The "Regression" Edition

Swanny is joined by Will Vandervort and Tommy Bowden as the Tigers head into their first bye week of the season.

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Now finally, Clemson Sports Talk has come back to drive time.

(00:50):
Hello everyone, Lawton Swan back in the saddle once again.
It is the show that shakes the South. Layd Clemson
Sports Talf for you each and every afternoon as you
make your way around the Great State to South Carolina
and beyond, listening to us on the incredible radio stations
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(01:11):
you where you are and when you are. Don't forget
to show the Shakes of south Land, brought to you
in part by a good friends over at Mets Plumbing
mets Plumbing dot com two two six seven eight two
two six seven one o eight. That's Mets Plumbing all
right out of the gates. Our one Will Van Dervoort
joins the program on a Friday afternoon. Willie V. How

(01:35):
are you, my man?

Speaker 3 (01:36):
I'm good, lo. How you doing. By the way, Red
Raiders five and zero cruising through the season. Let's trying
to get six and o tonight.

Speaker 4 (01:44):
There we go.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Humble brag, Humble brag by Will Van de Voord about
bamberg Earhart Red Raiders. They took down my barn with
the war Horses recently, and uh, I'm just hopeful that
maybe we won't combine schools and we'll get one last
shot the war Horses before we are the Barnwell County Bulls.

Speaker 5 (02:03):
Will.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
All right, let's talk about the Clemson Tigers. One in
three first one in three starts is four, and really
I think it pales in comparison to that four one
in three start because this was a team that was
projected not just for the College Football playoff will, this

(02:26):
is a team that people thought might play for the
national championship. I mean, how have you reconciled where this
team sits today with the preseason expectations that they had.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
Well, let me first start off this, and you're like me, historically,
I have never seen a Clemson team that has had
and I went back and looked, and I can't find
anybody but a Clemson team that had so much coming
back from a team that won an ACC championship the
year before, you know, had a lot of success in
years past. When those teams have had death the year before,

(03:01):
bring a lot back, bring that nucleus back. They generally
had even more success than next year. Right, And this
is the first time ever in Cleinton history that a
Clemson team brought this many guys back from a championship team,
a team that went to won the AC Championship, went
to the COAG Football playoffs, and dude, they're one in three. Like,

(03:24):
I've never seen this happen before. I mean, yeah, you
had a couple of Danny four teams loser some people
they weren't supposed to during the season, but those teams
still did not underachieve, like this team is underachieving.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, no, that's fair. I think the eight Tommy Baalden
team kind of had some high expectations coming into the
year and then Nick Saban and Alabama sort of ground
them up with coffee there running back back in two
thousand and eight.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yeah, a lot of people have brought that up to me,
but I keep reminding people that entire offensive line was
replaced in O eight from the seventh season, so it
was a brand new offensive line. So I get that,
but it's still not like this offensive Lowell, you brought
a brand new offense. This is a whole This is
the exact same offensive line you had last year. This

(04:11):
is the exact same quarter back, exact same wide receivers,
exact same defensive line, exact same for the most part linebackers,
exact same defensive bats. You know in your corners. You
see what I'm saying. I'm like those teams when you
talking about the eight to four teams. Yeah, which a
lot of people bring up. Those teams had deficiencies though
coming into the season that nutrition hit the program in

(04:34):
the off season. Theatricians did not hit this program.

Speaker 4 (04:39):
So you know, there's no.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
Excuse for what we're seeing out of these guys because
we know they can win games. We've seen them do it.
We've seen them make plays to win games. We've seen
them beat teams that they're supposed to beat. We've seen
them give Texas a run for their money. It doesn't
make sense to me, It just does. It makes sense
to why this team is struggling the way that they

(05:03):
are makes no sense to me. I cannot pinpoint anything
to say, well, this is why.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
And realistically, there's only been one coaching change, bringing in
Tom Allen. I mean the other coaches at position groups
have all been there as well, so it's tough to
you know, look at the offensive line and the way
they play and think, well, Matt Luke, it's Matt Luke.
I mean, I thought last year the offensive line played

(05:31):
really well.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
I did. That's what doesn't make sense, right, And when
you watched the film and you've watched the offensive line
making the mistakes they're making, you got your senior right
tackle just totally do something stupid. Oh, you got your
You know, you got a guy who maybe hadn't played
as much as Colin Sadler, but what is he doing

(05:53):
at times? He's like he's not even blocking people out there.
It's like he's just sitting in la la land. You know,
you got your center. A guy who played last year
and played really well. He's got his head up and
he's supposed to be going this direction and he climbs
and goes the other direction. When he's playing his day,
the guys come and Free is the guy he should get.
I mean, there's just so many mas on the offensive line,

(06:14):
Like it is just unbelievable. Dude, when you go back
and watch the offensive line, it's like they've never played
offensive line before, all of them, you know. And Tristan Lee,
he made some mistakes when he came back. I at
least give him a little leeway because he was awful
two weeks, so, you know, maybe he got a little
over excited on a couple of things and stuff like that.
I'll give him a little leeway, but not much, because

(06:37):
again he's a veteran player and he should know better
than some of them, as he made in this last game.
So it's just like it's just a head scratcher of all.
I can't figure it out. And it's not just the
offensive line, the defensive line. Peter Woodson and you know
in TJ. Parker, what are you doing? Like you know,
I mean it's like you just like you think you
can just roll out there and say, oh, I'm TJ.

(06:58):
Parker or I'm the best or Peter Willis on the
best and the first play of the game, both those
guys are just totally taking out of the play. And
the guys running thirty yards up the sideline, you know,
I mean, it's like, you got to be better than that, man,
you got you gotta be better than that. And it
starts on the offensive defensive line. That's why I brought
those two things up first in my critique because I

(07:18):
don't care if you got Tom Brady at quarterback, you
got you got you know.

Speaker 4 (07:26):
Whoever, Walter Bate, Lynzwan or Johnson Walton.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
You got Walter Payton running back, and you got lynz
one John Stalwart at wide receiver, you know, and you
got you know yet Travis Kelsey at tied end. I
don't care who you have weapon rights. If you can't
block and you can't tackle, you ain't win the football games.
And right now Clinton's number prop number one problem is
their interior lines are awful. They're just bad on the

(07:51):
defensive line and they're bad on the offensive line.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
Will Van der Warts on Twitter at steel or will
he covers Clemson for the Clemson and then Cider so
from there will? I guess it kind of begs the
question before we talk about the other issues. I mean,
how can how can they fix this? I mean, are
these guys as good as they're advertised to be? And

(08:17):
is it just as simple as flipping the switch?

Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yeah, here's how I'd fix it if I'm Devo. Now,
I don't know, they're Davo and the coaching stuff. They
know way more obviously about the team than I don't
have the privilege to watch practice and to see who's
loafing in practice, who's who's doing what. But the way
I look at when I'm watching the game and I'm
paying attention to who's not doing what they're supposed to do,

(08:44):
I think the number one way you get that person's attention,
especially those guys that want to be first round draft
picks that should be first round draft picks, you take
them off the field, like I would love personally, I
would love to see Clemson start the far longer and
Jaheen Lawson in this next game. That's what I would

(09:05):
personally love. Do I think those guys are better than
Peter Woods and TJ. Parker? No, I don't, But I
know one thing. Those guys would come in and give
one hundred and ten percent, which the other two guys aren't.
I'm just gonna say it right. You know, I don't
know what they got it left tackle, I mean a
right tackle. But you know, if my right tackle keeps
making these bonehead plays, I'm gonna get somebody else an

(09:26):
opportunity because this is not this is that working. You know,
if my quarterback is looking at guys that are wide
open and he ain't thrown them the ball Okay, why
is my quarterback a head case? All of a sudden,
I needed he's got the yips, right, I need to
get I need to get him off the field and
put somebody in at least doesn't have the yips. It
may not be as good, but at least he doesn't
have the yips. So my whole thing is this man

(09:49):
put the guys on the field that are performing. That
always says you want to put your best five or
your best eleven on the field at the same time,
right on both sides. Well, right now, they're not doing that.
Because I feel like if a guy is not giving
his all, and as talented as some of these guys
are that we know that they have are given their all,
then I say, put somebody out there that does want

(10:09):
to give it they're all and let them go because
to me, that is your best eleven, not just because
this guy's talented. Right.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
So I had the same take as you. I felt
like it was effort. You know, Tim Beray comes on
the show every Thursday, and he's got to kind of
tow the company line a little bit in his capacity
and loyal to Clemson. But he said before he taught
with Dabo after the game that they talked about kind

(10:40):
of you know, what had happened, and Tim said on
the air that you know, Dabo said it wasn't effort,
And that is shocking to me, Will, because I feel
like that's all it is. And you know, if it's
if it's not the effort, then then what else could
it be? Like I can't I can't even piece together

(11:03):
what it might be. Tim seems to think that they
make they've made some bad decisions. Is decision making that's
caused a lot of the issues. I don't know, Man,
It's a weird, weird spot to be in, for sure.

Speaker 3 (11:15):
Yeah, I think, you know, when when you look at
Kate Klebnik, I think definitely decision making is there with him.
He's just not getting it done. From a decision making standpoint,
I think that's accurate with him. But I don't think
that's accurate with why the wide receivers aren't blocking downfield right,
I mean, I mean heavy times we see guys get

(11:36):
blown up downfield the other day, you know, I mean,
and runs could have been longer or better, you know,
I don't think, you know, maybe you could say the
offensive line is given effort. I know, I probably haven't
had an issue with that because they are, like I
just mentioned, a lot of their problems are missed assignments, right,
they're just I don't know what they're doing. They're not
really loafing. I wouldn't say anybody's loafing on offensive line,

(11:59):
but on the deference of blind they are. To me,
that's effort. What you got going on at cornerback right now,
where guys are just getting beat up on the perimeter,
they look soft, that's effort, right, you know. So I
think some of it is you know, I would say
Sammy Brown and we would as are given effort. They're
just not being where they're supposed to be, if that

(12:21):
makes sense, right, Yeah, So, like you know, so, I
think some of it is lack of effort, and that's
the one that frustrates me a lot, and I think
frustrates you. And I think that's what the fancy. And
then some of it is execution and you know, and
decision making. And so that's why I said, it's a
number of things. There's not one thing we can point to,

(12:42):
and I think that's what's frustrating as coaches that because
it's not one thing they could point to, it's a
bunch of things, and it's all across the board.

Speaker 4 (12:50):
You know.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
Usually it's like, Okay, the offense is struggling, but the
defense is doing something right right, so you're good, right,
or vice versa, so you're good. You could fix it, like, okay,
we at least the deep fins is good and they're
coming to play and they're keeping it in the game
right now. Nobody's playing good on either side of the football.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
So this is kind of a weird statement. But Khalil
barnes I put out a video of his you know,
the Q and A with him where he was asked
about the team and he talked about, you know, not
wanting to embarrass his parents, and dude, you would not
believe the number of people that came out of the

(13:30):
woodworks on social media about that particular comment, which which
he kind of said, hey, look, we're just you know,
if you didn't if you don't want to play hard before,
did you really ever want to play hard? You know,
kind of saying that this is not over. But man,
people could not believe that he didn't bring up Clemson,
that he didn't bring up you know, wanting to win games.

(13:52):
That he talked about, it's not about a record, it's
about I think he misconstrued or kind of got some
of prober Dabbo Sweeney isms mixed up in his brain
with the way he said it. Because I mean, am
I right? I mean, do you agree with that statement?
Because I don't think khal Barnes is the kind of
guy that's not playing for Clemson, Like, I really don't

(14:12):
think that. I think he's trying to say, we're gonna
play as good as we can play, regardless of our record.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
I think he just said it wrong.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
Man, He's got torched. He's getting torched on my Twitter
account or on my TikTok.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
Look, he's getting torched everywhere by it because and and
I hate it because you know, if you watch it
in the context that he's saying it, being that I'm
somebody who's around him, and I know I know what
he's trying to say. Like you know, we've been we've
been at the press conferences with them, We've talked to him.

(14:47):
You know, we don't kind of person he is and
what he's meant, what he means the guys in that
locker room and everything. I think it's just and it's
a shame. It's just he misspoke, is what he did,
and he didn't mean it to come out the way
it came out. And like you said, I think he
got a couple of debos daboisms mixed up, you know,

(15:08):
And I think he was trying to say one thing
that said something else when he's trying to say something else,
and it just all came out wrong. I was with
when I when I was watching initially and I was
watching it live when it happened, I'm saying, Khalil, what
are you trying to say, buddy, because I don't think
this is what you mean, right, That's what I'm saying.

(15:28):
And I wasn't present at this press conference, so I'm
just I'm watching it live through through zoom, And you know,
I wish one of the follow up questions would have been, hey,
do you think he meant this? And I think that's
you know, maybe I would have asked that for him,
because I could tell he was struggling on what he

(15:48):
was trying to get out, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yeah, And and you got kind of annoyed him too.
I thought it was not well put together, but reasonable
what he was trying to say. And I didn't even
think when I posted it, to be honest, that people
are just gonna eat his lunch. That's all they've done
for two or three days. That's all they've done.

Speaker 3 (16:11):
When I heard it come out of his mouth, I
was like, oh, Khalil, No, that's not what.

Speaker 4 (16:15):
You mean, buddy.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
But you know, don't be saying that that way, you know,
because it does come out that way, and you know,
I can see where the fans get that.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yeah, I mean, it sounds like you're playing for it
sounds like you're playing for yourself.

Speaker 4 (16:27):
Yourself, right exactly.

Speaker 3 (16:29):
Yeah, And he's not Listen, that young man is very
you know, self conscious with the part of he plays
for his teammates. And that's why he came back, you know,
and he worked his way to get back on the field.
He's not playing for just himself. He's playing for Clemson first.
He's playing for that Paul. But you know, here's something

(16:50):
that I will find interesting we talk about here, what's
wrong with this team?

Speaker 5 (16:53):
Right?

Speaker 3 (16:54):
One thing I noticed during the summer that was interesting.
And I don't know, you change with times and everything, right,
because in this day and age, everyboything changes. But I
did notice, like during the summer, like when the players
started the paul was already on their helmet, you know,
when they started practice this summer. And I remember in
years past, like Davo used not to do that. Now

(17:16):
I don't know when he changed that, so I can't
pinpoint the day when it happened or when they started
doing it differently. But I remember there was a time
when Davo would not put the pall on the helmet
until he felt those players were worth wearing the pall.
So I'm wondering if that's something they can go back
to and just say, hey, look, you know you're going
to earn the right to wear the Tiger pull, and

(17:38):
then that may change a little bit of the things.
I know that's something he did back in the day,
and that's something that I really didn't think about until
just a little while ago, you know, when they started
struggling like this. But it's something that I did take
notice when I was out there at kampas summer.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
Will van der Woor was here talking about the Clemson Tigers,
and certainly Will, I hope you can hang out with us.
We got about two minutes left in this say, I mean,
can you give us another seven after these two?

Speaker 3 (18:03):
Absolutely?

Speaker 2 (18:03):
All right, awesome. So let's talk a little bit about
k club Nick and I think, maybe even more specifically,
what it says that they just haven't given Vizena a
drive and what does that mean potentially in your mind?
We got about a minute forty five.

Speaker 3 (18:19):
Well, it tells me a lot if you read between
the lines, right, I don't know if obviously they don't
trust them. You know, there's things happening in practice that
again we're not privy to that they're seeing that says, no,
we don't trust him going out there and making those
kind of plays. So I think that's what it tells

(18:40):
me more than anything, Lawton, is that he's just not ready.
And then you've got to ask yourself, Okay, why is
a guy in his third year not ready to play
it called upon? That's what I'll be asking.

Speaker 2 (18:52):
With you one hundred percent on that. All right, We're
gonna put Will on hold. We got about a minute
until the break. We'll come back. We'll talk with him,
uh about what he's seen from k Klubnik, his thoughts
on the coaching staff. You know, again, I think there's
just so much uncertainty, right, now for this Clemson fan base,
because you have lived a life of luxury. You have

(19:14):
lived basically a dozen seasons where you felt really good
about the effort, about the talent, about the coaching. Now granted,
and I acknowledge this, Yesterdavid, there has been a bit
of a backslide. It feels like since twenty twenty it's
been gradual. This feels like a sudden increase that is shocking,

(19:38):
I think to everybody. So we'll talk with Will about
that and much more when we get back. Keep it
a lot right here on Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred
the Midlands, around the world on the iHeartRadio app. And again,
if you are listening to our podcast, please tell all
your Clemson friends and neighbors about our show as well.
All right, quick break, we'll come back with more for
Will van der Wortz stay with us, Lawton Swan with

(20:01):
you on a Friday football Friday, Florida State taking on
Virginia up at Scott Stadium. What's all Will about that one?
For he gets out here today. Will vanderwort from the
Clipson Insider with us. Follow him on Twitter at Steeler Will.
All right, let's talk Kay Club Nick Will. It's also
been bizarre, like this guy was making some throws a
year ago that put him on the radar being the

(20:22):
top pick in the NFL draft. I thought when I
saw those projections, I was like, that seems a little
much for me. But man, I can't think of a
quarterback that I've seen at Clemson ever really take this
kind of dive in his final season.

Speaker 3 (20:39):
Again, I can't either. You know, it just doesn't make sense.
You know, Like I said, it's like he's got the
yips at times, right, I mean, he's just he sees
the guy's wide open and he doesn't throw it to him,
and I'm like, why is did he thrown it there?
Like there's one play nobody's really talked about. This was
one play where he drops back. This is on the

(21:00):
what down was this fourth It was it fourth down?
I think it was fourth down in the in the
third quarter, and he he drops back the past more TJ.
Moore runs a little dig and then kind of sits
down and immediately takes back off to the outside and
he's wide open. I'm talking ten yards open, Like, yeah, oh,

(21:22):
he's got he can he could like softly throw that
ball and he's gonna catch it, and nobody else is
around him. He sees it, he sees he's open, and
then he looks over and he throws a little pass
over to Antonio Williams and it's like that's it's it's
short of the sticks, no first down, and it's like, well, actually,
I think it actually was an incomplete pass. It almost

(21:42):
got it was what you call a hospital throw, if
I remember correctly. And and so why why are you
doing that? King Club? Nick? That's the question I asked, like,
you know, if I'm in film station and I'm like,
what did you see here that made you not want
to throw that ball right there? Because if he gets
the ball out of his hands right when he sees
more make that cut back to the outside, Moore's going

(22:03):
thirty yards up the sideline, first in goal or it's
a touchdown right instead, they're getting off the field. It's
an incomplete pass, and you almost killed your you know,
Antonio Brown when it left the game at that I
mean Antonio Brown, Antonio Williams left the game at that point. So,
you know, would be greatest feel that they had Antonio
Brown right anyway, you know. But so that's just some

(22:30):
of the instances of what we're seeing. And there's a
whole lot more examples of that. It's not just that
one time, it's several times where you're just out they're
like sitting up there. I'm sitting up there, and it's
not like that he's not seeing it, right. The fact
is he's looking right at it. That's why. That's what
I don't understand. So that's why I want to know
what's in his head, Like you're looking at it, why

(22:51):
aren't you throwing it?

Speaker 2 (22:53):
Well? And I know in sports, right like they're told
to protect the ball. But against Syracuse, there was the
fourth and one play that just drove me insane too,
where he kind of comes out, you know, fakes the
sweep to Adam Randall, right, a little toss to Adam Randall,
and then decides he's gonna keep it to try to

(23:13):
get the one yard. This is after being stuffed on
the third and one carry and he knows he's done,
he knows the play is dead. There's nowhere to go,
and Adam Randall is out there to his left awaiting
a pitch potentially, and he doesn't even toss it out there. Yeah,
and he doesn't even toss it out there like you

(23:34):
have at that point in the game. You're down like
twenty one, twenty four, whatever it was. You have nothing
to lose. Pitch the ball, bro Like it's almost as
if Cade is in a different game, like he's playing
the game in an alternate universe. It's really really bad.
It's really bad.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
Will it is? It is? I mean he's doing things that,
first of all, I thought be more effective in the
Run game than what we see to this point, he
really hasn't been a factor at all in the Running Game.
At last year he was, and I don't understand why
that's the case. You know, obviously they've taken reads away
from him, so they're going they're doing straight gives on

(24:17):
a lot of plays now. So this is not like
this is a you know, a zone read kind of
steam they're running. This is like straight gives a lot.
So they've taken a lot of an office my office
plate because he's just not he's not doing a good
job in the RBO game. And that's I think that's
where he's getting the yips from, because he's making mistakes

(24:39):
and the like. There's a there's one play where if
he gives the ball to Adam Randall. Adam Randall goes
from three or four yards and it's a first down. Instead,
he tries to keep it and go around edge and
the defensive ends right there and it's like, and there's
also another guy right there flits them off the edge,
and like, what did you see to cause that to
cause you to pull up there?

Speaker 4 (24:57):
Like?

Speaker 3 (24:58):
How are you missing that? And so obviously he's not
doing this just a game. This has to be happening
in practice too, and so that's why they're doing straight
gives and stuff like that and taking the read away
from him when it comes to the RPO game, which
is not good because it takes the quarterback out of
the run game when you do that. And they got
a guy who should be a factor in the run game,

(25:21):
and you see how good they are when he is,
and we saw that last year, and so I don't
know what they're going to do to get him. Like
I said, it's the yips man. What else is it?
What else is it that's causing him to see the
things he's seeing and then just reacting differently to it.

Speaker 2 (25:39):
Yeah, I got no clue. It's been tough to watch.
And then I think, too, we'll switch gears from Clemson.
We'll talk about Florida State and Virginia, two of the
best offenses in the country, facing off tonight up at
Scott Stadium. I think you look at how quickly Florida
State recovered from a two to ten season, and you

(26:00):
know the way they're playing so far. Man, it's it's
so fun to watch them offensively. Should be a great
game tonight. What are your thoughts on this? And plus
I guess with about a minute or so left, will
I mean, what do you make of their turnaround up
in Tallahassee.

Speaker 3 (26:15):
Well, we're gonna find out a little to this week
and next week. Right about Florida State seminals going on
the road. This is gonna be uh, this is gonna
be thirtieth anniversary when Virginia beat Florida State. They became
the first a SEC team to beat them. They were
co champions of the Agency that year with Florida State.
You remember that game, Danny Canell? Oh, yeah, done all

(26:36):
those guys. Yeah, And so they're actually Virginia is gonna
be wearing the throwback uniforms tonight of that game, and
so that's gonna be pretty fun. But like I want
to see Florida State.

Speaker 4 (26:47):
This is a.

Speaker 3 (26:47):
Confident Virginia offense that nobody has stopped, you know, I
mean the only people that stopped Virginia offensive right now
is Virginia. Chandler Morris is running this offense, which is,
by the way, was his dad's offense at Clemson, so
he should know it better than anybody.

Speaker 4 (27:01):
Right.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
Yeah, that's Will van der Voord. We'll cut him off.
We got a break coming up. Put Will on hold,
we'll come back. We'll get his thoughts. Continue thoughts on
Florida State and Virginia as those two teams, those two
teams kick off this evening up in Charlottesville. Should be
a great weekend of college football. And this matchup gets

(27:23):
us going as the Wahoos and the Florida State Seminoles
hook up. Florida State three and oho UVA three and one,
seven o'clock on the ESPN Stay with us, Lawton Swan
with you, Clympson Sports Talk on a Friday afternoon. Hey,
speaking of weekends and Fridays. Alumni Hall right there on

(27:43):
the corner of campus on College Avenue, downtown Clemson. If
you're in town, check them out. Let them know Swanny Cincha.
Go check out those Nike dry Fit Polos that I
love so much. Amazing, all of the incredible gear, Tailgate,
gar Year magnets for your vehicles, hat wall everything in

(28:04):
Alumni Hall or online in Alumni Hall dot com. Remember
the Clemson students, faculty, and military get ten percent off
of shopping in store at Alumni Hall, shop where I
shop at Alumni Hall or online at Alumni Hall dot com.
All right, let's see will Vandivoort. We were talking about
Florida State and Virginia tonight, and you were talking about

(28:28):
the Virginia offense, of course yesterday and then Wednesday we
had former Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris on the show,
his son Chandler. You're talking about the quarterback there for
Tony Elliott in that system.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
He's running this offense perfectly. He's slinging the ball there.
They got playmakers in space. They're gonna get Florida State
a tough test tonight. I want to see how Florida
State response, especially considering when you look at Tommy Tasselano,
he has struck going to get Virginia the last two years.
He's turned the ball over a lot He's completing less
than fifty percent of his passes and he's not a

(29:06):
factor at all in the run game. So what if
Virginia is able to stuff that run and force him
to throw the football. That's what I want to see. Now. Granted,
Tommy didn't have Gus Mazan call him play for him,
and that makes the difference in the two. But I
think it's gonna be an interesting game to watch. I
think Florida State wins it, but I think it's gonna
be a set one.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
Yeah. And and I'll say this too, I think for
Tony Elliott. You know, he's in a precarious spot at
Virginia obviously, and tragically, I think he's gonna get some
benefit from the fan base because of the tragedy that
that program suffered while he was there, and knowing Tony

(29:46):
the way you and I do, you know, I'm I'm
thankful that he's the guy that's had to navigate that
terrible situation for that program because I know there's not
really a whole lot of people that could probably handle
it the way Tony has. But man, I do want
to see success for him in the largest way and

(30:06):
for that program because of that tragedy and and tonight
could be a big chance for them to really show that, hey,
we we may not be back to when you had
Sean Moore and Herman Moore, you know, number one team
in the country Virginia, but we are a lot better
than the program that Tony Elliott inherited. And and that

(30:26):
would be huge for them, man.

Speaker 3 (30:27):
Yeah, yeah, that would be so great. You know, Tony
is my he was my accountability partner years ago when
we were running, So we were just kind of run
past each other every day and it kind of came
a thing, right, So three or four days a week
we'd be running and we'd run past each other and
we'll be like, see tomorrow, you know, And so that
was kind of a thing that kind of motivated me
to run and stay in shape.

Speaker 4 (30:49):
Right.

Speaker 3 (30:49):
Well, I told Tony he's gotten fat. I've gotten fat.
And I told him at the study we we gotta
we gotta start holding each other accountable again when we
come to these meetings that we lose weight, okay. And
he's like that, he's laughing, and he's like, yeah, we
definitely do. But yeah, he's just a great guy, man.
And I'm a big Tony Elliott fan, and I think
every Clemson fan is because he's a Clemson guy, yeah,

(31:10):
of all, and then then he won these national championships
at Clinton as the OC and stuff like that. How
can you not be pulling for Virginia if you're a
Clemson guy and so like you know, So, I think tonight,
not only the people in Charlottesville are going to be
pulling for the Cavaliers and the Virginia graduates everywhere, but
they'll also have all the Clemson people pulling for the
Cavaliers tonight, not because they're playing Florida State, just because

(31:32):
everybody's pulling for Tony Elliott to get that signature win
that could really catapult his program.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
Yeah, I think in part because they're playing Florida State
as well. It certainly certainly doesn't hurt. Again, follow Will
on Twitter at Steeler Will. We'll keep him on with
us here for a few more minutes and then we'll
get him on his way. So from there, Will, let's
talk a little bit about the Atlantic Coast Conference. I mean,
it looks like it's shaping up for the winner of
Miami Florida State to be in the a SEC Championship,

(31:58):
possibly giving their schedule. Well, maybe it's Georgia Tech. We
know Clemson is just in a world a hurt at
this point. You know, Dabo Sweeney in his press conference
after one of the losses, I can't remember which one
it was. It may have been after the Actually it
might have been after the Troy win when CLYMPS was
down sixteen to nothing and came back, and Sweeney said

(32:19):
something along the lines of, you know, and we may
go six and six, but I don't think so well
at this point. Will where do you think this team
finishes in the Atlantic Coast Conference as they currently sit
at zero to two in the league and one and
three overall.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
Yeah. Man, wow, that's a load of question. That's a
load of questions because you know, I think, you know,
when I look at it and I did this thought
I did a win lost game kind of on the
message boards the other day.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
And.

Speaker 3 (32:52):
The way I look at as the North Carolina game
is going to tell us a lot. I still think
if they go out there and they take care of
business North Carolina, and I think they can maybe get
to eight and four, right, But if they go out
there and lay in a against North Carolina, then you
wonder Okay, is this team gonna win again? Right? So,
because there's a big question mark out there, you know,

(33:15):
I got like North Carolina game, I got a win
at the moment. I got Boston Collins kind of is
a up in the air game. I got smu is
an up in the air game. I got Duke as
an up in the air game. I got losses to
Florida State and Louisville, and then I got Furman as
a win, and then I don't really I never predict

(33:35):
the South Carolina game before during the season, you know,
but if I had to say, it's en up in
the air game to me, right, yeah, that's one two three,
one two three, four games that are up in the.

Speaker 2 (33:48):
Air well and probably shouldn't be. I mean, if I'm
being honest, the South Carolina game, with the way Clemson's played,
probably shouldn't be an up in the air game. But
South Carolina hasn't played well offensively.

Speaker 3 (33:57):
Either, not right now. So, but they are playing a
little better defensively than Clinton's. Oh yeah, so, and they
are definitely are on special teams. So you definitely I
think you if you were if they were playing this Saturday.
I think South Carolina's gonna win the game. They would
be favored and probably would win, but they're not. We
got a long way before we get to that. We
got another eight weeks. But you know, so if you

(34:21):
do if you do the math there, that's two guaranteed losses.
That's two guaranteed wins from where you're at right now.
And then you've got four games that could go either way.
And that's what's gonna tell us the story. So I
think this is a four lost team at best case.
Eight and four is best case scenario in my opinion.
Excuse me, five lost team at best case. So I'm
gonna say seven and five is what I believe this

(34:43):
team is gonna be at best stase scenario. Worst case scenario,
they could be five to seven.

Speaker 2 (34:50):
M Man, what a what a fall that would be
either way? Really, what a fall it is either way?
All right, will have a great weekend, man, enjoy all
the college football, great games across the country, and we'll
talk to you next Friday. All right, love, thanks buddy,
There you go, Will Van Dervoord. All right, we'll put
a bowl an hour number one around the ben plus
Tommy Baldens wins is an Hour two, Keep It Locked,

(35:11):
final segment of hour one on a Friday, Clemson Sports
Talk again seven o'clock tonight, ESPN Florida State and Virginia.
Great start to the college football weekend. I guess technically
it started last night over in Greenville, North Carolina. Scully
Nation E see you drop an army twenty eight to six.

(35:34):
The only college football game in the the larger level
of college football? What will you even call it anymore? There's
the Power four in the Group of five or whatever,
but what else? What is FCS? There may have been
some FCS games Football Championship Subdivision. This is the Football

(35:56):
Bowl Subdivision. There you go.

Speaker 3 (35:59):
Now.

Speaker 2 (35:59):
I remember tonight though, Number eight Florida State at Virginia.
Surprisingly just a six and a half point spread for
the Seminoles. I figured they'd be more well thought of
than that, but I think people are still questioning in them.

(36:20):
And I would love nothing more than to see Tony
Elliott in Virginia get this win. For Tony, for that program,
for all the people up in Charlottesville, for the tragedy
that they dealt with a couple of years back. And
like I said, I don't know, given his life story,
that there is anybody that was better equipped to handle

(36:41):
that than Tony Elliott with the way he did. One
of the other things that's kind of crazy this weekend
with these games is how tight some of the spreads
are on these contests. Now. Georgia Tech on the road
at wake Forest, that's the new kickoff on ESPN. It
is a sixteen excuse me, a thirteen and a half

(37:01):
point spread for Georgia Tech. Part of the reason people
think the yell Jackets might might go un defeed it
in acc play. They've got a favorable schedule in They're
favored by nearly fourteen on the road at wake Forest
at noon, six and a half points to spread. With

(37:21):
Illinois hosting Southern cal the Trojans are the twenty first
ranked team of the country. Illinois falls after getting walloped
by by Indiana. They fall down to number twenty three.
That's a noon kickoff on Fox. Notre Dames on the
road at Arkansas. The Fighting Irish favor by just three

(37:42):
and a half. Kind of surprising that number for a
couple of reasons, most notably the fact of kind of
where Notre Dame was thought of a few weeks ago,
and they didn't exactly get off the field, especially in

(38:03):
that matchup with Texas A and M. I mean, that
was just a botch snap that ended up costing them.
So three and a half the spread. I think Notre
Dame covers that on the road in Fayetteville. I would
say pretty easily does not gambling advice. By the way,
this is just like my logic advice. Syracuse and Cruz

(38:23):
Pass Clemson say that again Swannee last weekend. They host
Duke this weekend at the JMA Wireless Dome, whereas I
need to call it the Artist formerly known as the
Carrier Dome. Duke is a four and a half point
favorite on the road. Four and a half point favorite

(38:44):
on the road then at three point thirty. Couple of
big games kind of because of the spread here, Washington
is hosting number one Ohio State, so the Buckeyes got
to go across the country to Husky Stadium out in Seattle.
They're favored by nine and a half cross country travel here.

(39:08):
Good offense from Washington. Is this a situation where we
have a little upset special I guess we'll have to
wait and see. Also at three thirty on ABC thirteenth,
Rain old Miss hosting LSU at vaut Hemingway Stadium. Ole
Miss favored over the fourth ran by U Bengals by

(39:29):
one and a half. LSU and Clemson the winner of
that game. Men. I think everybody thought, woh, that team's
destined for the playoffs and the loser was also destined
for the playoffs. But the early returns on LSU have
not been good outside of their win over Clemson, so
we'll see again. Old Miss favored by one and a half.

(39:52):
Also at three thirty on ESPN. Another big SEC matchup
as Texas A and M host Auburn in College Station.
The Aggie seven and a half point favorites. There. Then
the nightcap in the Southeastern Conference, the big one that
everybody's talking about, Georgia hosting Alabama, the Bulldogs two and

(40:13):
a half point favorites. I heard this like George's last
home loss in Athens was I think back in like
twenty fifteen, twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen, something like that. Now
I tried to google it, and I get that Georgia's

(40:34):
last night lost in Athens was October second, twenty nineteen
to the South Carolina game Cocks. But I don't think
that's the one, or that wasn't a night game. Like,
I'm almost positive when I heard that stat, I was
like ten years since they've lost a night game. And

(40:56):
if you're a Georgia fan and you know the answer
to that, please let me know I heard it. But
now I just you know, when you do this job,
you get so much rigorar role betwixt your ears that
it can it can clog you down or clog you up,
or clog you down anyway A zero three four five

(41:20):
zero zero eighty six final thing here? Now are one
Tommy Balden coming up in hour two? Uh. There was
a tweet that came out by CFB Data looking at
kid Clubnick's play and percentiles from zero to one hundred
percent like a spiderweb looking chart, And you'd love to

(41:44):
have those percentages way out from the middle. And the
only thing that Cad Clubnick has far out from the
middle on his chart is sack rate at like eighty percent.
Everything else is under twenty five percent. Essentially, you can't

(42:05):
you can't be more poor. Early down EPA, laid down EPA,
explosive rate e p A per play success rate passing
e p A, lost turnovers, rushing. I mean, his numbers
are terrible. Tommy Bowden joins us on the flip side.
Stay with us.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
Each time for clips and sports talk with Luwton Schwan.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
It is our number two. That's drivetime right here on
the Show That Shakes the Southland, Clemson Sports Salt, Lawton
Swan hang out with you on a Friday. Don't forget
about our friends at Mets Plumbing. Go check them out
today Mets Plumbing, mets Plumbing dot Com. Two two six

(43:27):
seven one eight. The Show This Shakes the Southland brought
to you in part by Mets Plumbing. That's two two
six seven one oh eight again online mets Plumbing dot Com.
Tommy Bowden joins us on a Friday. Coach, welcome in.

Speaker 4 (43:43):
Doing good this show love Will Kondomy an unchartered waters
with the clunch that one and three we've never had
this discussion show.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
Oh look, believe you me. It's been one of those
things where I think, coach in the last five game games,
this is bizarre. In the last five six games, whatever
it is, Clemson has more losses than they had in
my first six years on the air.

Speaker 4 (44:10):
Ye, that's amazing, that's amazing. He's had a great run.
I know he's prayed hard to get it back on track,
but this is the place he has not been in
a long time. And you know the other thing, Lord,
I don't know if you're playing to talk about it,
maybe another show, but you know, when you have players
that are getting paid and all of a sudden some

(44:32):
of their goals have disappeared, Uh, they're gonna get paid
where they win or lose. And so you man that
that would be a scary thought. I look at Mike
Normal last year. He lost that team somehow, and of
course you know the age when with players getting paid,
he had a bunch of transferred portal players. Dabo doesn't
have a lot of transfer portal players. That's why those

(44:53):
players are extremely spoil to him. But they are getting paid,
and they get paid where they win or lose. The
HC how he addresses all.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
Yeah, the thing that the thing that I think that
was most disheartening. And and so Tim Berray joins us
every Thursday, and I said this earlier. Will van der Voort,
who you know, was on the program an hour one. Will,
by the way, told me to tell you hello. Yeah,
he's a good guy, you know, he's been with the

(45:23):
show for a while. And one of the things I
will say though, is I understand Tim Bray has to
kind of toe the company line a little bit in
his capacity, but I just felt most of what we
saw coach, and I don't have the same I that
you have on the game, but I felt like most
of what I saw from Clemson was just a lack
of effort. Certainly there was a lack of execution, but

(45:45):
I just felt like I watched a team just kind
of going through the motions and that was kind of
scary because I haven't I don't recall ever seeing that
from a Dabo Sweeney coach team.

Speaker 4 (45:58):
Yeah, for that, uh, I would really have to have
filming because every coach grades loads and grades effort, every
coach since I've been a coaching and that's one of
the things you addressed immediately, and that's one of the
things long that you can identify on tape really easy.
One of the guys not giving effort, a loafing or
whatever you want to call it. So uh uh that

(46:20):
that's that's that's an issue he'll have to address, you know,
But I I would not know that, But to me,
that would play into the scenario of, hey, they're getting
paid with it without effort or an eighty degree effort effort,
they get paid the same cent effort or a poor
effort and good effort they get paid the same. So, uh,

(46:41):
that's something that he's never had address. Shoot, I've never
I've never had to addresses except I'm sure he's fighting
hard not to lose his team because I thought Florida
State was an example last year of where he lost
his team. And uh, I know he'll be He'll be
addressing me every week now.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
Obviously, as a head coach, you're trying to be loyal
to all of these individuals. When you were coaching it
was what eighty five scholarships. Now I think they've got
one hundred and five. But at some point, it just
feels like when you have a red shirt sophomore backup
quarterback that your offenses, you know, kind of had some

(47:19):
issues and Cage's missed some layups as dabos. When you
would say, I'm just shocked that they haven't given Christopher
Vizena just a drive coach, But how hard is it
in your mind to you know, kind of pull the
rug out from underneath your starter for a series or
more and say, hey, we're gonna let the backup give
it a run.

Speaker 4 (47:37):
Well, you know, that's a subject and tough because I've
had to handle it myself in real time, as my
father's had to handle it a whole bunch with a
Charlie Ward who's won a heisman but had to find
a bench for a little bit, and Chris Winky in
the same way. I can remember Charlie told us some

(47:59):
in a session, he put him on the bench so
he could clear his mind and ended up putting the heisman.
So it's not uncommon to do. I don't know if
that's in Dabbo's DNA or not, but you know, a
lot of times what you have to change the quarterback
and whether it's deserved or not, there needs to be
a spark, and that's the one guy that that gets
the most attention. And I remember my last year I

(48:22):
had to make that decision between Colin Harper and Kyle
Parker and telling you know didn't ract very well well
to it, But I remember calling him in and telling
him and calling Tyle and telling him because I was
looking for a spark I looked but sucking little spark.
The team, and it usually that guy touches the ball
every single time, a great thro a great scramble, you know,

(48:45):
a great check, you know, doing something. So uh, that's that.
It's it's very hard though, I can I can tell
you that. And I know his past history is loyalty
to the Lord to trigger for and DJ under Wild,
whatever have you say his name. That's the final example.
Maybe maybe he went a little too far with Walt

(49:06):
because that guy proved out that he he did not
have it whatever it is, he didn't, he didn't have it.

Speaker 2 (49:12):
Well, I think it worked out for Colin Harper. I
think he's a big dentist now, so that's all well
and good, right, Yeah, yeah, I.

Speaker 3 (49:19):
Think it was.

Speaker 4 (49:19):
But you know, here's extremely upset. His parents got in
the car immediately and drove down to have a little
visit with me. It was on a Sunday afternoon. But
those are hard decisions and and whether he deserved or not,
I was looking to get something spark the offense. And uh,
that's that's that's a place where it starts, very snapper.

(49:41):
That guy touching the ball. So uh, but the head
coach and the quarterback coach on the once it knows
that if that if if the other guy has the
potential to be that spark or not that that I
don't know and Dabbo and and I guess Garrett will have.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
To make that scene Tommy Bowden with this year on
the program. One of the other things that I did
want to ask you about, Garrett Riley was asked about,
you know, eye candy, window dressing, whatever you want to
call it, pre snap motions. I talked with Chad Morris
on Wednesday about it. He loves that kind of stuff,
as you know, kind of coming through that Gus mouse on.

(50:16):
You'll see that a lot tonight in that Florida State
Virginia matchup, which has great ties certainly to the Bawden
family on both sides, really with Tony Elliott their coach
in Virginia. But what's your philosophy on that? Because Garrett
Riley said, you know, it's a he called it a
catch twenty two and felt like it made changes up
front for the offensive line that he didn't really always

(50:39):
like to do it. Now, I'll let you tell what
you liked.

Speaker 4 (50:43):
Well, Well, like you said, there's a two sides in
the store. I heard Bill Parcells say this one time
about this topic. He said, simple, simple formations are for
simple people. Yeah, it means, hey, you don't have the
mind to be creative enough. And but on the other hand,

(51:03):
if you lock into a say a coverage, I'm just
gonna pick defense. If you lock into a coverage, then
those guys getting really really good at playing that. But
if you're moving people around it and trying disguise your
safeties and disguise linebackers in and out, then all of
a sudden, the boss that you catch him on a position.

(51:24):
So yes, you might create confusion to the offense, but
you also might be caught. So there's there's a side,
both sides to the story. And so get I think
what Garrett Garrett said was was was accurate. But uh,
you know suth's not working, then you need to maybe
have a little more eye candy emotions and like say,

(51:45):
Chad was good at that. But when guys are motioning,
that means the defense is moving and there's doubt and
decision on the offense as far offensive line backs and
Tyer whoever's brought response for blocking linebacker, the coverage stations
are moving, corners are moving with motions, so your your
receivers aren't as secure in their decision. So there's there's

(52:06):
strengths and weaknesses both ways. Both people have won. You know,
my father's set in my affirmation for a long time
one a lot of games, so we had better players.
But you know there's something said to be executing my
father's big deals. Executioner, stay in it and execute it,
execute it better than the other guy can execute. But

(52:26):
I candy now is for a lot of people's package.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
Tommy Bowen with us here on the program. One of
the other things that we kind of got into with
Chad Morris, and I'm gonna pick your brain on this
briefly is I asked him about his favorite play call
and he said it slant right Utah, Little Rock fifty six.

(52:51):
What was your favorite play call? Did you have one
in particular that you just kind of felt like that
one was one we could go to and we might
hit on it. It may be depended on the players
that you had and write what they were comfortable with,
but was there a play call that you'd share with
us that you said, Man, that was one, I love
what we called that one?

Speaker 4 (53:10):
Well, you know one of the ones that you it's
hard to beat his trip trips on one side and
a singular receiver on the backside. And if it's done coverage,
you got a lot of great opportunities with those three receivers,
depending on what you have called. If it's a man coverage,
you got a.

Speaker 3 (53:26):
Man beater on the backside, slant out spending.

Speaker 4 (53:29):
On how the defense is play, and you gain plant.
Basically they're playing outside leverage, inside levels in the depths
and you building to the man beater. But a three
by one formation gives you some great opportunities offensively if
it's man or zones. I can tell you my favorite
play that I called the listen, but uh, that would

(53:52):
be my top formations.

Speaker 2 (53:54):
You you, so, what was your favorite play you called.

Speaker 4 (53:58):
We took a time out or right gardener, that's uh,
kick the field go. They call us pushing off. I
can remember talking to rich Rod Ruguess we had a
time out and talking to Woody Dancer on the sideline
and how we wanted to spread to the field, pull
the safety out to the middle, pull the safety and
Purple off away from Rod and figure they'd be double
team and Rod the Woody sprint out and then you

(54:21):
talk stop. He had to go to his left. I said, listen,
she going to you left. You got to you gotta stop.
You gifts set to throw it back. Well, this shooting
for single coverage. I remember talking Rod talking to the
Woody Uh what the effect we wanted to have on
the safety?

Speaker 3 (54:36):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (54:36):
And and me and Rich discussing, and of course it
works out just like we said with Woody spar from
the right, hash over to the left, to his left,
pull the safety more towards the middle field wasting lob Gardener.
Now we had single coverage, and you know we got that.
Rod got that push off, and she's got the field
goal under digging.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
Now, did you happen to watch Rod Gardner and his
wife on Amazing Race season or two?

Speaker 5 (54:59):
You?

Speaker 4 (55:01):
I thought I talked to Rod not long ago on
the song called I talked him a couple of times.
No I did. I didn't see.

Speaker 2 (55:09):
I'm gonna tell you what pretty good stuff watching him
on there. And really, you know, I think, you know,
regardless of what era you played collegiate ball or in
the pros, you could kind of get a little bit
maybe disassociated from the normal human beings of Earth and
what their lives are like. But man, when they were
around these other just kind of normal individuals running on

(55:32):
amazing race. I thought, man, Rod just seems like a great,
down to earth guy, and I think the people on
there actually appreciated that about him, given the fact that
he had had so much success in the NFL.

Speaker 4 (55:44):
Got a good, great smile, great personality, practiced hard, never
a problem. I can remember one short little conversation we
had again playing South Carolina. That was third wall, and
Robin was on the sideline like and B had that
time out. I was just trying to forehead a lot
of pride. He was a lot of Poppins himself, because
I'm talking to rich on the phone. I see and
I know what He's right to reside me. I mean

(56:06):
he could, he could. He was right there my hip pockets.
I said, Rick, I don't know if I can do that.
I don't know if we can make that catch. I
don't know if we can send him. If we just
low on Rod, can can he make that catch? And
he was sitting there right there and listening. Every he
took the baby flying the sincre he follow us a
single receiver takeoff, and he was strictly him another guy

(56:27):
he made another drake catch. Here's a great, great guy.
And I'll just be really fortunate too. You had from
twenty catches the year before I got here.

Speaker 3 (56:35):
To eighty six.

Speaker 4 (56:36):
He was so happy he had eighty six catches. I
think his first year, that guy was smiling from.

Speaker 2 (56:41):
Here to Yeah. He was the first thousand yard receiver
I think in Clemson history, if my memory serves me correctly.
On that and his freshman year, he came down to fight.
I'll tell you a story about Rod. He came down
to fight. I was a big basketball player back then,
and we went up for a rebound and accidentally caught
him right in the the bottom lip with my elbow

(57:02):
and he started. You know, he was a nice smile,
good guy. Like you said, he started pouting, and I
was I looked at him, said, dude, you played football here,
come on what we're doing. But anyway, all right, a
couple more minutes, Yeah, good guy too. A couple more
minutes with Tommy Bollen here on the program. All right, coach,
So I mean, if you're Dabbo swinging, you're in this situation.

(57:24):
Obviously you've talked about the fact that it's a new
era with nil and trying to hold that locker room together.
Uh where do they go from here? I mean, is
the bye week coming a good time? Did you feel
like this was probably what they needed to reset given
the fact that they're one to three out of the gates?

Speaker 4 (57:40):
Oh yeah, Oh yeah. I think he needs a bye
week because of how the season has gone so far
and the expectations have have not been realized and rely
on both sides of the fall. And I think this
open date will give him a lot of time for
one on one conversation in his office and addressing uh

(58:00):
in a roundabout way. Uh that that what we just
talked about, you know, playing with you playing hard. Whether
you get your money or not, You're gonna get your money,
so uh, you don't want to say it in those words.
But I think the open day comes a good time
because the the uh, the weaknesses are obvious, so you
can address those from an extingose standpoint. The man that
mental part about losing your team, and these are issues

(58:23):
Dabbo has never had your face. It's got this transfert
for and all that stuff and and uh man I
and that's the one thing they want to do. So
I think the open day giving him some individual meetings
where he can address the uh effort uh to templement
the leadership and and all that that he's got to do.
Is is it really comes at a good time. We're

(58:44):
gonna we're gonna see the results. Uh that's wait to
next week. But now's a good time to address some
of those issues. But I think it's more mental and
it's and it might be this play calling too and
in defensive offensive play called. They will have to address
because what they've done a long lost to two teams
that they've had to better players. They've got better players
and seracse they've got better players in Georgie Chip and

(59:05):
they lost two games. And I know nothing more frustrating
for me when I lose the weight for us and
I knew I had better players. Yeah, so losing those
to those teams. So I think that's got to be
addressed a little bit more with your plan of attack
on both sides of the ball. Scheamwise, they better get
a little more creative on both sides of greats. More

(59:27):
challenges defensive are the other teams and offensively maybe morem canny.
But what they've been doing has not been working, and
open date will help them address on those issues and
practice maybe some new things.

Speaker 2 (59:40):
Final thing, you know, the staff has expanded significantly, And
that's another thing that I kind of thought about. And
I'm not saying like that. I know you got to
have your offensive line coach and your wide out coach,
like I get all that, but the all the analysts
and all that. I mean, can you can too many
cook you know, spoil the super so to speaker wherever

(01:00:02):
that phrase is, like, can you just have too many
thoughts that are out there that kind of kind of
clog the system?

Speaker 4 (01:00:10):
It depends on It depends on how many features you
are let talk have input And Definite has been pretty
good about how many people gets to talk. He don't
let his coaches talk to me, seriously, doubt he lets
those younger guys are some of the some of the
actors have inputs. But I give you an example right
now in Rich Rodriguez. See coaches quarterbacks at West Virginia

(01:00:31):
and his second game they lost to uh they lost Ohio.
I think he played four or five quarterbacks. Now he
coaches quarterbacks. His son Rep coaches quarterbacks. They've got Pat White.
I don't know if you remember him, a great quttle
back in West Virginia. They got him there, so uh,
I think, yes, there's definitely you can get too many

(01:00:53):
cooks in the kitchen and that would definitely be an issue.
I don't know if and Rich's an experienced coach just
like Dabbos, So I don't know how much input some
of these other guys are having, and that could be
very well be the issues because they haven't been really
sharp on either side of the ball, so there might
be they might have too much, too big of a
complex of a package in on both sides of the

(01:01:16):
ball because they got some great expert analysts and one
guy wants to put the in, put this in, put
this in. Boy, you look at your package and you
can't execute it and excuse some looks like a big
problem so far, you know, with what they're doing.

Speaker 2 (01:01:29):
Coach, have fun with those grandkids, you and Linda, and
we'll definitely talk to you next Friday.

Speaker 4 (01:01:36):
I'm gonna go take them out of handcuffs.

Speaker 3 (01:01:37):
Now to.

Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
Take care of coach Jim You Tommy Valden, h yeah,
he and Linda at his daughter's house. Uh, the kids
are actually at school. They be coming over shortly, he said,
And uh, I think he said the sixth grader, seventh grader,
and a third grader. He and Linda were taking care
of this weekend and getting to hang out with enjoy it.

(01:02:01):
What's amazing about coach. I don't know if y'all know
this or not. He's actually out on a bike ride
while he's doing an interview. I can't go up a
fly the stairs and do the radio show. He's doing
an interview while he's riding a bike. Unbelievable. All Right,
we'll hit a quick break and we'll come back. We'll
talk more with you here about the Clemson Tigers and
the weekend upcoming in football after this, Lawton Swan back

(01:02:24):
with you on a Friday. All right, can we talk
about some crazy numbers, like numbers that you just can't
believe are real? Get this, Clemson has run one hundred
and eighty seven offensive plays while trailing this season. That
is more than any other Power FOR team in the country.

(01:02:46):
One hundred and eighty seven plays on offense while trailing
more than any other team in the country Power for
They might say, well that is pretty bad, swannye, and
you're right, and the think about this like you got
beat on a walk off field. Goal at Georgia Tech.
Like you've just trailed consistently throughout the years. What that's saying,

(01:03:09):
including the Troy game, sadly, But now maybe to top
it all, you get the second half of this stat
and this comes from David Hale at ESPN, that one
hundred and eighty seven offensive place that Clemsons trailed is
more than they trailed during twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, and

(01:03:30):
twenty twenty one, not combined, just individually those seasons. They
did not trail at any point by as many and
has run offensive plays behind as they have already this season,
and it's just four less plays trailing then they ran

(01:03:54):
in twenty twenty, meaning from twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, twenty twenty,
and twenty twenty one the entire season seasons plural. Each
of those years, Clemson trailed in less place than they've
already trailed in this game, except for twenty twenty or

(01:04:17):
in this season, except for twenty twenty, where they trailed
in one hundred and ninety one, they're at one eighty
seven already. I mean, all it takes to surpass that
twenty twenty year is for North Carolina to score first
that is just unbelievable. Some other numbers that sort of

(01:04:42):
jumped out too, that I saw this past weekend. You know,
Miami and Florida State faced off, and excuse me, Miami
and Florida faced off, got Florida State on the mine
with the Seminoles playing tonight. But Florida in that game
against Miami had just sixty one passing yards. That's the

(01:05:07):
lowest total since twenty fourteen against South Carolina. And that
was the game that got Will must Champ fired, not
from South Carolina, by the way, from Florida. This was
the moment that I realized that Will must Champ who
got fired from Florida. The whole spiel that I had

(01:05:30):
all those years about well, if he couldn't win at
Florida by comparison to Spury Or, he was not gonna
win at South Carolina by comparison to Spurrier. All of
that right, The loss of South Carolina was the reason
he got fired. Like game Cock fans, you fired him,
you knew he got fired, You did the work, and
then you hired him. That doesn't make any sense. You
don't hire the coach that you got fired because your

(01:05:52):
team was that much better than his team. That makes
that math problem even worse all those years ago, came
Cock fans, what kind of new fangled mathematics are you
guys doing.

Speaker 3 (01:06:03):
So you could continue to peek over the fence at
the best radio showing.

Speaker 2 (01:06:07):
The Naked Florida also failed to convert a third down
in that game against Miami the other day for the
first time since twenty sixteen. Talk about ugly man, man man,
What a what a weird ride, What a weird season

(01:06:27):
this has been for Clemson, And really I think for
Clemson fans just trying to reconcile the belief that they
were going to make a run to the playoffs. Like
you know, we've known that winning it was going to
be tougher in a twelve team era. That's not indisputable
at this point, but getting to where Clemson was in

(01:06:54):
the mind's eye of so many experts and analysts and
pro football focus, and I mean, I don't know what
to think. Time of possession has been abysmal. It's it's
easily the most frustrating season that I think Clemson fans

(01:07:23):
have had since Tommy Valdene was on the program with
us was probably the head coach that's just how frustrating
it's been. And you know, Will Van Dervoort talked earlier
about the record and what could be for this team
this year and Davos when he said the whole spiel.

(01:07:45):
I brought it up the other day and we might
go six and six, but I don't think so well
if you look at it now.

Speaker 5 (01:07:56):
Again.

Speaker 2 (01:07:57):
Back to back road games at North Carolina at Boston
College October the fourth, October the eleventh, Okay, very winnable.
You win those, You're at three and three, and I
think at three and three you are feeling a lot

(01:08:17):
better about yourself. As SMU arrives, that will be an
incredibly tough game. You're either four and three or three
and four at that point. Then you have another bye week,
and then you come back with your five game November
stretch Duke, Florida State, Louisville, Furman, and South Carolina, And honestly,

(01:08:41):
only Furman out of those games is one where you
should definitely say at this point you could chalk up
a victory, depending on how you look against the next three.
The next three games North Carolina, Boston College and SMU
might determine whether you look at Duke, Florida State, Louisville,
South Carolina. Different. If Clemson goes three and zero and

(01:09:04):
looks like they get their footing, I would say they
should beat Duke, and they should beat LSU, or should
meet Louisville, but Florida State and South Carolina would still
be toss ups. And from that standpoint again, if you
win all three games, you're now four and three, six

(01:09:26):
and three. If you win Duke in Louisville seven and three,
if you win Furman, and then it comes down to
what do you do against South Carolina and Florida State.
Win those, you're nine and three. But to think they're
gonna do that at this point seems like a big
pipe dream. And if you lose them both, then you're

(01:09:50):
seven and five. It's not much better than six and six.
Quite frankly, is it? Stay with us? Lawton Swan Clempson's
sports sunk on a Friday, So the Tigers obviously with
the bye week, lots of great football on. But it's
hard not to sit here today and think about Mike

(01:10:11):
Gundy being fired out at Oklahoma State and the way
his tenure shut down there versus some of what's going
on with Dablos Sweeny, and like I said the other day,
Sweeney's got much more success by comparison, But it wasn't
all that long ago. Oklahoma State was just outside of
the college football Playoff. They didn't get in, but they
were close. Dan Wetzel from ESPN put out an article

(01:10:33):
that sort of talked about the reasons that Mike Gundy
is no longer employed in Stillwater, and a part of
what he talked about was something Dablos Sweeney said back
in November of twenty fifteen, is Clemson's building this incredible run,
you know, picking their pieces up and put them together

(01:10:54):
to win a couple of national titles in twenty sixteen
and twenty eighteen. But Sweeney said this in twenty fifteen
about the life cycle of business. You've got the birth,
you've got the growth, you've got the plateau, you've got
the decline, and you've got death. Those great businesses out there,
those great programs, they don't plateau. And so Sweeney went

(01:11:14):
on to say, so how do you do that? You
have to constantly reinvent, reinvest, reset, learn, grow, you change.
You have to do that. You don't just change the change,
but you have to always challenge yourself each and every
year and make sure, Okay, this may be how we've
done it, but is it still the right way and

(01:11:36):
what's all right? Said? The business of college football is
much different and he's right in twenty twenty five than
it was in twenty fifteen when Dabosweeney said those lines.
It's a completely new situation. And Tommy Balden talked about
this today, managing those kids who are being paid and
have gotten paid, and you can't you know, a lot

(01:11:57):
of fans would say, why don't you do like performance pay.
You can't do that. It's not allowed in the system
the way it's currently set up now. It would be
nice if you could get there, I think the really
cool way, and we've talked about structuring it with the
whether you are a freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior and

(01:12:19):
things like that, like incentivizing graduation. If you're a graduate,
maybe you get a bonus every game. Like I don't
think anybody's against players being paid, but maybe let's make
it where there's some incentives to this. You could even
have performance bonuses if they would allow something similar where
if you start a game, hey, this is what starters

(01:12:40):
get and that way, if a guy's not performing and
you bench them, they're missing out on some bucks. And
you know, things like that across the landscape would be
nice because I think what we really need to avoid
is professional sports at the collegiate level, and I think
that's what we've got. And I think hunger and drive

(01:13:02):
to get to the riches of the NFL still needs
to be a thing. And while it's great that players
are making money collegiately, wouldn't it be nice if there
was a situation where you had to keep earning it,
you had to keep earning it. Now, Mike Gundy, who
is no longer employed by Oklahoma State, where he coached

(01:13:23):
over twenty one seasons and is the program's all time
winning his coach, is out at fifty eight. But the
thing about his situation is, and if you read through
this article, you know it really talks about how he
sort of dug his heels in a little bit on

(01:13:45):
the way that he wants to do things and not
adjusting to the changes of college football and with the
times changing. That was one of the things they brought
up is you can pine for the old days and
the way it used to be or you can adapt,
and they felt like and Dan Wessel feels like a

(01:14:05):
guy like Mike Gunny hasn't adapted. And I think the
fear that Clemson fans have to have is that even
though you've used the transfer portal, maybe Dabosweenya and Clemson
haven't adapted fast enough, and that while Clemson was kind
of moaning and groaning a little bit about the future
of college football, the other teams were preparing for it.

(01:14:26):
And so whether the old school mindset can still work,
and the things that you hear from players like Christian Bettencore,
which we wrote an article on today, and the way
he feels about Sweeney's program. That's all well and good,
but at some point, at some point, the rubber meets
the road, and this year for Clemson it does not

(01:14:50):
look good. And it's ironically and eerily similar to what
we saw from Florida State last year. The one good
side of it, I would say about just in general,
is Florida State's approach will might norvel and the portal
and everything has been completely different, which might mean that
the issues that Clemson have or has aren't because of

(01:15:13):
lack of use of the portal. And then it may
just be about motivation for the players, because Norvel and
those guys use the portal like crazy and struggled. Clemson
doesn't and they're struggling. So we'll see how it all
shakes out. I think in the movie Shaw Shank Redemption,

(01:15:36):
Brooks said it best at one point. I believe his
statement was get busy living or get busy dying. And
it feels a little like the Clemson program is somewhere
in that same realm right now, in the mind's eye
of most people of Oklahoma State, which is not a
great place to be. We'll see how it goes from

(01:15:58):
here for the Tigers. Oh you think if you're watching
on TikTok eight O three four or five O zero
zero eighty six text line, phone line again, be a
part of the programming any time any place you wear
on our website clemsonsports dot com. Storms in the Midlands today, storms,
potentially this weekend. I'm wondering what type of impact the

(01:16:23):
weather might have on some of these great college football
games we've got in the Southeast this weekend. Man, that
matchup over in Athens, Georgia. You know what I didn't
I didn't find that stat let me see if I
can find it real quick. Uh, let's see, Kirby Smart
has lost four home games in ten years at Georgia.

(01:16:43):
Let's see, since twenty twenty, Georgia is a perfect twenty
eight and oh at home. The only team in the
country that is undefeated at home over that timeframe. Ah, here, No,
that's Kentucky. Yeah, yeah, no, I think this is it. Okay,
I think this is the stature. The last time Georgia
lost a night game at home? This is what I remember.

(01:17:05):
Two thousand and nine versus Kentucky. I know that South
Carolina game. Somebody mentioned that. But November twenty first nine
versus Kentucky. They played twenty seven consecutive night games. Or
have won twenty seven consecutive night games. You don't play
every game at night now, some finish at night, but
a night kickoff. They have not lost its nine in

(01:17:27):
between the hedges? How crazy is that final segment? Next?

Speaker 5 (01:17:33):
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? And what have
you done always are the same. We win.

Speaker 2 (01:18:46):
Final segment on Friday afternoon. Clemson Sports swan al right,
big games this weekend. No Tiger football Clemson, whoa can't
be be not this weekend? South care Carolina, However, like
I have said multiple multiple times over the past few weeks,

(01:19:11):
like the beginning of their schedule was the part where
I thought South Carolina would have their most success. I
thought they could start five and zero. Well, this is
game five against Kentucky. South Carolina currently two and two.
ESPN's matchup predictor says that says South Carolina wins this
seven fifty seven point nine percent of the time to

(01:19:34):
forty two point one percent, just five and a half
point favorites at home, which I'd say makes me nervous
if I'm South Carolina. And here's why you get about
three points at home, which means this game is kind
of a pick them in a lot of respects, Like
on a neutral site. Two and a half point spread

(01:19:54):
is nothing, miss nothing. Kentucky currently two and one. They
are also winless in the Southeastern Conference, but having only
played three games, it might be possible that with a

(01:20:15):
bye week a week ago, they're a little bit fresher
than South Carolina. They've played one less game than South Carolina,
and they really battled with Ole Miss as we saw
thirty to twenty three with the Rebels a couple of
weekends to go back in early September. Now, I believe

(01:20:40):
that South Carolina will likely win this game, but I've
also kind of felt that way about the game Cocks
the past couple of weekends too, like they should have
won in my opinion against Vanderbilt. Missouri was gonna be
a lot tougher than I think most game Cock fans
would like to admit. But I don't think this one

(01:21:00):
was going to be easy either, and they go right
into Athens Georgia next weekend. The one thing that maybe
could be fortunate for him is if Georgia loses to
A and N or excuse me, to Alabama tomorrow, maybe
they have that hangover where one lost beach you twice,

(01:21:21):
especially if that loss is of the heartbreaking variety. Again.
The night at seven o'clock on ESPN Florida State and Virginia.
Also the night at nine o'clock, another top twenty five team,
TCU is taken on Arizona State on Fox. You know
Arizona State was in the College Football Playoff a year
ago and a lot of people sort of projected them

(01:21:42):
to win the Big Twelve this year. This would go
a long way to helping them get back into the
mix there if they can find a way to beat TCU.
There's also a game on at ten thirty is Oregon
State hosts Houston. But then tomorrow. Man the big games,
big games galore, especially once you hit that three thirty window.

(01:22:04):
Ohio State at Washington. I think the Buckeyes, Like I said,
Washington's got a really good offense, but I think Ohio
State's doing this nil transfer portal era better than everybody else,
and I think it shows when they're out there on
the field, and I think they'll win. As for Old

(01:22:26):
Miss and LSU, I'm gonna take the rebels there. I
think Old Miss beats LSU. Lane Kiffin the conversations between
he and went Weeks and his daughter and the social
post and take the over. I like LSH Excuse me,
I like Old Miss to beat LSU.

Speaker 5 (01:22:43):
There.

Speaker 2 (01:22:45):
I think A and M delivers a frustrating day for
Auburn in Kyle Field. As a matter of fact, I
think A and M wins that by ten points or more,
and I think that's gonna put Auburn in a precarious
situation in terms of their confidence losing back to back
games in the Southeastern Conference, not to mention the fact

(01:23:09):
that they'll enter their bye week and then the following
weekend they go to Georgia. You know, Auburn's in a
situation where, man, you know you, your fan base is
expecting big things with Hugh Freeze, and you've got such
a tough slate that you could just get beat up
in a hurry. Then tomorrow the night games, Penn State

(01:23:33):
number three hosting Oregon, the sixth ranked Ducks coming to
Beaver Stadium. I think personally that Oregon is gonna win
that game, and I'm sort of shot that Penn State
is three and a half point favorites. Certainly, the nitt
Alliance quarterback Drew Aller is a reason to believe that

(01:23:54):
they can win this game because of his experience. But
Dan Landing and the Ducks I think are the better team.
And uh, Penn State went out and got Jim Knowles
from Ohio State to shore up the defense and to
keep it as sharp as it was with Tom Allen there.
We'll get a good look at that seven thirty on
AB extually on NBC tomorrow night, and then on ABC

(01:24:17):
at seven thirty. Number five. Georgia hosting Alabama. Like I mentioned,
Georgia has not lost a home game at night since
nine I think that continues. I don't buy I don't
buy Tys Simpson in Alabama. I'm gonna go with the dogs.
I'm gonna roll big, hunkered down. I think Georgia wins
it tomorrow night. All Right, we gotta get out of

(01:24:38):
here again. Thank you for being a part of the
program this week. We'll talk to you on Monday till then.
As always, I'll take care now and go Tigers.