The "Magnified Mistakes" Edition

Clemson OL Coach Matt Luke says winning masks issues, losing magnifies them.

Episode Transcript

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

(00:45):
Clemson Sports Talk has come back two drive time.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Hello everybody, Lord and Swan back in the saddle once again.
It is the show that shakes the south Land. Clemson
Sports talf for you each and every afternoon as you
make your way around the great state of South Carolina
and beyond, listening to us on incredible radio stations like
Fox Sports Radio fourteen under the Midlands, heard around the
world on the iHeart Radio application. Downloaded today is free

(01:14):
the website. Put the dot com on the dog gonet.
That's Clemson Sports dot dot com a O three four
five oh zero zero eighty six text line phone line.
Again the show the Shakespeare south Lam brought to you
in part by our good friends over at mets Plumbing
mets plumb dot com two two six seven one oh eight.

(01:36):
That's two two six seven one oh eight mets Plumbing
dot com. Give them a call today. All right, The
college Football Eyes will be on Tuscaloosa this weekend. I
know that feels strange to say, but it is true.
Undefeated Vanderbilt on the road at Alabama three thirty on

(02:02):
ABC Alabama ten and a half point favorites in this
game a top sixteen matchup. Vanderbilt comes in at number sixteen,
Alabama number ten. And what's interesting about this game, I think,
in particular, is the fact that Alabama enters off of

(02:27):
the most consequential victory. I mean, I certainly think the
most consequential victory they've had since Kellen de Boor took over.
And we didn't really shine too much light on that
game on Monday Show, but I do think it is

(02:50):
significant to talk about the quality of leadership that it
appears Ty Simpson has at quarterback at Alabama. And a
part of that for me goes back to the recruiting
battle between Clemson and Alabama for that spot, and ultimately

(03:13):
he decided to go to the Crimson Todd And after
that happened, because Clemson was in the mix with both
K Clubnick and Ti Simpson, it wasn't long after the
K Clubnick committed to Clemson. Now what's interesting about that
is when you go back to those rankings, K Clubnick
was the number one rated quarterback in that class, just

(03:37):
slightly by the way above Ty Simpson. Clubnick a little
bit taller. Ty Simpsons sixty one two hundred pounds. K
Clubnick six two and a half nearly sixty three one
hundred and eighty pounds, but it was pretty nominal. The
third quarterback in that class was Drew Aller. Currently, the
quarterback at Penn State was Connor Wegman, who enrolled at

(04:04):
Texas A and M and is still playing now at Houston.
He was the fourth best quarterback in that class and
the fifth best quarterback. I don't know that we've heard
a thing out of him. Devin Brown, he went to
Ohio State and he's currently at CAL. I'm not even

(04:31):
sure if he's the starter at CAL. I don't think
he is, But anyway, he was a five star quarterback
coming out of high school, and I know none of
you haven't really heard of him or anything that he's done.
But to my point, back to Alabama this weekend, like

(04:53):
the total the discrepancy, I think that's the word I'm
looking for here between k Clubnich and ty Simpson just
in command right now. You know, I called it regression
the other day, and I think that's probably the most

(05:13):
disappointing part of what you've seen, just the the regression
of k Klubnick and its impact on everybody else, And
then you turn on the television and you watch a
kid from his same class who sat behind the starting

(05:33):
quarterback for several years, stayed the course and now is delivering.
And I think it begs the question, and rightfully so
that if that is indeed the case with a with

(05:55):
a guy like ty Simpson, is it not possible that
Christopher Vezina, who came out in twenty twenty three, the
year after Kate Klubnick, who was a four star quarterback,
the eighth ranked quarterback in the country, why you wouldn't

(06:17):
think that this guy can play the game. If he
can play it, arch Manning was the number one quarterback
in that class. Currently obviously the quarterback for Texas. Dante Moore,
who enrolled at UCLA, is now the starting quarterback for

(06:38):
the Oregon Ducks, again another top team in the country.
Nico Iamliava, who was at Tennessee, of course, is now
at UCLA, and that's been You might make the argument
that's been one of the biggest busts of the transfer

(06:58):
portal era in in terms of leaving and going to
another school. What a befuddling, just unbelievable situation. Jackson Arnold
was fourth in that class. He of course, started his
career at Oklahoma, and Jackson Arnold is currently at Auburn.

(07:25):
Malachi Nelson enrolled that season at Southern Cal. He is
currently at UTEP. I believe, I mean keeping up with
quarterbacks that was the fifth best quarterback in the country.
Jade and Rashada. I don't know if you remember his saga,

(07:47):
Rashadas the kid that went to Florida. Florida couldn't get him.
The money bounced around. He ended up at let's see
George at some point. I think he's at Sacramento State

(08:10):
right now. He also spend a year at Arizona State, Like,
I mean, what are we doing here? Jayden were shot up,
by the way, the starting quarterback for Sacramento State, this
guy was. And maybe this is the indicator that you know,
Christopher of Zina maybe can't play at this level because
there's a guy a couple of spots in front of him,
including Malachi Nelson, who has also fallen off. Eli Holstein

(08:38):
enrolled back then at Alabama. He is currently at pitt
And then you got Christopher of Asena, who has stayed
at Clemson. As a matter of fact, let's see on
that list. Arch Manning at Clemson and Christopher of Vezena

(08:59):
are the only two quarterbacks of that top eight in
the twenty twenty three recruiting class that are still at
the same school. And that's gonna bring me to another
point here in a minute. Let's do the top ten though.
Avery Johnson started his career at Kansas State and he

(09:25):
is still there. And the last quarterback in that class
in the top ten Austin Novasade, who started his career
at Oregon and he is currently at Oregon. Okay, so

(09:45):
four of the top six, but three right of the bottom,
you know, eight, nine and ten are enrolled in the
top everybody else is transferred. But it brings up a
point a lot of people talk about, and that is,

(10:07):
you know, you see message board fodder of which I
sometimes wish we had more on clemsonsports salt dot com.
So come join us, come chat, throw your concepts out
there on our message boards, comment on our articles, share
our work. But one of the things that a lot
of people will say is, well, why didn't Clemson go

(10:28):
into the portal? You know, why didn't they go get
a quarterback that they could bring in that would be
better than k Klubnick. And what I will say to
that is we are not in an era where when
you have a guy that is projected by everybody to

(10:51):
be the guy that other dudes are coming in to
try to beat the guy. Does that make sense. Clemson
would have been in the portal game if kay Klubnick
had left, and they would have said, Okay, we've got

(11:12):
Christopher of Azena. We don't really know this commodity. We
can possibly go get somebody better than Christopher of Asena.
And in addition to that, a player out there might say, well,
I think I'm better than Christopher of Azena, and that
player might come in and compete. But most guys I

(11:33):
would assume that have jumped into the portal as transferred
quarterbacks who believe they are good enough to quarterback at
a school like Clemson. They're not coming to sit on
the bench. They're coming to play. So you weren't gonna
get anybody. I'm telling you, there was no quarterback in

(11:55):
the country that was coming to Clemson to sit behind
kid Clubnick. It's just not happening. A backup kid who
maybe had a couple of years of eligibility left, Assuming
that Christopher Vezina was gone. Maybe that's a fit, but

(12:15):
for the most part, the jobs that get taken are
taken by guys that coaching staffs believe are going to
be able to play right now, and the players that
take those jobs are players that feel like they are
going to be able to play right now. And that

(12:37):
just wasn't the case at Clemson. I don't care what
what Caid Clubnick looks like this year statistically. I don't
care what Caid club Nick looks like this year on
the field. Unfortunately, we are in an era where you
can't trade him mid season because you don't think he's good.

(13:01):
You are in a situation where these players must fight
through adversity. That's what Kid Clubnick's gotta do. He's got
to fight through this on his own, or Clemson has
gotta be willing to trust Christopher Vezina, a top eight quarterback,
to take over and run the show. Because right now,

(13:30):
to assume that some other player was gonna come in
and think that they would be the starter the a
one from day one wasn't happening. That It's sort of
a foolish conversation to have Kid Clubnick eighty nine of
one for eight six touchdowns, four interceptions for nine hundred

(13:50):
and ninety six yards. You can find two dozen quarterbacks
that have played much better than Ki Clubnick, and statistically
and maybe even with confidence, would beat him out for
the starting spot at Clemson based off of what he's
done these past four games. That's true. In addition to that,

(14:13):
there is a big letdown from k Clubnick season in
my opinion, and that is his inability to influence the
game with his legs. Thirty four carries for just sixty
yards this season, k Klubnick's legs have yet to have
an impact on Clemson. He's had his second worst rushing

(14:39):
yardage per carry season since twenty twenty three, that was
hisugh year, right, not great. But what's more concerning than
CAD's the guy to me is that Christopher's not getting
a chance right like we know we can. We would

(15:04):
acknowledge that there are quarterbacks on that list from Christopher
Vezina's twenty twenty three recruiting class that you would say
I'd play that guy over k Clubman right now? And
dare I say? And I could certainly jump into it

(15:25):
real quick, But dare I say that if we were
to go a little deeper into say the twenty twenty
four quarterbacks, right, I would venture to guess that you
would tell me, Hey, you know what, I'd play that

(15:48):
guy over K. You know, DJ Lagway hasn't been great,
but there he is in the twenty twenty four class.
Julian's saying, starting quarterback right now at Ohio State. He
transferred from Alabama, but he's the starting quarterback. He's a
year younger than Christopher of Zena, Dylan Rayola. Look, I

(16:10):
mean he is what he is. He's out Nebraska. You know,
Aaron Nolan is still sitting on the bench. He's in Colombia.
So I guess there haven't been that many just yet
that have made an impact from that twenty twenty four class.
A couple at CJ. Carr starting quarterback at Michigan, excuse me,
at Notre Dame. Grandfather Lloyd Carr was the head coach

(16:34):
at Michigan. Walker White. I remember Clemson was recruiting Walker White.
Where's is he still at Auburn? Nope? God bless America.
He's at Baylor. This is this is absurd. Is he
even the starting quarter I don't think he is, but

(16:58):
he is transferred. I did not realize Walker white Man.
You know, I guess one of the things about Christopher
Christopher Vezina that makes you feel good is that he's
sticking it out. He must see some light at the
end of the tunnel at Clemson. There's obviously a reason
he's stuck it out. Yeah, I'm just looking through this list.

(17:21):
Not a ton of guys they have made much of
an impact collegiately out of that twenty twenty four recruiting class.
And then I guess we could look at twenty twenty
five guys too, real quick, Bryce Underwood at Michigan. Yeah,
not really a whole lot going on for these other guys.

(17:42):
Even Juju Lewis at Colorado. I don't think he's playing
too much. But either way, either way, stats, forget the
stats for a minute. What it comes down to is
you've got a kid who's been there as long as
Christopher of Vezina has. And we know there are multiple
quarterbacks across the country that you would trust right now

(18:07):
more than you trust kid Clubnik, and this coaching staff
can't seem to find a way to trust Christopher Vizena.
I hope this weekend that something develops on that front
and I'm not wishing that Caid has a bad game

(18:29):
by any means. I really don't. But I think you also,
if you're Clemson, you have to acknowledge that you don't
want to enter twenty twenty six in an opener on
the road at LSU. And maybe that game falls through

(18:53):
with the scheduling changes that are taking place in both
the ACC and the SEC. But do you want to
go in there with Vizina playing as little as he's played,
Like I truly hope it develops into Christopher Vezina gets
some snaps this weekend, not even necessarily because Kate Klubnick

(19:16):
is playing bad, but because Christopher Vizina needs opportunities. And
if Kay Clubnick, I will say this, if k Clemnick
has a couple of bad series at this point with
three losses, I'm going to the next guy. I'm going
to the next guy, and I'm gonna let Christopher Zina

(19:37):
have the rest of the year and we're building for
the future, because at that point it feels like this
year's You know, if Kay Klebnick can't do it against
North Carolina, who can you do it against? I mean,
it's just just the facts, all right, quick break. Don't
forget hey, Chad Morrise hour number too, keep it locked,
Clemson Sports, talt Log and Swan rolling along on a

(20:02):
Wednesday afternoon Again Chad Morris coming up. Man, those conversations,
those conversations with coach Morris have been really, really fun,
and I hope you are enjoying those again today up
in Tigertown, it was another day of spending time talking
college football. This week, we got a chance to hear

(20:24):
from Clemson offensive line coach Matt Luke. And what's funny
about that is I was actually thinking about trying to
get a former offensive line coach on the program, maybe
somebody like Brat Scott perhaps, who might could give us

(20:44):
some insight into what goes on in that room, how
that side of things has changed over the years. From heck,
when I was growing up, it felt like the majority
of teams sort of ran like a triple option three
yards or three downs. Excuse me, hopefully it was in

(21:06):
three yards, three downs in a cloud of dust, right,
And so from that standpoint, I think that this game
has now changed where we're four and five wide. And
it also begs the question that we talked about last week,
where Garrett Riley noted that he felt like that some

(21:28):
of the you know, some of the motion stuff, if
you will, for lack of a bever term pre snap motions,
you know, can cause some issues with those guys just
in the sense of their blocking schemes and who they
have to block. And he caught it to catch twenty
two and I was like, well, you know what, let's

(21:49):
talk to an offensive line coach. But today up in Tigertown,
we did get to hear from an offensive line coach,
and we'll play some of that audio for you in
the next segment as Matt Luke spent some time with
the media. And obviously Matt Luke had been on the
staff at Georgia and decided that he wanted to kind
of get away from the game because of the time

(22:13):
that it takes away from your family. And now his son,
Harrison is a commit at Clemson, and heck, I'll be
honest with you, like, there are a lot of rules
to recruiting, and I haven't had a chance to kind
of go through all of Matt Luke's comments, but I'm

(22:34):
assuming he's allowed to talk about his son as a commit.
I mean, I would think you would be able to
I mean, it's your child. You could say, well, I
was talking to them and talking about them in the
capacity of being my son and not being a recruit
that we're trying to bring in. And there will certainly

(22:54):
be others of you that will look at where Clemson
currently sits and you will say, well, that's a part
a part of the problem as well, Swannie. The fact
that you know Matt Luke's son is one of Clemson's
commits just continues the continues the storyline that you know

(23:18):
Dabo Sweeney's running basically a country club for his buddies
and that it's not as cutthroat as it needs to be.
And I can certainly push back on those thoughts and
happy to do so. One of the things that I

(23:41):
would note first and foremost about that thought process or
people that feel that way about Dabo Sweeney and this team,
that it's too much of a country club with his
buddies getting their kids opportunities and kids from Daniel High School.
And I I will preface all of this by saying,

(24:04):
I don't know what all of the programs out there
are like, so in fairness, it's true, I don't know
if every program has some of this built into it,

(24:26):
but you're not going to have just elite talent stacked,
I think in this era. And this might even kind
of go back to what I was saying out of
the gates about Christopher Vezena and the situation with the
quarterbacks in that like, guys aren't just gonna sit anymore.

(24:50):
It's just not gonna be a thing. Players want to play,
and players want to get paid, and schools don't want
to pay somebody who's not p So you've got to have. Oddly,
I think, on scholarship in this era, you've got to

(25:11):
have some players that aren't four star and five star guys.
You gotta have some guys that you might say, man,
that kid won't sniff the field at Clemson. Well, yeah,
you went from eighty five to one hundred and five scholarships,
I would say you ought to have about twenty maybe

(25:35):
more like if you okay, so let's say you go
to the eighty five model for a minute. You guys
would attest that you felt you felt like at that
time every single one of those eighty five should be
on scholarship and and should have a chance to play.
Not everybody did. We saw plenty of bust. We saw
plenty of guys over the years that couldn't cut the mustard,

(25:58):
couldn't make it. Well, now you've ballooned that number up
another twenty players. I mean, I can make an argument
there are at least twenty guys on this roster that
unless it's just an absolute annihilation, unless they want to
be the snapper or the holder, they're not gonna see

(26:18):
the field in what you would call competitive action. And
I'll add to that, ideally they won't see the field.
So you gotta have some Jimmy's and Joe's that aren't
five star players. You gotta have some guys that are
team guys. Look, look they're not They're not GPA guys necessarily.

(26:45):
I mean, we may have had some GPA guys on
the basketball roster over the years, may have had some
GPA guys that do on the basketball roster over the years.
Gotta keep that GPA up. But I think it's fair
to say with one hundred and five man rosters that
they are gonna be guys that aren't gonna be out

(27:09):
there on the field. And the adjustment for fans and
coaches is understanding that. And I don't want to say
that Harrison Luke can't end up playing at Clemson either.
Speaking of Harrison, as I mentioned his father Matt's boat
today up in Tiger Town, We'll hear what coach Luke
had to say when we get back. Keep it locked,

(27:31):
Lawton Swan, Clemson Sports sawtback with you on a Wednesday. Hey,
don't forget about our friends at Alumni Hall on the
corner of campus on College Avenue in downtown Clemson. Go
check them out today Alumni Hall for all your officially
licensed Clemson merchandise. Don't forget about those sweet Nike Dry
Fit polos that I tell you about all the time.
I love them, and don't forget home games. You might

(27:53):
catch me in there, so swing by a look for
me again online at Alumni Hall dot com. Ask him
about their Alumni Hall rewards programs that you can save
a little bit of money, and don't forget Hey, speaking
the same of money, Clempson his students faculty in all
military he get ten percent off when shopping in stored
Alumni Hall. It's Alumni Hall where Tiger fans shop. Speaking

(28:17):
of Tiger fans, well, they've been wanting to hear from
Matt Luke, and he met with the media earlier today
and he was asked about the five freshman offensive lineman
and sort of his thoughts on where those guys are.

Speaker 3 (28:28):
Easton he's injured, so he's had shoulder surgery, but was
he was really doing he was running at second right
tackle before he got hurt and was doing really well.
Braden probably next, just because he's you know, he's you know,
he's in the two deep and he's in there playing
some and some short yard his packages. I really, you know,
probably not just not quite ready yet, but he's he's
going to be really really good man. I'm really I'm

(28:49):
really pleased with with where he is and think he
has a bright, bright future. Gavin. Gavin's working in their
some at at both guards and center, so he gives
us the ability to do that. It's hard to play center,
especially as a young guy. But he's done, he's done
really really.

Speaker 4 (29:07):
Well with that.

Speaker 5 (29:08):
Uh. Uh.

Speaker 3 (29:09):
Tucker and and Rowan have been primarily mainly on the
scout team uh to this point, but they both you know,
obviously have size and and and potential. So uh, but
I probably see I see Gavin Easton and Braden a
little bit more just because they're up.

Speaker 4 (29:24):
There with me.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
Coach. Luke was also asked to give a little more
insight into Gavin Blanchard and what he's seen from him
and what he thinks about him as a player.

Speaker 3 (29:32):
He's tough, he loves football, he's gritty, he'll compete, and uh,
he's he's that he has all the qualities that that
that you're looking for and and he's got a big
heart and just loves football. He's always sending you questions
at night, you know with videos, Hey coach, what can
I do better here? What should I do? He did
that last night with a couple of things. So I'm just, uh,

(29:54):
you always like that as a coach for a guy
that loves football, and it's it's digging in.

Speaker 2 (29:59):
Matt Luke was asked to give his thoughts on the
early play of freshman Braden Jacobs.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
I think the game was just it just kind of
sped up on him. You know, he kind of overseet.
But that's the thing when you when you make a mistake,
you say, Okay, why did it happen? You know it's
not because of ability or not, like you just got
to go out there. Let the game slow down for you,
and it will and he's gonna he's gonna have a
bright future.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
Luke was also asked about Dabbosweeney's statements yesterday that you
know this was on the coaches and this was a
coaching issue.

Speaker 3 (30:27):
Well, I just think, I mean it's it's first of all,
it's very fair. I mean that like when you when
you come to Clemson, like you expect to win championships,
and when you don't win, there's accountability that goes with that.
You know, when when you're hired as a coach, I
mean you're coming in expecting to win. So so when
you don't, there's accountability. And then there's collective accountability. And
I don't think you point the finger at any one person,

(30:48):
like we're all in this thing together. And uh, and
I think, uh, coach Sweeney's done an unbelievable job, you know,
during during a tough time. It just taught you know,
accountability and leadership as coaches because it starts with us. Uh.
You know, I think as a coach, you have a
like you have a vision of the way you want
to look when you step on the field, and if
the vision doesn't look the way you want, don't want

(31:09):
to look it's it is a failure and so that
that's that's our job as coaches to get our players
playing and and and make that vision come to life
on the field. Like there's this when you when you
put the pall on your helmet, there's a certain way
it's supposed to look and uh and to me as
a coach, you take a lot of pride and try
to make it look that way, and that that's our job.

Speaker 2 (31:30):
That's Matt Luke again giving his thoughts on Sweeney's comments.
He was also asked about when that happens when you're
out of the program with high expectations, does it feel
like the sky is falling? And does he sense that
this team has the resolve to kind of get through
it all and our.

Speaker 3 (31:47):
Team's in a good place. I think the open day
came at a good time and like and it is
tough because they are hearing all the outside noise, But
it's our job to get our guys to focus and
really just that one practice at a time, because that
the attention to detail and the effort that it requires
to win football games. And that's what to me, that's
what you have to focus on. You have to focus
on the process. If you've become two outcome driven, then

(32:10):
you start worrying about a lot of different things. So
I think us just focus on the process, one day
at a time. I think that's the key.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
That's Clemson offensive line coach Matt Luke. He was also
asked what accountability looks like in his mind when dablish
when he brings that up from the standpoint of the
offensive line.

Speaker 3 (32:27):
No, I think you stay the course. Man. There's no
magic there's no like secret play or magic wand that
you waive. It's collective accountabilities from the line, from your quarterback,
running back, receivers. Everybody works together, and like that's the
beautiful thing about offense is to be really good at offense,
everybody has to do their jobs. It's the timing, it's
the precision, it's those little details that it takes. And

(32:49):
there's no magic wand hard work works and you just
keep you just stay the course and you keep working,
and that's what.

Speaker 2 (32:54):
We're going to do. Matt Luke was asked how he
feels the current starting five is sort of mesh.

Speaker 3 (33:00):
We got a great, great group of guys in our room. Man,
We just got We've got some experienced guys. We've been
banged up, some sore. There's a challenge with the cohesion
a little bit. But now now Tristan coming back, you
know that that really really helps. And but but with
Tristan Blake, Ryan Walker, you've got a really really good room.
You've got guys who have been through great times, tough times,
like they've been there. And to me, for a young

(33:21):
guy like Brayden or Easton that's going through a tough
time now, like these guys have been through that before.
And so I think I think it's a it's a
unique room, and it's a special room and a bunch
of great guys that I enjoyed being around and enjoy coaching.

Speaker 2 (33:35):
Matt Luke was asked about the issues that he might
have seen on tape.

Speaker 3 (33:38):
I don't think it was anything, miss Id's just guys
working together. And like for for a guy like Colin
Sadler that missed a lot of time last year, anytime
you got to play multiple positions, you have to prepare
multiple positions. So with that comes different you know, different steps,
different techniques. You know, pass setting it tackles different than
pass setting it guards. So just attle little details like
that is where is where that comes into effect.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
Final thing for Matt Luke talking about the offensive line,
he was asking about the timing and if that seems
to be something that might be causing some issues for
this group, it will continue to get better.

Speaker 3 (34:10):
And I think even even for veteran guys, when you
go out there in the first game, there's some there's
some little things that you have to correct and things
that speed up and maybe you know you're you're in
there in a big situation and like you just lit
little things happen, but that's football.

Speaker 4 (34:24):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (34:24):
And then you know, obviously when when you're when you lose,
everything gets magnified. You know, some of the mistakes you
make when you win, people don't even talk about, but
when you lose, everything gets magnified and you look at
everything through a magnifying glass. And I think, I think
that the key for us is to go out there
and exc We've got good players, we've got good coaches.
Just stay stay the course and go go attack each
day and that that's the way you win football games.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
So there you go. That's some of Matt Luke webb
at full audio and video up on Clemson Sports taw
dot com. And we've already put some of that out
on our social media channel, and I think that is
a great point that Matt Luke makes. Before we cut
away from him, we'll come back off of you in
on what I think really stands out. Stay with us.
Lawton Swan, Clemson's Sports All bat with You on a Wednesday.

(35:07):
Chad Morris coming up in just a minute. Okay, So
we had a chance to hear from Clemson offensive line
coach Matt Luke today and my key takeaway is something
that he said near the end. He said, you know,
when you're winning, the fans and media pundits don't discuss
the little things that you did wrong. The little things

(35:27):
that you did wrong get highlighted in situations like this,
and I think that's an interesting way to look at
it because it's something that I think when times have
been good, and for Clemson fans, it's been well over
a decade that things have really been churning pretty good.
And I know the last five years have been a
one off by comparison to where you were, but I

(35:49):
think he is right. You were still winning a lot,
and you were winning at a high level, and you
were winning consistently and you certainly didn't have the slide
that the Tigers have had since really getting pushed around
in Death Valley against Louisville. Like I said, Clempson has
lost more games including that one, than they did like
my first four or five years on the radio talking
about the Tigers. So it's interesting to hear his perspective that, Hey,

(36:13):
you know what, when you're losing, everything is magnified, and
when you're winning, you minimize it. And I'm not talking
about the coaching staff. I'm sure they are going through
it with a magnifying glass when you're winning, but they
are seeing the missteps that you are seeing currently. Even
when times are good and you don't coaches always see

(36:33):
this thing through a different lens than we do. I've
acknowledged that here on the program. It's one of the
great joys that I have in talking with Chad Moore soon,
talking with Tommy Balden, and talking with guys who played
and coached the game. Furthermore, I think it is good
to hear from from Matt Luke the piece about accountability
and then that piece that look, even when you win,

(36:55):
there's a lot that goes wrong. I think the big
problem that I see at least, and I've talked about
this quite a bit, is that it feels like the
number of things that are going wrong are exponentially more
than what it was in the past, or else it
would have stood out. And the other problem I have
is I think some of it is still effort, and

(37:16):
I will believe that it is effort until I see
what I think is as I have noted one hundred
and ten percent, like Frank Howard would demand of anybody
that touched his rock. Let me know what you think
in the comments if you're watching on TikTok, because I
think that's where the biggest issue with this team lies.
Like I still, I mean, yes, I see mistakes, and

(37:41):
I think we can all agree that Matt Luca is correct.
And you do see mistakes at times, even when it's
the you know, the best of the best, And from
that standpoint, sometimes those great players made play around the
mistake that made a difference, and so when you're losing,

(38:08):
you harp on those moments over and over and over
the good fortune. It's one of the things that I
have found interesting in doing this job for so many
years is that you guys never focus about, never focus
on the officiating after a game that you won, right,
you guys never come to this show and say, hey,

(38:32):
Swannee wake Forest would have won that game if this,
this and this goes their way. But when you lose,
it's a fun part of this business. You have a
different lens. You look at it through the what ifs
of how close we were. And yes, there are games
where you go out and just bash some opponent like

(38:54):
seventy three to seven, like Clemson did Georgia Tech back
in what twenty twenty and you go, hey, you know what,
I think it would have taken more than a player
two for Georgia to take to be in that game.
But how many games over the years did Clemson win?
Go back to like two thousand in fifteen sixteen, excuse me,

(39:17):
twenty and sixteen. When Clemson wins the national title? What
seven games or something like that less than a touchdown difference?
I mean that's huge. And so as we sit here
today and over the past few weeks and the fact
that this has been three losses in four games, I

(39:39):
think it has only magnified everything. Do I believe this
Clemson team is a top five team from top to
bottom based off of what we have seen in terms
of effort, in terms of getting the as I like
to say, the jo be done, the job done, absolutely not.

(40:03):
Is it a top five team in terms of talent.
I think it's arguably a top fifteen team for sure.
I mean I can almost stay that unequivocally. But if
you ask me to begin to rank their work ethic
and how much they've given this year, it feels very

(40:29):
low across the board. And I'm sure when LSU fans
came out of Clemson's Death Valley with a win back
in late August, they thought that they had beaten a
team that was in the top five, and they thought

(40:51):
that they had beaten the team with top fifteen talent.
When I think they're starting to recognize even with their
team at the point is that perhaps the Clepsy Tiger
team that they beat wasn't giving all they had, And
that's a problem. That's a problem for Clemson, that's a

(41:12):
problem for LSU. Like the team that you beat didn't
play with all they have, which means I don't think
you got a good measure of what your team is.
And maybe we're starting to find that out. And I
think for Clemson, the only positive of that, And I
do think it's a big negative when you've got a

(41:34):
team full of guys that are being paid and they're
not delivering and not playing as hard as they should
and Daboshwhenny did mention that yesterday, you know, these guys
are getting paid a lot of money to play. But
I think the other part of it that sort of
is a good sign for Clemson. If there's anything good
here is that if they can find that spark and

(41:54):
turn it on, I think this team can be really good.
But it's like they've got wet wood, no matches, and
and heck, let's go back to what Matt Luke said,
and they got a magnifying glass, and I don't know
if they can get that spark started with that. Our

(42:16):
number two, Chad Morris around the band, keep it locked.
It's time for Clipson Sports Talk with Lawton Swan. It

(43:02):
is our number two. That's drivetime right here on the
show that Shakes the South, Jayan and Clemson Sports tal
Lawton Swan hanging out with you on a Wednesday afternoon,
first day of October twenty twenty five. You know it's funny.

(43:24):
I feel like September should have thirty one days. I
don't know why, but I do. Either way. Here we
are October. It's Halloween season everywhere except for the stores
where it's Christmas season. Already awkward, All right? Coming up
on the program, former Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris and

(43:47):
again the Show that Shakes of Southwayan brought to you
in part by our good friends over at METS Plumbing
mets plumb dot com two two six seven one o eight.
That's two two six seven one oh eight Mets Plumbing
call today for all your plumbing needs. Well, it was
a big weekend up in Charlottesville, Chad Morris and company

(44:08):
and family watching his son Chandler and the Virginia Cavaliers
topping Florida State forty six thirty eight in overtime. Virginia
now four and one. Chandler Morris was named the Earl
Campbell Tyler Rose Award National Player the Week coach welcome in. Congratulations. Man,
what a Friday night it was in Charlottesville.

Speaker 5 (44:31):
Yeah, you know, it was. He it was. It was
a remarkable night and a lot of fun. I can't
tell you I had too much fun during the game,
but it was. It was truly Paul and I, like
I said, we live and down every snap, but it
was it was great, you know, just to watch that
university celebrate a victory like that, and and and how

(44:52):
well those kids are playing and and obviously you know,
I got a skin in the game with Chandler being there,
and to see his continued growth and improvement each week
and just getting better and better, and you know, back
to back ACC Player of the Week. I mean, it was,
it was, it was. It's I'm not gonna lie, it's
it's definitely rewarding. And uh, I'm enjoying every every minute

(45:14):
of it. May not enjoy the game, but I'm enjoying
every minute of being able to watch him well.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
And what an incredible performance by Chandler.

Speaker 5 (45:21):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (45:21):
I saw a statistic and you've probably gotten this from
somebody already, but in the last thirty years, to defeat
an AP Top ten opponent, he's only the third player
to ever have two passing touchdowns and three rushing touchdowns
with twenty five plus completions. Chandler, Morris, Cam Rising, and
Marcus Mariota. That's the list.

Speaker 5 (45:40):
Yeah, someone had sent me that, and uh, I think
there's a couple other lists going around that has has
Deshaun Watson and his in Chandler's name on it and
Trevor Lawrence and and it's it's as far as just
some of the accolades that they've achieved through five games,
and it is, it is, it's remarkable, and you know,
it's uh, you know, as I tell him, I said, man,

(46:02):
it's just it's it's back to work, and it's you
enjoy it. But you know it's just you just keep
putting one foot in front of the other and and
keep worrying about you and keep getting better. But uh,
you know, as a dad, you know you're you're you're
happy because everybody sees the accomplishments and what he's done
last year and what he's done this year and the

(46:24):
success and and but what they don't see is the
struggles and the the those down times that he had
to go through, uh, with the injuries that have really
put him through the fire to get him to where
he is today. And you know, we're going to keep
building on that. And it's just again never never, never

(46:45):
too high and never too low. Just stay the same
guy every day.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
Coach. I want to ask you about kind of your
track record in coaching and and how you got there.
So take us back. You graduate from Texas A and M.
Now did you were you all read like at A
and M helping out at all with anything you know?
Or or did you just go into the high school
game in nineteen ninety four and just elevate yourself to

(47:10):
the collegiate ranks.

Speaker 5 (47:12):
Yeah, you know, and that's that's that's that was it.
I mean, I got into outside of my mom and dad.
You know, a high school coach made a difference in
my life. He impacted my life. And and you know,
that same high school coach was my math teacher, which
led me to to to majoring in math and minor
and statistics and and so getting into high school ranks,

(47:35):
starting my coaching career as an assistant coach, assistant football,
assistant basketball, assistant baseball man. I was doing it all
and and just loving every bit of it because I
knew that, you know, if a coach impacted my life,
how many lives could I impact? And uh, and that's
why I got into business. And and next thing, you know,
you know, two years later, I'm the head basketball coach.

(47:58):
And you know, really did I know much about basketball?
I played it but did I know much about it?
Not really. But you know what, that that didn't that
didn't cheer me because I knew that I could, I
could motivate kids, and I could get kids to play
at their highest level for me. And so we took
over a basketball program that was absolutely atrocious, and within

(48:19):
two years we're playing for the regional finals back to
back years, and and so you know, and then next thing,
you know, the head football coach gets fired and our
athletic director they get fired, and they come to me
and they're like, you know, coach, what uh? You know,
we're fixing high a football coach. And in my mind,

(48:41):
I'm thinking, oh no, we're gonna have a football coach
coming here and he's gonna he's gonna tear my basketball
program down. And so I immediately and I love football,
That's what I grew up playing, and I said, so
I told them, I said, listen, I want to do both.
I want to be the head football coach. I want
to be the athletic director and the basketball coach. And
so they did it. They let me do it, and

(49:04):
I'll never forget they they came in. I never forget
in a board meeting I'm sitting in there and I've
interviewed for the job, and they said, well, you know,
coach will pay you thirty two thousand dollars if you'll
do it. And I look at him and I said,
I'll tell you what. If you'll make it thirty three thousand,
I'll do it. So I'm the head football coach, I'm
the athletic director, and I'm the head basketball coach. And

(49:27):
we do that for a couple of years. And we
take a football program and which was awful, and we
played three or four rounds deep in the playoffs and
we and then Mackenzie comes along. So we have Mackenzie
and it was just too much on us then. And
so that was the time that it was like, Okay,

(49:47):
you know, I'm going to channel this thing toward football.
And man, we go on and take another job in
allegian fields, and man would playing for a couple of
state championships, you know, we we play for two more.
So I'm playing for four straight state championships. And and
but I always had had a desire to get into college.

(50:08):
And I knew that, look, I knew that I could
motivate kids. I could get kids to play for me
and I and I loved being creative in what I did.
You know, the more people would tell me you can't
do it that way, the more I wanted to do
it that way and being creative in our style of play.

(50:29):
And so yeah, that that's kind of how this journey started.
And I always said that I wanted to have an
opportunity to coach college football by the time I was
forty and and sure enough, you know, all that happens
and I think forty forty one somewhere in there, uh
forty two. But I get a chance to coach, and

(50:50):
after went in played in six state championships and won
three and and look, it wasn't anything I did. I mean,
it was back up, it was. It was I. I
surrounded myself with good people and we had good players
and and but man, it was it was a great run.
And had opportunity to get into college. And that's that's
what I did. I took that chance at Tulsa and

(51:12):
the where we went.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
Well, and you know this, you know, I'm a teacher
as well in addition to doing this, And I think
about like the risk of uh, the conversations you must
have had with your wife about like, hey, you've got
what eighteen nearly twenty years vested into your retirement and
school system. And I mean that again, it's a it's
a big jump, and it's certainly worked out for you,
but I mean, that's a that's it would be a

(51:34):
tough sell for me to walk into the bedroom tonight
and say, hey, babe, I'm thinking I want to, you know,
see if I can get into coach into the collegiate
ranks like that, that's a big jump.

Speaker 5 (51:44):
Yeah, yeah, that's a That was some interesting conversations and
I'm not gonna lie to you on that. I mean, we,
Paul and I definitely had some in depth conversations about it.
And but she always and look, I always said there's
a special place in heaven for coaches wives. I mean,
you know, and and she definitely is has definitely earned
earned a spot there as well. With with just the

(52:07):
ability to to say, you know, uh, you know, when
we took the vows of of you know, for better
or for worse, you know, she thought, Okay, man, we're
gonna get married, and I'm gonna show her that I'm gonna,
you know, I shared with her, Hey, look i'm gonna
we're gonna enjoy this. We're gonna chase this dream and
I'm gonna show you the world. And she didn't, she

(52:28):
didn't really realize that we were gonna do it one
state at a time. And so, uh and that's what
usually happens in college. You know, you don't change zip
codes when you do it coach. In high schoot ball,
you change states. And but but it's been great. Look,
I've I've had some incredible, incredible people that I've met

(52:49):
and players to coach, and uh, you know, and I'm
not done coaching. I'm just stepping back this year because
I'm I'm you know, obviously helping Virginia. But I'm I'm
I'm you know, I'm enjoying this. But yeah, it is
truly is a unique and and uh, you know, I've

(53:10):
enjoyed every bit of it as our family has.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
Again. Chad Morris with us here on a Wednesday afternoon.
So we talked a good bit last week about offense
and things of that nature. I want to talk to
you about maybe offensive coaching trends that you see or
schemes that you see, Like, as you guys are growing
in a system and getting better and constantly trying to improve, like,
what are some recent things that have that maybe the

(53:35):
casual observer to the game hasn't noticed or recognized that
a guy like you says, hey, that's something that's unique.
And who are maybe some of those coaches that you
feel like are doing those things?

Speaker 5 (53:49):
Well, I think, you know, for for our listeners out
there right now, and you know, and I know we're
on a phone, so it's hard for me to just
to draw this up, but visualize, uilize a bell shaped curve.
Right you're in college, you're in high school, and and
the teacher comes up and puts a bell shaped curve
up there on the board. And I always say that
this is the life cycle. So it's a life cycle curve.

(54:12):
And there's the birth, there's the growth, there's the plateau,
there's the decline, and then obviously there's the death. And
and as you look at football, you look at a program,
you're you're you're constantly trying to make sure that you
stay in the growth cycle and and I and and

(54:33):
avoid the plateau. Plateau is consisting you know, complacency, and
you know it's this is the way we've done it.
And you know, I'm not gonna you know, deb eight
or I'm not gonna be willing to change. And you're
getting that plateau. And once you get in that plateau,
the decline is coming quick and and very very few
people are able to to pull it out of the

(54:55):
decline mode before it goes to the death mode. And
so I've always and I and I share this with
our players for years. This is so it's how do
you stay in the growth cycle of of of football,
of and I know we're talking offense, how do you
stay in that gross cycle? And that was look, we
were doing things when when no one else was doing it,

(55:18):
And so how do you continue to stay in that?
And I always tell our players and we tell our
staff there's two ways to do that. There's two ways
to stay in a gross cycle in any business. Number One,
you have to reinvent yourself every year. Every year you've
got to self reflect. You got to come in and say,
what do we do good?

Speaker 2 (55:35):
What do we do bad?

Speaker 5 (55:36):
How can we coach better? How can we reevaluate talent better?
How can we you know, it's all about reinvesting or
you know, reinventing yourself every year. And what is the
new trend? All right, let's we need to evolve with
this trend.

Speaker 3 (55:53):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (55:53):
And then the second thing is reinvesting. So you got
reinvent yourself every year, and you have to reinvest in
yourself every year, your program every year with and not
just financially. I'm talking about reinvesting and okay, stepping back
and going okay, we're going all in and doing things
this way. So as as you say that, I want
to lead up to me. What the question you asked is,

(56:16):
how do you stay in the growth cycle of football
with the trends that are happening? What is the new
trend where? And how do you stay in that growth cycle?
And so I think this is me I think and
I've talked to I talked to Ryan Day about this
at Ohio State for a long time, about about two

(56:37):
years ago. He and I were talking and he asked
me that exact question. He goes, Chad, you know, what
is the new trend that's coming? And we started talking
and and to me, it's the ability still to play
with tempo, but tempo, as we talked a couple of
shows ago, it's not just about playing fast all the time.

(56:57):
It's the ability to change the flow of the game
and how you play offensively. But to be able to
do it in twelve personnel that's one back, two tight ends,
do it in ten personnel that's one back, no tight ends,
or doing it eleven person but to be able to
change personnel groupings and still be able to play with tempo.
And I think you're seeing that you watching, you watch

(57:17):
Ohio State, you're seeing some of that. You obviously I'm
seeing Virginia each week they're playing with twelve personnel, they're
playing with ten personnel, they go to eleven personnel, and
they're mixing their tempo up left and right, and it's
it's really keeping people off balance instead of playing with
great tempo, you know, fast paced the whole time. Well,
defense is kind of.

Speaker 2 (57:37):
Caught up with that.

Speaker 5 (57:38):
You still have to do that, but the ability to
mix it up is what causes problems and change personnel
while you do it. And so I think you know,
you ask me who out there is doing some of
those things. You know I mentioned Ohio State is doing
some things like that. I think you know they're on
cutting edge. You watch some of the organ what they're doing.
You know, Penn State is doing some of that. I
mean there's several programs that are mixing it up up

(58:01):
with the tempo. And I know we talked to Virginia,
but yeah, I don't know if that answered your question
or not. But to me, each year, each each year,
you have to go back and reflect, Okay, is what
is happening in the game of football and how do
I need to evolve with it? Well?

Speaker 2 (58:20):
And I feel like, and I'm just assuming this because
I was around My dad was a principal, so I
was around enough high school coaches. I feel like like
high school coaches have clinics where they go and they
learn from the college coaches. But you guys are sort
of in maybe a different bubble and there is some
sharing of knowledge. But how do you kind of decipher
what you want to change? Like, I think that would

(58:41):
be incredibly difficult.

Speaker 5 (58:42):
It is, you know, no it is and what it does?
It kind of it ships at your ego at times too,
and so you can't you have to leave all your
ego on the table on this thing. And because it's like, well, heck,
I've been doing this and it's been working, and when
I changed this and you know, and so that's an
ego thing and all coaches have that, but you have
to go, Okay, yeah it's working, but can we do

(59:06):
it a little better? And how do we do it better?
Or is somebody else doing some things better? I know,
I know one thing, you know, being with coach Sweeney,
we would always and they still do it, but we
I was just adamant about getting other staffs together that
were like minded but did a little bit different and

(59:28):
let's share knowledge. Let's let's figure out what what what
are they doing really good? What are we doing really good?
And we kind of do some crossover. Hey, if you're
willing to share this, I'm willing to share that. And
I know, for example, like we we you know, this
was back you know when A and M had Johnny
manziel And and Ohio State was in their heyday as well.

(59:49):
We would get like one year A and M us
in Ohio State all went to Ohio State and we
shared knowledge. We spent three or four days with them.

Speaker 2 (59:57):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (59:58):
We we took our staff out to Arizona State when
when Norvelle was out there, and of course I had
worked for Todd Gram so we had a great connection there. Uh,
I know if you remember, but coach Alt was running
the pistol offense at Nevada and UH, and that was
kind of cutting edge. And when they had oh goodness,

(01:00:21):
I'm trying to think they had a couple of really
good years out there. And so man, I pick up
the phone. Coach Alt was so impressed with what we
were doing offensively, I was impressed with what they were
and I asked Coach twenty, coach, can we go out
to Nevada and spend four days with those guys and
learn a little bit more about the pistol and and
so yeah, absolutely. So you know, those are just different things.

(01:00:43):
You kind of search and go, Okay, I want to
I want to evolve, I want to change, but I don't.
You know, I got my standard. This is what we
stand for. But how do I go about doing that? Well,
it's a give and take deal. You have to give
a little knowledge to get a little knowledge too. And
but yeah, we would spend some time out with Coach
Alt and Nevada. We went to to UH for two

(01:01:05):
years in a row. We spent time with Ohio State
and when Urban was there and and and just doing
some really good stuff. And you know what, we picked
up some really good stuff along the way. That that
that helped us evolve and stay on cutting edge.

Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
Wow, unbelievable conversation this afternoon with Chad Morris, former clips
and offensive coordinator, former head coach at s m U
and Arkansas coach. Always great to hear from you. Best
of luck to you guys, and you'll be traveling to
Louisville for that game to see Chandler and Virginia take
it on Louisville, and we will talk to you next week.

Speaker 5 (01:01:41):
Well, always a pleasure. And like I said, I see
that said every week. I love my Tigers and and
and and obviously love our Cavaliers now, but uh look
forward to getting Clemson back on the right track and
getting those guys rolling, and hopefully we can go to
Louisville and pull out a great win and keep that
program rolling. And uh man, what what what? Just a
great opportunity that that they have, and uh man, it's

(01:02:03):
so good to see coach Elliott having success and knowing
that we got just a small part in helping him
make that success. So h man, go go Tigers, and
go Wahoo's and look forward to our visit next week.

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
Quick break, We'll be right back with more Clemson sports
talk Lawton Swan back with you on a Wednesday Chad
Morris there before the break Man. Those are such fun
conversations with Coach Morris, and quite frankly, I wish I
had more time with him, and he is generous. He
probably would have stayed, but we'll catch up with him.

(01:02:37):
I've got one thing I have tried to do. One
thing I've tried to do and be better at with
the Chad Morris interviews is because again I don't I
don't know everything that he knows, okay, But what I
really try to do with those interviews is make sure
that I've got some really solid questions, really solid questions

(01:03:03):
for him, because it feels to me like if I'm
up to snuff, so to speak, then when he comes
on the show, I can ask him questions that are.

Speaker 5 (01:03:17):
Not just.

Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
Engaging, but trying to peel layers back, give you a
little a little different view of it all.

Speaker 5 (01:03:29):
And so.

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
I hope you're enjoying those segments with him, and I
hope they will last a long long time. I'm sure
at fifty six, with his name, you know, he's always
going to be on somebody's radar to coach, you know,
he was an analyst at Clemson and then went back

(01:03:54):
and coached at high school for a year. And then
when Chandler went to Virginia, he decided that he would
take a year off at least one and travel around
he and his wife and see Chandler's final year playing collegiately.
That's super cool. And so now I would say, with

(01:04:16):
him being on the show selfishly, I kind of hope he,
you know, just sticks it out and stays with us
for the long haul. He goes, maybe he'll go Tommy
Bowden on this thing a twelve year run and so
much fun talk with coach Balden. Of course he's with
us on Fridays as well. Eight oh three four five
zero zero eighty six. Again, we put out some of

(01:04:39):
Matt Luke's comments over on social media, and here's a
guy who you know, obviously has recruited at the highest
level when it comes down to the offensive line, and
the job that he did recruiting at Georgia was simply phenomenal.
And it is shocking, Dare I say stunning to me

(01:05:00):
that this Clemson offensive line has been as discombobulated at
times as it has been, because it sure looked like
a year ago, and knowing all the pieces you were
getting back, it sure looked and felt like this group
was going to come in and play like crazy, you know,

(01:05:24):
and do a really good job, and that just hasn't
really materialized. I think they have to get some credit
for Adam Randall in the Running Game, but when it
comes down to like protection and creating opportunities for kid Klubnick,

(01:05:45):
it just I mean, there was the one play that
really stands out for me. And I don't want to
pick on Tristan Lee necessarily, but I mean it was
Tristan Lee and it was in that Syracuse game, and
he doesn't he's got one guy, one guy off his
outside shoulder. I mean, that is your responsibility. You there's

(01:06:08):
no tight end, that's your responsibility. Yet as the play snapped,
he slides back to the inside, leaving a free runner.
A free runner to k Klebnik, and he tries to
respond to it but and get over there, but obviously
at that point it's too late. I mean, your goose

(01:06:29):
is cooked. And I don't remember how that play ended
up failing. I mean I know it ended up failing,
I don't remember exactly how it ended up failing, but
it did. And so from there, I think you go, well,
what is going on there? And that's just one little misstep, right,

(01:06:50):
I think that's the other side of it. I have
to be fair and say that's just one little misstep.
But you're not a freshman, You've been in the system.
Sure you were coming back off of an injury. But
I can't even think about like how that happens, Like
I can't even process what would have And it's not

(01:07:15):
like he wasn't even looking like if you were looking
the other way and you had a different assignment. But me,
he's clearly the guy you're supposed to be blocking. And
in those types of missteps and those types of issues
I think are the thing that have really really jumped out.
And Matt Luke's right, like, guys make mistakes even in

(01:07:41):
games you win. And maybe if I went back through
the fine tooth comb, I would find those mistakes in
games to Clemson one, but that one just was glaring
to me, Sam says Swanee. I like what Matt Luke said,
no excuses, no finger point, just owning it. As coaches,
that's the kind of accountability we need if this team
is going to turn it around and again, if you

(01:08:01):
want to text in you can eight oh three four
or five zero zero zero eighty six, Derek says. Matt
Luke says, there's no magic wand and I get it,
but fans don't want to hear stay the course when
you're one in three, at some point you got to

(01:08:23):
show progress on the field. No, Derek, you're right, man,
You are right about that, Like you gotta see progress,
and you've had two weeks and this is this is
easily outside of Troy, the worst team you have faced
this season, right, I mean, does anybody disagree that LSU,
Georgia Tech, and Syracuse are all better that North Carolina is,

(01:08:53):
So that would leave only Troy being a team that's
not as good as North Carolina. So this is the same.
That's an easiest game you've had on the schedule, and
you fell behind to the easiest team, Troy, sixteen to nothing.
Forget about, oh the tip play and all that you know.
I consider negative vibes and negative momentum caused by negative play.

(01:09:16):
Negative play leads to that kind of stuff. Positive play
and a positive attitude, et cetera, et cetera lead to
positive things. Happening, and Clemson season is just full of negatives,
all right, Bobby, and New Jersey hits us up with
a rather lengthy text message. We'll get to that one

(01:09:37):
when we get back. Keep it a lot right here
on the show The Shakespeare south Land. It is Clemson
Sports Talk on Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred and of
course heard around the world on the iHeartRadio application. Welcome
back Clemson Sports Talk on a Wednesday. Lawton swan on
Twitter at Clemson Sports TikTok Instagram. We are where you

(01:10:00):
you are, all right, Bobby in New Jersey, I told
you we are where you are, says Swanee. If I'm
in charge of the Clemson program, I'm throwing big bucks
at the Arkansas quarterback Taylor Green to transfer to us.
In addition, I would be closely looking at the rosters
of teams that have or potentially have coaching transitions this
year Arkansas, Virginia, Tech, Auburn, maybe Florida if those come open,

(01:10:24):
to identify players that could have value to us for
the future as transfers. It's time to embrace the new
reality of college football that comes to us from Bobby. Bobby,
that's a very fair point A very fair point, Bobby.

(01:10:45):
I mean I think that's where you got to be
right now. Certainly if you're Clemson, I mean, if you're
any if you're any team, when a coach gets fired,
I mean you obviously in that moment have to start thinking, Okay, well,
who's gonna be available? And this goes back to my

(01:11:08):
concerns about Christopher of a Zena that we talked about
on the program yesterday, right. I mean, the fact of
the matter is, given the way k clubnik has played,
I will I will die on this hill given the
way k clubnikus played the fact that Christopher of Azena
hasn't been given more of an opportunity tells me that

(01:11:31):
at practice, Christopher Verzena's not cutting the mustard, He's not
getting it done because you had a quarterback. And this
is how I know, like Dabo Sweeney, you could say
he was loyal to a fault with Cole Stout when
you had when you had Deshaun Watson, but you know,
I think he learned from that. And when you had

(01:11:53):
Kate excuse me, when you had Kelly Bryant, who had
led your team to the College Football playoffics number one team,
in the country at twenty seventeen, and you brought in
this top flight quarterback in Trevor Lawrence. I think we
can agree right that the difference between Deshaun and Cole
Stout was much greater than the difference between Trevor Lawrence

(01:12:18):
and Kelly Bryant, and maybe not much different. I think
Kelly is certainly better than Cole, and I think Trevor,
you could argue greater than Deshaun. But I know most
of you, if you needed a key drive, you would
go with Deshaun. But I think overall quarterback play, Trevor
is the better quarterback. But even if you disagree with

(01:12:41):
that argument, you can't disagree that Dabosweeney learned his lesson.
And when it was proven after Game four, I remember
writing the article on clemsonsportstar dot com. I was like,
this is clearcut, this is done. Matter of fact. Now
you got me wanting to dig into the archives and
see what that article was titled. The problem is we've

(01:13:04):
written so many articles over the years since about Trevor
Lawrence that it might be even tough for me to find.
But maybe I can go with a double. Maybe I
can go with a double keyword search, throw in Trevor
Lawrence and throw in Georgia Tech and perhaps that will
be the ticket to give it to me pretty quickly.

(01:13:26):
But either way, changing of the guard. There it is,
dude nine twenty four, twenty eighteen. I wrote that article
way back when. I mean it was pretty obvious pretty
quickly that Trevor Lawrence needed to be the guy, and

(01:13:46):
Dabo Sweeney made the move. He made the move. How
many people viewed that article six thousand? That was before
the throttling began, the great throttling of social media. Share
our work, help us fight the throttle, fight the throttle,

(01:14:08):
stand up for the little guy. Don't let Facebook and
Twitter hold us down any longer. But once Dabosweeney learned
that lesson, you know, he played the better player. And
the fact that they haven't even and again it's different coaches,

(01:14:30):
different coordinators, but the fact that they haven't run Christopher
Vezina out there in the midst of this mess that
Kay Clemnick has put on tape is beyond bizarre, just
beyond bizarre. Like it says to me, we don't trust

(01:14:52):
the backup. We don't trust the backup. And not just Bizar,
but Chris Dinson, Trent Pearman, double late job hunter helms.
All right, for those of you that don't know that,

(01:15:12):
that's a wrestling reference. Who all right? Anyway, I just
I wish that had been on tape too, because I
did the whole The only thing I didn't do was
spray water into the air. But like, that's a big
red flag, and so Bobby, I'm with you. I'm with

(01:15:36):
Bobby on this. Scour those those quarterback rooms, scour those
position groups, find the pieces to bring in. And one
of the things I will say, in the old day,
there was something to be said for saying to a guy,
hey man, look we got your bat. We're not going
to over recruit your position. I used to talk about
that the reason Clemson didn't go to the Juco route,

(01:15:59):
because it was pretty easy. If you went Juco when
you're recruiting, that next man up to have a school
come at you and go, dude, if you go there
they and you're not playing well, they'll go get a
Juco and then you're out of luck. And back then
you couldn't transfer like all of the things. You could transfer,
but you had to sit. Like all of the bad

(01:16:19):
sides of of not playing well supported Clemson and their
ability to willingness to stick it out with you and
grow with you not anymore. Buddy, If in this era,
if you're not getting the job done, other schools will

(01:16:39):
go get somebody, and that makes guys be a little
more accountable, in my opinion, work harder if your system
is we're gonna nurture these guys and bring them up
through the system. Like there's some big positives to that,
but I think there's some negatives, and the negatives are well.
Coach Sweeney's not gonna get anybody to replace me, and

(01:17:02):
for that matter, even the guy's Clymson is brought in
really haven't gotten to play all that much. I mean, yeah,
Will Heltsman out there, but you really hadn't seen Tristan
Smith and he's fighting his butt off when he's out there.
I love watching him play, but we hadn't seen him much.
Jeremiah Alexander finally starting to get some snaps. But now
the season one in three final segment, flip side.

Speaker 4 (01:17:28):
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?
Always are the same. We win.

Speaker 2 (01:18:41):
Final segment on the Wednesday. Thank you again to Chad
Morris the Virginia Cavaliers, his son Chandler. They go on
the road to Louisville. The Cardinals come from behind twice
against Pitt. I mentioned that earlier this week. Man, what
a what a bad back for that group. I thought

(01:19:02):
they were dead to rights man both times, quite frankly,
and they find a way to win, and they're flying
the ointment too. For Clemson. There's a lot of flies
in the ointment for the Tigers, who currently saidt the
bottom of the ACC They'll face North Carolina at noon
on ESPN as thirteen and a half point favorites, and
again I'll say it, I think this is the second

(01:19:23):
worst team you face this year, so you better look good.
And then you go up to Boston College, a chance
for Davoswenny to face off against another former NFL coaching
Bill O'Brien. By the way, this matchup, I can't remember
if I told you this because I was talking to
some friends about it, But this matchup that's become that

(01:19:46):
you know, this is the thing that has become most
difficult for me as I've gotten older, remembering if I've
talked to you about something, Because I talk to other
people they call me, and and people that I work with,
we'll talk about different things. But this is only the
second time ever that a national championship winning head coach
and a super Bowl winning head coach have faced off

(01:20:09):
in college football. Now, some of you riding along will
perhaps want to take a gander or a guess at it.
So I'll pontificate here for a minute while you think
about that fact again, national championship winning football coach versus
super Bowl winning coach. Now you've had a little time

(01:20:33):
to get through it. The first part is the super
Bowl coach, right, like, if you can nail that one now,
and I guess that would also be at the collegiate ranks, right,
that would have to be at the collegiate ranks, because
I've found maybe a flaw. I'd have to see how

(01:20:54):
this is written in the game notes. But Pete Carroll
certainly won super Bowls, but I think he won super
Bowls after he won national championships, and so while he
was winning national championships and playing other guys that won

(01:21:15):
national championhips. He would not have been a Super Bowl
CHAMPI so that that would be I guess the clarification
on that point, But coaches who had a championship in
their back pockets already. It's happened one other time, and
that would be I'm sure some of you thought maybe
Jimmy Johnson, No, because he didn't come back to college.

(01:21:37):
It was Bill Walsh at Stamford versus Joe Paterno at
Penn State. That's the only the only other time this
has happened. And there have been coaches that have coached
at both levels, and there have been coaches that have
won Super Bowls and national championships. But that's the only
other time a Super Bowl champion head coach has faced

(01:22:00):
off with a national champion head coach. Is when Bill
Wash and Joe Paterno faced off back in the day.
He speaking of Bill Wash, Bill Wash, college football, huh
Nintendo sixty four, Yeah, give me nineteen eighty one Clemson
against all comers in that game, give me Clemson versus

(01:22:22):
nineteen eighty four.

Speaker 4 (01:22:23):
What was it?

Speaker 2 (01:22:23):
Provo? They couldn't use the school names. Clemson was one
of the only ones that was the name of the
team because it's the name of the town. And my
buddy texted me the other day and he made a
statement or was asking to name the schools. I can

(01:22:48):
give it to you exactly. I actually got the phone
right here. There are three Power four Conference football teams
named after cities in which they do not actually play in.
Can you name them? And so we're kind of going
through that list, and we came up with Wake Forest
and Miami Stanford, and then Boston College plays in obviously

(01:23:19):
Chestnut Hill. But then we were talking about Clemson and
I was like, hey, is Clemson named after a city
or is the city named after Clemson. So Clemson Technically
started in eighteen eighty nine in a city named Calhoun,
and that town was known as Calhoun until nineteen forty three,

(01:23:45):
meaning that my great grandfather and grandfather, who both attended Clemson,
if they were talking to their buddies, they would have said, yeah,
I'm going back to Clemson. And somebody said, well where
is that, they would have said, well, that's in Calhoun,
South Carolina. So Clemson tech nically plays in a town
that is named after the school, and that I think

(01:24:08):
is a bigger question. What other towns are named after
the school, not schools that play in towns that are
of a different name. If you're picking up what I'm
putting down, like Auburn plays in Auburn. But was Auburn
the town there before Auburn the school. I don't know.

(01:24:32):
I'll have to do my research. Maybe i'll find out
before tomorrow. Until then, it's always I'll take care now
and go Tigers.