The "Never Gonna Pay" Edition

Swanny talks football recruiting as the Tigers look to be in an excellent spot for a top offensive line prospect. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's time for Clempson Sports Talk with Lawton Swan.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Finally, Clemson Sports Talk has come back to drive time.
Hello everybody, Lowden Swan back in the saddle once again.
It is the show that Shakes the South lay and
Clemson Sports Talk for you. Reach in every afternoon as
you make your way around the great state of South
Carolina and beyond, listening to us on incredible radio stations

(01:04):
like Fox Sports Radio fourteen under the Midlands, heard around
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Speaker 3 (01:09):
The iHeartRadio application.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Downloaded today. It's free the website, but the dot com
on it dog con it that's Clemson Sports Talk dot
com ATO three four five O zero zero eighty six.
That is your text line and phone line. And again
I appreciate each and every one of you being a
part of what we do here on a regular basis

(01:32):
on the show that Shakes to south Land. Don't forget
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mets Plumbing dot com. That's their website as well. Big

(01:53):
day yesterday for the Clemson Tigers as they secured the
commitment of twenty twenty seven four star line I'm backer
Max Brown, the brother of Sammy Brown, the former five
star prospect out of Jefferson High School over in Jefferson, Georgia.
Max Brown in the twenty twenty seven class becomes the

(02:15):
first member of the twenty twenty seven class, and today
expected Clemson to add another piece to the twenty six
recruiting class, as all indications appear to be that Leo Delaney,
offensive lineman out of Providence Day School up in Charlotte,
will be making his selection. Well, no, it's not speculating

(02:37):
that he'll be making his selection, I guess I should say,
but it feels like he'll be selecting Clemson as his
home as well, joining a teammate wide receiver Gordon Sellers,
who already committed to Clemson.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
And you know for the.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Tigers, Provadence Day School delivered a big miss with David Sanders. Well,
I won't say a big miss. That's probably not fair
because I've told the stories here on the program and
we can certainly rehash them here on the show today.
But one of the things that I at least have

(03:18):
to acknowledge is that when you are a five star
offensive lineman and you miss, that tends to be a
big deal. I will press pause and say that after
conversations with the family, and really an email exchange with

(03:43):
the family, I was pretty certain that David Sanders was
not going to be a great fit for Clemson given
the influence or influences. And it may not have just
been his parents, it may have been more people around him,
but either way, Clemson was a miss in that sense,

(04:03):
and maybe a good miss in that sense as well
for some of you when you kind of hear that
side of the story. As I said, I have never
in twenty years of doing this show, I've only had
one professional That means somebody in the business say hey,

(04:27):
I'll come on your show weekly, but you've got to
pay me. That guest has never been back home. And
then the Sanders family, which became the first ever recruit
to say here's what it would cost to interview our son,
and it wasn't a little bit. I'll tell you that

(04:51):
I've said the number before, but it wasn't a little bit.
And I was like, yeah, no, I don't care to
hear from your son, not that much. As I've always said,
I will not pay. It's the reason I haven't had
the professional who's in the business back on this show.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
I would have them on. I just wouldn't pay him.
You know, I'll have anybody on. I'm not gonna pay you.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
But David Sanders was a big time prospect now the
Providence Day School in the twenty twenty five recruiting class.
But now with Gordon Sellers already committed and the expected
commitment coming of Leo Delaney, you know, the Tigers making
some headway there in the state of North Carolina, right

(05:37):
there in Charlotte, not to mention the potential carryover that
this could have. You know, Clemson brought in You might
remember the Tigers brought in Lonnie Galloway as an offensive analyst.
Galloway's son, Griff is a twenty twenty seven defensive end

(06:04):
up at Charlotte Day School, and Griff, who is a
four star defensive end, ranks in the top two hundred
in terms of prospects in the twenty twenty seven class
and certainly could become another potential piece for this Clemson puzzle. Again,

(06:29):
who knows how long Lonnie Galloway will be there but
perhaps a bit of a pipeline that did not exist
prior to the commitment of Gordon Sellers, the four star
wide receiver. Maybe the Tigers make us some inroad at
Providence Day School, and could there be on the horizon

(06:54):
down the road even another prospect that ends up at Clemson,
this time in the twenty twenty seven class. Again, assuming
that everything with Leo Delaney goes as expected this afternoon,
and you know, Delaney had previously put out that he

(07:14):
was going to be committing I think July the eleventh,
if my memory serves me correctly on that, I'll try
to pull it up real quick. But fresh off of
a visit to Tiger Town, which, by the way, shout
out to Clemson for you know, this past season, there

(07:34):
was a lot of there were a lot of people
criticizing the kind of the showcase of the upcoming game
that Clemson did. It was like a guy with a
piece of wood burning the images on a board, and
I think people were like, what are we doing? This
feels like we're going backwards, especially given the fact that

(07:56):
Clemson had had for several years a graphic designer make
these incredible game day graphics like heading into say, say
Clemson was going to be facing South Carolina, for example,
you might see some tigers like walking into the woods,
and maybe there were some like roosters and other chickens
and stuff, maybe hanging out like, you know, doing whatever

(08:20):
roosters and chickens do in the wild, and you had
like this pack of tigers coming and then at the
end maybe there might be just some feathers there and
those tigers you could clearly see had you know, destroyed
the game cocks. And so people loved those graphics and
it was always unique with the way that whoever over

(08:43):
at Clemson's graphics department was creating them had built these things. Well,
at least for now, it looks like they brought them
back for one graphic and hopefully they'll keep them on board,
because it was a graphic that came out that Leo
Delaney tweeted before he arrived at Clemson this past weekend

(09:04):
with a car with the hatchback cracked open, several pieces
of luggage in there, and that luggage smattered with some
of the old school Clemson logos. I mean, if there's
any place to be critical of this graphic, it's probably

(09:25):
in the sea on the right side of one of
the one of the pieces of luggage looks completely fake.
But you know, other than that, I mean, really good
job with creating this graphic. And I'm sure some people
are like, man, let's keep that up. But you know,
Clemson had their their big recruiting weekend this past weekend,

(09:48):
with all of the committed prospects and about an equal
number of uncommitted prospects on campus, and certainly with Dabosweeney's
camp now underway, et ceter et cetera. I think you
can read the tea leaves on Leo Delaney, who was
down to four schools with Clemson, Penn State, Tennessee, and

(10:12):
Michigan back in late April with an announcement that July
the eleventh would indeed be the day he was going
to commit. Fresh off of a visit to Clemson, Delaney
moves up his commitment date and is now down to Clemson,
Penn State in Michigan, Tennessee being the one eliminated, and

(10:35):
of course Tennessee being the school in which, as we
mentioned a few minutes ago, that Delaney's former teammate on
the offensive line, David Sanders, committed a year ago. So
now we'll see, you know, if things hold for Delaney,
the six foot six, two hundred and ninety pounds offensive lineman,

(10:55):
interior offensive lineman. As a matter of fact, that six
foot six. One of the things that I think we've
all pretty quickly began to gather is how much Matt
Luke values size on the offensive line. Not sloppy size,

(11:16):
not uncoordinated size. I mean, he's going out and finding
offensive linemen that helped build the successful offensive lines that
he had during his short tenure at Georgia. And you know,
when you look at all the hires that Debosweeney has made,

(11:37):
I think most people, outside of the hiring of Brent
Vinnables as a defensive coordinator, I think a lot of
people look at this hiring of Matt Luke and put
it at or near the top just in terms of
what he brings to the table from the standpoint I

(12:00):
think of being a former head coach at Old Miss,
the experience that he has on the offensive line, not
to mention the fact that you know, Clemson's Clemson's culture,

(12:20):
you know, the things that Dabosweeney values allowed Matt Luke
to return to coaching at Clemson. I think families probably
the top priority for Matt Luke, and Clemson allows him
to do what he loves but also still be dad.

(12:45):
And as a matter of fact, speaking of which, twenty
twenty seven safety Harrison Luke out of the North of
Koney High School, Matt Luke's son picked up a offer
from Clemson this past week. Now, for some on that front,

(13:06):
some people said, well, here we go again. You know,
Dabo Sweeney. Some people might call that the the DW.
Daniel offer, you know what I mean, Like, these are
kids that have ties to the program getting scholarships. But
one of the things that has changed is that every

(13:29):
player now has to be on scholarship. And as foolish
as it sounds that in the past, Dabosweeney's sons would
have been on scholarship at any point, because again my
theory has always been, look, if I'm the head coach
at Clemson and my son isn't maybe scholarship worthy. Okay,

(13:54):
I don't know that any of Dabos Sweeney's sons at
any point during their career at Clemson, we're scholarship worthy.
But at some point they were gobbling up scholarships, and
Davo Sweeney was making eight million dollars a year if
unless you just can't find anybody worth giving that scholarship.

(14:16):
I can't figure out why any coach's son would ever
get a scholarship to play college football. But it doesn't
make sense. You'd be better off, in my opinion, from
a PR standpoint, as a head coach stroking a check

(14:37):
for your child to go to school and give a
scholarship to the most needy kid on the team, Like
that's better PR. But now with the situation where everybody's
got to be on scholarship it and again you're going
to what one hundred and five scholarships and Clemson is

(14:59):
one of a handful of schools. I believe that's fully
endowed those things we can I'll look into that during
the break. I got about five minutes until the break,
But just to double check on that on that front,
and I'm not talking about just football, I'm talking about
I think across the board. But Matt Luke's son Harrison,
did receive a offer from Clemson. He's a twenty twenty

(15:22):
seven defensive back. I would assume that he ends up
at Clemson unless he wants to play. Now, I have
no idea maybe this kid develops, and I would certainly
say that, you know, I haven't watched any film on him.
My assumption is that at five eleven, one hundred and

(15:44):
seventy pounds, his scholarship offer comes simply because he's Matt
Luke's son, and Matt Luke wants him to be probably
around that Clemson culture and a part of that culture,
and you can get into coaching at the end of
the day, like that's the beauty of being one of
the kids of these coaches.

Speaker 3 (16:02):
Let alone.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
Forget about the fact that in the past and now
certainly in the future, you're getting scholarships, You've got connections
some of the best inroads in the country to landing
on a coaching staff, and that's where a ton of
money is still available, much more than you would get
coming out of college and getting into a lot of businesses.

(16:27):
I mean, these guys have an inroad to future success
just being a coach, which can command at a minimum
in a lot of respect six figures. And it was
his first D one offer. And I don't have a
problem with it at all for Harrison Luke to get

(16:48):
that offer. But I think most of you would say
if Harrison Luke. Receiving an offer and landing at Clemson
meant solidifying Matt Luke as Clemson's offensive line coach for
the foreseeable future. You would say, sign me up, Swanne.

(17:09):
So there you go. Maybe a little different. And again
I could still argue that Matt Luke, given what he makes,
but he's not the head coach. But given what he
makes versus you know what Dabo Sweeney makes.

Speaker 3 (17:23):
Again, in the olden days.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
Before everybody had a scholarship, it would not make sense
to give, in my opinion, Harrison luc a scholarship. It
would not make sense for any of the Sweeney boys
to have a scholarship. As a matter of fact, it
really wouldn't make sense. I'm gonna take it one step further,
and this is gonna let's let's just pretend for a

(17:46):
second that Will Sweeney, Dabo Sweeney's first son, had been
a quarterback prospect the likes of Trevor Lawrence in the
previous iteration of college in sports, where everybody didn't have
to have a scholarship. Even though he would certainly command scholarships,

(18:11):
you'd be wise to not give him one if it
were at Clemson and he wanted to play for his dad.
You'd say, son, just come play for me. I'll stroke
the check. You'll be a walk on, and we'll use
your scholarship spot to go get a five star left tackle.
It gives us an option to add a scholarship player,

(18:35):
add an essential you know, an essential scholarship player.

Speaker 3 (18:38):
Now what I will say, and I'll tell you what.
It looks like.

Speaker 2 (18:43):
We got about a minute until the break, So I'll
tell you what when we come back. I'll tell you why.
I don't think that that's necessarily happened or I mean, obviously, look,
the Swingey boys were not Trevor Lawrence any means. But
I'll tell you why I think that it doesn't happen.

(19:05):
And maybe there's a maybe there is a in the
past before everybody had to be on scholarships. Maybe there's
an example that I just don't know about, Like maybe
Vince Dooley's son walked on and duly stroked the check
in the eighties so that his kid could play cornerback
or whatever. But I'll tell you why when we come back.

(19:27):
I don't think that in the previous iteration of college football,
where everybody did not have to have a scholarship that
I don't think it necessarily happened. I'll tell you why
I feel that way about it when we get back.
Keep it like right here on Fox Sports Radio fourteen
hundred the Buildings, and of course, you can listen to
Clipses Sports Talk around the world on the iHeart Radio application.

(19:51):
Stay with us for more of the show that shakes
the south Land. Rocking and rolling along with you on
a Wednesday afternoon, June fourth, But man, how about the weather,
Holy Molly spectacular eighty degrees the high today seventy five
this morning. When I got up nice and cool, I

(20:13):
can dig it. I can dig it aight zero three
four five zero zero eighty six. That showed the shakes
of south Land Clemson Sports Talk. Don't forget about our
friends up at Alumni Hall on the corner of campus
on College Avenue of downtown Clemson. It's Alumni Hall. Bro
You're officially licensed Clemson merchandise hats, T shirts, tailgate gear

(20:36):
and more. Go check them out today just the stones
throw away from Historic Griggs Field or online at alumni
haul dot com. Don't forget Clemson students faculty in all
military get ten percent off when shopping in store at
Alumni Hall. It's Alumni Hall where Tiger fans shop. So
I was talking about the scholarship deal, and I know

(20:57):
there's been a lot of criticism over the years of
all the guys from DW. Daniel High School that were
on the roster at Clemson. We talked about Harrison Luke,
Matt Luke son getting an offer in this new era
where everybody that's on your team is going to have
to have a scholarship. But taking it back to my
hypothetical before the break, even if Dabo Sweeney's son, if

(21:21):
his son had been as good as Trevor Lawrence, or
even was Trevor Lawrence for that matter, I could make
an argument, a valid argument, that paying your child's way
would have been valuable because you could have opened up
a scholarship to give to a potential prospect to come
in and be on the roster to help your team

(21:43):
be even more successful. And all you're doing is paying
for your child when you're making eight million dollars a
year or more now eleven or whatever daboswhen he makes now.
Either way, I think the reason that you have players
who maybe are on scholar who likely didn't deserve it.

(22:03):
Maybe that's not maybe deserves not the right word, but
my hunch is because you couldn't fill those spots anyway.
So you had eighty five scholarships as good as you.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
Wanted it to be.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
Maybe you could fill eighty of them, maybe you could
only fill seventy eight, and that left you with seven
available scholarships that are just sitting there. And you might say, well,
why don't you give them to a talented player, And
the counter to that is, there's no guarantee that player's

(22:40):
coming anyway. And maybe you did try, and maybe you
offered them all out, but you couldn't fill all of
those spots, and so players leave, there's attrition spots open,
and you go, okay, we're gonna give this kid a scholarship. Now,
I could still argue, back to the Sweeney point with
his children, that even in that scenario, if it happened

(23:02):
and you've got this one kid who's a walk on
who's paying his way to school, and you've got Sweeney's kids,
that if you were down to the last two, you
just had two people. I could make an argument that
the kid who's family's paying his way to go to
Clemson even if he's less talented than Will Sweeney, is

(23:25):
a bigger and better story to give him a scholarship
and for Sweeney to write a check. Because on game day,
when you're in the middle of a football game and
Will Sweeney goes in, that can be the storyline. Like
you can spin it positively. It doesn't just have to be, oh, well,
here comes you know, here comes Will Sweeney, son of

(23:48):
Dabosweeney into the game. You know he got a scholarship
as a junior or whatever year. I mean, the story
can be here comes Will Sweeney into the game. Even
if this other guy doesn't play much, Here comes will
Swingey into the game. You know his father wrote a check,

(24:11):
you know, pays Will's way through school. So that and
then you cut to the kid on the sideline, so
that Johnny Appleseed over here gets a free ride to
college on scholarship. That's a positive story. That's people nationally going, hey, look,

(24:32):
this guy makes ten million a year. He's paying for
his own kids to go to school, so that this
other guy can get a scholarship. How awesome is that.
I mean, that's a positive. That's a net positive for Swingey,
probably even a bigger positive than oh, his kids on
the team on scholarship. Now where everybody's going to be

(24:54):
on scholarship, all one hundred and five players. And I said,
I was going to look into this during the break
about Clemson and their you know, scholarship distribution or whatever
the terminology of that is at this point. And here's
what I can tell you. A couple of weeks ago,

(25:16):
there was an article or not an article, but a
tweet that came out from Ross Dellinger that said Texas
A and M has decided to fully fund every roster position,
increasing its total scholarship allotment by more than one hundred
and fifty. According to eighty trev Alberts, the Aggies joined Tennessee, Clemson,

(25:36):
and some other schools in completely scholarshiping each sport.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
And so.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
What I assume that means is that once all scholarship
limits are put out there, one hundred and five for football,
maybe thirty four or something for baseball, what like fifteen

(26:08):
or eighteen for basketball, whatever those numbers end up looking
like I mean, it sounds as if the plan would
be to fully fund those that it wouldn't be a
partial scholarship for baseball anymore. I mean, I could be wrong.
I could be wrong, but I think there's an argument
to be made, even for the sports that don't make money,

(26:33):
that if you're going to have a scholarship at this point,
it probably should be taken care of because I would
assume that there's going to be some litigation from players
who are not playing football and playing other sports that

(26:56):
are gonna say, I get it, my know, the the
income that we bring in from golf is not the
same as the income that's brought in from football. But
I am a scholarship athlete, and so it sounds like
maybe they're gonna look at trying to you know, fund
all of these all of these spots anyway, win a

(27:17):
quick break Again. I have no idea, but Texas A
and M joining Clemson and Tennessee and others that are
looking to scholarship every sport, Speaking of every sport, Clemson
hoops with a news announcement today. We'll tell you about
it when we return. The show that shakes the south Land,
Clemson Sports Talk on a Wednesday.

Speaker 3 (27:36):
Glad to be back. A week ago, Man All Week.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
Jury Pool, jury duty, whoof But I did my service,
So pat myself on the back. For that one, toot
my own horn to toot. So for schools that made
a bowl game, the NCAA Basketball Tournament and the NCAA
Baseball Tournament, there were only a handful from the Atlantic

(28:03):
Coast Conference Louisville, Clemson, Duke, and North Carolina. From the
Southeastern Conference Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, Ole, miss Texas, Alabama, Vandy,
and Oklahoma. That's nine schools and then just one team

(28:24):
from the Big Ten.

Speaker 3 (28:27):
Oregon. That's it.

Speaker 2 (28:30):
Those are the schools that made a bowl game, the
NCAA Basketball Tournament and the NCAA Baseball Tournament this year.
And again Big Ten. Look, it's it's rough sledding for
the Big Ten in baseball. Part of that, obviously the
geography of it all. But I mentioned Clemson basketball before

(28:56):
the break because some news came out earlier today. We've
got for you over on our website, Clemson sports Talk
dot Com that the Clemson Tiger basketball team is headed
back to msg the Mecca Madison Square Garden as Clemson
will participate in the twenty twenty five Jimmy V Classic.

(29:19):
The game time set for six thirty pm and will
air on ESPN as Clemson faces BYU. The game will
mark the first time Clemson has played in the Garden
since April first, twenty fourteen, when the Tigers played in
an NIT semi final against now fellow conference member SMU.

(29:44):
Clemson head coach Brad Brownel saying in the statement really
released from Clemson, it's a great honor to be invited
to participate in the Jimmy V Classic and help raise
funds to fight against cancer. We're excited to have the
opportunity to play a great opponent in BYU in the
world's most famous arena. We know the atmosphere in the

(30:06):
Garden will be special for our program in fans, and
we're looking forward to December the ninth. The Clemson BYU
game will also be in conjunction with Florida and Yukon,
who will follow that matchup at nine o'clock on ESPN.
It's Clemson's second appearance ever in the Jimmy V Classic,

(30:27):
which honors, of course, the late North Carolina State head
coach Jim Valvana, who died of cancer thirty two years ago.
Clemson beat Seaton Hall sixty two to fifty nine in
the nineteen ninety seven to ninety eight season in the
Jimmy V Classic, but that was actually played over in
East Rutherford, New Jersey. Now the Tigers and Cougars will

(30:50):
be playing for the third time ever, the first time
since the nineteen eighty nine to ninety basketball season, which
Clemson beat BYU in Hartford. That would of course lead
into Clemson's loss to Yukon the following week, which I
believe took place in East Rutherford, New Jersey, ironically in

(31:12):
the Meadowlands the Tate George at the Buzzer. The Tigers
have won both games, however against BYU in their history,
and Clemson is two and three all time in Madison
Square Garden. So a little Tiger hoops update for you.

(31:32):
As Clemson and BYU will face off in the Jimmy V.

Speaker 3 (31:37):
Classic.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
Tickets to the double header will go on sale this
fall according to the release, and pre sale will be
sold through Jimmy V Classic dot Com.

Speaker 3 (31:49):
And you know, I know that.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
This tournament means so much to Dick Vital and Vital
who made his return to the sidelines at Clemson.

Speaker 3 (32:07):
I think one of the things.

Speaker 2 (32:10):
That we certainly hope to witness is dick Y Tale
getting an opportunity to either work some games for this
Jimmy v Classic, because you know how much Jim Valvano
meant to Dick by Tale, let alone the fact that

(32:31):
three four weeks ago Dick by Tale announced that he
was cancer free, and as he continues to age, as
his opportunities to be in front of the camera diminish,

(32:51):
it's my hope that as long as he's around, either
A gets to work those games in New York at
the Mecca at Madison Square Garden because it's only fitting
at this point, or that during those games, and this

(33:12):
may end up being the easier, the easier option during
those games, perhaps pipe him in live from his house
at halftime to discuss cancer research, to discuss the matchup,
because much like Lee Corso, who we are on the

(33:34):
precipice of his final college game day, which will be
Week one this coming season, in an era where television drove.

Speaker 3 (33:45):
The narrative and internet research and.

Speaker 2 (33:52):
Conversations and videos and social media didn't exist, those two individuals.

Speaker 3 (33:59):
At one point.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
Point or another, I might could argue Dick Vitel for
sure felt bigger than the sport, and I would say
that Lee Corso felt on par with the biggest names
in the sport, and so that these two guys careers

(34:23):
are winding down in a it's kind of a similar timeline.
While how we view and consume sports is changing, you know,
I think that it's essential that we, you know, for
fans sake, let these guys ride off into the sunset

(34:43):
as they choose. And my hope is that as long
as Vital can do it, that he'll be a part
of the coverage of ESPN's Jimmy V Classic, which they've
done for so many years. Quick break, we'll put a
bow on our number one right after this final segment

(35:05):
of our number one on a Wednesday. So we talked
a good bit yesterday about college baseball and the wild
weekend that it was. I mean, the Atlantic Coast Conference
did start off pretty hot. The league still finished very
well the ACC with five teams remaining, with Louisville hosting

(35:29):
their super Regional against Miami one. A one ACC school
will be eliminated, but Florida State on the road at
Oregon State beginning on Friday. Good opportunity there for the Seminoles,
North Carolina hosting in Chapel Hill hosting Arizona and then
Duke of course hosting Murray State. A legitimate chance here

(35:53):
that the Atlantic Coast Conference advances half of the field
to Omaha. They very well good Land four teams in Omaha.
And the only real quote unquote upset that has to happen,
and I'm not even sure it's really an upset, would
be Florida State going out to Corvallis and beating Oregon State.

(36:18):
The Atlantic Coast Conference was cooking the acc fans against
Oklahoma up in Chapel Hill. We're chanting acc acc at
the Oklahoma faithful. The Atlantic Coast Conference went twenty one
to nine I believe this past weekend, and eight and
four against the Southeastern Conference. Of course, doesn't really matter

(36:43):
for Clemson fans, as Kentucky walloped the Tigers as one
of those losses, but for the league, as I mentioned yesterday,
the Southeastern Conference and all of the shouting from the
rooftops about how great that league was going into the postseason.
With thirteen schools making the NCAA Tournament, just four of

(37:05):
them LSU, Arkansas, Auburn, and Tennessee remain in. It puts
a big bullseye on those schools as they enter super
regional play. LSU and West Virginia in Baton Rouge. As
the Tigers will host the Mountaineers, one would expect LSU

(37:31):
would advance to the College World Series. Arkansas and Tennessee
are in a similar situation to Louisville and Miami in
that they are going to eliminate one another. Someone's not
gonna make it, which would leave only.

Speaker 3 (37:48):
Auburn.

Speaker 2 (37:50):
And I know that the Tigers are gonna have a
tough matchup with the Coastal Carolina Chanticlears. So a chance
that the Atlantic Coast Conference could end up with four
teams while the SEC at most could get three and
possibly could end up with just two. And we'll see

(38:17):
how that all shakes out over the next few days. Again,
Superregional play begins at noon on Friday in Chapel Hill,
with North Carolina and Arizona facing off on ESPN two.
At three o'clock on Friday, it'll be the Louisville Superregional
with Louisville and Miami. At six o'clock Friday, you'll get

(38:39):
the Corvallas Regional with Oregon State and Florida State. And
then at nine o'clock on Friday, you get that Auburn
Superregional running with the Auburn Tigers and the Coast of
Carolina Chanticlears. Now for your Saturday, Sunday, Monday superregionals. Superregional
play and Durham begins at one o'clock Saturday with Durham
and Murray State. It begins at two o'clock in Baton

(39:02):
Rouge with LSU in West Virginia. It begins at five
o'clock Saturday in Fayetteville with Arkansas and Tennessee. And then
seven o'clock Saturday night it'll be UCLA hosting the UTSA Roadrunners,
the University of Texas San Antonio coming out of that
Austin Regional, and that again a seven o'clock start on

(39:24):
ESPN u SO games spread out throughout throughout the weekend Friday, Saturday,
Sunday and if necessary, Monday games as well. Now, talking
about baseball and boy Clemson's regional and other regionals around

(39:46):
the country spectacularly attended spectacularly. Not so much, however, for
the Miami Marlins. In a photos circulating around social media
from their matchup with the Colorado Rockies. The Rockies and
Marlins are both terrible, but a photo just before the

(40:09):
game began circulating on social media. I mean, you can't
count every fan when you look at the photo, Like,
I don't think it's feasible to try to count every
fan in attendance. But if there's more than a thousand
people at this baseball game, I would be shocked. Now,

(40:33):
the Marlins announced that there were five, eight hundred and
ninety four fans at the ballgame. And in the photo
you certainly can't see the upper decks behind you. And
while fan support of the Marlins has been diminishing season
by season, this is one of the worst that I've

(40:59):
ever seen. I mean, it's embarrassingly bad. The baseball certainly
embarrassingly bad for really both teams. As a matter of fact,
those two teams were playing today. Miami's at the bottom

(41:20):
of the NL East at twenty three and thirty six,
just slightly better than the Pittsburgh Pirates in the NL
Central who are twenty two and thirty nine, But the
Colorado Rockies are a staggering eleven and fifty eleven and
fifty twenty two and a half games back of the

(41:44):
Los Angeles Dodgers. And boy for the Atlanta Braves faithful
who had big hopes for this season. I know things
got off to a rough start. That rough start has
continued for the Braves as they are ten games back
of the New York Mets. The Mets are thirty eight
and twenty three in the n L East, the Philadelphia

(42:04):
Phillies are thirty seven and twenty three, the Washington Nationals
twenty eight and thirty two, and then the Braves are
twenty seven and thirty two, just slightly ahead of those
terrible Miami Marlins.

Speaker 3 (42:15):
Our number two around the band. Stay with us.

Speaker 1 (42:19):
Each time for Clipson Sports Talk with Luwton Swan. He
just call me Swanny. It is our number two. That's

(43:05):
drivetime right here on the show that Shakes the South
Layd Clemson Sports tal log Swan hang out with you
on a Wednesday afternoon again a lot of moves and
the transfer portal for college baseball. It's amazing how quickly
that happens. I remember when the big concern around this
time of the year was what's gonna happen with.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
Your team when you're at the College World Series? Was
whether or not one of your stud players were gonna
be We're gonna be drafted in the Major League Baseball Draft,
Like right before he goes out to pitch in the
most significant game of the season.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
But now we've.

Speaker 2 (43:51):
Got the transfer portal and players don't have to sit,
and so pretty quickly get you get guys who jump
into the portal, and Clemson's already picked up at least

(44:12):
one last check, Alabama transfer right handed pitcher Ariston Vc
has committed to Clemson. He's a righty. He spent two
years with a Crimson Todd. He'll have two years of
eligibility remaining when he arrives at Clemson. Now from the
D two ranks, Clemson LANs Hayden Simmerson, another right handed pitcher.

(44:37):
Simmerson six foot three and eighty five pounds, was the
first team All American in All Region this past season
in the South Atlantic Conference where he was playing for Catawba.
So he'll make his way to Tiger Town and he
too would be slated to have a couple of years

(44:59):
of eligibility remaining.

Speaker 3 (45:01):
Now.

Speaker 2 (45:02):
Some Clemson players have entered the transfer portal as well,
and one of those is Clemson pitcher Ethan Darden. Darden,
who was a weekend starter at one point this season,
entered the portal. He's a lefty, but he was injured
for the majority of the season, and he joins Jackson

(45:25):
Cole and Luke Brown, two other Tigers who have entered
the portal. And I did see a little note on
social media speaking of the portal. Former Clemson infielder who
transferred to South Carolina, Nolan no Rocki, announced he would
be entering the transferred portal as well.

Speaker 3 (45:46):
And I'm sure game cognation.

Speaker 2 (45:49):
I mean, look, I know what's going on at Clemson
with the portal and the number of guys that get in,
I've got to imagine South Carolina fans quite concerned about
the number of players that could potentially be transferring out there.
So again, we'll continue to try to keep you updated

(46:11):
on all of that information as the portal, as the
portal turns, so to speak. But I'll tell you where
the portal does not turn. The portal does not turn
fans away from Savannah Banana games and credit. I will
give undue credit to West Virginia, and really, I guess

(46:33):
maybe one of their fans or somebody in their fan base.
I don't think it was their official department. But remember
Clemson played the Savannah Bananas last year in a exhibition game,
not the Savanna Bana's filling up Death Valley with eighty
thousand people. It was an exhibition game at Doug Kingsmore Stadium,
where they slammed the place and there were some dances

(46:56):
at some little routines and things in Clemson was a
big part of that area back at you might remember
most notably walking out in the early goings and ripping
his shirt off and the fans going crazy and just
having a good time celebrating what is.

Speaker 3 (47:12):
A It's an.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
Event unlike any other at this point, it's a phenomenon
the Savannah Bananas.

Speaker 3 (47:21):
Well, kudos to the West Virginia Mountaineers.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
And look they didn't it wasn't like they beat Clemson
in the final game, right because the Tigers had gotten
beaten by Kentucky. But they did beat Clemson en route
to winning the regional at Clemson. But their colors and
Savannah Banana's colors are identical, I mean, for the most part,

(47:48):
yellow and blue. And so somebody remixed a video from
that Savannah Banana Clemson baseball game and they put the
heads of a couple of West Virginia players on there,
and they were dancing, you know, and having a good
time with Clemson players obviously being in the backdrop of

(48:11):
that because of that matchup with the Savannah Bananas. But
the Bananas sold out Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte twice,
one hundred and fifty thousand people. One hundred and fifty
thousand people going to witness the Savannah Bananas this weekend

(48:38):
in Charlotte, and when they played at Clemson in front
of eighty five thousand and set their all time attendance.
Mark I said at the time, we were kind of
talking about the entire.

Speaker 3 (48:56):
Show of it all.

Speaker 2 (48:59):
And while I think it has long term appeal, I
think that they have the ability to kind of mimic
what you saw from the Harlem Globetrotters for many, many years.

(49:21):
I think because of the competitive play, unlike the Globe Trotters,
I think that this thing has a chance to really
last in the you know, for fans. I think there
comes a point when you're in a Harlem Globe Trotter
game where you go, man, this is just this is

(49:42):
just a comedy act with a little basketball mixed in.
I feel the opposite with the Savannah Bananas because they've
created a competitive game and even though that game is
structured and scored differently than a regular baseball game. I

(50:04):
don't necessarily think that this becomes what maybe the Globetrotters did,
and whether or not I'm rethinking sort of how I
felt about it at one time or not.

Speaker 3 (50:16):
You know, I like Wringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey circus.

Speaker 2 (50:20):
When it existed in the way it did when we
were growing up or when I was little, still, you
had to at least go see it once.

Speaker 3 (50:32):
At most.

Speaker 2 (50:33):
As a child you would probably see it twice, and
then as a parent you might take your kids to
see it once or twice. So it was an event
that most people would probably see maybe four times in
their life. It would take you'd have to be a
pretty unique bird, so to speak, to go see that
thing more than that, in my opinion. Now, as for

(50:59):
say the globe Trotters kind of the same thing, you
might see it twice in your kid, maybe once or
twice in you're an adult, and maybe the bananas fall
into that category. But I think because there's there's more
competitiveness to it than what the Globetrotters gave you, I

(51:22):
think it could be something that you see more than that,
and if they keep playing huge venues where they can
get seventy five thousand people in, if they can keep
the ticket price, like if they're playing at their home
stadium and they want to have the prices jacked up
because there's not a huge venue.

Speaker 3 (51:42):
That's one thing.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
But I think these guys in the ability to go
around to huge stadiums and sell it out and have
a good time, I think they can get the price
point where more and more people are gonna be able
to afford to go and enjoy it. And you know,
I think this is not just gonna be some fly
by night operation. The other thing that I would wonder

(52:04):
about with it is and I know they've got the
other few teams, the firefighters and the party animals, and
you know whatever the other one is. I I understand
that the bananas are the big entity. But it wouldn't
surprise me. I told you how I love the scoring,

(52:25):
in the pace of play, etc. It wouldn't surprise me
in the least if you saw them like have a
couple of squads, a couple of banana squads, and have
one group of bananas playing here in Charlotte and another
group of bananas playing at the same time in in

(52:47):
Los Angeles. Like, I don't think there's a reason that
it just has to be.

Speaker 3 (52:54):
One group.

Speaker 2 (52:55):
And that might be the thing that you really see
in the future, is that maybe they have say eight teams,
four sets of bananas, four sets of opponents, and they're
running that show all over the country, and I think
a lot of people would go see it because it's fun,

(53:15):
it's competitive.

Speaker 3 (53:16):
Et cetera.

Speaker 2 (53:17):
A zero three, four five, zero zero eighty six. That
is the text line and the phone line.

Speaker 3 (53:22):
Don't forget.

Speaker 2 (53:23):
You could be a part of the program anytime, any place, anywhere,
and we'd love to have you participate. You can leave
us a message, we'll play it on the air. And
you know, all this baseball talk. One of the disappointing
things this, you know, with the baseball season concluding for Clemson.
You know, cam Canerella, much like Seth Beer, never got

(53:44):
a chance to play in Omaha. And I think there
are probably players statistically that were or better than cam Canerella,

(54:04):
but I don't know if there were players statistically. His
career doesn't necessarily have to be done either at Clemson,
by the way, I mean, he he could come back
for another year. He could, but he is a top
prospect for the MLB draft, the junior out of Heartsville.
But here's what I'll say about cam Canerella Statistically, I'm

(54:28):
I don't know where his numbers bear out versus the
greatest players in the history of Clemson. But I will
say this, I can't think of a better player in
big moments than cam Canerella. For his career, in seven

(54:50):
hundred and twenty eight at bats, he got two hundred
and sixty two hits. That's good for a three sixty
batting average. He had fifty four doubles and eight triples
in his career, with twenty three home runs, one hundred

(55:10):
and fifty nine RBIs, and an unknown I can't I
won't say countless, but he had an unknown amount of
incredible grabs at the wall. Eric Backet you heard him
talking about cam Canerella and the fact that he felt

(55:32):
like cam Canerella was perhaps the best center fielder in
the country. And I could be wrong, but I think
I'd have to go back and check his audio. I
think he might have said the best center fielder to
play college baseball. Now that might be quite a stretch,
and maybe he meant to be playing college baseball this year.

(55:55):
But in MLB drafts, more and more you are seeing
or mock draft you are seeing Cam Canerella being picked,
if not in the first round, pretty early in the
second round. I recently saw a mock draft that had
cam Canerella going fortieth overall, which I believe that pick's

(56:17):
currently held by the Los Angeles Dodgers. I think part
of the issue with Cam if he falls off at all,
comes down to the arm strength that he's got.

Speaker 3 (56:30):
Most of the.

Speaker 2 (56:30):
Experts would grade him as having a below average arm
at this point, and I think because of the shoulder
surgery that he had and the limited number of times
he really took a chance at throwing anybody out with

(56:52):
gusto so to speak, after that is maybe the one
bright spot that could bring him back in this era
where you can actually make some money playing collegiately. Again,
it's hard to turn down guaranteed money if you are
drafted in the major leagues. I know everybody understands that fact.

(57:19):
But with the big moments that he had, the electrifying plays,
I think most people would say, regardless of if he
returns or goes pro, he's probably created an aura that's

(57:40):
big enough to say, hey, that guy. That guy should
have his number retired at Clemson. And that's the situation
that I think will have to be debated by, you know,
the the most important names in the Clemson room, because

(58:06):
it's hard for me to pick someone that kind of
carried a bigger impact in recent memory than cam Canerella.
And that includes Seth Beer, who his name is retired.
And Seth Beer obviously was a National Player of the Year,
and cam Canerella does not have that accolade much like

(58:28):
another guy who's out there who was a National Player
of the Year, Khalil Green. So you know, for me,
I would I think cam Canerella probably did enough to
deserve it if he comes back, it's a no brainer.
I Again, I don't know where his totals stack up

(58:50):
historically at Clemson by comparison to the other great players,
but he was consistent during his entire career. Uh he
he had a what's the right word, kind of had
a swagger about him, you know, as a kind of

(59:12):
a smaller guy, but you couldn't measure the size of
his heart, and you knew every time that he went
out there you were gonna get the best from cam Canerella.
So good luck to cam for sure, he's the number
two rated ACC prospect or was the number two rated

(59:35):
ACC prospect in the preseason by D one Baseball. And
of course the arm is the one issue, the lingering
issue surrounding Cam Canerella. By the way, final thing here
in this segment, I know, I know that you know.

(59:57):
On Monday, we talked with William Qualkinbush, but he tweeted
out this stat. Eight of the sixteen teams in college
baseball that hosted this past weekend who had a twenty
plus percent strikeout rate, I mean they strike out twenty
plus percent of the time. Of those eight teams, six

(01:00:17):
of them were eliminated. Vandy, Texas, Georgia, Ole, Miss and
Clemson all strike out twenty plus percent of the time
or more across the board. The only teams that strike
out at that same type clip that are still in

(01:00:41):
the tournament Oregon State, who is exactly at twenty percent,
Arkansas who was at twenty one percent, and Florida State,
who was at twenty one point two percent. As a
matter of fact, if you were at twenty one and
a half percent or more strikeout rate twenty one and

(01:01:04):
a half, all of those teams were eliminated if they
were a host school in the opening weekend.

Speaker 3 (01:01:15):
That's incredible.

Speaker 2 (01:01:16):
So maybe the right terminology is not that you've got
to be better at the plate, but you have to
put the ball in play at the plate. You can
get out three times in the game, just don't get
out three times by striking out, because one of those

(01:01:40):
outs might advance a runner there, you know what I mean,
some positive result might come from it. I'm not sure. Again,
I'm no baseball officionado. I can't think of a whole
lot that's ever been positive for a team from a strikeout.
And the teams that hosted that struck out more than

(01:02:03):
twenty one and a half percent of the time this season,
all of them were eliminated in the opening week Opening weekend.

Speaker 3 (01:02:11):
All right, quick break.

Speaker 2 (01:02:12):
When we come back, we'll take a look at what's
the head or what's ahead for college baseball. Right after this,
Clemson Sports saw the show of the Shakes of Southland.
Lawton Swaney now with you again. We talked about super
Regional play is its forthcoming this weekend again? Things get
going at noon on Friday on ESPN two. That Chapel

(01:02:32):
Hill Regional between North Carolina and Arizona. Then at three
o'clock on ESPN two, it'll be the Louisville Super Regional
with the Cardinals and the Miami Hurricanes. At six o'clock
in cor Vallas, it'll be Oregon State in Florida State
on ESPN two, and then the Auburn Superregional. I think
that's one of the most intriguing ones, Auburn hosting Coastal

(01:02:54):
Carolina nine o'clock ESPN two on Friday. Then your Saturday
Superregional play. Again, these are the teams that begin on Saturday. Obviously,
the aforementioned teams I just talked about will play on
Saturday as well, but for those game one matchups. In
super Regional play, the Durham Super Regional gets underway at

(01:03:14):
one pm on the ESPNU between Duke and Murray State.

Speaker 3 (01:03:18):
On Saturday.

Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
At two o'clock, the Baton Rouge Super Regional gets underway
on the ESPN with LSU and West Virginia. At five o'clock,
the Fayetteville Superregional gets underway between Arkansas and Tennessee on ESPN,
and then the Los Angeles Superregional between UCLA and UTSA
seven pm on ESPNU on Saturday. So that's all the

(01:03:41):
game one start times for super regional play, And of
course you can't really talk about Coastal Carolina and not
mention what happened at their superregional or excuse me, their
regional where the Florida Gators and Kevin O'Sullivan specifically, Kevin

(01:04:04):
O'Sullivan got perturbed about the moving of the start time
between their matchup and East Carolina, and in doing so,
in being frustrated, Kevin O'Sullivan was going around the facility.
Will read a statement from Florida in just a minute

(01:04:25):
on all of this. But Kevin O'Sullivan was going around
the facility, the site coordinator, etc. And according to reports,
was cussing and was, you know, really upset about the
way it all.

Speaker 3 (01:04:41):
Shook out.

Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
Well, at some point along the way, Coastal Carolina's head
baseball coach found out about it. And you know, I
don't know if it was the site rep or if
just somebody in the athletic department a learned to the
behavior and the way that Kevin O'Sullivan was acting. And

(01:05:07):
here's Kevin Schnall, head coach of the shot to clears
talking about that after the fact.

Speaker 4 (01:05:15):
One last thing I have is I have to say this,
and I don't know if I'm supposed to say this
or not, but I believe in standing up for what's right.
And what transpired this morning on our field another coach
disrespected our associate AD, who works as hard as anybody

(01:05:36):
in our entire program. He disrespected our field crew, who
are the salt of the earth. These guys would do
anything for our program. It's not okay, and this needs
to be brought up. Absolutely disrespectful. As a coach, it's
our job to mentor young kids, and the way he

(01:05:59):
treated the two site reps, the way he treated our
associate ad, the way he treated our field crew, absolutely unacceptable.
And I'm really that's what I'm most disappointed about this.
A national champion coach who thinks he can come in

(01:06:22):
here and try to bully people around. Disappointed, Disappointed somebody
that a lot of coaches look up to for him
to act that way. Really disappointed. He disrespected a Hall
of fame coach who's the site rep here.

Speaker 5 (01:06:44):
That's all I got to say.

Speaker 3 (01:06:47):
Again.

Speaker 2 (01:06:48):
Kevin Schnall, head coach of Coast of Carolina, pretty perturbed
about the whole situation. After the fact, Florida had an
apology for quote unacceptable actions at the NCUBA regional. Kevin
O'Sullivan and athletics director Scott Strickland apologized for O'Sullivan's profane

(01:07:09):
rant towards a NCUBLEA baseball official during that Conway Regional.
On Sunday, Florida was angry that the elimination game. Their
elimination game against East Carolina had been pushed back an
hour due to Saturday's East Carolina Coastal game ending really late.

(01:07:33):
The Gators end up losing the game to East Carolina
eleven to four, ending their season at thirty nine and
twenty two. After the game, O'Sullivan declined comments, saying that
he had quote handled things the right way. But then
on Monday this week, he issued a lengthy apology, saying, quote,

(01:07:55):
I'll let my emotions get the best of me in
channel that energy in a way I should not have.
I want to sincerely apologize for my actions and behavior
to the entire NCAA regional field of Coastal Carolina, East Carolina,
and Fairfield, the NCAA, including site representative Rick French and
Mark Scoff, as well as all of Gator Nation. I
did not represent the University of Florida to the appropriate

(01:08:18):
standard yesterday, and I take full responsibility for that and
promise to learn from this experience to be better moving forward.
I'm sorry for allowing this instance to get away to
get in the way of an otherwise great weekend of
postseason baseball. Strickland Athletic director weighed in, calling the actions
quote unacceptable, saying, this afternoon, I met with Kevin O'Sullivan

(01:08:41):
and told him that his actions fell well short of
the expectations of how Gators treat people. One of our
department's core values is respect, and Coach O'Sullivan Coach O'Sullivan's
unacceptable actions failed to demonstrate that on behalf of Florida Athletics.
I want to personally apologize to everyone in acted, including
NCAA representatives, Coastal Carolina and their staff, East Carolina and

(01:09:05):
their team, as well as to Gator Nation. So the
videos that are out there of Kevin O'Sullivan ranting and
raving made their way around the Internet and enough people
close enough in proximity to hear what was being said. Ultimately,
the foul language comes back to bite O'Sullivan in the butt,

(01:09:28):
much like a situation with the Wake forest Head coach
during their matchup with Tennessee. We won't dive into that
one here on the air, but feel free to take
a gander online if you have some time to find
out why Wake forest Head coach was dealing with some
issues as well. Stay with us Clemson Sports TALKLAWT and

(01:09:52):
Swan with you on Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred.

Speaker 3 (01:09:54):
We are also on.

Speaker 2 (01:09:55):
The iHeartRadio app, and you can find the show and
our content on Clemsonsports Salt dot com. You can follow
us on our social media accounts. We're on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.
We are where you are with the show that Shakespare
Southland and don't forget if you visit our website, some

(01:10:17):
of the advertisers that we have here on the air
are also on the web. But you might see Alumni
Hall and if you see Alumni Hall's website there, visit
it alumni Hall dot com. You go through the link
on our page and you buy something online, we'll get
a little credit for that. But maybe you're up in Tigertown.
They're right there on the corner of Campus on College
Avenue in downtown Clemson. Get your officially licensed Clemson merchandise, hats, hats,

(01:10:43):
t shirts, easy for me to say, tailgate gear, and more.
Don't forget about the fact that if you are a
Climpson student, faculty member, or in the military and you
are in store, you get ten percent off your purchases.
And don't forget to ask them about their Alumni Hall
rewards past program. Now a lot of you Tiger fans
are going to want to be buying that NCAA football game.

(01:11:04):
I don't think Alumni Hall will have it. Maybe they will,
but either way, did you see who's in the game?
You know EA Sports. You know that EA Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:11:16):
Mantra EA Sports.

Speaker 5 (01:11:18):
It's in the game.

Speaker 2 (01:11:20):
Well in this version, the new version of college football,
which just came back out, remember after being away for
a decade, EA Sports. College football is back and coaches
are now in the game. Dabo Sweeney confirmed to be

(01:11:45):
in the game. Garrett Riley and Tom Allen, Clemson offensive
coordinator and defensive coordinator, will also be in the game.
According to Clemson's Twitter account, some other coaches are in
the game. I can tell you that Matt Ruhle at
Nebraska has signed up. He'll be in the game. Also,

(01:12:11):
Dan Mullen at UNLV and his new gig. He's in
the game. Former Clubson Tiger head coach Tony Elliott in Virginia,
He's gonna take a shot and be in the game.
We've also got confirmation that Eddie George, new head coach
at Bowling Green, will be in the game. So the

(01:12:36):
former Ohio State Buckeye running back Eddie George, who's now
taking over collegiately, has decided that he'll be in the game.
Lane Kiffin gonna be in the game. James Franklin at
Penn State and his assistance in the game. Rich Rodriguez
at Texas A and M in the game. Mike Elko

(01:12:57):
at Texas A and M in the game. I didn't
see Shane Beemer. I'll try to double check real quick,
just kind of going through the list, but coaches are
signing on to be in EA Sports College Football the
twenty twenty six I guess version Ryan Day, Mike Norvel,

(01:13:21):
Josh Heipel, and I saw where kay Klubnick went to
Florida to get some face scans done, and you know,
he'll obviously be in the game as a player. But
we are seeing more and more realism. I guess you'd
call it put into the game because of this. Now,

(01:13:42):
I did, like I say, I did not see Shane Beemer.
It's quite possible he's in and I just missed it,
but did want to get that out there that yeah, coaches,
now it's not just going to be generic head coach,
real coaches, real coaches will be in the game. And

(01:14:03):
I know Tiger fans are excited about it, especially given
I mean, I would say the expectations of this Clemson
Tiger wide out class or not class, but this Clemson
Tiger wide out room, you know, with Antonio Williams, with
TJ Moore and also Bryant westco I think one of

(01:14:24):
the things that when you think about, like missing the
years of Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence because EA Sports
wasn't producing a game. I mean, the quarterback is is big,
don't get me wrong, but I could tell you in
EA Sports college football for years, great wide receivers are

(01:14:47):
the real difference makers in that game. Like I never
will forget, I was playing in a league with my
nephews years ago and one of the things that you
know you do in that game is recruit and I
would go out and try to find I don't need
the most skilled wide receiver, just give me a rangy,

(01:15:10):
fast wide receiver. And I did and found one, and
that six foot five wide out that could run a
four to four was dominant in the game. Now, the
mechanics and everything that goes into EA sports college football
certainly has gotten better so that little things like that

(01:15:34):
are minimized and it's not almost what you would call
like a glitch where you could pretty much drop back
and just wait and wait and find a guy wide open.

Speaker 3 (01:15:43):
Like that.

Speaker 2 (01:15:43):
They've done a good job of making the game more difficult.
But speed and height at wide receiver is a big deal,
and Clemson's got that this year. And I know everybody's
going to focus on the three guys I mentioned before.
Max Chadwick of ball Focusing, Clemson's trio of wide receivers
is about as good as you'll find in the country.

(01:16:05):
Other people out there comparing them when you talk about
the top wide receiving cores in the nation, Ohio State, Clemson, Ole,
Miss Alabama. I mean, those are the names that are
getting thrown around when you talk about the top wide
out groups in America, and from Clemson's standpoint. You know,

(01:16:27):
I think one of the things that's really underrated about
the Tigers is the depth and a guy like Tyler
Brown and his ability to impact the game for Clemson
this year as a healthy wide receiver. And so I
think for everybody that's kind of zeroed in on those

(01:16:50):
three big names, one of the biggest keys has been
the health of wide outs in recent memory. And if
you can get a healthy colt, if a transfer like
Tristan Smith that sixty five hundred and five pounds can
have a big impact me. This group, Williams, Moore, Brown,
West co Smith, it's a very very talented group, maybe

(01:17:16):
the most talented whiteout group you've had at Clemson in
several years. All right, quick break, we'll put a ball
on the show right after this. Stay with us.

Speaker 5 (01:17:26):
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 answers to the questions
what have you done for me lately? And what have
you done?

Speaker 3 (01:17:45):
Always are the same.

Speaker 5 (01:17:52):
We win.

Speaker 2 (01:18:39):
Final segment on a Wednesday, hard to Believe Man Midweek
in the books, NBA Championship Series begins tomorrow the Oklahoma
City Thunder in the Indiana Pacers. Not many people probably
had that on their bingo card. And like I said

(01:18:59):
a couple of weeks ago, remember I was away last
week for jury duty.

Speaker 3 (01:19:03):
I don't know that.

Speaker 2 (01:19:04):
I'm not sure how long it's gonna take me to
put that in the rear view, spending the first week
of summer cooped up on the jury. But I gotta say,
this Oklahoma City team is scary because of how young
they are. And if you look at the youngest rosters

(01:19:28):
in the NBA, the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Washington
Wizards are two of the youngest, the Wizards just slightly
under Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City's average age is twenty four

(01:19:48):
years and fifty eight point five eight, so just over
twenty four and a half years. The Washington Wizards are
at twenty three point six So the Wizards are the
only the only team in the NBA younger than Oklahoma City. Now,
how about on the flip side of that, the oldest

(01:20:10):
rosters in the NBA the Philadelphia seventy six ers, with
an average age of twenty eight point three to one
years old. The Phoenix, Suns, the Clippers, and I know
everybody's like hoping, where's Los Angeles?

Speaker 3 (01:20:27):
Sowannee, where are the Lakers.

Speaker 2 (01:20:30):
Not in the top ten? The Lakers aren't as old
as you would think, even with Lebron James on the team.
But the NBA Finals do get underway. Oklahoma City, who
was the top team in the NBA all year, versus
the Indiana Pacers, who knocked off the New York Knicks.

Speaker 3 (01:20:53):
In six games.

Speaker 2 (01:20:54):
Ironically, the New York Knicks fired Tom Thibodeau, their head coach,
yesterday after getting to the Eastern Conference Finals. Now there
are there is belief that part of this is about

(01:21:18):
potentially trying to acquire Kevin Durant and feeling like Tom
Thibodeau and Durant would butt heads and maybe and maybe
they would, But if you've been around this program long enough,
you know what I think about Kevin Durant. And even

(01:21:40):
though he got a couple of titles with the Golden
State Warriors back in twenty seventeen to twenty eighteen at
thirty six years old, given the minimal amount of team
success that he's had in his career, not even visual success.

(01:22:01):
Fifteen time NBA All Star, six time All NBA First Team,
two time All Star MVP. Like we could talk about
all the individual accolades, but he was a flop in
Brooklyn from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty three. He's a
flop with Phoenix since twenty twenty three. And I just

(01:22:25):
for me, if if it were okay, you're gonna fire
your head coach to go try to land Kevin Durant,
and that might that may not necessarily be.

Speaker 3 (01:22:35):
Why.

Speaker 2 (01:22:35):
It may be that maybe they just don't think Tom
Thibodeau can push them to that next step, which would
be into the NBA Finals, although he used a couple
of wins away from it. As a matter of fact,
Rick Carlisle, head coach of the Indiana Pacers, thought it
was a fake news story when he saw it come
across the line. And according to other reports, the Knicks

(01:22:57):
are interested in Jason Kidd and Emodoka. The Knicks have
made trades to put themselves in this position, getting Karl
Anthony Towns, getting mikel Bridges, and in their message that
they put out, they said, quote, our organization is singularly

(01:23:18):
focused on winning a championship for our fans and sources
around the league believe that the thought process by the
ownership team in New York is that Thibodeau was not
going to be able to get the New York Knicks
to the next level, that the team needs a new

(01:23:40):
voice in order to lift them to the NBA Championship.
And look, he was on the cusp, but they don't
want to waste any more time. And I think part
of that is because Karl Anthony town is rapidly aging.

(01:24:00):
Thibodeau's been in the league for many, many years, but
as a head coach, dating back to twenty ten when
he took over with the Chicago Bulls. He also spent
some time with the Minnesota Timberwolves before landing in New
York back in twenty twenty. But five years in, tom
Thibodeau now out at New York and again. The NBA

(01:24:21):
Playoffs begin tomorrow night at eight point thirty as the
Oklahoma City Thunder take on the Indiana Pacers for all
the marbles in the NBA. All right, we'll be back
to discussing more tomorrow. Until then, as always, you'll take
care now, Andy, Go Tigers.