The "Notre Dame Quits" Edition

After being left out of the playoffs, a 10-2 Notre Dame team hangs up its cleats for the 2025 season.

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Now finally.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Clemson Sports Talk has come back to drive time. Hell everybody,
Lowton Swan back in the saddle once again. It is
the show that shakes the South. Lay Clympson Sports Talk
for you every afternoon as you make your way around
the great state of South Carolina and beyond, listening to
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(01:07):
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the dot com on a dog gone it. That's Clemson
Sports tal dot com of course, to show the shakes
of South lambrought to you in part by our good
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two six seven one o eight. That's Mettz Plumbing two

(01:29):
to six seven ones zero eight. All right out of
the gates on a Monday. Thank you for a couple
of days away. I appreciate the opportunity to rest assultry
tones and I'm not gonna lie at this point they
do feel much better, so I've hydrated. But I think
taking a couple of days off has also helped out. Nonetheless,

(01:51):
we did have the conference championship game weekend and then
the controversy surrounding Notre Name and much more coming out
over the past twenty four or forty eight hours, including
Clemson now with their opponent and destination as the Tigers

(02:11):
and the Nitney Lions will face off in the Pin
Stripe Bowl Clemson and Penn State. If you told me
these two teams are going to be meeting in the
postseason at the beginning of the year, I would have
most certainly thought that they would have been matched up
in the college football playoff. And if you told me
a week ago that Notre Dame was going to be

(02:33):
not playing in the postseason, I would have been stunned.
But that's where we are. The Fighting Irish left out
of the playoffs, and then the fighting Irish take their
ball and go home setting I think a terrible example
for a multitude of reasons, which we can get into
in a little bit. I know the I know the
Golden domers who are listening to the show will say

(02:56):
that I am wrong, and that's fine, But I still
think that there is tremendous value in bowl games and
the opportunities for younger players, and Notre Dame is not
the first team to be to be surpassed to feel

(03:17):
slighted by the College Football Playoff selection committee, but they
have done something unprecedented for a team that is ten
and two and would have been facing off, by the
way with BYU in the pop Tarts Bowl, So it
would have been arguably outside of the college football playoff games,
the most entertaining bowl game because of what the pop Tarts,

(03:44):
you know what pop Tarts and the Citrus Bowl group
have put on there to create a fantastic event, and
then two of the top teams throughout the year would
have been matched up there. And I just you know
the thing that Bob, It's kind of like the situation
with Florida State in Georgia. And I know Florida State

(04:05):
got left out and went took a shell of a
squad basically and got tattooed by Georgia a couple of
years ago, and I was critical of them in terms
of not being able to get their players to show
up to play, and I will continue to be critical
of teams they can't get their players to show up

(04:26):
to play, especially the numbers that Florida State had especially
given the fact that they could have finished the year undefeated.
But you know, Florida State could have also finished the
year undefeated by just not going and playing in a
bowl game as well. They could have done what Notre
Dame did. They could have sat it out. But we'll
come back to that, because let's talk about what did
happen and how we got down this path First and foremost,

(04:52):
the opening contest on Saturday was a rematch of a
game earlier in this season between Texas Tech and BYU
in the Big twelve championship game. Both teams entered at
eleven to one, with BYU's only loss coming earlier in

(05:13):
the season to Texas Tech. Texas Texas Tech's only lost
was a twenty six to twenty two loss to Arizona
State about seven games or so into the season. All right,
so the first time these two teams played just a
few short weeks ago. I can't remember the date of
that game. Let me go back real quick and double
check it. That was November the eighth, so exactly a

(05:36):
month ago. These two teams met up and Texas Tech
won at home twenty nine to seven, so a twenty
two point margin. In the first meeting. Then in the
second meeting in the conference championship game, neutral Syite game
out in Dallas, thirty four to seven. The final score,
Texas Tech wins. And it was convincing. And for people

(05:59):
wondering about y BYU dropped and say Alabama, who also lost,
we'll get to that on them in a minute, didn't
to me. That was because twice in the same season
Texas Tech beat BYU by a substantial margin. And I
will add to that fact that BYU wasn't necessarily in

(06:25):
the playoffs to begin with because of the format, so
it wasn't like they were left out, they just dropped back.
I don't really have a huge issue with what happened
with BYU. All right, flip to the midday game Georgia
and Alabama, and this one has some legitimate controversy. Georgia

(06:49):
wallops Alabama twenty eight to seven. The game was not
even close. The box scar takes the box score takes
it even further, and it is a scar. And that's
scar is the negative three yards rushing that Alabama had
in that ballgame. Now, negative twenty eight of those came
with ty Simpson their quarterback, but negative three yards rushing

(07:13):
and just seven points scored by Alabama, those seven points
coming in the fourth quarter after they were already down
twenty one to nothing, and Georgia controlled that game from
start to finish. Now, Alabama did not drop in the
release of the College Fotball Playoff rankings. More on that

(07:35):
in a minute. My thought though, was that Alabama went
into Athens earlier this year and won that game, and
because they won against Georgia in Athens, this game for
Alabama was less of a loss, in more of a wash,

(07:58):
almost as if an over time almost a tie, you
went one in one in the season series against one another. Now,
should Alabama have possibly dropped, I would I honestly would
not have had a problem if Alabama if Alabama had
dropped in the College Football Playoff rankings. But either way,

(08:18):
what we saw to me was Alabama get dominated by Georgia.
But I know that Alabama can beat Georgia because I've
actually seen it, and I think that's what the committee
sort of took into account when it came down to
those games this past weekend. Then in the nightcap you

(08:41):
had two ball games, you had Indiana and Ohio State
and Duke in Virginia. Duke is the reason that we
are sitting where we are today because Duke led twenty
to ten against Virginia late in the game. Shout out
to the Cavaliers forgetting that game to overtime. They tie

(09:02):
it up. They put together I think it was a
ninety six yard scoring drive with a brilliant touchdown reception
to tie the ballgame. My son said to me, Dad,
should they go for two? Looking back on it, I
think maybe that would have been the better move there.
But if you're Virginia in that moment, you kind of
feel like you're the better team. And so they go

(09:23):
to overtime. Duke scores and on the scoring play, they
went for it. On fourth down, they risk it for
the biscuit. Ran a great play, just had Mensa keep
rolling to the right, had a little option route underneath,
saw another guy on the backside, and threw it back
across his body a little bit to a wide open
tight end for the touchdown. The bad part was a

(09:47):
Virginia player hit Mensa and he goes to the ground.
I thought it was a little I thought it was
a little bit of drama, a little bit of acting,
if you will, But guess what the acting paid off
fifteen yard penalty. That meant Virginia had to start from
the forty. They run a little razzle dazzle opening play
and Chandler Morse throws an interception, unfortunately, and that ends

(10:12):
the ballgame over on Fox. Though, Ohio State in Indiana
played a spectacular game and look low scoring but still good. Nonetheless,
and Indiana holds on. As a matter of fact, they
held on. They took their thirteen to ten lead with
eight oh two left in the third quarter. Eight oh

(10:38):
two left in the third quarter, and Ohio State could
not muster a scoring drive. A short chip shot in
miss field goal at Lucas Oil Stadium cost Ohio State
the number one seed. I don't know that that's necessarily
a bad thing for Ohio State with the way this
thing ended up shaking out Indiana, though, your lone undefeated

(11:00):
team and the number one team in the college football
playoff rankings. And that's where we begin today taking a
look at the rankings again. I have an article on
clemsonsports saw dot com. It's a little bit down the
page right now about the future. Well not maybe not,
it's probably in the front five articles, but the future

(11:22):
of college football and why the beauty pageant era must end,
and that would, without a doubt, that would have eliminated
the situation that we just saw with Notre Dame because
in my scenario, Notre Dame is in a league, and
if Notre Dame is in a league, they are not

(11:43):
left out. And people say, but what about BYU And
I will tell you if Notre Dame were in a
league with a ten to two record and had gone
to a conference game and played, and it had been
in the rankings before the final release, even with a loss,
if they were squarely in, I don't think they fall out.

(12:07):
And I quite frankly don't think Notre Dame loses to
Virginia in the AEC championship game if that's where they are.
I tweeted this yesterday, you know, and this is the
whole the mentality that Notre Dame has where they've basically
taken their ball and they've gone home. But you chose

(12:30):
to live on this island, Notre Dame. You chose it.
So I'm not shocked that you're taking your ball and
going home. Because in the single year during COVID, when
you needed people, you felt like you needed people, you
were willing to join the conference. You joined the AEC
and played, and you took advantage of it. You took

(12:52):
advantage of it. Well, guess what, you could have done
the same this year, and you could have done the
same last year, and any other year you could have
done it. You could have joined the league. But you've
chosen to live on an island. That's who you've always been.
And when you live on an island, you die on
an island. And guess what, that's where they died. They

(13:17):
died on the island. And so Notre Dame left out
and then proceeds to take their ball and goes home,
calling the rankings a farce and they will not be
playing in the postseason. But what does the college football

(13:41):
playoff look like? Well, I mentioned Indiana the number one
overall seed based off of their victory thirteen to ten
over Ohio State. This weekend, the Hoosiers are in the
Rose Bowl awaiting the winner of number eight Oklahoma and
number nine Alabama, a rematch of a game that we
saw earlier this year. That's something that we see right

(14:05):
now in this college football playoff. That matchup was actually
less than a month ago. Back on November the fifteenth,
a twenty three to twenty one victory by Oklahoma on
the road at Alabama. This game the return trip, if
you will, for the Crimson Todd. Alabama enters as a

(14:26):
one and a half point favorite, and I feel like
for Indiana, based off of what I'm going to be
telling you here in a minute, I think they probably
got the worst drawl given the fact that they are
the number one overall seed. Above them in their portion
of the bracket is the four seed Texas Tech, who
is on a buy. Texas Tech will face the winner

(14:48):
of number five Oregon and a group of five member
James Madison, who made it in because the Atlantic Coast
Conference champion did not get in to the postseason. More
on that in a minute. Oregon is minus twenty and
a half to open that game. That's not a college

(15:09):
football playoff game. That can't possibly be the top twelve
teams in the country if you have a twenty and
a half point spread in the opening round. That's just
the nature of the system that we've created, and yes
it needs to be adjusted. My adjustments are written the

(15:31):
future of college football. Why the beauty paget era must
end is available on clemsonsports dot com. Go read it.
But Oregon and James Madison, I think everybody fully expects
Oregon to advance to take on Texas Tech. Then on

(15:52):
the bottom side of the bracket, the number two overall seed,
Ohio State just swaps spots with Indiana. By the way,
Texas Tech, I may or may not have said this,
that's going to be the Orange Bowl that they'll be
in on January the first, and then on December the
thirty first, at the Cotton Bowl it'll be Ohio State
awaiting the winner of Miami number ten. Miami, who got

(16:16):
in leap frogging Notre Dame, both teams sitting at home.
Miami did beat Notre Dame earlier this season. The argument,
the arguments out there that Notre Dame is now the
better team of these two, and maybe so. But when
they played, Miami won, and even though Notre Dame has

(16:38):
been ranked the head of Miami this whole time, they
finally got side by side and got compared head to head,
and head to head ruled the day. And Miami is
the tennen seed playing at seventh seed to Texas A
and m The Aggies are four point favorites. That's December
the twentieth at noon on ABC and ESPN. The winner

(16:59):
that will advance face Ohio State, and then the number
three seed is Georgia. In the All State Sugar Bowl,
the Bulldogs will await the winner of two Lane and
Old Miss. TWU Lane is the eleven seed, the Green
Wave get in and Old Miss sitting there as the
sixth seed. Two Lane and Old Miss have already played

(17:23):
by the Way this year and the Rebels dismantled them
forty five to ten. That was back on September the twentieth,
and if Old Miss were to win, they will go
on to face Georgia, a team that they already played
back on October the eighteenth, which was a forty three

(17:44):
to thirty five loss at Georgia. So this next time
they would meet up, potentially, assuming that happens, it would
be a neutral site game. And then that's where we
could get into even more rematches with the College Football Playoff,
because if Indiana advances and Oregon advances, Indiana and Oregon

(18:09):
have already played this season. Those two teams they matched
up back on October the eleventh, and that was a
thirty to twenty win. By Indiana, which is probably the
story of this whole thing we haven't talked enough about.
So we might come back to Indiana in just a
little bit because that game was on the road at
Oregon and Indiana beat them by ten. This would be

(18:33):
a neutral site game in Atlanta, potentially at the Chick
fil A Peach Bowl. Then again, as I mentioned, you
could get a Georgia Ole Miss rematch, and you could
also carry forward. Now A and M you might think, well,
what if we carry them for Well, Georgia and and
M didn't play, and Ole Miss and A and M
didn't play, so that was kind of part of the
issue with Texas A and M at one point. But

(18:56):
if you carry Ohio State forward, you could get a
match in the national championship game of the Big Ten
championship game between Ohio State and Indiana that we just saw.
That was a really good game. So lots of different
available options out there. Obviously, Notre Dame not making it

(19:22):
was certainly controversial. I think their decision after the fact
was worse than them not making it and the message
that it sends. And quite frankly, if you're the committee
moving forward, I mean, if push comes to shove. I've
got Notre Dame sitting there close. I'm gonna keep them out.

(19:45):
And I read something interesting yesterday on social media and
it got me thinking, you know what, maybe that would
be the fix to this problem with teams sitting out
bowl games. I'll tell you what it is when we return,
But there is one little hiccup. Stay with us, Rocket
and Roll in Clemson Sports Thought the show that shakesa
Southland Lawton Swan hanging out with you on a Monday

(20:08):
afternoon reactionary Monday to the college football playoff rankings. Indiana
incredibly undefeated, the lone undefeated team, the number one team
of the country, the top ranked team in the postseason.
They swapped spots with Ohio State. They beat the Buckeyes
thirteen to ten this weekend. Number three is Georgia, off

(20:28):
of a convincing win against Alabama, and then Texas Tech,
who cruised in the Big twelve Championship, sitting there at
number four. I don't even know. I just kind of
glossed over this earlier, so I want to get back
to it real quick. Miami in Texas A and m
facing off. Miami gets in and they didn't play in
the ACC championship, Miami was sitting at home, and that's

(20:50):
part of the reason people at Notre Dame were so upset,
because Miami passed the fighting Irish once that head to
head came to light, meaning the ACC in fact was
not left out, was not left out of the college
Football playoff rankings as people thought they would be once
Duke upset Virginia. So Tony Elliot and the Cavaliers they

(21:15):
don't get in heartbreaking. We will certainly talk with Chad
Morse about that in a couple of days. But for Miami,
they benefit by getting into the college Football Playoff for
the first time, and we'll see what happens in that
game December twentieth at noon on ABC ESPN. All right,

(21:38):
but here's what I read about the situation with Notre Dame,
and it's incredibly frustrating because we had a system before
where when you went to a bowl game, you weren't
even guaranteed if you were the number two team to

(22:00):
get a shot at the number one team. I mean,
we legitimately had a system where number one could face
off with number four, and number two could play number three,
and number two didn't even have a chance to surpass
number one outside of people looking at them and going

(22:21):
well by, I think they look better, but not many
times I'm sure that that happen. And then we created
the BCS to give us one versus two to make
a decision. And then we said, no, we need a
little bit more because there are a few outliers. We
just want to get them in. And we said, all right,
we're going to go a four team. And we did
the four team for about a decade, and we said no, no, no,
we need it bigger. People want to continue to make

(22:42):
it bigger. They're always going to want to continue to
make it bigger. I've said that for years. The one thing, though,
that I've always agreed upon is that the argument between
four and five, whoever those two teams are, it's a
much greater argument than the argument between twelve and thirteen,

(23:04):
because if you're thirteen, you should assume that you're gonna
be there again. But at least we're in an era
where you get to play that wasn't the case before,
and you didn't pass up bowl games. Notre Dame did
pass up some Bowl games some years when they weren't great,
But back then people took advantage of going to a
bowl game, and the message that they sent was, Hey,

(23:27):
we didn't make it to the playoffs, so we're packing
up our things and we're going home. Well, guess what,
BYU the team you would have played in the Pop
Tar Bowl, they didn't make the playoffs. They didn't pack
their stuff up. I saw a quote that said, and

(23:49):
I'm not even sure who a Bowl official till Brett McMurphy.
Other teams are upset they sucked it up, and at
Notre Dame that's just poor leadership. Notre Dame put out
a release yesterday saying, as a team, we've decided to
withdraw our name from consideration for a bowl game following
the twenty twenty five season. We appreciate all the support

(24:10):
from our families and fans, and we're hoping to bring
the twelfth national title to South Bend in twenty twenty six.
Signed the twenty twenty five Notre Dame football team mean,
what an absolute letdown. You chose this path, You chose
not to be in a conference, and if they had

(24:32):
been in a conference, they would have had the opportunity
to play in a conference championship game on Saturday. Improve
that they want to begin. Now, my system eliminates conference
championship games. Okay, I'm not in favor of conference championship games.
Not in my system, you don't need them. But what

(24:53):
Notre Dame did legitimately, legitimately has placed a situation in
front of us where I don't know that anybody won
will ever really care to see Notre Dame man number two,

(25:13):
where anybody will ever feel sorry for him when they're
left out. And I'll be honest, I don't think anybody
should really give them the benefit of the doubt at
any point moving forward. Their tears taste delicious watching them
cry and wine on social media. And I think they
have a really good team. But you know what you
do if you have a really good team, you go

(25:34):
prove it in a bowl game. You go prove it
against BYU, you go put it on the line. But
the problem is they probably start pulling the players about
who's gonna play, and the players are like, na, we're
not doing it. So I saw somebody tweet they said, look,
if you don't play in your bowl game this season,

(26:00):
then you should be ineligible for postseason play the next year,
meaning if you get the offer to go play and
you say thanks, but no thanks. You are saying thanks
but no thanks to next season's college football playoff bowl games.

(26:24):
All that you either go to the game and take
whatever team you can if you're top players. If Jeremiah
Love doesn't want to play, he doesn't have to play.
But if you don't take your team and go to
the ballgame, you turn it down, then you're not eligible

(26:48):
for postseason play next year. That would fix this pretty quickly.
You want to talk about we can't ever fix the
transfer portal. We can't seem to fix nil. We can't
fix this. We can't fix that. That'll fix it. In
order to be eligible for the College Football Playoff, you
must have played in a bowl game you were offered

(27:12):
the previous year. If you sit out your bowl game,
you are not eligible for the College football Playoff. Done
wiping my hands of it. That fixes it. You don't
play in your ball game, you're not eligible the following
season for the college football Playoff. I'm for it. Let
me know what you think, all right, quick bright. We'll
come back with more from Clemson's bowl match up with

(27:32):
Penness State right after this. Back at it on the Monday,
Clemson's sports talk, of course, to show that Shakespeare south
Land brought to you in part by our friends. Over
at Alumni Hall right there on the corner of campus
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(27:56):
geographically I believe it's the closest apparel vendor to campus.
But also you can check out Alumni Hall online. And
don't forget to ask them about their Alumni Hall Rewards
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And remember speaking to saving money, Clemson's students, faculty, and

(28:18):
military members get ten percent off of shopping in store.
Go check them out today. It's Alumni Haul where Tiger
fans shop. All right, So Clemson and Penn State The
Bad Boy Mower's Penstripe Bowl, Yankee Stadium, December the twenty seventh,
at noon. Thinking back to as I said earlier, like

(28:38):
if you told me Clemson and Penn State were playing
this season, I would have said playoffs baby instead. No,
but a chance to take a you know, step in
the right direction for the twenty twenty sixth season. The
Tigers enter the game seven and five, four and four
in the Atlantic Coast Conference, then Nitty Lions in at

(29:00):
six and six, and they make a return trip to
the Big Apple for the first time since twenty fourteen.
The biggest news about Penn State though, the fact that
obviously earlier this season, they fired their head coach, James Franklin,
who has now taken the job at Virginia Tech. And

(29:26):
we'll see how things play out. Clemson last met Penn
State and in their loan meeting back in nineteen eighty
eight the Citrus Bowl, Clemson cruise thirty five to ten.
I remember that game. Those were a couple of really
good Citrus Bowl years for Clemson, led by Danny Ford.
But for these two teams to be where they are

(29:49):
it is a bitter disappointment for both programs. Now, kudos
to them for playing this game in an era where
you've got some teams doing things like Notre Dame sitting
it out and what Notre Dame sitting out. The cascade
of that became the fact that we were sitting here

(30:13):
yesterday with seven teams that turned down a Bowl bid
to go play in Birmingham against Georgia Southern, but their
arch rival at State, who they just played on November
the sixth, stepped up and they're gonna get a rematch

(30:36):
out in Birmingham. And this is unfortunate because some of
the excuses about why some teams didn't go, it's just absurd.
Like you were five and seven, you had the opportunity
to play in a bowl game by fortune, and yet

(30:59):
you can't get your team together to go play a game. Again.
This goes back to what I said earlier. You can
fix the issues, and I do think the responsibility of
fixing the issues with people sitting out bowl games should
fall on the College Football Playoff Committee because there are

(31:25):
bowl games and it's still larger ones that are in
the mix of the playoff, and those teams need to say, hey,
Playoff group, we've got to protect some of those other
bowl games that are out there. We've got to protect
some of our friends. And again simply adding that little addendum,

(31:50):
in order to qualify for the College Football Playoff, a
school must accept and playing an offered bowl game in
the previous season. You know what would have not happened. Well,
first and foremost, notre Dame would have not skipped their
bowl game.

Speaker 4 (32:05):
Boy going home?

Speaker 3 (32:07):
Wit dig your boy going home. Not only would that
not have happened, but the second Florida State got a
phone call to go play in the Birmingham Bowl, they
was said, yeah, we'll take it, because you have to
at that point, even if you were five and seven
the second you were offered a bowl slot. If you

(32:29):
don't take it, no playoff next year for you. You
can't be in. You can't be ranked. We're not ranking
teams that aren't playing in their bowl games the previous season.
But here's a couple of notes on this ball game. Again,
just a second meeting.

Speaker 5 (32:47):
Ever.

Speaker 3 (32:49):
This is the fifth teenth edition of the Penn Straight
Bowl and the eleventh consecutive Pen Stripe Bowl featuring a
matchup between the Big Ten and the Atlantic Coast Conference.
There is a press conference tomorrow. Okay, so we should
have audio from not only Dabo Sweeney and Graham Nef,

(33:11):
but also the interim head coach at Penn State, Terry Smith,
along with I believe the athletic director at Penn State
as well as we get you geared up for this game.
Kickoff is December the twenty seventh, and these are two
really decorated programs. Clemson making their fifty second all time

(33:34):
bowl appearance while Penn State is making their fifty seventh
all time bowl appearance. The Nitney Lions are thirty three,
twenty one and two all time in bowl games. Clemson
is twenty seven and twenty four all time in bowl games,

(33:55):
and Dabo Sweeney is twelve to nine all time in
bowl games at Clemson, and he's led the Tigers obviously
the two national championships in twenty sixteen to twenty eighteen,
which is the same amount of national championships that Penn
State has winning in nineteen eighty two and nineteen eighty six.

(34:16):
Of course, Penn State won their national championship their first
national championship, the season after Clemson won their first national championship.
As for this game, the Nitney Lions did open if
you've been keeping up with it, as a slight favorite
over Clemson at minus one and a half. The game, however,

(34:40):
has swung significantly in the past twenty four hours to
Clemson now being minus three, so a quick four and
a half point flip. I'll have to do some digging
to see if anyone from Penn State announced that they
were sitting out.

Speaker 6 (34:59):
Or or what.

Speaker 3 (35:00):
Anyway, we do have an update on the coaching job
at Penn State and an update on Clemson's roster. Plus
William qualkin Bush joins us in our number two Stay
with Us final segment of our one coming up. William
Qualkin Bush joins the program A three four or five
ozho zero zero eighty six. That is the text line

(35:24):
in the phone line. Again, we were talking about Clemson
and Penn State. The Tigers seven and five the Ntney
Lions six and six. That matchup scheduled for December twenty
seventh at noon. Clemson goes from being a one and
a half point underdog to a three point favorite in

(35:45):
the ballgame, essentially overnight. Now Penn State does know their
next head coach, and it's the name you should be
very familiar with. Matt Campbell, formerly the head coach at
Iowa State, who Clempson played just a few years ago
in the Cheese It Bowl back in twenty twenty one.

(36:11):
That Matt Campbell, whose name had been pretty high for
years leading up to that matchup against Clempson. They had
a four to eight season in twenty twenty two, sort
of cool things off for him. They bounced back a
year ago they go seven to six and make it
to the Liberty Bowl. But in twenty twenty four they
were eleven to three, they won the Pop Tar Bowl,
and they finished in the top fifteen. And then this

(36:33):
season they were eight and four and five and four.
But Penn State couldn't quite put their finger on the
right guy. A lot of people turned them down, and
they'll go with Matt Campbell, who again still a very
young head coach, just forty six years old, but was
one of the rising stars in college football and not

(36:56):
all that too far of the distant pass, So we'll
see how it all shakes up for him. Speaking of
shaking things up, Clemson's roster just a little bit with
the news that Avion Terrell is going to be turning
pro av who recently was on a NFL NFL Films

(37:23):
video or whatever presenting his brother aj Terrell with the
NFL Man of the Year Award for the Atlanta Falcons.
So really cool to see that take place. But Avion
Terrell put out an image on social media saying, dear
Clemson family, thank you for welcoming me and supporting me

(37:47):
from the moment I stepped on campus. As a kid,
I watched my older brother AJ dawn the orange and
purple and white instead of standard for our family. Seeing
how much this university shaped him, I couldn't wait for
my turn. Playing here at Clemson has been an incredible blessing,
and I'm grateful for every memory, every challenge, and every
opportunity this program has given me. To my teammates my brothers,

(38:10):
thank you for pushing me and standing with me through
it all. To my coaches, thank you for believing in
me and helping me grow as a player and as
a man. And to my family, thank you for your love, sacrifice,
and constant support. You are the foundation of everything I do.
With gratitude, I'm excited for what's ahead. I'm humble to
announce that I am declaring for the twenty twenty six

(38:31):
NFL Draft. That's Avian Terrell.

Speaker 5 (38:35):
AJ.

Speaker 3 (38:35):
Terrell is expected to be a first round draft selection.
The only thing I have not seen, and I'll have
to look a little bit more, is if he is
going to play in the bowl game or not. Now,

(38:59):
a lot of guys who opt out or make a
declaration for the NFL opt out of their final season
don't end up playing in the bowl game. But Abyon Terrell,
who has zero interceptions this year, minds you at cornerback

(39:21):
has done an incredible job with his innate ability and
this is more even specifically during his career, with his
ability to force fumbles in the secondary. Abyon Terrell this
year for Clemson played in all twelve games with six

(39:45):
hundred and forty three snaps to his credit. He had
a total of forty six tackles. He had four and
a half tackles for loss this year, which if you're
keeping score home, is more than Peter Woods had. Peter

(40:06):
Woods had three and a half. Avion had four and
a half. He had three sacks this year for minus
twenty three yards. That's more than Peter Woods had. That's
more than demonteke k Part. As a matter of fact,
Avion Terrell, off the corner blitz had the same amount
of sacks as Peter Woods and demonte k Part, your

(40:28):
starting interior defensive lineman did combined this year. Avion also
had eleven pass breakups this season, and perhaps the most
notable situation is the job that he does forcing fumbles.
I mean, this guy is a forced fumble machine got

(40:53):
after one in that South Carolina game. I think if
I remember correctly the force fumble against South Carolina, I
believe that made him the all time leader as a
defensive back in force fumbles in Clemson history. Let me

(41:17):
just because I know he forced one in that South
Carolina game, and there was a stat that we put
out a couple of weeks ago. I remember working on
the graphic for it about Avion Terrell and the number
of force fumbles that he had in his career at Clemson.

(41:41):
If I can get that before we get to break,
I'll come ferm it for Yeah. There it is. So
he had seven force fumbles, which is the most by
a defensive back in Clemson history. That was that was
after the Louisville game, and he got another one in

(42:02):
the South Carolina game as well. So Avion Terrell just
an extraordinarily talented defensive back, really good corner ahead of
where his brother was. I think most people would say
is entering the NFL Draft, and I don't think he'll
play in the bowl game. We'll see if Qualk's heard
on that front. When we get back, it's.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
Time for Clipson Sports Talk with Lawton Schwan.

Speaker 3 (43:06):
It is our number two. That's drive time right here
on the show, The Shakespare Southland, Clemson Sports talt log
swan hanging out with you on a Monday afternoon. William
Qualkinbush set to join the program momentarily and of course
to show that shakesare south Land brought to you in
part by our good friends over at METS Plumbing Matt's

(43:30):
Plumbing dot com. Two two six seven one o eight.
That's two two six seven one zero eight. That's mets
Plumbing online at mets plumbing dot com. All right, out
of the gates, hour number two. William Qualkin Bush on
Twitter at quawk Talk every day noon until three o'clock.
Out of bounds with qualking Ben one oh five to five.
The roar in the upstate qual what's going on? Big guy?

(43:53):
Welcome in man. Hope you had a great weekend.

Speaker 5 (43:56):
Swannye, it was fantastic.

Speaker 7 (43:58):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (43:59):
It was full of things that made me happy and
things that made me very upset. So and that was
that was just the committee. That was just the committee ranking.

Speaker 7 (44:08):
So outside of that was real good too.

Speaker 5 (44:10):
I hope your weekend was great.

Speaker 3 (44:12):
Yeah, a lot on that front, certainly to get to
and I guess that's where we'll start. I always said,
and I'm sure you did as well. No matter how
big this thing got, people are always going to complain
about who got left out. That's how it is. I mean,
in the NCAA basketball tournament, we have sixty four and
people complain. What do you think about the committee and

(44:33):
where did they get this thing wrong?

Speaker 5 (44:37):
Well, I mean a couple of things. First of all,
you're right that people are gonna be upset no matter
what it was.

Speaker 7 (44:43):
The fifth team was upset before.

Speaker 5 (44:46):
It's the thirteenth team now, and it's going to be
the seventeen team or the twenty fifth team or whatever
whatever system we're in next that team that gets left out,
or maybe multiple teams, they're gonna be upset. Thing is,
as long as the process is unimpeachable, it doesn't really matter. Now,

(45:06):
if you're asking me, okay, did they did they get
the right teams? I would say, depending on what you
wanted to do. Okay, Now, if you're asking me, which
we've been told before, that how a team is going
to play in the playoff is the most important thing.
Haven't we been told that? The Florida State quarterback fiasco
from a couple of years ago. That's that's all it
was was State's not gonna play well in the playoffs.

(45:28):
We've seen them play without their quarterback. They can't be
in if you're If you're doing that and all the
other stuff doesn't matter, then Miami and Notre Dame should
have both been in and Alabama should be out because
Alabama doesn't look to part. Miami and Notre Dame both do.
Okay if you're doing if you don't buy your work.
Alabama's got the best win in the country. They want
at Georgia. I know how they just looked, but they

(45:51):
have the best win in the country. They have another
really really good win against Bandy. That's one of the
best wins among those teams. In fact, it might be
the same. That's one among those teams except for Miami's
went over Notre Dame. So if you're looking at this
body of work, body resumes Alabama Miami should be in.
Notre Dame should be out because their body of wins.
We've talked a lot about their losses, but their wins

(46:13):
are very similar to BYU, and nobody's arguing in the
BYU should be in.

Speaker 7 (46:17):
Relatively speaking, so I would.

Speaker 5 (46:20):
Say that they may have stumbled upon a good outcome,
but the way they did it is illogical, and it
really it bothers me that they did it in in
a logical way. Miami did not play this weekend. Notre
Dame did not play this weekend. No team on Miami
or Notre Dame schedule played this weekend. There is no
way that you can tell me that Miami and Notre

(46:42):
Dame were close enough in terms of how you viewed
those teams as peers last week. They were not close enough,
even whether they were touching in the rankings, Which is
this the dumbest thing. They think we're all idiots, whether
they're touching in the rankings or not. The reality is
they talk about clusters of teams anyway. Why would you
talk about clusters of teams that are so far apart.

(47:03):
The head to head doesn't matter. That's a whole other issue.
But there's no way that you can tell me that
Miami and Notre Dame are materially different relative to each
other right now than they were last week when you
told us that the head to head didn't matter. And
it's really stupid for the committee to argue that because
of something that happened to BYU, a third party that

(47:25):
played neither Miami nor Notre Dame. Now, all of a sudden,
Miami is better than Notre Dame. That doesn't make any
sense at all. So they got to this point in
a way that is indefensible, totally indefensible. They also did
it by dinging.

Speaker 7 (47:37):
BYU for a better.

Speaker 5 (47:39):
Loss relative to the team that beat them than Alabama
had to Georgia. Alabama never led the SEC championship game. B.
Why you scored first and led for almost ten minutes
in the Big Twelve championship game? Why did B why
you drop in Alabama did not?

Speaker 7 (47:53):
Well, it's simple.

Speaker 5 (47:54):
It's because you needed to do that with Miami, and
you just decided to put Miami up on top of
Notre Dame. Miami did not play Notre Dame.

Speaker 7 (48:03):
I'll say it this way. Notre Dame did not play.

Speaker 5 (48:05):
No team below Notre Dame one to get above Notre Dame.
And yet Notre Dame dropped and they dropped out of
the playoffs in favor of a team that did not
play and moved up two spots. I just I'm okay
everything Notre Dame is said and done since the rankings
came out. I disagree with every single word and decision

(48:27):
I disagree with, but I am totally with them in
their absolute disdain for this process because they were basically
lied to for an entire month and there was no reason.

Speaker 7 (48:38):
To do it. The committee could have said that.

Speaker 5 (48:40):
Miami was ahead of Notre Dame for a head to
have purposes for weeks now, because they were close enough
in proximity to do that. And why the committee felt
like they could only do that if the teams are
touching in the rankings. It just laughably stupid and incomprehensible
that they would think that we.

Speaker 7 (48:56):
Would fall for that.

Speaker 3 (48:57):
Okay, so a lot to unpack. That's William Qualginbush all
Twitter at Qualt Talk. I want to begin with one
of the things you said, and I think you probably
know this, and I agree. I think Alabama should have
at least dropped a spot, maybe more. But I think
the reason that they benefited versus BYU is the fact

(49:17):
that they were one in one against Georgia on the season,
sort of a tie if you will, and BYU was
a clear cut oh and two against Texas Tech. So
I think that's part of the Alabama stuff that went on.
But I do want to go back to now something
you said about the fighting Irish and how they've handled

(49:41):
things since, because I think it's reprehensible what they have
done in terms of just kind of taking their ball
and going home and saying, well, if we're not in,
we're not playing. And I think they feel like they're
going to hurt the pocketbooks of ESPN viewership would say
maybe otherwise given what look like a year ago with
the College Football Playoff National Championship game. But I put

(50:05):
out a tweet yesterday, Quawk, and it's it's a simple
fix because as much as the playoff is interdependent from
bowl games, there are the bowl games that are in
the College Football Playoff, And these guys that we talked
to at the ACC kickoff, like Gary Stoken from the
Chick fil A Peach Ball, they have relationships with the

(50:26):
people who run the Pop Tar Bowl and the people
that run the Sun Ball, et cetera, et cetera. All
they have to do with the playoff is put one
line in there. And I put it out on social
media yesterday, and I don't know if you saw it
or not, Qualk, but at the very last little addendum
on their you know what they're all about, should say,
in order to qualify for college football playoff, a school

(50:49):
must accept and play in an offered bowl game the
previous season. And I don't care what players you have,
I don't care if you got to run out there
the kids from fight to fill your score lot, go
play the game, and you'd have everybody playing these bowl
games and them sitting out is just completely embarrassing.

Speaker 5 (51:10):
Yeah, I mean, I agree with what you're saying there,
Like you've got to be a good partner. You know,
everybody talks about being a good partner. The Notre Dame
fans are furious right now. Notre Dames administration are curious
that the ACC is not a good partner, even though
the AEC was exactly the kind of partner that Notre Dame's.

Speaker 7 (51:24):
Been to the ACC.

Speaker 5 (51:25):
I mean, it's just it's ridiculous. But the reality is
what you just said needs to happen. That either it
needs to be tied through collective bargaining, that we're gonna
tie player contracts to bowl games, even give bonuses at
a certain percentage of a player's an IL contract relative
to a bowl appearance, or something like that. We've got

(51:46):
to find some way to get people in these games
because the reality is as much as I hate it,
I mean, Notre Dame one, the only one I was
Stags eight and four. They're not playing in a bowl game.

Speaker 7 (51:54):
Kansas State is what six and six?

Speaker 5 (51:55):
They're not playing the ball. I mean. So you've got
these other teams that also are saying were mirrored other
reasons that they're not playing, and I don't I understand
why Notre Dame is hurt. I understand why they rash.
This is what I said, Swanny uh Man coaches. There
are things that coaches say that I go, are you
have to say that for your team? But like that's
you're kind of full of crap about that. Control the

(52:16):
controllables is my favorite one. It's my favorite one. We
know if we live life, that life is defined by uncontrollables.

Speaker 7 (52:24):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (52:24):
It is ludicrous to think that I have total control
over what happened to my life. That's just that's an illusion,
that's not that's not a real thing. But I'm told
that all I have to do is control the controllables.
And then when uncontrollable things happening, how do you respond? Well,
Notre Dame had uncontrollable things happened, and their leadership, the
coaches and the administrators have responded horribly. They have responded

(52:46):
in a way that they would say to their teams
and the athletes that they are in charge of is unacceptable.
They have whined and cried and moan and when they're
and they basically have tried to take their ball and
go home.

Speaker 7 (52:58):
It's a ridiculous notion.

Speaker 5 (52:59):
It should not be rewarded for any reason.

Speaker 7 (53:01):
By them, but by the powers that be.

Speaker 5 (53:04):
I do agree that there needs to be some way
to tie participation in the playoffs to bowl games to
some degree. I think some of that will happen in
collective bargaining. I think one of the things that would
be I'll be fascinating to see when we actually get
to collective bargaining, which my guys, I would sign up
for that two day in a heartbeat, get us through
this nonsense. But one of the things that's got to

(53:25):
happen is what do those players contracts look like for
bowl games? Do we require bowl games to do basically
what the players era games did in Las Vegas for basketball,
where it's like a million dollars per team in nil
that they can split up however they want for participation.
Do we have bowl games that rather than you know, basically,

(53:46):
somebody's going to get the short end of the stick.
But the players are getting direct money, or at least
some of the players are getting direct money, or the
school is getting direct money they could use to then.

Speaker 7 (53:54):
Give to the players straight away.

Speaker 5 (53:57):
We've got to have some system to do that because
I just think, as much as I disagree in Notre
Dame's decision, they're not gonna be the last team to
do it. And you've got to somehow keep teams from
doing this, from basically breaking all the rules they would
have for their athletes. And you know, it says a
little something about society too that we're there's a lot
of people that are for sure that would tell the kids,

(54:19):
you gotta you gotta respond, or would tell their employees
you gotta respond. And we're applauding Notre Dame because you're
you're being used by ESPN. Let me tell you what, man,
that is a horrible way to view the media rights
contract that you have. Uh like you being used by
NBC two.

Speaker 7 (54:37):
NBC is making money off you. Your poor, your poor, poor.

Speaker 5 (54:40):
Thing Notre Dame. It is one more thing's funny and
it bothers me so much that Notre Dame gets a
full voting membership in the ACC, but they could get
a habs the position their little habsy. They get a
full voting position in the Commissioner's room when it comes
to the costaball player for big picture of decisions. Uh
Yukon doesn't rotate in there, so they're not representing independence.

(55:01):
They just represent Notre Dame. They get full financial benefit
of joining the ACC without the without the hands tied.
They have to share no playoff revenue from the ACC,
but they get a slick scheduling deal to help them
out with have their their non conference schedule because they're
an independent, and in twenty twenty they got the plan
of conference to keep their seasonal flug so they could

(55:23):
actually have a season with no strings attached. Notre Dame
gets the benefit of every single system that exists in
this country. And the fact that Notre Dame is now
whining and moaning and crying the one time they've ever
been told no in.

Speaker 7 (55:37):
Their miserable lives.

Speaker 5 (55:39):
I'm just I'm so turned off by this that you know,
Vanderbilt never gets to go to the playoff, and I
understand some of that is why they can say, well,
we should have won more games. But for Notre Dame
to do this, to go scorched to earth like this,
like it's everybody else's fault, and they're so aggrieved and
they they're such a pauper in this sport when they
get preferential treatment at every turn and every step of

(56:00):
the way, is just stupid. It's not even worth arguing
with these Notre Dame bots and these random fans online
who are trying to tell you that Notre Dame's is poor,
woe mea thing, and oh it's the ESPN apparatus.

Speaker 7 (56:12):
I mean, let me tell you some ESPN didn't put.

Speaker 5 (56:14):
Alabama in last year, and they could have that ESPN's
Notre Dame in the playoff. I don't know what these
people think. ESPN is against them somehow they love for
Notre Dame to be in there for ratings. So the
whole thing is an absolute mess, and we got to
find a way to not let it happen.

Speaker 3 (56:28):
Yeah, and you bring up a good point. Vanderbilt. They
are also ten and two. They lost at Texas and
at Alabama, And when you think about it, like, it's
not as if they left out a twelve to Notre
Dame team the way they did leave out in undefeated
Florida State team a couple of years ago, and that

(56:49):
Florida State team, And look, I was frustrated beyond measure
that the Florida State players qualk didn't show up and
play in that Bowl game because I thought, if you
want to prove that you should have been in, go
beat Georgia instead. We know what happened the way they
got flattened in that game by sixty because they didn't

(57:10):
have a team essentially, but they went played like I
don't like Mike Norvell. They went and played. I felt like,
I like Marcus Freeman. But to send it out, man,
you're to me, you're falling into the realm of how
I felt about Mike Norvel when they refuse to play

(57:31):
Clemson when the Tigers had one kid pop a positive
COVID test on the way down to Florida State, either
you trust the test or you don't. Florida State and
it's like, dude, get out there and play the game
against BYU improved. You should have been in because then
you can talk all the you cand talk the rest
of my life. You know what I mean? You go

(57:53):
win that game against BYU convincingly in the pop tarch Ball.
I will listen to No Name fans rip the system forever.
But when you just pack it up, I don't want
to hear it. Just shut up, Just shut up. I
don't want to hear it.

Speaker 5 (58:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (58:09):
Marcus Freeman would be livid if a player came to
him and said, because you're starting somebody else over me,
I'm quitting.

Speaker 7 (58:15):
He'd be livid.

Speaker 5 (58:17):
Why Why is it not the same principle when it's
your team. You got picked to go to the Pop
Darts Bowl, you didn't get picked to go to the playoffs.
I understand that it was not fair, and I've said
this many times. It was not fair what the committee did,
the Notre Dame's fans, the players, the coaches, they administrats,
the whole deal. It was not fair to be treated

(58:38):
that way. If they were gonna leave Notre Dame out,
they had every opportunity to do it weeks ago. But
in the way that they left them out, there was
no reason for them not to have been doing it
all along.

Speaker 7 (58:48):
And they decided to do.

Speaker 5 (58:49):
It right now. Totally unacceptable by the committee and kind
of mean spirited. Honestly mean, it's mean spirited to do
it this way to Notre Dame. With that said, that
doesn't mean that you'd get to just react however you want.
We tell them to our kids as parents, coaches would
tell it to players. Why are the administrators getting to
pitch a hitsy fit here and not have any consequences
for that?

Speaker 3 (59:09):
Wait, Qualking Bush again on Twitter at Qualt Talk every
Day out of bounds Will qualk and band one oh
five to five. They were in the up State now.
Notre Dame's athletic director was on the Dan Patrick Show today.
It said that the acc caused permanent damage because he
felt like, you know, kind of I guess in the
back channels they were, you know, talking about Miami beating
Notre Dame. Blah blah blah blah blah. You just mentioned

(59:32):
all the AEC has done to partner with Notre Dame
over the years. Clemson has a great future partnership with
Notre Dame in football. Who knows if that thing stands
now with the attitude that Notre Dame's got, But I mean,
what do you make of it? The permanent damage? You know,
thought process. A lot of people yesterday thought, oh, well,
this will be the end of the bowl games since
Notre Dame is sitting one out. But what do you

(59:54):
say about the terminology permanent damage? And what does that
mean for the partnership between the Atlantic Coast Conference and
the Fighting Irish anything.

Speaker 5 (01:00:04):
Well, I'll say this, where you're gonna go. I mean,
you're gonna go to the Big ten. Well, they're gonna
have a similar deal to this, or they're gonna make
you be a full member. So I mean where you're
gonna go? That got you, That saved your a okay
twenty where you were gonna earn zero dollars, You were
gonna be in the red for your entire football seat

(01:00:24):
because nobody's playing non conference game. The ACC saved your bacon.
You don't owe them anything for that. There were no
strings attached to that.

Speaker 7 (01:00:32):
The AEC could have and should.

Speaker 5 (01:00:34):
Have in the moment, they should have and in hindsight,
they should have attached strings to that.

Speaker 7 (01:00:39):
Okay. Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:00:40):
The ACC doesn't make Notre Dame share playoff revenue, which
is directly relevant in this situation. This conversation. Uh, so
you get to keep whatever it is that you met
your last year.

Speaker 7 (01:00:49):
You didn't have to.

Speaker 5 (01:00:50):
Share any of that revenue with anybody else.

Speaker 7 (01:00:51):
In the ACC.

Speaker 5 (01:00:52):
But now you want the ACC to play nice because
they just wanted to remind people thirteen times in a
twenty four hour period or what forty eight hour period
on the AEC network that Miami a team that does
earn four million dollars for the ACC in playoff revenue
and if they win a game, it'll be four million
at the end of win.

Speaker 7 (01:01:11):
Another game will be six million.

Speaker 5 (01:01:12):
Or whatever it is, right, it's every successive win. You
mean to tell me that Pepavaka was not making a
four million dollar business decision because of what? Because of
a business partnership since Nettingham's zero dollars, I mean, huh,
how many times and how many ways does the ACC
have to bend over backwards for Notre Dame before Notre
Dame goes? You know? What's fair?

Speaker 7 (01:01:31):
Fair? It's fine.

Speaker 5 (01:01:32):
We understand that we're asking a lot of you, and
we don't expect you to forsake all your other business
interests for people who do want to be full members
of your conference.

Speaker 7 (01:01:42):
We want to make sure that we're okay with that.
We understand. You gotta do what you gotta do here.

Speaker 3 (01:01:47):
Oh yeah, no doubt. Qual Hey, we got out thirty
segus Man til a break. Let me put you on hold.
We'll come back. We'll get some more of qualks thoughts
on the permanent damage comment that was made by Notre
Dame's athletic earlier today on the Dan Patrick Show. All right,
so we'll in a quick break. We'll come back again.
Keep it a lot right here on Fox Sports Radio

(01:02:08):
fourteen hundred in the Midlands and the course around the
world on the iHeartRadio app. As we roll along on
a Monday afternoon, A dreary, cold Monday afternoon, not even
the coldest day of the week. Ugh, all right, quick
Breakqualks back with us right after this, Lawton Swan William
Qualkin Bush on a Monday we were talking about the
comments before the break from Notre Dame's athletic director about

(01:02:31):
the permanent damage that the acc caused. And this was all.
This was all because the Atlantic Coast Conference's football account
was putting out metrics and data showcasing the difference between
Miami and Notre Dame. Not to mention, the AEC network

(01:02:51):
replayed the Miami Notre Dame game more than a dozen
times Thursday through Friday. Remember, Miami Notre Dame played in
the season. Miami's in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Notre Dame's
in the AEC and everything but football, and so in
order to try to bolster Miami, the league did what
it needed to do. Uh quote The comment was permanent damage.

(01:03:18):
Your thoughts, No, the permanent damage.

Speaker 7 (01:03:21):
Notre Dame has no leverage here. They were They're already.

Speaker 5 (01:03:24):
Gonna go to the Big ten when the AEC dissolves
in a couple of years.

Speaker 7 (01:03:27):
They're already going to the Big ten to just go,
just go. Who needs Notre Dame.

Speaker 5 (01:03:31):
What is Notre Dame providing the league other than headaches?

Speaker 7 (01:03:33):
Right now?

Speaker 5 (01:03:34):
They're not gonna get it. In football, they beat every
AEC football team.

Speaker 3 (01:03:38):
You know how much.

Speaker 5 (01:03:39):
Easier it would be for the a SEC to schedule
some group of fives in there and and get those
and h you know, like there's a five and seven
team in the AEC that might be six and six
if not for Notre Dame. Pittsburgh will be ranked if
not for Notre Dame. You don't think that affects their
bull standing that they're ranked or not ranked. I mean,
what's Notre Dame doing for the ACC? They they go

(01:04:00):
on ESPN six times a year, What the freaking do
who cares Notre Dame. Notre Dame has done nothing but
add losses to the ACC's ledger while giving the AEC
absolutely nothing in return, and then is expecting the AEC
to treat them like a full member.

Speaker 7 (01:04:14):
Which, by the way, they do when it comes to I.

Speaker 5 (01:04:16):
Don't know, voting in new members that everybody else has
to share revenue with except Notre Dame that has a
totally separate deal. I'm sorry. Notre Dame has been played
by different rules this entire time.

Speaker 7 (01:04:28):
You can't expect the ACC.

Speaker 5 (01:04:29):
To treat you like everybody else when you're not being
treated at any other time like everybody else. And the
one time the AEC tries to pull that card because
it is in its best interest four million dollars versus
zero dollars eight million dollars of Miami wins if Notre
Dame was a playoff game zero dollars. The ACC got
zero dollars and additional revenue for Notre Dame, making the

(01:04:50):
National Championship Game last year. Why in the world would
they favor Notre Dame or even be neutral. Why would
they be neutral toward Notre Dame when Notre Dame does
don't want to claim the ACC in football. They're proud
of their independence. Will they be proud all the way
to the bank and count your money? But stop trying
to look over here at my money over here. I mean,
this is ridiculous what Notre Dame is doing to the

(01:05:12):
AEC right now and the standards they're being held.

Speaker 7 (01:05:15):
To, because Pepavaqua would sell the AEC.

Speaker 5 (01:05:17):
Down the river in a heartbeat for four million dollars,
but is acting so pious and so high and mighty
like the ACC shouldn't be doing what they're doing right now.
The AEC and Jim Phillips did exactly what they should
have done, but relative to Miami and Notre Dame, there's
nobody logically that would argue with that, And the only
people that do are partisan hacks for Notre Dame who
don't understand how much everybody loads the preferenial treatment that

(01:05:40):
they get every step of the way.

Speaker 3 (01:05:41):
Final couple of questions, that's William Qualkin Bush from one
of five to five of the roar in the Upstate
each and every day noon until three o'clock, out of
bounds with Qualk and Ben, and he's on Twitter at
qual Talk. All right, let's shift gears towards Clemson and
Penn State, the Tigers and the Nitney Lions the Pinstripe Bowl,
New York City. I know, in the press release Clemson

(01:06:02):
put out Dabo Sweeney certainly excited about it getting a
chance to play in New York City in Yankee Stadium.
And then, of course you also have a press conference tomorrow,
so we'll actually get some audio on that front. But
if you told most people at the beginning of the season,
Quat that Penn State and Clemson were playing in December,
you would have thought it was going to be in
the College Football Playoff. Unfortunately that's not the case. But

(01:06:25):
what do you make of this matchup?

Speaker 5 (01:06:27):
Brilliant move by the Penn's trible to put this together.
It's a Penn State Clemson postseason battle, just as we
all agreed at the end of our brackets this, you know,
back in August. Yeah, I mean, it's it makes a
lot of sense. I love one of the things I
love most about ball season is these matchups of brands
that are maybe like ironic partners. And this is an

(01:06:49):
ironic matchup right here with two teams that just were
kind of fortunate to even be in bowl games, that
really struggled through most of the year. Obviously Penn stay
with the interim staff with Terry Smith and all that,
just making to hire Matt Campbell, and then and then
the Clemson uh with the four game win streak in
November and the three and five start and all this
stuff like happy to make a Bowl and so you

(01:07:10):
put them together in Yankee Stadium and you say, you
know what, the matchup that America wanted we got under
different circumstances.

Speaker 7 (01:07:16):
But we got it.

Speaker 5 (01:07:17):
I think it's a I think it's a fun matchup.
I think there are I don't know who's gonna be
playing in the game, but if if some of the
pros play, I think there are pros on this team.
We know Adian Terrell uh declared today for the NFL Draft. Typically,
if you announced that this early, you're not gonna participate.
He got hurt in the South Carolina game. UH, So
it would not shock me if he's just shutting it

(01:07:38):
down for the NFL Draft. I wouldn't necessarily blame him, uh,
because he didn't play a lot of snaps and it
seemed like he couldn't have. So, you know, I let's
see who's playing in the game. But I think from
a brand standpoint, this is a really really good gift
for the pinchtrip ball maybe their best matchup ever on paper,
and I'm interested to see. You know, it's a it
will be a different for Clemson fans, a different kind

(01:08:01):
of trip. I'm not sure Cleinson fans are gonna be
keen on traveling to bowl games anyway, but New York
is a kind of different destination. Christmas time in New
York would be awesome. So yeah, I'm interested to see
what happens there.

Speaker 7 (01:08:12):
I think Penn State will.

Speaker 5 (01:08:13):
Take some people and it'll be a good matchup.

Speaker 3 (01:08:15):
What do you make of the spread flipping the way
it did. I haven't seen anything in particular came out.
I mean, Penn State opened minus five and now Clemsons
minus three, excuse me, minus one and a half. Clempson
down minus three. The four and a half point swing
there and the spread was pretty surprising to me. How
about you, Well, I.

Speaker 5 (01:08:35):
Do wonder if I do wonder if the basically people
are like, you know, Clinch is playing better down the stretch.
Penn State's gonna have opt outs, They're gonna have staff
members in and out whatever. And I will say this
about Cleinson. Clinton has shown a sturdiness, a program's sturdiness
when it comes to Bowl games. They don't always win,
but not a lot of opt outs. They're gonna play hard.

(01:08:56):
We haven't seen the mail it in in an era
where teams are you're not seeing to be that far
from mailing. I think if you can take one thing
to the bank in this Bowl season, more than anything else,
is that Clemston is gonna come ready to play in
this game. And I don't know that people know that
about Penn State. I actually think a lot of that
is people putting, you know, money on Clemson money line
there because people can look at Clemston and Penn State

(01:09:18):
and go these teams might not be similar, but we
expect more. Especially this far out, you're kind of taking
future's bets almost at who's gonna play. Clemson's probably gonna
have fewer opt outs, They're probably gonna have better institutional
organizational focus on the game because there's not as much transition,
and so I can see a lot of people hammering
Clemson this far out as a as a potential value

(01:09:39):
play for down the road.

Speaker 3 (01:09:41):
There you go, well, William Qualkin Bush giving you the
inside scoop. They're on the Clemson Tigers as they get
ready to face off with the Niitney Lions December the
twenty seven. That's a noon kickoff on ABC. Qualt Man,
have a great week. Always appreciate you my man.

Speaker 7 (01:09:54):
Thankswan, he always great to be with you.

Speaker 3 (01:09:56):
Having good week, Lawton Swine Clemson Sports Talk, the show
that sha to south Land again. Our friends at Alumni Hall
on the corner of Campus on College Avenue in downtown Clemson.
It's Alumni Hall for all. You're officially licensed Clemson merchandise, hats,
t shirts, togay gear more. Go check them out today
or online at Alumni Hall dot com. It's Alumni Hall
where Tiger fans shop. All right. I put out a

(01:10:19):
tweet yesterday with the fix, the resolution to the problem
that we have in college football teams sitting out bowl games.

Speaker 5 (01:10:33):
Hi, I'm just bark, Oh, I'm just mart Hey tem Markie,
I mean he's a RT.

Speaker 3 (01:10:40):
And I gotta reply, I don't think they understood what
I was saying. Spammy Watkins, great name by the way,
tweeted at me that it makes no sense because the
team can bring a ton of transfer town in like
Indiana and turn around the year going undfeated made the playoff. Now,

(01:11:01):
that's not what my addendum says. It says in order
to qualify for the College Football Playoff, school must accept
and play in an offered bowl game. If you don't
qualify for a bowl game, you're not offered a ball game. Theoretically, wait,

(01:11:28):
because it does carry over to what we just talked
about earlier, with teams like Florida State, et cetera turning
down bowl bids. At five and seven, you're the first
team on the list of Birmingham Bowl calls to play
Georgia Southern. You will go play that game if you
know that by refusing it, you are giving up the

(01:11:52):
right to be in the College Football Playoff the following season.
Jeff says he doesn't like it because it would prevent
a team from not accepting bowl bids. Buddy gives all
the power to ESPN and the NCAA, and no decision
making to the school. Besides, last year's team is a

(01:12:14):
different team. See Dabosweeney on this. Yeah, no kidding, but Jeff,
my thing is if you turn down the bowl game,
because the College Football Playoff features bowl matchups, they should
protect their peers and that would get those bowl games filled,

(01:12:37):
because you know, it would have been a real travesty
if nobody would have signed up to play against Georgia Southern,
and Georgia Southern who qualified for a bowl couldn't get
somebody to play them, and then their kids didn't get
to go to a bowl because Notre Dame is selfish

(01:12:57):
or Florida State is selfish. You know the teams that
turned down bowl games, and several of those teams. Kansas
State and Iowa State, I believe, are the two that
did get fined for turning down their bowl games. Here

(01:13:18):
are the other schools that did, by the way, including
Notre Dame, Florida State, Auburn, UCF, Baylor, Kansas, Rutgers, and
Temple Notre Dame. Excuse me, Iowa State and Kansas State
also in there. I need to throw those Those in

(01:13:41):
those are the two Iowa State and Kansas State that
were fined. But when you're leaving these bowl games high
and dry. There are the community impact in that area
and all of the positive things that these bulls do
for those communities. In addition to the fact that even

(01:14:04):
if your star players were sitting out, this would be now,
this would be something I would be in favor of.
I would be in favor of a certain bowl calling you.
Let say we'll just use the Pop Tar Bowl for
this example. Let's say the Pop Tark's Bowl called Notre
Dame and they said, hey, Notre Dame, we really want

(01:14:25):
you in this bowl game. Notre Dame says, well, who's
it going to be against. They say, well, you're gonna
be playing BYU. And Notre Dame says, look, we got
a lot of guys that we think are gonna sit
out because they're disappointed that we didn't make it into
the College Football Playoff. So we are going to respectfully

(01:14:50):
request that you pick another school for this spot because
we think we probably need to drop down one more
bowl because we don't think we'll be competitive if we
want you to have a great bowl matchup, We're not
sure without our starting running back or our starting quarterback

(01:15:11):
or whoever sitting out right I wouldn't have a problem
with that, because what you don't know about these bowl
conference calls is that it's several people ahead of time,
sometimes on the line, and you're kind of battling it out,
maybe even behind closed doors, kind of talking about Okay,

(01:15:34):
the Sun Bowl is talking to the Pin Stripe Bowl,
and they're talking to the Duke's Mayo Bowl, and they're
all like trying to work together to decide who they're
going to take. And there is a pecking order in it,
but if you take somebody out of the line, you
could jump up and get somebody else a better team,

(01:15:56):
and you're always kind of looking to poach. That's why
yesterday there were like this. There was this battle between
I think the Penn State, excuse me, the Pen Stripe,
the Sun Bowl in the Duke's Mayo Bowl for Clemson.
So those guys are all talking and everybody's trying to
get the best matchup possible because they all want to
get fans there. They want people to be interested in it.

(01:16:20):
But can you imagine if the Notre Dame, imagine this
man just and this is this is how I know
Notre Dame is wrong for what they did, because you
could have beaten Miami. You could have beaten A and
M and this wouldn't have been a conversation like by

(01:16:43):
lose and I don't care where they had you ranked earlier.
By losing that game, those games, you opened yourself up
to this potentially happening. It's unfortunate the way it happened.
But can you imagine if Notre Dame sitting out cost
the kids at Georgia Southern their bowl game that they earned,

(01:17:03):
all because the fighting Irish wanted to throw a temper
tantrum as this prestigious program. Well that's the most prestigious
temper tantrum I've ever seen. Congratulations, you have taken the cake.
You are the verukassault of college football. Congratulations you're the
bad egg funny in Willy Wonka. Those eggs were golden,

(01:17:27):
weren't they? Huh go figure final segment, flip side.

Speaker 6 (01:17:34):
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?

Speaker 4 (01:17:52):
What have you done? Always are the same. We winime.

Speaker 3 (01:18:47):
Final segment on a Monday Clemson sportstal On Swaney now
with you. You know, a couple of days ago, I
found an old letter that my dad had written his
father back in nineteen fifty five. It wasn't from November fifth,

(01:19:09):
nineteen fifty five. It was from March thirteenth, nineteen fifty five,
and my dad was writing his father. It was a
typed up letter. My dad must have wrote he was
working at a radio station in the Upstate while he
was up at Walford, and I was telling my dad,
I said, Dad, I found this letter that you wrote
to your dad, and I was looking up the station
that my dad worked at. Now, back in the day,

(01:19:30):
he was on fourteen hundred AM in Georgetown, and this
station that he was on in the upstate was also
fourteen hundred AM. Of course, the station you're listening to
me on in the middleands this fourteen hundred am, which
means essentially across the state of South Carolina on this
frequency at one point or another, there has been a

(01:19:52):
swan on the airwaves. Now, not at the same time, obviously,
but my my dad wrote a poem many years ago,
and in that poem called you Can't Go Home Again,
it said you can't go home again. You see, you
can go home no more returning where your friends used

(01:20:15):
to be. Your friends have closed the door. Those friends
so rare you used to know, they all seem different now.
The streets and roads you used to go, they too
have changed somehow. So take your glass and turn it
up and face it with a grin, and after drinking
cup after cup, you'll soon go home again. Well, up

(01:20:41):
at Blacksburg, Virginia, you can apparently go home again because
the Hokies and James Franklin have hired back Brent Pry,
who was just the head coach who just got fired.

(01:21:03):
You'll recall that Brent Pry was an assistant under James
Franklin at Penn State defensive coordinator before taking the job
in Blacksburg. He ends up returning from whence he came.
If you will, he doesn't even leave town. Now. Some

(01:21:28):
people would project that this might be a situation where
the two coaches can't get along. Heck, some people would
point to the movie Remember the Titans, where you had
a similar situation play out, where two high schools were
merging back in the day and the head coaches kind

(01:21:51):
of clashed a little bit in the beginning, and that
was at T. C. Williams High School, which ironically is
in Virginia, and that took place back in nineteen seventy one.
But James Franklin, to his credit, and really more so
than anything, Brent Prye, to his credit, not having such

(01:22:14):
an ego trip that you can't just stay where you
are and take a back seat to the coach who
really gave you the opportunity to advance your career to
the point of becoming the head coach. And these two

(01:22:34):
were together all the way back to win. Brent Prye
was the assistant head coach and co defensive coordinator at
Vanderbilt alongside James Franklin. Now what I don't know. I
do need to look into this real quick. How did

(01:22:59):
those two get connected? Like were they together at another
stop along the way, Because obviously they have a great relationship,
And if you're willing to stay at the school in
a lesser capacity, then you really really trust and care

(01:23:24):
about the guy that you're working with and looking at it, Okay,
Franklin played football at East Strasburg College from nineteen ninety
one to ninety four and Brent Prye was the outside
linebacker and defensive backs coach on that team, so their
relationship goes all the way back to ninety three ninety four.

(01:23:49):
So a great connection there, and I'm assuming that's why
this is going to work out and why Brent Prye
is willing to go from being the head coach at
Virginia Tech from twenty twenty two to twenty twenty five
to becoming the defensive coordinator at Virginia Tech. He finishes

(01:24:14):
his career as a head coach sixteen and twenty four,
ten and thirteen in the ACC and now he will
take over the defense for Virginia Tech as James Franklin
has come in. And by the way, they've done a
jam up job on the recruiting trail in a blink,

(01:24:35):
I mean in a blink. But we could talk more
about that later until tomorrow. As always, you'll take care
now and go Tigers.