The "Quick Strike" Edition

Clemson hits North Carolina with 28 points in the first quarter to snuff out any Tar Heel threat on Saturday in the Tigers' 38-10 win.

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Finally, Clemson Sports Talk has come back. Two drive time.
Hell everybody and Swan back in the saddle once again.
It is the show that shakes the South Lane. Clemson
Sports Talk for you each and every afternoon as you
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(01:05):
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(01:26):
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(01:47):
all the gates. Clemson wakes up in the first half
against North Carolina. Their best offensive performance of the season
probably had a lot to do with North Carolina. If
I'm being fair, that's just not a very good football team.
But if I'm being fair, you didn't get beat by
North Carolina, right, So give and take, people, give and take.

(02:10):
But before we talk about that, I've got to tell
you about my weekend. So my son had travel soccer
out of town in Gatlinburg. Now I had never been
to Gatlinburg, but everybody told me, man, traffic is really bad.

(02:35):
And of course Gatlinburg, if you know anything about the
area just north is Pigeon Forge. Really just north of
that's a little place called Severeville. And so when I
was making the hotel bookings, you know, I'm I try
to be pretty thrifty. My wife might say cheap, I

(02:56):
say thrifty. And you know, I try to find pretty
good places that are gonna give us some some location.
But mostly when I'm looking for a hotel, I'll drive
an extra fifteen minutes to the soccer field every day
to stay in a quality environment. You know, a place
where the rooms are clean. You know all of that, right, Like,

(03:21):
there's pluses and minuses. I don't have to stay, right
next to the fields in a dump. I'd rather stay
a little further away in something nicer. But what's weird
about what's happened? I think in Gatlinburg, based off of
just my limited research of trying to find a hotel,

(03:42):
is that big chains like say Marriott, Ramata. I guess
maybe Clarion. I don't know all the all of the
hotel companies out there, but you like say, okay, I
want to go to a Ramata. Well, when you open
it up, it's you know, this one's called the Wanderer

(04:05):
or something by Ramata. And then you open it up
and it looks straight out of like Psycho. It's a motel,
just a couple of you know, like two floors, doors
exiting to the outside and look at Listen. There have

(04:26):
been times in my life where motel was the way
to stay, and that was the way everybody stayed at
one point. But you know, hotels became a little safer option.
You got the lobby, you've got your own floor that
you're on, your cars aren't part right outside your door.
Like it's just a little little safer option. So I'm

(04:49):
digging around trying to find some place to stay, and
I end up going up to Pigeon Forge. Now Pigeon
Forge is about seven miles or so, I guess from Gatlinburg,
so it's not a not a long drive. But my
son and I go up Friday after the show, which

(05:10):
means traffic wasn't great. You know, I forties being constructed,
and my ways app that I was used and told me, hey,
get off and go through go through the Great Smoky
Mountain Lodge or whatever. So a Great Smoky Mountain not lodge,

(05:36):
a park. So I go through the park and not
gonna lie at first. When we get off, me and
my son, we're the only car on the road, and
I'm thinking to myself, is this right? Like this is
a scene out of a horror movie. And finally we
do run into some other people on our path. That

(05:56):
was a good sign. So if you've ever been to
the Great Smoking Mountain National Park, you're weaving up this
road all the way up, back and forth. I felt
like I was at Yellowstone, back and forth. And then
you come down down the mountain back into town. Well,
you pop out and you're not very far from Gatlinburg

(06:17):
at all, go around a couple of curves whatever, and
then boom, Gatlinburg, the town, and so we go in
to Gatlinburg about a mile and it was like we
came out of the wilderness in the Las Vegas Like

(06:39):
that's what it felt like. We came out of the
wilderness into Las Vegas. But kind of like Clemson's offense
a little bit right, came out of the wilderness into
Las Vegas this weekend against North Carolina, at least in
the first half. But the first thing we notice is
an unusual amount of looped up cars, lowered lights, you know,

(07:08):
underneath lighting, big rims, wheels flared out to the side
like I've never seen before. And and we just kept
kind of running into that the whole way. And I
asked my son, I was like, do the do you
think the kids in high school up here in Pigeon Forge, Like,

(07:29):
is this what they do? Well, we live in Pigeon Forge,
we live in Gatlinburg. We don't have anything else going on.
We're gonna soup up our cars. And I can tell
you if you live in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, I don't think

(07:50):
you're ever going on vacation to the beach because the
first part of your drive out of Gatlinburg is flat
out awful. It takes you an hour and an hour
and a half to go fifteen miles because of all
the zigzag. I mean, it's terrible. I would never go
south from there. I would only vacation north or either

(08:12):
a helicopter or I'd fly. That's it. And I, like
I said, my wife would label me cheap. But I
would not drive out of that place. If I had to,
I would not. I would stay at home, homebody. So

(08:33):
it turns out that those weren't just kids from Gatlinburg.
And it turns out the stories that my buddies told
me about traffic in that area were true. But what
they didn't know, and what I didn't know, is that
the slam It Low Car Convention was gonna be in

(08:54):
town while I was there. And I don't know if
it was ten thousand cars, it felt like it. My
son and I went out to dinner on Saturday night.
We went about two point four miles from our hotel,
and it took us forty five minutes to an hour

(09:16):
to get home. You could walk everywhere in that town
faster than you could drive this weekend. And if I
had to hear this sound again, if I had to
hear that again, I was gonna go crazy because it
was over and over and these flared out wheels blow

(09:40):
my mind. Like, I'm all for sports cars, I'm all
for European and Japanese makes and models. I love it.
I've got a old Mitsubishi three thousand GT myself. I
wish it was in better condition then it's currently in.
But I can't imagine ever lowering that car to the
point of where the wheels are literally bending out to

(10:02):
the side so that you've got enough room I guess
to drive it. Some of these cars, like when I
say slam it low, you couldn't run over a nickel.
You'd have been pushing a nickel down the road. That's
how low these cars were to the ground. You probably
could get over a dime without hitting but a nickel,

(10:25):
No chance that thing was gonna scoot in front of you, y'all.
It was crazy. There were people like the thing that
really blew my mind. There were people on the side
of the road with chairs and cameras, not their phones.
Some of them had like legit cameras and they were

(10:49):
just sitting there taking pictures of cars as they drove by.
That was my weekend all night long, all day long,
every day, taking forever to get anywhere, and everywhere you
turned there was a souped up lowrider slammed to the floor.

(11:11):
Why over and over and over again, A zero three
four five h zero zero eighty six. I'm not I'm
not mountain people, right like, I'm not. That's not my
that's not my place. That's not where I'm gonna hang

(11:33):
and get down and do my thing. I'm a beach
guy myself. The other thing, I didn't even mention this
thing about Gatlinburg. If you've or Pigeon Forge, even if
you've never been like Pigeon Forge, I never saw downtown
Gatlinburg because of all the cars. Quite frankly, we once
we saw what we were dealing with, we turned around.

(11:54):
But Pigeon Forge is like the landlocked version of Myrtle Beach,
Putt Putt course, some kind of attraction, dinner theater, you know,
the the Titanic, the hat Fields and the McCoy's, maybe

(12:17):
a go kart track that was it. Like it was
just weird, man, And so I don't know that I'll
ever go back this very much. The traffic soured my
feelings on you know, an area that I don't really
know much about but certainly don't love. But we made it.

(12:38):
We made it a zero three, four five zero zero
eighty six. It was a mixed bag this weekend from
the world of college football, and I think that's gonna
be the norm. And we'll get to Clemson in just
a little bit. But I think my main takeaway from

(12:59):
another crazy weekend in college football is the fact that
this might very well be just what college football looks like.
And I know Clemson at two and three off of
the heels of their thirty eight ten victory over North Carolina,

(13:19):
that record looks a lot better, But every week it
gets progressively better looking, right. I mean Penn State now
with two losses falling in back to back weeks, losing
the Oregon Hey, everybody understands that, but then going across
the country to face UCLA and losing for a second

(13:44):
consecutive week, just ratcheting up the pressure on James Franklin
and the Nitney Lion program as they have continued to underperform.
And I think the crazy part of that story is

(14:04):
that UCLA, remember with an interim head coach, ends up
winning a top ten game. Tim Skipper and assistant head
coach Jerry Neuheisel, whose father is Rick Neuheisel, the former
UCLA head coach. They end up beating a top ten

(14:29):
ranked I think at the time it was what top
seven ranked Penn State team, and beating top teams is
one of the biggest issues that has played James Franklin
in his tenure at Penn State, where I think they
are four and twenty one, but have not won a

(14:53):
game of that magnitude in the regular season since twenty sixteen,
and so you know a lot of frustrated Nitney Lion
fans out there for sure, a big loss setting them back.

(15:16):
Also Miami taking care of business against Florida State. The
Seminoles make a late run twenty eight to twenty two
to the final score this weekend. But even now when
you look at the Atlantic Coast Conference standings, and I
think it would have been better for Clemson obviously if
Florida State had beaten Miami, because Clemson does play the

(15:40):
Seminoles and they don't play Miami, and you need a
little help to get to where you want to go,
to fight back and scratch and claw your way maybe
into kind of a backdoor ACC Championship game. But there
is a lot in front of Clemson right now in
terms of teams and calculating what has to happen. The

(16:03):
good news is you play Louisville. The Cardinals picked up
a loss this weekend. Tony Elliott and the Virginia Cavaliers
now three and oh in the ACC, five and one overall,
and they are becoming quite a fly in the ointment
for Clemson fans who maybe are hoping for a fortuitous
path to open up to the ACC Championship game. Duke

(16:25):
also three to zero in the league. You've got Georgia
teket two and zero conference played. Miami now one to oh.
SMU is one to oh. We do have a kick
time for that Clemson SMU game. I'll give you that
information in just a little bit. But Louisville takes their
first conference loss and overall loss of the season, falling

(16:46):
in overtime to the Virginia Cavaliers, who have survived two
overtimes this season, and Tony Elliott and the Calves getting
the job done. The job done. But Florida State, I
mentioned the Seminals losing to Miami, of course last week,
they're two weeks ago they lost to Virginia or was

(17:07):
that last week? I can't remember it was. Did they
have a bye week or not? I have to look
at the full schedule here. September twenty sixth, Yeah, no,
that was a Friday night, That's what it was, so
Florida State had an extra day to get ready for
Miami twenty eight to twenty two though the final score.

(17:31):
But the Seminoles, after a big opening season victory over Alabama,
are now sitting at zero to two in ACC play,
second to last in the conference. And I mean, I
think just for fans, that's kind of what you have

(17:52):
to understand about this sport right now. There's a lot
of parody. Building depth is as difficult as it's ever been.
Notre Dame, they're currently three and two. We also had
Florida beat Texas this weekend. The Longhorns, one of the

(18:13):
top teams in the country in the minds I have
most people at the beginning of the season. They are
now three and two, So there's just a lot of parody,
and I hope we can cross over to the realm
of where you can lose a few games and still
feel okay about your team. I think we're having to

(18:35):
adjust to that a little bit because we lived so
long in an era where you had to be undefeated.
But either way, Man, this weekend just a wild one
from a lot of different perspectives, but most notably Texas
losing that was huge, and obviously the other being Penn

(19:00):
State losing. Both of those are just shocking losses I
think for most people, and ultimately has dealt a blow
to the superiority that some people may have felt existed
for several schools this year. And when you look at

(19:21):
Penn State, Texas and Clemson top five schools to open
the season, yeah, that's the opposite of a solid preseason
projection for those schools. You know, if they finished when

(19:41):
we do like the over unders, right like, if they
finished at ten and two or nine to three, you go, well,
you know, that's the way season, that's the way the
cookie crumbles. Sometimes these cookies have crumbled. And we're only
in the first weekend of October. Stay with us London
Swan Clempson's Sports Talk on a Monday. So the Clemson

(20:06):
Tigers this weekend went up to North Carolina. It took
care of business, led from the first play forward a
little trickeration from the Tigers, a little backward pass, a
lateral if you will, from k Klubnick to Antonio Antonio

(20:28):
Williams almost made up a player named Antonio Randall to
Antonio Williams. Williams then with a deep ball finding TJ.
Moore for the touchdown that would kick it off for
the Tigers. Clemson's first half possessions just spectacular. The Tigers

(20:56):
scored touchdowns on their first four drives of the game,
one place seventy five yards, three plays seventy five yards,
five plays fifty seven yards, and seven plays forty six
yards to pounce on North Carolina and take a twenty
eight to three lead at the end of the first quarter.

(21:19):
Now after that, a lot left to be desired. A
lot left to be desired. Second half included when Christopher
Vezena came in, and in fairness, North Carolina had a
drive out of the second half that went seven minutes

(21:40):
and fifty seven seconds ate up nearly half of the
third quarter before a missed field goal attempt by the
tar Heels ended that drive. But for Clemson, you know,
that second half just a little bit awkward. They go

(22:02):
punt field goal turnover on downs fumble, so really only
what four second half possessions, so not a lot to
judge that group on. But either way, it did feel
like in the second half to me at least, that

(22:25):
both teams were just ready to get on the old
bus or plane and head home. There wasn't much fight. Okay,
Club Nate was really really good twenty two to twenty
four to two hundred and fifty four yards and four touchdowns.
I think this was more about North Carolina, however, than Clemson,

(22:53):
which gives you an idea of the sad state right
now of North Carolina football in my opinion. I mean,
that was a pretty disappointing and abysmal performance from the
tar Heels, especially out of the gates, and Clemson just
punched them right in the nose. I mean, at one

(23:13):
point in the game, the Tigers had four plays in
one hundred and fifty yards. Yeah, one hundred and fifty
yards on four plays Adam Randal and Gideon Davidson. You know,
if there's a downside to this ballgame, I would say
the fact that Clempson's running attack carried the ball just

(23:35):
thirty one times for eighty nine yards. Like I think
you'd like to see a good bit more out of
these guys offensively on the ground. Wide receiver play, TJ.
Moore led the team with one hundred and eight yards
and a touchdown on five receptions. Antonio Williams had five

(23:58):
receptions for thirty seven yards. Cards Adam Randall had four
receptions for seventy three yards, but most notably two touchdowns,
catching one I believe it was a little wheel route.
The first a little dump pass out to the side
that he just took to the house, beat a couple
of defenders. And then I think the other big name

(24:20):
was Christian Bettencore the tight end. Two receptions, two touchdowns,
fifty three yards. But I think most importantly was the
fact that Christian Bettencore showed the speed in athleticism that
he had out in the open field. Like I've been
looking for brock Bowers type tight end. I've been hoping

(24:43):
to see that type of athleticism and talent at tight
end at Clemson in size. Christian Bettencore's got it. I mean,
he looks the part. As for Christopher of Vezena, Clemson's backup,
he goes six of eleven for thirty yards, no touchdowns,

(25:03):
no picks. Trent Peerman won a three for thirty one yards,
and again Antonio Williams got in on the passing action
won a one for seventy five yards. The Tiger struck
early and struck often in that first half. Again, the
second half just kind of you kind of felt like
it just peddled away. I mean, you're up thirty five

(25:25):
to three at the break. You win thirty eight ten
four hundred and eighty eight total yards, three ninety nine
through the air, eighty nine on the ground. Twenty three
first downs for Clemson in the ballgame, four of twelve
on third down. I think you'd like to see that
be a little bit better. That's probably right on the
number though. Three to four though for Clemson on fourth

(25:49):
down conversions in that game. And we'll actually hear from
Daboswingey around the bend get some of his post thoughts
on that, and maybe even in our number two, we'll
get you some of his some of his Sunday teleconference
from yesterday afternoon as the Tigers get ready for their

(26:11):
matchup this weekend, as they will take on Boston College
up in Chestnut Hill. This is another game where Clempson
is heavily favored. The Tigers are fourteen and a half
point favorites against the one to four Eagles. Clemson, according

(26:33):
to ESPN, has a seventy five point one percent chance
to win this matchup of Boston College zero to three
in the in the league, and this past weekend just
getting stamed by Pittsburgh forty eight to seven. Forty eight

(26:54):
to seven, I mean, just total domination by the Panthers.
They led thirty one nothing at the half, they led
forty five to nothing entering the fourth quarter. That's Bill O'Brien,
you're fired type numbers. I mean, seriously, that's your fire.

(27:15):
That's that is just a complete meltdown by Boston College.
And they'll get Clemson this weekend, and hopefully the Tigers
will continue to play well against the team and BC
that's certainly gotta be reeling after their terrible performance this weekend.
Lowton Swan Clempson Sports saw back with you on a

(27:36):
Monday afternoon again. The Clympson Tigers go up to North
Carolina this past weekend and cruise thirty eight to ten
to the final score. Clemson will face Boston College this weekend.
The Eagles were beating forty eight to seven by Pitt.
They are now zero to three in the ACC and

(27:59):
Clemson has a chance to pull back the five hundred
in both conference play and overall with a win this
weekend in a game where the Tigers are favored by
two touchdowns at Alumni Stadium up in chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
But here's Davos Sweeney and some of his postgame postgame

(28:20):
comments after the Tigers win against North Carolina.

Speaker 3 (28:26):
Up.

Speaker 4 (28:27):
As we always say, the funds in the winning. It
was good to see a team.

Speaker 3 (28:32):
We'll see this team win a game, you know, really proud.

Speaker 4 (28:35):
Of them, good start to kind of just restart for us,
if you will.

Speaker 3 (28:41):
Guys, I thought did a great job these.

Speaker 4 (28:42):
Last couple of weeks and buying into what they need
to do, and just proud of them.

Speaker 3 (28:49):
I mean, he's super proud of how they played.

Speaker 4 (28:51):
We have not played much complimentary football this entire year,
and that's what you saw, I mean from.

Speaker 3 (28:56):
The opening snap and I think we had.

Speaker 4 (28:59):
Four straight three and outs for minus five yards and
the offense to score and and just compimentary football. Two
punts both inside the twenty one by who's the one?

Speaker 3 (29:10):
By Jack?

Speaker 4 (29:11):
And uh so just you know, really I'm just I'm
just proud of our guys. You know, obviously we we've
not had the start that we want and a lot
of disappointment, and for young people to be able to
pick themselves up and process that and just keep doing
the work, you know, it's just, uh, it's inspiring. And
I was really proud. If you watched us practice this week,

(29:32):
you wouldn't know if we were one and three or four. No,
you don't never know. You never know if we were
in the National Championship or playing a FCS school And
I and I and I and I told them last night,
I mean that's when I saw a week and I'm
and that's not easy to do, you know, especially when
you've had a lot of disappointment the process in the
world that they live in. And so I'm really proud

(29:52):
of them. So we's got to build some mode now,
you know, we got to try to find a way
to to build momentum, to to develop some confidence from
this because we have not played with a lot of confidence.

Speaker 3 (30:01):
We haven't played with a lot of precision.

Speaker 4 (30:03):
And you saw us make plays today that we just
hadn't been making. Some of those contested catches, we hadn't
been making some of those critical plays a couple fourth downs,
you know, Cade, I mean obviously, you know, I mean
he woke up today and remembered, Oh, I'm Kate Clubnick,
and so that was nice. He was amazing and just

(30:27):
really proud of the guys.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
And again, I gotta say, though, I think as much
as that was, hey, Clemson looked really good, there's a
ton of that game that's simply, in my opinion, on
North Carolina just being really bad, really really bad on
both sides of the ball. So I don't only get

(30:51):
you too fired up, to be honest, like, I think
you got to take this victory with a grain of salt.
I think you're fortunate that you got Boston College this
coming weekend and maybe not another team, so you can
have a chance to get yourself a little bit closer to,
you know, playing the way you want to play before

(31:15):
you have to face a team like Florida State, you know,
before you put face a team like South Carolina. Again,
every team on your schedule can beat you. We've seen
that based up the way Clemsones play. But I think
a lot of the success that the Tigers had this
weekend dealt a lot more with North Carolina than anybody

(31:38):
wearing orange at that game at Chapel Hill wants to admit. Right,
here's a little bit more from Dabo Sweeney in this
pregame or excuse me, postgame comments after the Tigers win
of a North Carolina and.

Speaker 3 (31:50):
Then to be able to play a lot of guys.
I think we played seventy six guys.

Speaker 4 (31:53):
So you know, nothing makes you appreciate winning more than
the pain of losing, especially when you lose a couple
close games, and you know, so fun locker room in
there and again and just a glimpse of what this
team can be.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (32:08):
So we just gotta just gotta kind of keep doing
the work, gotta earn the right to win every single week.
With our preparation, obviously we don't have a lot of
room for air and uh but these guys, you know, again,
it was a great sign of of their mindset that
everybody got a chance to see today.

Speaker 3 (32:24):
So I'm really proud of them, uh for that.

Speaker 4 (32:26):
Offensively, you know, we had five hundred plus yards the
last game. We had four eighty eight today, uh, three
ninety nine passing, uh four touchdowns by cad I think
I think we're all said that's the I think that's
the first.

Speaker 3 (32:40):
I think Mahomes is the only other player.

Speaker 4 (32:42):
To have four touchdowns and a half against UH A
Coach Belichick team.

Speaker 3 (32:47):
So that's pretty rare air right there.

Speaker 4 (32:50):
So I mean just and then obviously UH Antonio had
a great play to start the game. Uh really well executed,
but Cade was awesome. I mean we were seven yards
of play and then Kate from ninety one twenty four
and four touchdowns. A great day for TJ Moore. He's
actually had a couple of good games in a row.

(33:12):
He's kind of getting going and finding his rhythm. Adam
Randall has been a bright spot all year. I mean
he's a great story man, and you saw what he
could do today. I mean, a big time factor in
the passing game today, uh seventy three yards receiving a
couple of touchdowns, and he's the He's the first guy
since ETN have a touchdown in the first five games.

(33:33):
So he's been he's been a bright spot and he's
been a consistent guy. Westco had twenty two yards of catch.
You know, baby Grant eighty seven had a couple of touchdowns.

Speaker 3 (33:43):
Good to see.

Speaker 4 (33:44):
Good to see him make a couple of plays and
and just fun to.

Speaker 3 (33:48):
Play a lot of guys.

Speaker 2 (33:50):
That's Dabo Swingy some of his postgame comments after Clemson's
victory up at North Carolina. Again he mentioned Am Randall.
Randall with eight carries for thirty yards in that game,
but that didn't tell the story right. What told the
story of Adam Randall's day was the job he did

(34:12):
with those two touchdown receptions. And you add those numbers
in for Adam Randall and you're looking at one hundred
and three yard day with a couple of scores. Now again,
I get it, seventy three and two and seventy three
yards and two touchdowns came from catching the ball out

(34:36):
of the backfield. But that's what you want, and that's
the advantage that he gives you being a former wide receiver,
and it was just refreshing to see the Tigers take
advantage of that this weekend in Chapel Hill against the
North Carolina tar Heels. Hey don't forget William qualga Bush
coming up in hour number two. Keep it lot right
here on Fox Sports Tradio fourteen hundred and of course

(34:59):
you get tuoed in the show. The shakespare south Land
on the iHeartRadio app. We're talking Longhorns around the band,
Stay with Us, final SEBN of Hour one, Clemson Sports, Taltlaw,
and swan with you on a Monday afternoon. I mean,
this whole deal with the top five teams in college

(35:20):
football from the beginning of the season and where those
top five college football teams currently sit, I mean, is bizarre.
I mean, it really is. Just the shift in understanding

(35:44):
what college football might look like moving forward is tough,
I think for everybody. But I think this is in
some respects where we might be headed to an era
where the top teams a month ago, right coming into

(36:08):
the preseason, Texas was number one, Penn State was number two,
Clemson was number four. Like, that's the top four schools.
Three of the top four, I should say, Texas is
now three and two, Penn State is now three and two,

(36:32):
and Clemson is now two and three, eight and seven
overall eight and seven. And so I think what fans

(36:53):
are having to adjust to is the fact that preseason perception,
first off, don't determine who you are. If you buy
the hype, you're in a lot of trouble, and that
you still have to go out and do work, even
if you're getting paid. And for as poor as Kate

(37:16):
Clemic has played at times this season for Clemson, arch
Manning has arguably played worse, especially in big moments. I mean,
Texas needs a drive. Arch isn't getting anything done. He's

(37:37):
so slow to make a decision. His helmet gets ripped off.
And that's not really the story. It's the fact that
the backup comes in, makes a huge completion to put Texas,
give Texas some momentum, and then that kid gets yanked

(37:59):
right out. I think that was Matthew Calbwell. One completion
for twenty six yards gets yanked right out for arch Manning,
and arch Manning looks panicked and scrambling and getting sacked
and throwing the ball away. Indecisive. I think it's the
best way that I would describe what we saw. Arch
Manning was indecisive time and time again. It reminded me

(38:24):
a lot of k Clubnick And you know Penn State too,
like Drew Aller is an experienced quarterback and for whatever reason,
the experience that these guys have has not paid off.
I mean, they don't look like freshmen necessarily. Maybe they

(38:47):
do a little bit at times. But I mean, this
was supposed to be arch Manning's year, This was supposed
to be k Clubnick's year, and it hadn't looked like it.
As a matter of fact, DJ Lagway and I put
the question before that game, you know, if Texas won
that game, big was Billy Napier in trouble? And now

(39:09):
I think you have to ask with that win. And
I know, I know Florida fans want more, but did
Billy Napier just secure himself at a minimum the end
of the season and maybe another year. I don't know.
I know this, that was a huge win for the

(39:29):
Florida Gators, a twenty nine to twenty one, just a huge,
huge victory. And going into the game, like I was saying,
look if Billy Napier and Florida get beat by like
fifteen twenty one, whatever is he fired? Is he fired?

(39:52):
Not now? And honestly, like for Clemson and where they
are in the ACE and for South Carolina who is
on a bye this week in the SEC. And we'll
talk with William Qualkinbush about this a little bit too.
He's joining us around the bend. But you know, how

(40:15):
do you climb? How do you climb back up in
conference play like it's a legit question after you have
two losses, like both South Carolina and Clemson do in
league play, And really it's not so much about climbing
as it is about just maintain your level, just stay

(40:37):
where you are, and if you do that, if you
stay where you are with two losses, teams will fall
back to the pack. That's just the way this works.
And you just kind of have to hope that at

(40:57):
the end of the season, your six and two two
beats out another six to two team in a tiebreaker
for the second place spot, because I don't think, well,
let me say this, I think eight and oh, seven
and one are the likely participants. Six and two's are

(41:21):
going to be in some kind of muddle tie breaker.
I still contend it would have been better for Florida
State to beat Miami this weekend. For Clemson, what you
really want is everybody you have to face from this
point forward to have a loss when you face them,
so that when you beat them, you're ahead of them.
That's the fastest way to I guess climb, but mostly

(41:45):
you're hoping for people to fall back to the pack.
Eight zero three, four five h zero zero eighty six
text line phone line twenty four hours a day, seven
days a week. Hit us up. That's eight oh three
four or five zero zero eighty six. All right around
the bend. William Qualkin Bush, host of Out of Bounds

(42:07):
with Qualking Ben on one oh five five The Roar
in the Upstate on Twitter at qualk Talk joins us.
Keep it a lot right here on Fox Sports Radio
fourteen hundred and on the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
It's time for Clipson Sports Talk with Lawton Swan. Call
me Swanny.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
It is our number two. That's Drivetime.

Speaker 5 (43:05):
Right.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
You're on the show, The Shakespeare South Lanne Clemson Sports
talt Log Swinding up with you. William Qualkin Bush joined
the program momentarily. Don't forget show. The shakesare Southland, brought
to you in part by our good friends over at
mets Plumbing mets plumber dot Com two two six seven
one owaight, that's Mets Plumbing two to six seven one

(43:27):
o eight. Give him a call today again. Speaking of calls,
William Qualkinbush on the guest line, qualk welcome in man,
how are you why?

Speaker 5 (43:36):
I'm doing great? I hope you're doing well. It's uh,
I forgot how to do one of these shows where
like people are kind of okay with what happened on.

Speaker 2 (43:44):
Saturday, So all right, So well then I'm just gonna
jump right into the the obvious here, qualk I. I
thought that was more about North Carolina and how bad
they are than how good Clemson is. I hate to
say it, but I think that was more of an
indictment on how bad North Carolina is.

Speaker 5 (44:04):
Uh. You know, I won't disagree with that. The counterpoint
to that would be the Troy game could have been
that too, And I mean Clinton trailed Troy sixteen nothing
and U like, I'm looking at like sp plus and
Sagarin and these these entities are basically saying North Carolina
and Troy appears. So yes, I agree with you that

(44:28):
a lot of it was about North Carolina. The point
of growth for Clemson is that they faced a bad team,
a team with some real weaknesses, and they made them
feel how bad they were and the weaknesses that they had.
Syracuse had weaknesses, Clinton never made them feel those. Troy, obviously,
as we talked about, even LSU, like you might think
that the LSU result is kind of an accurate depiction

(44:50):
of where LSU and Clinton both staying. And that's fine.
But even so, there were things in that game that Clinton,
just so many things that Clinton didn't take advantage of
that you just felt like it wasn't all about LSU.
Was this game more about Clinton or North Carolina? I
think absolutely you would say it was about North Carolina,
but to the extent it was about Clinton. Clinton allowed

(45:12):
that to happen. And it felt like Clinton was instrumental
in its own demise in games like Troy and Syracuse
because it was almost like it resisted its own impulse
to try and make a team feel it. So that's
kind of how I'll address that. I'm not disagreeing with
your premise, but I am acknowledging that for the first
time this year, it felt like Clinton was able to

(45:34):
make a team feel as bad as it is as
a team.

Speaker 2 (45:39):
If that makes sense, No, it does. And look, I
think this weekend you get sort of another similar opportunity
to maybe start to feel better about yourself. Certainly, you
watch what Pitt did the Boston College this weekend, and
you would imagine that Clemson should look similar to the
way they did against North Carolina in this ballgame, and

(46:02):
that's probably as valuable as anything for this group. Quault, right,
is just positive vibes because it has to have felt
just incredibly stressful around the football Facility's kind of given
the start, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (46:17):
I mean the first play, perfect example. You're talking about
stress in the facility. The stress comes when everybody else
is having fun. But you I said this many times
over the last two weeks that Conton needs to have fun,
you know, and fun is uh, you know, you could
say that's kind of a choice. I mean, I think
some of it is. It involved circumstances, but I thought

(46:38):
the coaches. I'm gonna assume that Davos Sweeney, he normally
is calling the razzle dazzle, that's normally his deal. I'm
assuming that Davos Sweeney sort of exerted some executive authority
there and called the first play. And it was perfect.
It was perfectly executor's perfectly Johns as perfectly conceived. And
a guy comes it off to the start that they

(46:59):
have him off to you this year, which is a
good start. Now again, the defense sort of like hemorrhage
some yards down the field, but then drives two through five.
They gave up no first downs in North Carolina and
negative yard is at the end of those four. So
this is by far the best start that Clinton have
been often even being up ten three get the LSU
is the half against a much much better team, but

(47:20):
not better than what we saw. It was for sure
was not It for sure was not better than uh Georgia, Taggers, Eyracuse,
and Joy. There's no There's just no doubt about that.
But it it is gonna feel nice to go back
in the facility and know that you've got a ton
to work on and know that a lot of the
things that were good were probably because your appointment was

(47:42):
that bad. But ultimately it was a higher level of
execution than we've seen. And look, if you're still considering coincident,
you're trying to great Clinton on the curve of a
national championship contender, you're gonna Quipple with some stuff.

Speaker 2 (47:55):
I am not.

Speaker 5 (47:56):
This is not a national championship contending team. This is
likely now ACC Championship participants. So I am great in
Clinton on that scale. Now, how good are you really?
And I think that's where Clemson sits, And I think
on that curve, on that scale, I think it was
very good to inject a little life, inject a little joy,

(48:16):
deject a little ENTOUSI has them into the entire operation,
so that hopefully there is a carryover and that Clinton
will at least play a little bit looser and free.

Speaker 2 (48:23):
Or going forward here on Twitter again at Qualk Talk
every day noon until three o'clock, out of bounds with
Qualk and Beim one oh five to five the row
in the Upstate talking about the ACC Championship game for
a minute. It's funny what's kind of happening up in
Charlottesville right now, because two weeks ago I was kind

(48:46):
of looking at Virginia when they beat Florida State, or
I guess that was last Friday, when they beat Florida State.
I was thinking, all right, Tony Elliott doing a little
more favors for Clemson, that Clemson's really done for themselves,
because where the Tiger sit, you need somebody to kind
of chip away at the conference, right so that if

(49:06):
you when you face those teams, when you beat them,
if you have two losses and they have two losses,
you own the tiebreaker over them. The problem has now
become that Tony Elliott in Virginia might actually be the
team is to fly in the ointment for anybody that's
hoping to scale up, because I'm not so sure looking

(49:27):
at their schedule. You know, in conference play a couple
of weeks ago to North Carolina, they go at Cal
versus Wake, at Duke, and versus Virginia Tech. That Tony
Elliott and the Cavaliers might not very well be a
team that finished them, you know, conference play with just
two losses. Qualk, Yeah, I think I think.

Speaker 5 (49:48):
One of the things that I'm sort of considering here
is and particularly given the win over Louisville, because Louisville,
I don't think Louisville looked great. Louisville gets the comp
for me, I'm winning his pit. If they're able to
beat Virginia start two to zero, you gotta started looking
at Louisville as one of those potential driver's seat teams
to control o arm of Destiny. But now it's Virginia,

(50:09):
and you're right, Like, if I had the pig of
the day, who's gonna play in the Agency Championship, I'd
say it's probably Miami in Virginia, And I think those
may be the two best teams. But it's all said done,
now Duke is in there, Georgia Tekeet's in there. They
play each other this week. I think, if you're a
Clinton fan, you must rather Duke win because you still
have a chance to beat Duke and the digitally get
a tie breaker there.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
But you're right.

Speaker 5 (50:30):
I mean, when you're losing tie breakers to Georgia tekeets syracusey,
you've already got two losses. The duty a bunch of
teams to lose a bunch of times, and so like,
I don't think scoreboard watching is bad. I think scoreboard
watch is actually fun, especially once you realize you don't
control your own destiny. Now you need a bunch of
things to go wrong in front of the people. There's

(50:51):
nothing like that. Man. I did that with the Cincinnati
Reds this year while I'm scoolbord watching the New York
Mets every night, And like, if I'm playing poorly, well,
so that's great. I don't lose any ground now I
get that leftige and the ability to do that now. Uh,
But I like, I just think c scorebo watch it
is like the most fun thing you can think about

(51:13):
right now, because it means that you're still alive a
week after week to potentially sneak into the ACC Championship
again this year.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
So top five teams at the beginning of the year,
Penn State, Texas, Clemson all kind of sitting in in
a bad spot. Right The Tigers are two and three,
the other two teams are three and two. What is
that about Quault? Is that just a complete miss by
the media. Is that just Hey, this is where we
are with college football. Get used to it. It's gonna

(51:43):
be a lot more like the pros. There's more parody.
What do you think we're looking at right now?

Speaker 5 (51:50):
I think with Clemson and Penn State in particular, and
a little bit of Texas as well, but not as much.
I think you can trace it to pressure and the
pressure to perform. And I think some of it too,
is like, Okay, the first game that Clinton has is
a loss to LSU. That's week one. Uh they have,

(52:12):
you know, they have no positive experience to draw on.
I think they lacked leadership on both sides of the ball.
I think, particularly on offense, a little bit of circumstance
beyonder control. Yeah, weather delays and two home games you
lose at Georgia Tech, which that's gonna be the story
for a lot of people this year and has been
since Briankat got there. So it's like none of those

(52:33):
things like those the two main data points, the LSU
and the Georgia Tech game, those were not like super unpredictable,
like I thought the most troublesome game of the season
was at Georgia Tech when the schedule came out, like
that was the one that scared me because opposed are
gonna have both eyes wide open with Louisville and with LSU,

(52:53):
with South Carolina and with that the view, but maybe
not with Georgia Tech. And they didn't see m last year,
so I thought that was always sort of care is.
But you're seeing the like you don't get that positive
experience against Troy if there's nothing to really build on
there into what kind of snowballs. And in case of
Penn State, they played nobody, They get pushed in the
mouth at home against Oregon and then they just a

(53:14):
total letdown spot of across country trip. I think there's
something to be said for that. A lot of young
but like sophomore type place second thirtiear players instead of
afford the bigger players at Texas right now, So maybe
it's a younger roster, but I think there's enough conduity
in all those places that coninuity and the people we
knew was enough to get people on board. The thing

(53:35):
that scares me the most Wanty is I'm wondering if
we all need to be thinking about connuity in a
radically different way, Like, what does continuity help clench it?
How has continuity helped clinch it?

Speaker 3 (53:47):
Not at all?

Speaker 5 (53:47):
It may have hurt in some spots. How has conuity
help Penn State not at all? How is connuity at
the quarterback position helped Texas not at all. Meanwhile, you're
seeing heavy portal teams like Indiana achieve again. You're watching
now Ohio State's a little bit of a different deal,
but you're watching other teams that have no business Texas

(54:08):
Tech by the whole roster, they're in the top team,
they're not recruiting like a top ten program. They're not
a top ten type of a place. Miami portals a
whole new receiver room and a quarterback and the whole
new secondary and they look like the best or second
best team in the country, on and on and on
a ghost. So I think we may be looking at
a total devaluation of continuity, and maybe it's that when

(54:31):
continuity comes pressure, particularly when you've been around a while,
when you've got that pedigree as a program. I wonder
if these three quarterbacks and these three programs by extensions
are not dealing well with the pressure of the moment.
And I don't know if that's something that will carry
on throughout the years, but if, for sure is something
that appears to be a through line.

Speaker 2 (54:52):
And the three teams that you mentioned, yeah, you know,
the situation with Texas and arch Manning is kind of
bizarre a little bit, uh because I've heard people already saying, well,
he's just where he is because of his name. But
quaalk it looks to me as if he's throwing mechanics

(55:14):
and and again he's not doing great with the pressure
in the pocket, et cetera. But something is definitely going
on with this kid. With the way he's throwing the football.
It doesn't look right. I mean, you could.

Speaker 5 (55:26):
Argue that he's certainly like mechanically is a little bit off.
He could he could argue that that maybe, you know,
maybe there's a little bit of an injury that we're
not we don't know about what he's moving around great.
Here's what I think though, and I think Kate Kuntik
and Drew Aller are dealing with the same thing. Mechanically,
things get off when you're not sure of yourself. Sometime

(55:46):
mechanically can get off when you're too sure of yourself
through you start getting all loose at your seat. But
I when I want Art standing, I see a guy
who's unwilling a little bit tentative in terms of just
letting the ball f Lie. Haven't we seen that with
Kate Club Haven't we seen that with Drew Aller as well?
I think again for all three of those guys. Like
I just watched against Florida. I watched the backup come

(56:07):
in in that last drive and his rifle of fifteen
yard paths, And not that we haven't seen that sum
from Arts, but that entire last drive from Arts Fanny
to me is exactly what's been frustrating about him. He's
not seeing the field at the proper moment. He's not
got the confidence to left the ball rip, he's throwing
late or wild. It just feels like there's a lot

(56:28):
going on in his brain that is not translating. It's
an over athinking situation. To me, it's I've talked about
mental effort. To me, giving it's not always about efforts,
not always physical. It's not always about physical effort, but
it's mental effort and mental efforts not always processing hard.
It's actually making things simple, slowing things down. And I

(56:48):
think all three of those guys are struggling with that.
I agree about arts doesn't look right, but I think
some of what doesn't look right with arches between the
ears and the processing and the inability to have confidence
that what he's seeing is the truth. And that's a
hard place for a quarterback to remove himself from. In
mid stream like this.

Speaker 2 (57:06):
Qualk's on Twitter at qualk Talk again every day noon
until three o'clock. Out of bounds, will qualk him? Ben Allright,
final couple of things, Qualk. The other change that took
place for Clemson was the fact that Tom Allen was
not in the press box. He was on the sidelines.
And I haven't I wouldn't say I've been saying that,
but I brought that up a couple of times, like
I feel like from watching Brent Vinnables and you know

(57:27):
his interaction, I saw a lot of that from Tom
Allen on Saturday, and I just think that in and
of itself gives a little extra fire to the team.
And I really I k know Dabo Sweeney's kind of
said that they think he'll stay down. I'm assuming he will,
but you know, it'll be a game day decision or
whatever he brought up. But I thought that was great, man,

(57:51):
and I think it's good for this group.

Speaker 5 (57:53):
I agree with you. I will. I'm gonna say this.
I have been telling people that Tom Allen to be
on the sidelines, and I think we all sort of agree,
Like I think the average Clemson fan was saying, Hey,
maybe we'll try this with this guy on the sideline.
And look, I'll take a bit of a victory left
on that. Because when he was hired, one of the
things that I told people is this guy may need

(58:14):
to get back coach more than Brenvinnables. He's a psycho
like people like John Blow, who's an Indiana guy who's
on the Clinton beat right for the Posting Carrier. He said, like,
Tom Allen has a psychole. This guy has so much energy.
And so when I got to interview Tom Hale of
One on one in July, and I asked him. Hey.
I was like, hey, I'm excited to see you bodyflam

(58:34):
somebody after a takeaway. You're gonna beat booths or sideline,
And I thought for sure he was gonna say sideline.
I didn't like moving into booth last year. And when
he said, I kind of prefer the booth and he
sort of was like yeah, I was a little skeptical
by you know, I kind of see the benefit. I'd
rather be up there now. I thought, oh, okay, so
now I gotta do a mea coop. I gotta go
look man. So to my audience and everybody, I'm like, hey,

(58:56):
Tom Allen says, you like the booths, So that's what
he's gonna do. But you can tell this team has
been missing some emotional fire. And when you have the
natural energy, it would like putting the putting me in
a in a glass box for three hours. Man, I've
got too much pent up energy. That's not gonna help
anybody if you do that for me. And so I
feel like that's what That's what Tom Allen in this

(59:18):
Clemson defense has been has been lacking. It's that the
leadership component has not been there and the open uh,
the open communication. Then channeling that in a positive way.
It's not been there to the extent that it needs
to be there in order for Clemse the defense to
achieve its best. There was a play where Sammy Brown.
I won't go into the whole thing u here because

(59:39):
we don't have a time, but Sammy Brown made a
play that I'm not sure he makes in the Syracuse
game or before, and Tom Allen is right there on
the sideline like he's still in the field of play,
but Tom Allen's springing down the sideline to give him
out of boys. You can't do that, Like if an
assistant coach does that, or one of your peers does that,
or a grad assistant or whatever analyst does that, it
doesn't come out to a Hillebeans. But when your defensive

(01:00:01):
coordinator does that, it gives that extra little boost. I
just think it's something that in this program at this
time that Clinton needs his president and I'm glad he
did it. I'm glad he said, you know what, I'm
gonna sacrifice whatever personal things that had me up in
the boot. I'm gonna sacrifice that, and I'm gonna make
my way inside. I think it's the benefit of everybody and.

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
I'm glad they did it well. The final thing we
got about a minute and a half just sort of
I guess a blanket question for our listeners. Does Clemson
have the ability at this point to at least get
to where you talked about week to week? Maybe you're
looking at hey, is there a backdoor way to get

(01:00:38):
to the a SEC Championship? Are they good enough to
do that at this point? Have you seen enough? Uh?

Speaker 5 (01:00:43):
No, I've not seen enough, because I do need I
do think they were objectively better, but they were not
objectively good enough to do that. I need to see
them do it against SMU. I need to see him
do it against Duke. I need to see him do
it against Louisville. As of right now, I think they
can beat SMU. I'm not sure about Duker, Louisville Oruth
Carolina for that matter. So I do need to see more.
I need to see more of a sustained high level

(01:01:07):
of performance. Like that first quarter was great, and you know,
I kind of think that was the game and they
wanted to do some other stuff. But I still want
to see a little more from the backups, and I
want to see a little bit more from from the
whole apparatus, just little like I want to see some takeaways.
I want to see a little more like a little
more creating havoc on defense and a little bit more

(01:01:27):
sustained drives on offense and not as I love the
big plays, but I want to see big plays and
sustained drives against that caliber of opponent. So look, maybe
they show us a little more. BC's not exactly coming
in feeling great about itself, so maybe Clinton makes another
step in that direction this week.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
There we go on Twitter at Qualt Talk Qualt have
a great week, man, Thank.

Speaker 5 (01:01:47):
You, Thanks Swanee, always going to be with you.

Speaker 2 (01:01:50):
There you go. That's William Qualkin Bushane out with us
here on a Monday afternoon. All right, I mentioned we
have some audio from Debo Sweeney and his Sunday teleconference
at full audio is up over on our website as well,
clympsessports Saw dot com. We'll get you some of that
when we return right here on Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred.

(01:02:10):
And of course, the show that Shakespare south Land is
heard around the world on the iHeartRadio app Lawton swan
Clemson Sports Saw eight oh three four five zero zero
eighty six. That was William Quagabush before the break, all right.
Dabo Sweeney last night held his Sunday telecommerce full audio
of this over on our website, clympses sports tall dot com.
Here's Sweeney's opening statement to the media.

Speaker 4 (01:02:32):
Good trip up to uh Chapel Hill yesterday. Fun day
and uh, you know, great to see. It's great to
see us play well. We didn't play perfect, but we
played well.

Speaker 3 (01:02:44):
And that's really.

Speaker 4 (01:02:47):
We really haven't played well all year as far as uh,
you know, really playing complimentary football. But we played well,
and we played to a standard and just good to
see our best players play well and again just the
complimentary football things that we had not done well uh
these last few games, you know, defensively stopping the run.

(01:03:11):
Really pleased with that two of twelve on third and
fourth down. We feel position was it was a huge
factor for us. You know, we kind of we kind
of served it up to each other there.

Speaker 3 (01:03:22):
That was. That was really good to see.

Speaker 4 (01:03:25):
Uh So, just a great start force coming out of
the out of the open date. Now we got to
just try to build some momentum, build some confidence. You know,
a lot of good stuff on tape that we can reinforce,
but still plenty to improve upon. Proud of the team
for how they responded and just how they played defensively.
Ten points. We did not give up a touchdown with

(01:03:47):
our first d which was which was great to see.
Did a good job against the run. Not a lot
of big plays. Probably the one big play was really
where we hit the quarterback and it's kind of just
an unfortunate air force, but got a bunch of guys
got to play, which I think was great. A bunch
of guys got a chance to to you know, play
defense and get a tackle. And I thought the four

(01:04:09):
consecutive three and outs early in the game was was
really huge. In the offense, they just kind of kept
feeding each other. And again I thought our our best
players played well and that's that was that.

Speaker 3 (01:04:21):
Was a real positive.

Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
That's Clipson head coach Dabos Sweeney during his time with
the media yesterday evening, and again that's on our website.
It's also, by the way, posted on our Facebook account.

Speaker 1 (01:04:34):
UH.

Speaker 2 (01:04:34):
Sweeney was asked about Garret Riley's play calling UH and
what he thought about how that went, and of course
Qualk said he thought maybe Sweeney was the one that
pushed the idea of the trick play early. But here's
Dabo Sweeney talked about that that was good.

Speaker 3 (01:04:51):
I mean, I thought, again, the game was well called.
It was it was it was sequential. I mean, we
set some things up up. It was really good.

Speaker 4 (01:05:01):
Manipulated some things that we thought we could uh based
on our prep and uh, you know, got the ball
to the playmakers. So I thought he did a really
nice job and again just played with a lot of rhythm,
and you know, I give Kate a lot of credit
for that.

Speaker 3 (01:05:16):
I mean, he made it.

Speaker 4 (01:05:17):
I mean, you know, he made a lot of plays.
I mean they played to uh t J Moore on
third and forever. Uh, that set up the fourth down attempt.
I mean that was his fourth read. You know he's coming,
he came back to to the dig route. You know,
that's just a couple of things he just hasn't done.
But he just looked so comfortable and it was just
like I said, just I was just really proud of him.

(01:05:40):
And uh and then TJ you know making that play too.
I mean, that's that's a couple of things we haven't done.
You know, I just thought Kay did an awesome job.
Of sitting in the pocket. He was very poised all night.
But that particular play there was was was one that
was you know, awesome to see. And uh, when you
when you make plays like that, when you play with

(01:06:01):
rhythm and then you can you know, you can get
into the rhythm.

Speaker 3 (01:06:06):
As a play caller too.

Speaker 4 (01:06:07):
So I thought it was it was a well called game,
and you know, wish we could have maybe finished a
little bit better, but you know, we came out of
the half.

Speaker 3 (01:06:17):
You know, we were going to commit to putting CV in.

Speaker 4 (01:06:19):
On the second series no matter what, and just kind
of had a weird start seven minute drive and then
we caides only drive. We were three and out there
and then kind of a weird down to there, you know,
kind of shortening the game to running the ball. But
from a play call standpoint, I thought it was, you know,
definitely our best game. But you know, all those things
go hand in hand. When you're taking care of the ball,
you're playing in rhythm, guys are making the plays that

(01:06:40):
are there, it's a lot easier to get in rhythm
and what you're trying to do. And then I thought
you did a good job of doing some things to
help us get into rhythm. So I thought all those
things were positives. And then defensively, complimentary football and getting
you the ball back, all those things that are part
of it where you're not you know, sitting there on
the sideline for you know, long drives and then you

(01:07:02):
go out there and you're starting it with a five
yard line or a ten yard line. All those things
impactrick play calling, and I just thought yesterday was by
far our best game from a complimentary football standpoint. Guys
playing well, field position, third down defense, rush defense, all
those things.

Speaker 3 (01:07:20):
It was a positive.

Speaker 2 (01:07:22):
DeVos when he was also asking about his evaluation of
Gideon Davidson, Now he thought the freshman running back did
with and without the football.

Speaker 3 (01:07:30):
He did a good job.

Speaker 4 (01:07:31):
You know, he's playing on special teams too, and I
mean one of his best players on a kick return,
I mean he just flat out took a dude out.
I mean had a big time knockdown. Those are things
that don't necessarily show up on the stat sheet, but
you know, he's getting better and it was That's another thing.
It was great to get some rotation in there yesterday
with the you know, the rhythm of the offense and
the amount of plays and stops and all that type

(01:07:53):
of stuff that was that was good.

Speaker 3 (01:07:54):
I think Gideon's getting better and better each and every week.

Speaker 2 (01:07:57):
Made some nice plays DeVos And he was also asked
about Christian Bettencore in the job that he did a
tight end and in addition to that, just how well
he does blocking.

Speaker 3 (01:08:08):
Yeah, he and Olsen are elite blockers. They're they're they're
not good blockers.

Speaker 4 (01:08:13):
Those two guys are elite blockers if you really know
what you're looking at and really watch the tape and
you watch how those two guys block like they are
really really physical, and I think elite blockers. I mean
I'd say the same thing about Olson. I mean, Olsen
had one. I mean he's just does a great job

(01:08:33):
for us. But yeah, Christian's a complete player. I mean
he's he's big, he's strong, you run, he's he's learned,
you know what to do. He doesn't make a lot
of mistakes. A nice job by Kade, you know, find
him in the seam, and a good job by Benton
Core and just staying on his feet and got kind
of dove down to his feet, but you know, kept
his kept his balance and was able to score on

(01:08:55):
the one and then you know, just a little screenplay
there down in the red zone that he punched into.
But you know, he's he likes all of it. He
likes every he likes every part of playing the position.
He loves football. I mean, he's just a worker, you know,
coming here today at one thirty and he's he's got
you know, he's out there jamming the music, running one

(01:09:16):
hundred yard sprints and walk backs, you know, by himself.

Speaker 3 (01:09:18):
And that's just who Christian is.

Speaker 4 (01:09:20):
Uh so bright future red shirt freshman and I'm definitely
glad he's a Tiger.

Speaker 2 (01:09:27):
So there you go. Some comments from Dabo Sweeney following
Clempson's victory over North Carolina this weekend. Again full audio
that on Clemsons Sports tut dot com in on our
Facebook page. If you see our work on Facebook, please
share it. That helps us continue to grow again with
a quick break and come back with more. Here on
a Monday afternoon following a Clemson victory. Huh that felt good?

(01:09:49):
Stay with us, Lawton Swine, Clempson Sports Talk. Don't forget
about our friends in Alumni Hall on the corner of
Campus of College Avenue in downtown Clemson. It's Alumni Hall
for all your officially licensed Clemson merchandise, hats, t shirts,
tell Gate, gearmore go check them out today in store
downtown Clemson or online in Alumni Hall dot com. It's

(01:10:12):
Alumni Hall where Tiger fans shot all right, A three
four or five zero zero eighty six. That's the text
line and the phone line. Man. The polls, you know,
obviously you'd like to be in them if you're Clemson,

(01:10:34):
you'd like to be in them if you're South Carolina,
but you're not the top team of the country in
both major polls is currently Ohio State, but Miami. The
Hurricanes are making a move in the Apeopole. Miami just
forty one points behind Ohio State, and if they cant

(01:10:57):
continue to swing first place votes, the Hurricanes could become
the number one team in the land. Behind Miami is Oregon.
They have five first place votes. Ole, miss is fourth,
and Texas A and m is fifth behind the Aggies.
Number six Oklahoma, number seven, Indiana number eight's Alabama. Number

(01:11:20):
nine is Texas Tech. Number ten is Georgia, Number eleven
is LSU, Number twelve is Tennessee thirteen Georgia Tech, fourteen
is Missouri. Number fifteen is Michigan number sixteen, Notre Dame
number seventeen, Illinois number eighteen, BYU nineteen, Virginia five and

(01:11:41):
one number twenty Vanderbilt. After falling against Alabama, the Commodores
dropped four spots to number twenty at number twenty one,
Arizona State twenty two, Iowa State twenty three, Memphis twenty four,
South Florida in number twenty five Florida State. By the way,

(01:12:04):
Clemson nor South Carolina getting any votes in either poll,
So hey, from college football playoff conversations, to come we
get a vote?

Speaker 5 (01:12:18):
Please?

Speaker 2 (01:12:20):
Can we please get a vote? Yep, tough sledding right now.
And for our fine feathered friends hanging out with us
and peeking over the fence.

Speaker 5 (01:12:33):
So you could continue to peek over the fence at
the best radio showing the nation well.

Speaker 2 (01:12:39):
And for our South Carolina friends. Remember before the season,
I thought that you had the ability to start five
and zero with the possibility that you could lose your
final seven games. But somehow that schedule has only gotten

(01:13:01):
tougher as we have continued to move through the season.
What the game Cocks are looking at in the final
stretch of the season, not including Clemson that Clemson game.
Based off of the way the Tigers have played, I
openly admit it, that's your easiest remaining game not named Coastal.

(01:13:21):
But look at where these teams are now. LSU Who
South Carolina plays this weekend seven forty five at night
in baton rouge number eleven. That's a game Carolina could win,
don't get me wrong, but still number eleven. Oklahoma is
now ranked number six, Alabama currently ranked eighth, Ole Miss

(01:13:47):
fourth A, and M fifth. South Carolina over the next
five games, will play teams currently ranked eleventh or better,
and four of those five are inside the top eight
in the country. Like my thought of five and seven

(01:14:11):
being a possibility still absolutely exists given the fact that
South Carolina is currently three and two and about to
enter this stretch. If the game Cocks win two of
these games, I would feel like, if I'm a South
Carolina fan, that was an incredible run because these are

(01:14:35):
some tough teams that the Gamecocks are about to face,
no doubt about it. And the tough part is, I
think for Gamecock fans, if you lose all five, and
you could lose all five, you won't be Bowl eligible
regardless of what happens against Coastal and Clemson. You have

(01:15:00):
to win one of these games, at least one. Three
of them are on the road. Alabama does not look
like the Alabama that they were when they got beat
by Florida State Oklahoma. The quarterback situation there that helps

(01:15:25):
South Carolina if John Mattier can't go. But to get
Bull eligible, you have to win one of these five games.
It is going to be tough. It is going to
be extremely tough. Now, LSU, you know you can question

(01:15:49):
how good they are because obviously you have that right,
especially given the way Clemsons looked to question whether or
not LSU was as good as we thought maybe out
of the gates this year. But yeah, number eleven, number six,

(01:16:11):
number eight, number four, and number five over the next
five games for South Carolina, and that will change. Teams
will lose, people will move. But somehow those matchups have
only gotten more difficult in terms of how these teams
are compared to everybody else in college football. I mean,

(01:16:36):
the final four games of that stretch are against teams
all within the top eight, and if those teams keep
winning up until that South Carolina game, and maybe a
couple of them play each other, so it might not
be possible either way. What a stretch South Carolina is

(01:16:56):
about to hit. This is as tough as it gets
in college football. I don't know if anybody's going to
play a stretch like this. We'll see what happens seven
forty five on the SEC network this weekend at LSU.
That's the other thing momentum, right Like, if South Carolina

(01:17:17):
just gets crushed, do you get disheartened? And how do
you bounce back from that? Final segment? Flip side?

Speaker 6 (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 answer to the questions
what have you done for me lately? What have you done?
Always are the same. We win.

Speaker 2 (01:18:38):
Final segment on a Monday, Clemson Sports Thought the show
The Shakes of south Land with you again. Thank you
to all of our sponsor supporters. Thank you for all
that you guys do on social media sharing our work.
Billy chimes into the program. Billy says, I spent New

(01:19:02):
Year's Eve at the Thunderbird Inn in Bamberg when we
went to a party of the Armory years ago. This
is no, actually it was Allendale. Yeah, three oh one
right in that is that three oh one. My dad
would be able to tell me back when I was
a kid, Billy, that stretch in Allendale there was like

(01:19:28):
a lobster restaurant you could go to. You know, that
was about the midway point between New York and Miami,
New York City and Miami. And consequently, before I ninety
five was built, that was a place that a lot
of people stayed and rested right there in Allendale. And yeah,
there were a ton of those little motels on the

(01:19:51):
side of the road for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:19:53):
And I just.

Speaker 2 (01:19:57):
I think back, like when when the movie Cars came
came out. I don't remember what year, that was, probably
early two thousands maybe when Cars came out, I remember thinking, dude,
Rady Radier, Radiator Springs is Allendale. I mean, that's that's

(01:20:21):
what happened like that, And you know, I don't know
how much that affected my community where I grew up
in Barnwell, or how things are in Bamberg and other areas,
but dude, if you don't have the interstate, like look
at Walterboro got the Interstate going right through it, you know,
you look at all these towns that have an interstate

(01:20:42):
near them and how they've blossomed, and how once that
road came in, that interstate came in, I mean, it
just sucked all the traffic right off of those roads.
I mean I could imagine, you know, Highway one right
here in the Midlands, what that road must have been
like sixty five seventy years ago, and where people would

(01:21:08):
have stayed, and what life would have been like, you know,
kind of around this area. When when when that was
the norm? You know, I would I would think, Now,
I'm sure it was not. Well, I guess they were

(01:21:28):
were as many cars on the road. Like when I
think about it, I'm like, eh, might have been Gatlinburg.
But man, no, you know it is true though, like
all of those little cities and towns just dried up

(01:21:51):
because of the interstate. But hey, Barnwell still got the
bomb plant, as they say, I guess it's still I
don't think we're making bombs, but we're still employing some people.
All right, Let's see whether we got before we get
you out of here. Man, you know, the whole weekend,

(01:22:12):
like I gotta figure out this throat coat thing. I've
been on the hot tea, I've been on the the
cough drops. I don't know. I must have like an inflamed,
inflamed vocal cords or something. I just can't shake it.

(01:22:35):
I just keep having to clear my throat.

Speaker 3 (01:22:37):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:22:37):
It kind of reminds me there was a guy back
in the day on the radio. I can't remember it.
It wasn't JT. The Brick, I don't think, but I
can remember being in the car driving at night. This
is one of those like night radio shows that was
on about a zillion stations from coast to coast, and

(01:23:00):
and the guy would be like this.

Speaker 7 (01:23:03):
Welcome Hana Spots Talk tonight nine nine nine, two oh seven,
forty three seventy two. I was like, golly, that voice,
Like how does he seven seven oh teven, nine oh seven.

Speaker 2 (01:23:16):
I'm like, how in the world, how in the world
does that guy do that? And I think I think
he actually I think it's actually like a syndrome something
with the vocal cord. I can't remember if it's like
an enlarged vocal cord or or something, but man, that
guy's voice would just make my throat hurt listening to it.

(01:23:38):
That was like one of those late night shows man
back in the day, oh pre internet that was. I
can remember like being on the AM dial and you're
driving back to Clemson on a Sunday night and catching
like the Indianapolis Colts off of a station out of Indiana,
and just how cool that was. And then to think now,

(01:24:03):
to think that now here I am in this business
on the radio talking sports, and I was a guy
thirty years ago in the car driving and listening to
people talk sports all over the country. Oh man, what
a blessing. I'm just blessed to do this with you
guys every week, and thankfully this week we're doing it

(01:24:25):
after a Tiger win. Hey, we did it for twelve
years after a ton of wins. Hopefully they'll get back
to good. All right, we'll be back tomorrow speaking of
getting back to good at four o'clock. Until then, it
is always I'll take care now and go Tigers.