(01:21:15):
line that really struggles Cincinnati raising the money to be
competitive with the Big ten and the SEC and some
of the ACC schools that have the money and the
resources and facilities. So I think they would be in
favor of it. It would take a lot of pressure
off them, let them compete with people have the same resources.
So I think they elected you commissioner. We could get

(01:21:36):
that done.

Speaker 2 (01:21:36):
Listen, I could see the Balden Swan era of commissionership
take you. Yeah, I gotta have a co commissioner that
knows a little bit more about it and with better connections. Now,
in that model, would you still have been played regular
season games against or is it a complete break in
your mind?

Speaker 6 (01:21:55):
I think if you had maybe a complete break, it
would make it more legitimate. Where if you played the
group of the bottom sixty five, let's just say the
group of five, which is the lower half of the
you know, let them play each other and compete with
each other. That I think you have more legitimate champion. Now,
there might be some games where they're in state where
the politics get involved, you might have to but if

(01:22:16):
you if you've got a A in your bylaws, you've
got to play ten teams, say, within that division, then
I think could make it more legitimate instead of bouncing
back and forth. So I think you're gonna have to
make a clean break of the of the upper half
and lower half. It's you take your take your ACC,
your Big ten, your SEC, and your Big twelve. That's

(01:22:38):
about sixty or sixty five schools. That's where you make
That's where you make the break. Notre Dame fight out
where they go.

Speaker 2 (01:22:45):
Yeah, well, and so there's the there's the rub for
Notre Dame, and that textually what I was going to
say is, you know, with Notre Dame at that point,
if you're the power for and this is why with
everything that's going on with Notre Dame and the ACC
and that whole hubbub, if the power forces Notre Dame,
you just got to play with the group of five. Sorry,

(01:23:06):
they're nobody, Like they're nobody at that point, Coach.

Speaker 6 (01:23:11):
Yeah, but I know what they're gonna have to really reconsider.
I think some of their association with some of these conferences,
because I think they're making a lot of people mad.
There's elitism that they think they're a little bit above
everybody else. Okay, that might have been that way years ago,
but not now.

Speaker 2 (01:23:30):
Well, I don't know what your dad, I don't know
what your father, Bobby Bowden would say to you, but
my dad, I said this earlier in the show. My
dad would have told me, son, you're getting too big
for your britches.

Speaker 6 (01:23:40):
Well, yeah, I've heard that summer phrase. I'm a little
older than you are, but maybe raising that same kind
of flavor as you were. Yeah, I've heard that before,
and that's I think that people are getting a little
frustrated with them, and I think they're gonna have to
really do some research on their association with with a
conference somewhere down the line.

Speaker 2 (01:24:00):
Tommy Bowden always great to catch up, coach. Sorry we
missed you last week and definitely appreciate your insight today.

Speaker 6 (01:24:06):
Great, there you go.

Speaker 2 (01:24:08):
That's Tommy Balden hanging out with this year on the program.
All right, that'll put a bow on it and again,
Thank you for giving me a little leeway there hour
number one, and you made it happen man. All because
of you, all, because of you, we were able to
cruise through here on a Friday afternoon Bowl matchups Army Navy.

(01:24:30):
What a great game man, that's you know. I would
like to say it's on my bucket list, but I
don't know that my my financial particulars will ever allow
me to secure said visit, but maybe one day it will.
All right, we gotta get out of here. We'll talk
to you on Monday. Until then, it's always y'all. Take
care now, Hey go Tigers