The "Smooth Hands" Edition

As another Clemson loss drops the Tigers to 1-3 for the first time in Dabo Swinney's tenure, Swanny has to wonder if the locker room is full of players with smooth hands.

Episode Transcript

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

(00:43):
finally Clemson Sports Talk has come back two drive time,
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(01:03):
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(01:25):
That is the text line in the phone line. And again,
as always, the show that shakes to south Land, brought
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Mets Plumbing mets Plumbing dot com two two six seven
one o eight. That's Mets Plumbing two two six seven
one oh eight. All right out of the gates on

(01:46):
a Monday. Woo, What are you talking about? Willis? What
in the world was that? It was like an out
of body experience watching Clemson just lay down to Syracuse,

(02:13):
Like if I didn't know any better, you know, the
story back in the day when South Carolina fraternity dressed
up like Clemson and went out before the game and
was doing like all these weird calisthenics and ballerina moves
and stuff. You remember that story from back in the day,
the rivalry between Clemson and South Carolina. Dude, if you
told me that that was some fraternity that was just

(02:36):
lined up out there playing in Clemson gear, I believe
you I would buy in. I mean, from the moment
foot meat ball, Clemson was disinterested in being in Death Valley.
There were so many players that looked like they could
care less about being there. Why should you be disappointed today?

(02:58):
I mean seriously, like that was as lackluster an effort
that I can ever really remember. And here's the thing,
And I wrote a couple of telling articles about this
whole thing. One called bust is the standard. This is
a huge bust. I mean, this is a bust of

(03:20):
epic proportion. This feels like, wait for it, two and
ten Florida State a year ago. I mean, I'm calling
it like I see it. This is not befitting of
the pauw that's on the side of that helmet. And
whether it's nil or not doesn't really matter to me

(03:42):
because every other team in the country is paying their players.
Think about that, you don't Clip says not in some
vacuum where they're the only team that's paying players. Everybody
in the country's paying players, and they are getting effort
from those players. Clemson, on the other hand, oh baby,

(04:04):
it's hard to watch and now with articles like bust
is the Standard and the tail of two Dabbos that
I put out over the weekend shredding the program. Smooth
hands in the locker room, Frank Howard said it best.
If you're not going to give one hundred and ten percent,

(04:25):
keep your filthy hands off my rock. I could name
about five guys that I really feel like are giving
one hundred and ten percent if I had to watch
another issue on the offensive line, from the snapp infractions,
from the false starts to the blocking ghosts men. I mean,
Clemson put out a documentary on the offensive line that

(04:47):
was spectacular, and I talked those dudes up, and I
talked about the fact that guys like Tristan Lee saying, hey,
we got to give these guys the flower. I see
like hurt and pain after the game. But I don't
see the desire to avoid hurt and pain when those
guys are on the field playing. I mean, I just

(05:07):
see a bunch of guys going through the motion. And
when you're going through the motions, you're gonna get punched
right in them out by a team like Syracuse. The
fact that Clemson didn't get on the field until under
eight minutes left in the first quarter and they were
down to nothing at that time because of an on
side kick, where the coaching staff. Now, we have to
believe Dabo Sweeney right when he says, oh, yeah, we

(05:31):
talked about that. We told them to watch for the fake. Like,
you have to believe Dabo Sweeney's being honest. I can't
think of a reason that he wouldn't be other than
to cover his own rear end. But let's assume that
the coach is being honest and they told the guys, hey,
look out for that, those same dudes are out there

(05:52):
on the next kickoffs. There's no consequence either way. You knew,
you knew it was it was Li Liken out of
body experience. You knew watching an unfold it was you know,
there's a feeling that people get. They didn't call it
in this. When I was growing up with the Sunday

(06:14):
scaries where you get a little worked up about going
back to work on Monday, it's something new fangled idea.
These these young kids came up with, these millennials or
gen Zers or whoever they are. I'm not even sure
what I am anymore. Watching that game, I about came
on glued. I felt like a baby boomer worn out,
the old tickers, going what's wrong with you? Swannye? Why

(06:36):
is your blood pressure so high? Anyway, You're watching this
thing happen and you're just like, this is this real life?
Like I have said that several times this year. That
great YouTube video of that kid David I think his
name was, in the back of the car coming over
from the dentist office is just loopy? Is this real life?

(06:57):
That's the way I felt watching Clemson. What am I watching? Who?
Who are these guys in orange and white? And why
have they rubbed Howard's rock with a promise to give
one hundred and ten percent when some of them look
like they're given ten percent? I mean, it is unreal

(07:19):
what you watch. And I don't blame you if you
want to unload on those guys. On social media if
you want to unload on those guys on the telephone
with family and friends that work wherever, like gone through
the days of oh well, these are just college athletes, dude.
Some of these guys are making millions and millions of
dollars to give squadooche zip zero nil, not a none

(07:42):
effort on the second play in the game. We've talked
about TJ Parker the entire year and how I saw Listen,
I don't care who's making the rotations, Like if the
coaching staff, if Tom Allen is the guy just pulling
him off, if it's Nick Eason this pulling off, if
it's Chris Rump that's pulling him off, I don't care

(08:02):
who it is pulling him off. That dude ought to
be fighting to get back in the game. We're watching
the Georgia Tech game last weekend in the press box.
I got the by knocks out and I'm going, why
is TJ Parker not in the game? Whys TJ Parker
not in the game? Bro? Do you think these guys

(08:22):
in the NFL just standing around on the sidelines. No,
And you know what Shack Loss and Nail did a
week ago where there dogs at get out there and
fight man, fight for this program, fight for that Paul
on the helmet. And I don't want to hear that
it's about the an IL because other programs are paying

(08:46):
their players as well. It's about motivation, it's about coaching,
it's about listen. There's a lot of cute phrases and
things that Dabosweeney likes to throw around that make a
lot of sense, but none of it's making any sense.
And I watched those kids on the field play and
then and I wrote about this, and this really kind
of bugs me a little bit about Dabosweeney's postgame comments

(09:09):
because Dabosweeney went to a moment during that post game
where he was like, well, I just hope that everybody
saw their heart or whatever that line was that he had,
And I thought, vomit, man. An hour ago, you were
on television on an interview where you're getting punched in

(09:29):
the face, and you go, well, I just hope to
see him fight. You had no joke. And by the way,
by the way, might we consider might we consider not
playing the fourth quarter video in situations like that? Might

(09:50):
there be some other video, the one that's like, hey, guys,
we're down twenty You got us in a bad spot?
Can you climb your way out? I mean, holy cow,
that was a despicable display of effort from virtually every
player except for a handful of guys. Adam Randall, Tristan Smith, dude,

(10:15):
thank you, thank you to those two guys. And I
know I'm missing a couple, but those two guys in particular,
felt their butts off. The other guys that like, like
they got better things to do than to play football
for Clemson. I mean, how is that a thing? How

(10:36):
is that a thing? Look, you watched it, you felt
the out of body experience. You know exactly what I'm
talking about. Thirty four twenty one. I mean, that's the
exact opposite of what the score was I projected, essentially,
and there's no reason that Clemson wasn't on the good side.

(10:59):
And to put it on from the perspective, I don't
give a rip about what k club numbers were. Thirty
seven to sixty three hundred and sixty three yards and
three touchdowns, blah blah blah, empty calories, empty calories. Also,
on top of that, the fact that there was an

(11:21):
hour and a half nearly two hour weather delay and
you had a chance, and ESPN knew this. You admitted
at the ESPN that we had a chance to look
back at the game. You're down twenty four to fourteen.
You had a chance to look back at all the game, everything,
and yet you still got outscore ten to nothing in
the third quarter at home. Dude, I don't care if

(11:45):
k club Nick threw for a thousand yards in that game.
It's points. You gotta score k club Nick's numbers, like
I said, empty calories. And to just watch that happened

(12:05):
blows my mind. From a team that for years. And
this is why I think Dabosweeney was emotional after the game,
because for years and years and years, the whole time
I've been on the air here for over a dozen
years talking about your Tigers, Clemson came to play. When

(12:28):
those dudes walked on the field, it didn't matter if
it was Alabama, Ohio State, it did not matter, Notre Dame, Oklahoma,
it did not matter. Clemson came to play. I don't
know what those dudes on Saturday came to do. Collect

(12:50):
a check. Holy moly, again, there were guys that played hard.
Adam Randall averaged eight point one yards per carry, sixteen
attempts for one hundred and thirty yards. I know he
had a key fumble, but he cares. Tristan Smith two

(13:11):
receptions for twenty six yards, but on one of his
receptions he looked like you were going to have to
physically drag him off the field to keep him from
trying to score, to keep him from trying to do something,
to keep him from trying to spark this team. And
I'm not gonna lie to you. And we got hopefully

(13:34):
we'll be able to talk with facts and Childress on Wednesday.
We got William walkin Bush coming up today. It is
gonna be a busy week trying to dissect that chicken
salad that we saw up at Clemson. Believe me, holy moly,

(13:55):
that was That was mind boggling. But I think the
thing that stood out to me the most is this
game made me feel like I don't care. And I
said this before. I don't remember what the aspect of

(14:20):
it was like the last time I said this phrase
to you on the air, I really can't remember. I
think it was around about the time that Nil started
to come into existence, and it was all about the
players and how they felt like they should be getting
you know this, that and the other. And I'm not
against that per se. But I remember a conversation with

(14:45):
you guys where I said I would root for anybody
as a fan wearing my team's colors. You know what
I'm saying. You put that Paul on the side of
any helmet, I'll pull for any Jimmies and Joe's. Same
thing goes for the game Cocks. You should feel the
same way about your program. Whoever slaps on that garnet

(15:07):
in black, that's the dudes I'm pulling for, because that's
the game Cocks, that's the Tigers, that's the Seminals, that's
the Bulldogs, that's the yellow Jackets. Great. But when those
dudes that slap on that helmet with a Pall on
the side and they don't give you effort, I'd rather

(15:28):
just pull for Jimmy and Joe. I'd rather just go
grab some guys that want to play. I'd like to
see some more Adam Randalls and some Tristans Smiths. I
want some guys that want to fight. I don't care
if they're dudes that you think should be on the
bench because they don't have as much talent. I don't care.
Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. I mean,

(15:55):
I don't know if Dabo came up with that. I
don't know where that one came from. I don't even
care if it's a dabbos or not. He's got about
one hundred thousand daboisms. Hard beats talent when talent doesn't
work hard. And unfortunately for four weeks, four Eggs laid.
I said it going into the weekend, I said, if
they lost this game, most of them would check out.
They checked out after Atlanta. They might as well stayed

(16:18):
at the Petch Tree hotel. Them dudes didn't show up
in Depth Valley, lack of heart, lack of effort for
Eggs laid. You laid an egg against LSU. You should
have beat that team if you watched LSU. Since that game,
Clypson has more talent than LSU. The didn't play like it.

(16:38):
You got down sixteen to nothing against Troy. That is
the story that tells you who you are. You went
on the road to Georgia Tech and you let him
go right down the field. You got down thirteen to nothing.
At the end of the day. Dabo's talking about, well
one play. One play. How about that one play the
goal line where they punch it in on the opening drive.
You're never even in that game. You're just in Syracuse,

(17:02):
game one point zero, and then back to Saturday, good gracious,
lack of effort, lack of accountability coaching. Who knows what's
going on? Kate Klubnick. Kate Klubnick's like in some kind
of time warp where he's regressed back to looking like

(17:22):
he did when he stepped on the field against Tennessee
and the Orange Ball. I have never seen anything like it.
And I don't care who they fire, who they keep,
what they choose to do. I don't care what Davidosweeney does.
Those are his decisions, but I know this, he better
makes some And it's bizarre the number of players that

(17:48):
are back like this. This looks like a team that's
been constructed this past weekend. These are all dudes that
were on the team a year go. These guys went
into Texas and challenged the Longhorns last season. I don't know,

(18:12):
I don't know, and I know Texas hasn't looked as
good as people thought. I mean, I get all that,
but name a team right now based off of what
you've seen that's playing at an elite level in this
country right now, that wouldn't blow the doors off of Clemson.
Tell me one and I will hold firm this team

(18:34):
out of the gates based off of everything that people
said about them. And I'm not just talking about me people.
I was one of the people saying, I don't know
if that's where we need to go. I think they're
gonna be good, but I don't know if they're gonna
be that good. But even me looking at their schedule,
thought they had one of the best chances in the
country to go undefeated. Now I don't know. Dabosweeney said

(18:57):
we might go six and six, but I don't think so.
Might want to look back at that one just a
little bit, coach, because it's gonna be rough. And this
game in two weeks. By the way, when we come back,
I need to talk about the phrasing next Saturday and

(19:20):
what that means, because some people on social media, after
we put out the start time of the North Carolina game,
we're like, even the social media teams off, what next Saturday.
That's not this coming Saturday. Anyway. This game is gonna

(19:43):
be between two ugly ugly football teams right now, and
arguably the greatest NFL coach and one of the better
college coaches put their two teams terrible. Stay with it, really,
Welcome back clempses sports Talk on a Monday again. Dabo
Sweeney somber solemn after Clemson's stunning loss to Syracuse. And

(20:12):
as I said in the opening segment, I mean it,
there was really no moment in that game where it
felt like Clempson was going to win. And that's a problem.
Like maybe at kickoff you thought that, but after the
first score, after the on side kick, after going up ten, nothing,

(20:33):
it's just like this, this cannot be unfolding. And Dabo
Sweeney clearly and I wrote an article about this, the
Tale of Two Dabos. You can go check it out
on our website, clemsonsports dot com. I did not hold
back this week on Clemson football and or this weekend,

(20:58):
and in part because I thought it was fair. I
thought it was one. Anyway, here's Dabos Sweeney's comments his
opening statement after the thirty one, thirty four to twenty
one debacle against Syracuse.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
Okay, well, you know, just congratulations to Syracuse.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
Hey, they earned it. Won the game, and you.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
Know, wish those guys well the rest of the season,
but obviously an incredibly disappointing outcome and start our season.

Speaker 3 (21:35):
I mean, there's just no other way to say it.
I mean, just a lot of pain. One of the
I've had been in a lot of painful locker rooms.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
That was that was that was up there near the top,
and my heart just hurts for our team and our fans.
Thought our fans showed up today, did a great job,
and we just didn't. We didn't get it done. It's
incredibly frustrating. We just cannot seem to We just can't
seem to get on the same page and play camp
minory football. You know, we can't seem to get it

(22:03):
all together, and we kind of work against each other.

Speaker 3 (22:06):
You know.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
The first half the d was probably as poor as
I've seen. It was really poor, very disappointing. You give
up twenty four points, you get in a big hole.
Offense had a really good rhythm and was rolling, got pored,
but we couldn't get the ball the very limited possessions.
So really frustrating first half. Obviously, the surprise on the
side they got, you know, three points off of that,

(22:28):
but the second half, you know, again just too big
a hole. But the second half, the defense was awesome.
I mean they they shut them down three points and
obviously they got the touchdown off the fumble late in
the game, but I.

Speaker 3 (22:41):
Was really proud.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
That was not a pleasant locker room at halftime. Then
they responded. I mean, I thought they did a heck
of a job in the second half. But again we
just can't seem to put it together offensively. A ton
of yards, you know, you don't get style points.

Speaker 3 (22:59):
You had a ton of yours.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
The name of the game is finishing, you know, in
the end zone through the uprights.

Speaker 3 (23:04):
We just didn't do that.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
Two hundred and sixty three yards and two hundred and
forty yards in the first half, two hundred and sixty
three yards and second half and just not enough points.
So that's the biggest disappointment is the slow start, the
lack of complimentary football when we need to work with
each other. Obviously we had we had some missed opportunity.
The third quarter we missed we missed TJ for maybe

(23:26):
a touchdown.

Speaker 3 (23:27):
But certainly a huge, huge play.

Speaker 2 (23:28):
And then we had a fourth down that we that
was I thought it was a great call and was there,
and we just the guard pulled a little wide. If
he pulls tight like he's coached to do there and
we cover it up at that plays going, Cade's going
he might score. So just some missed opportunities there, you know,
to to either tight or take the lead when we

(23:49):
had that chance and we just didn't get it done. So,
you know, more offense, more first downs, more yards per rush,
better third down.

Speaker 3 (23:55):
I think either team was great, but two turnovers to none.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
Again, the name of the game is points, and we
just didn't we didn't get done.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
That's Davos Sweeney talking about Clemson's loss to Syracuse. He
also dove into and this was when he was kind
of you know, his demeanor. This is what I wrote
about it. Just he looked defeated. It's rare Dabo Sweeney's
look defeated that.

Speaker 2 (24:20):
I mean, it's incredibly disappointing, and it's it's it's my
responsibility for us to be better. And this is not
the start to our season that any of us envision,
not what we worked for. Man, I just I just
hurt for the guys, But I am thankful and and
I do hope that y'all.

Speaker 3 (24:37):
Notice how hard.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
Those kids fought to the last play, and there's a
lot to be said for that. They love Clemson and
they love each other, and that's what we'll get us
through this, you know. So the open dates coming at
a good time. I mean, we're beat up emotionally and physically.
We'll rally and we'll get back to work. So I mean,
there's certainly no quit in me and and I didn't
see any quit in our team or our staff down

(24:59):
the stretch. So we'll get back to work and again
have to reset our goals on what we still can do.
Can't sit around and dwell on missed opportunity. We got
to lock in on what we can do, and that's
what I'll do. That's what our team will do, and
see if we can, you know, win a game and
battle back. Still a long season ahead, be basically an

(25:19):
eight game season for us at this point, and we
just got to fight our tails off to find a
way to win a game and create some momentum. We
really haven't had any momentum to this point.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
And you know, that's about as fair a statement as
you can get about this team, Like there really hasn't
been whether you're talking LSU, Troy, Georgia Tech, Syracuse, Like,
there hasn't really been a moment where you go, man,
this team's rolling, this team's feeling good about themselves, and
you can feel that it's palpable. You can feel it
when you watch the team. You can like when Deshaun

(25:50):
and Trevor were there and even Kelly Bryant, you felt
like Clempson was going to make that conversion. You don't
feel that anymore. And that's pretty telling in the wheel.
Just thatretty much sums up debos Sweeney's opening comments. He
was asked about the on side kick that Syracuse executed,
him whether or not the team had talked about it
before the guys went out there after Syracuse's first tug game.

Speaker 3 (26:12):
Oh yeah, we talked about it in the huddle.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
Be ready for the surprise on side, don't leave early,
and you know you got to see it over yourhead.
I mean, that's the frustrating thing about it is we literally,
we literally said be prepared for surprise right here, and
they executed it. Proud of our defense holding the three,
but you know, still stole a possession from us to
where we couldn't get the.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
Ball Debosweny was also asked if at any point in
the game they thought about going to Christopher Vezina and
also his thoughts on the way Cad played it.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
No, we did, and I thought Kaid competed his butt off,
you know, he certainly he missed a couple of plays,
but he made some good ones. Sue made a lot
of good ones. I thought he was good in the
first half. I just can't couldn't really get the ball.

Speaker 3 (26:55):
And no, I did not. We did not think about that.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
That's just a little bit from Dabos Sweeney in this
time with the media following Clympson's disappointing thirty one thirty
four twenty one, I think I've done that twice thirty
four to twenty one loss to Syracuse k Club, Nick
finishing thirty seven of sixty three hundred and sixty three
yards with three touchdowns and one interception, but not enough

(27:22):
as the Tigers muster just three touchdowns in the game,
no turnovers and get bullied quite frankly. More from Sweeney's
putting Clempson Sports Salt Lawton Swan On Monday afternoon, again,
we were listening to some of Dabos Sweeney's comments, Ah, man,

(27:44):
it was rough in Tigertown. I know this though not
rough if you swung by and saw friends over to
Lomni Hall right there on the corner of campus on
College Avenue in downtown Clemson Alumni Hall for all your
officially licensed Clemson apparel, hats, T shirts, tailgate gear, and
moore those Nike dry Fit polos that I love so much.

(28:05):
Go check them out today. Don't forget if you're a
Clemson student, faculty member, or in the military, you get
ten percent off when shopping in store. Go check them
out online in Alumni Hall dot com. It's Alumni Haul,
where I shop and where Tiger fans shop. All right,
Lipson and Syracuse. The Tigers give up one hundred and

(28:27):
fifty five yards on the ground. Syracuse had struggled running
the ball all season. They come in to Death Valley
and go hot knife through butter on Clemson. Here's Dabo
Sweeney trying to explain.

Speaker 3 (28:39):
That's a good question.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
So we're talking about in the first and halftime in there,
just blocked us, then get off blocks tackle and didn't
tackle great and uh so you know that they responded.

Speaker 3 (28:51):
They did a heck of a job the second half.

Speaker 1 (28:53):
I don't know if I agree with that, but I
mean the defense was better in the second half for sure.
The sad part was the offense became the issue. After
having a chance to watch the tape, Hey, speaking of
the offense, Davos when he was asked, you know, is
there anything in particular that you think has caused the
issues for.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
The I mean the first half was just opportunity. I
mean they were pretty good with the opportunity. We had
two hundred and forty yards and fourteen points in the
second half.

Speaker 3 (29:21):
Just finishing critical plays. It's the third.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
Time in the history of Clemson to have five hundred
plus yards and lose.

Speaker 3 (29:28):
So that's not a stat you want to be on
that side of it.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
So it's points, it's just finished his critical plays and
critical times and just that's inconsistently doing that.

Speaker 3 (29:39):
That's all the above. It's everything.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
It's everything critical execution at critical times, play call, and
you name it. It's all that.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
It's everything that's Davos when he talked about the offenses
lack of execution. He was also asked about the management
late in the first half, which I think cost him
a chance at at least a field goal and maybe more.
Here's Dabosweeney talking about kind of what went into that
as the Tigers just let five six seconds just kick

(30:09):
off the.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
Yeah, we had the right play. We were gonna kick
a field goal. We had we thought Adam had gotten
out right there on the far side, but he didn't.
But we had plenty of time, We had the right call.
We had a little hitch and we're gonna kick a
field goal, but we dropped it. So again that's one
of those critical moments, one of those critical plays that you.

Speaker 3 (30:30):
Don't ever know.

Speaker 2 (30:31):
And we catch the ball get out of bounds right there,
it's gonna be I think it's gonna be forty nine
or fifty yard or maybe got a chance to kick
field goal. And once we knew if we got it,
we could kick a field goal. If we didn't, then
we'd take a shot at the hell Mary which.

Speaker 3 (30:45):
Almost had it almost you know, we battled down.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
I thought, you know, I thought Cole just got ran
out of the field right there, but we didn't see it.

Speaker 1 (30:55):
And so when he was asked about allowing that time
to take off the clock.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
Before win right there for the before the ball lap,
what time, Yeah, yeah, it it it may it did,
but we were just kind of at that point, we
were kind of waiting and uh cause we were working
against it, trying to work against them too, and then
we said, hey, well we got to stop. Let's let's
let's go ahead and use it making punt it. Uh
but you know, could have done a probably better job,

(31:22):
but we had plenty of time to get the to
get the you know, the odds are against you right there.
I mean, you know, you know, you know we popped up.
I don't know, have was that a thirty yard run
or something? No, I mean, the odds are against you.
We kind of had not played well, and we said, well,
let's let's make a pun it and let's try to
go block it. So we went safe and we tried
to block it, and we said, well we'll see what happens,

(31:43):
and then sixteen seconds we'll say, let's just let's just.

Speaker 3 (31:46):
Try to run it here, and it popped.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
So I thought once that happened, uh cause again the
odds are really against you there. We really managed it well.
We just we got a chance to get a feel
go out of it, and we just didn't make the
one play we needed. We needed we needed those yards. Uh,
and so once we didn't have that, he said, okay,
well let's take a shot at the en zone. But

(32:08):
I may here a lot of plays in the game.
I mean we didn't we didn't that we didn't make
or that they made.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
Clemson quarterback Kay Klebnik after the game commented that he
felt that Syracuse sort of faked some injuries in that
ball game to kind of slow Clemson's tempo down. And
we posted that on social media and a lot of
people are like, yes, our grapes. Uh, the a SEC
did come out today and find Syracuse for that. So
Kate wasn't wrong. Now, it's sort of yeah, it's not

(32:38):
the great look, it's not the reason you lost the game, right,
but Dabo Sweeney was asked about Caid's comments after.

Speaker 3 (32:45):
The game.

Speaker 2 (32:48):
That I saw Kate get frustrated, but he can't get
frustrated that we just got play.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
Sweeney was also asked about the fact that he's previously
said the seasons are marathons and not sprints, and how
they can carry that over into their upcoming game next week.

Speaker 3 (33:03):
I mean, you just gotta flush it.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
I mean this and this is uh, this is a bad, bad, bad,
you know, feeling it's terrible. I mean, this is what
we do for a living, this is our passion. We
work incredibly hard to get results that we want to get,
and when you don't get them, it's it's a.

Speaker 3 (33:26):
It's a pain.

Speaker 2 (33:26):
It's hard to describe, you know, but it comes with
the territory. So we gotta flush it. I mean, that's
that's all we can do. And there's no hope for
better yesterday. I mean, you gotta you put your head forward, uh,
you block out everything and you just do the work.

Speaker 3 (33:43):
And that's what we'll do, all right.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
So that's that's enough from Daboswingy again. Full audio of
that on our website again following the disappointing defeat at
the hands of the Syracuse Orange. But I want to
go back to what I just said at the North
Carolina game next weekend, because people on social media were like, oh,

(34:08):
even the social media team doesn't know what's happening the
Saturday that we are about to come up to. Let
me make this abundantly clear to everyone. The arriving Saturday
on your calendar is not next Saturday. That is this Saturday.

(34:33):
Next Saturday is the one after that. Now, if you
were doing something the next two Saturdays, that would include
this one. But next Saturday is not this coming Saturday.
The graphic would have said Clemson set to face North

(34:53):
Carolina at noon this Saturday or this upcoming Saturday day.
Next Saturday is the twenty seventh. Just want to make
that clear. It's final segment of our one on a
Monday afternoon, after just an utterly disappointing weekend in Death Valley,

(35:19):
as ugly as it's been in Death Valley in a
long long time. I mean there there were plenty of
disappointing games when I was in college at Clemson. I
mean we we experienced a three and eight season where
Clemson was two and eight. God, get your get your

(35:42):
tapes ready, game Cocks. This is this is fun to
remember for all of our for all of our fine
feathered friends hanging out with us and peeking over the
fence so you could.

Speaker 4 (35:53):
Continue to peek over the fence at the best radio
showing the nation.

Speaker 1 (35:59):
We entered that game Clemson, and I say well, because
I was a student at that time. We entered that
game two and eight. They only played eleven games back then.
South Carolina entered that game one and nine, and Clemson

(36:24):
won it to go three and eight and to keep
South Carolina or to four South Carolina to one in ten.
And I'm pretty sure we tore down the goalpost that night.
It was because look, if Carolina won that game, both
teams would have been two and nine, and your two

(36:45):
and nine would have looked a lot worse than their
two and nine because you would have been on the
short end of the two and nine. So to say
that we were a static with winning that game would
be accurate. We were a team that won three games

(37:06):
that season, but we didn't lose to South Carolina anyway.
Hopefully that's not where we're headed, is fan bases fan
bases this year? I wonder which fan base is more
down right now. And I say that with the utmost

(37:31):
respect for both teams and your expectations for this season,
But I think it's probably about a fifty to fifty
split on who's more disappointed with where they are right now.
Because Clemson fans, I think, assumed, and rightfully so, that

(37:55):
they were going to continue to be a juggernaut and
that last season was a return to the prominence that
Clemson has played with under Dabos Sweeney for a decade. Instead,

(38:16):
what last season appeared to be was a mirage for
what this season has become, which is just a complete,
an unmitigated disaster. And I think after you lost to LSU,

(38:41):
there was certainly some disappointment, but you could write it off, oh, well,
it's LSU season opener, like all of the reasons that
it would be logical to think that, yeah, that was
that was a tough loss. But then when you came

(39:02):
out and played the way you did against Troy, then
all of a sudden, you're starting to go, hold up,
wait a minute, what was that about? You know, just
the ugly start against Troy. I think helped fester up
the feeling that maybe we just were a little fortunate

(39:26):
that LSU didn't do a number on us in Death Valley.
Then you go over to Atlanta, hold on and continue
to kind of verify that maybe you're not as good
as people projected you would be. And then Saturday, Clemson
has not done anything to dispel the belief that they

(39:48):
lack heart, that they lack the key ingredients to be
an elite ball club. And I am in the camp
that will firmly say I do not think that it's talent.

(40:11):
There are rosters in the country that would beat Clemson
the way Syracuse beat them, because those rosters are probably
just better, but that there ain't many, and even in
the you know, seven eight years ago, even the rosters
that were better weren't gonna beat Clemson the way the

(40:33):
Tigers got pushed around and bullied by Syracuse a week
after getting pushed around and bullied by Georgia Tech giving
up a two hundred yard passer and a one hundred
yard rusher the first time in a decade, literally since
Clemson and Louisville faced off in twenty sixteen, when Lamar
Jackson did it like this offense, this defense, this team.

(40:59):
They are setting records for all the wrong reasons, and
what people thought would be an ascension back has turned
into a downward spiral and collectively. You know, somebody said
this to me the other day. They said, Swanny, They said,

(41:20):
you know, you wrote that article, wrote a couple actually,
and I think they were they were fair. Go read
them if you don't believe me on our website. But
he said, man, you better hope they don't pull your
press credential for telling the truth. Dude, when people thought

(41:44):
Clemson was just this, you know, this fictionary creature on
the rise that nobody could believe in. I stood in
the fire and I said, no, this thing is coming.

Speaker 5 (41:54):
It is.

Speaker 1 (41:54):
It is a big deal. And then it delivered. So
if I got to sit in here and tell the truth,
then you dog gonna right. I'm just sitting here and
tell the truth now. And what you watch on Saturday,
you fans deserved better. You've had it great, don't get
me wrong. You deserve better than that from anybody that's

(42:16):
wearing the Paul on the side of their helmet. Hour
number two say each time for Clipson Sports Talk with
Lawton Swan, it is our number two. That's drivetime right

(43:08):
here on the show The Shakes the SOUTHLANDA clemsones sports
a lot and Swan ain't know with you will Qualk
and Bush set to join the program. But materially and
of course, Clemson Sports at brought to you in part
by our good friends over at mets Plumbing mets plumb
dot com two two six seven one o eight. That's
Mets Plumbing two two six seven to one. Oh wait,

(43:29):
go check them out today online at mets plumber dot comment.
Let them know we sent you all right, Qualk, welcome in, buddy.
Oh buddy oo, I believe you know, I don't. I
don't even know Qualk. How to explain what we saw
on Saturday, my man talk to me twnny.

Speaker 4 (43:44):
First of all, it's great to hear regardless of the scoreboard.
This is uh, it's just uh, it's just a beautiful
it's a beautiful part of the week. Hope you're doing well.
I I got nothing. I will say this. Uh, my
bully tooth decided not to work at the start of
this phone call, and I both of myself that's fitting
with the conversation that we're gonna have that the bluetooth
appears to be taking the plays off.

Speaker 5 (44:05):
So uh, I.

Speaker 4 (44:07):
Mean, honestly, that's that's where we are. That we're we're
questioning effort, We're questioning desire. We're questioning not like coaching decisions,
but like the tonement coaches are setting, or like I mean,
you're you're going from even last week some of the
scheme questions and stuff like that. So like questioning the

(44:30):
heart and desire of the entire operation. And that is
a shift that nobody saw coming. And then frankly, we
we have not had to have this conversation since I've
been professionally doing this fifteen years I've worked at my station. Uh,
we have not had to have this conversation, and so
we're it's we're a little out of practice. I'm not gonna.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
Lie, dude. I almost I I virtually said the same thing.
I said. I've been on the radio in Colombian. I've
been doing it for twenty years. But I was on
the radio in Colombia for twelve years, quawk and not
one time if I ever had to question the effort
that Clemson gave. And I think, and I don't know this,
but I think that's why Dabo Sweeney looks so emotional

(45:14):
after the game, because I think he too recognized that
it's not about the Jimmy's and the Joe's, it was
about the effort.

Speaker 4 (45:23):
Yeah, I mean, let me let me just go go
big picture for you, Okay. Dabo Swiney on Tuesday goes
with that epic brand that I was telling people.

Speaker 6 (45:34):
It was like he was recording an audiobook and we
were just there to watch it live. Like he just
go on and on and on right, And I mean
it hit me on Saturday, like, you don't do that. Okay,
that's sect in a way, it was received, but you know,
if you you obviously taught for yourself.

Speaker 4 (45:52):
I felt like the reception for that was as bad
as any message that Dad was ever given.

Speaker 3 (45:56):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (45:58):
I just I think people were tired of they don't
want to hear it. They're like, man, we're not nobody's
questioned any of that. We're just trying to figure out
why this looks bad. Okay, So we went from that
to that performance on Saturday. It's funny, you don't do
what Davo did Tuesday. Although sit on the beach. I'm
fifty five, y'all gonna have to put it on me
for a while. If you think your team is gonna

(46:18):
go lay an egg, or if you have any doubt
at all that your team is gonna go play well,
Like if you doubt that your team's gonna play well
out you don't say that, you just don't. And so
I just think that Devo is really caught off guard
by how yet again his team comes out flat. Yet again,
his team displays no discernible sign of life from.

Speaker 3 (46:38):
A leadership standpoint.

Speaker 4 (46:40):
Yet again, there appears to be a disconnect and the
type of complimentary football that this program has played. Yet again,
the quarterback can't get out of his own way. When
the quarterback does get out of his own way, it's
not a sure thing that any of the other position
groups are gonna get with him. You had a defense
that was on pace to allow seven hundred and eighty
yards including over three hundred and sixty yards rushing to

(47:05):
a Syracuse team after quarter to a Syracuse team that
averaged lesson two yards to carry in Tennessee an average
lesson three yards to carry against Yukon. There are not
rational explanations in the here and now, like the micro
level game plan, personnel changes, that kind of stuff. What

(47:25):
you're talking about is like down your spine. You're talking
about questions about the type of program that you have
and how you as a program are getting ready to
play these games. And again, that is not a conversation
that we have had. This is not a well coached
football team.

Speaker 3 (47:41):
Sway.

Speaker 4 (47:41):
If it were North Carolina or Florida State, or Missouri
or Southern cal or Utah State and I was watching,
I would say that. So because it's Clemson, I have
to say that. Let me let me just take it
through real quiet. Let me take it through and I'll
do the clipbos version. I did the long version on
my show to day, but let me do the clipnoose
version of the last thirty seconds of the first half.

Speaker 1 (48:01):
Okay, oh boy.

Speaker 4 (48:02):
Uh, Clemson gets to stop on third down, you can
go back to Clemson uses the timeout and then a
safety is twenty yards off the ball and kick those
towards the line of the game where a tight end
just runs to the line against stops, turns around the kids.
Is the most wide open past ever where safety was
supposed to be. But he couldn't be bothered to sprint
down to his own He's supposed to be covering that,

(48:24):
and I'm not even to talk about that. Twenty eight
seconds will have to play stops morning and Clemson goes
time out with twenty three seconds left. Okay, that's five
seconds off to the sideway that you want the clock
to run out down by ten at all, or rather
you'd or if you'd rather, Syracuse punt the ball. So
they punt the ball. We get the miracle drawl play
for the second time that Adam Randall might puts Cleinson

(48:46):
in a position with a big run in that situation. Okay,
then you spike the ball with one time out of left.
You spike the ball and you walk over to the sideline.
Like at the time out, coaches started with the timeout,
players acted like a the time out. It took coaches
that weren't in the huddle going over to and form, hey,
the play cats running, you might want to get out there,

(49:08):
and he am, I'm going to burn the time out
that they were gonna use to set up their field goal.
They try to run a little quick out of west
goat he drops the ball and then you run a
hail Mary play with three of the four receivers on
the field are six feet are under with Tristan Spent,
Christian victigre at Ian Sheplin are on the sideline twenty.

(49:28):
That is not off umsive skiing. That is not personal issues.
That is a coaching coaching my practice. Your team can
score points at the end of that half. And how
many times we talked about Clinton winning the middle eight.
That was a chance to steal three points at least,
give you a kid a chance to get you three
points in the middle eight. And it was botched as

(49:48):
many ways by as many people as it can be bots.
That is the type of program to Clinton is right
now just being an honest man.

Speaker 1 (49:56):
Well, I'll take you this step further. If you look
back at the Georgia Tech game, when Clemson allowed Georgia
Tech's kicker to just have that chance to walk off
and win it. He can just kick the crap out
of it, doesn't matter, and that's the way it would
have been. I don't remember what the distance would have been,
but that's the way it would have been. For uh, Nolan.
You could just run him out there and said, Nolan,

(50:18):
just kick the crap out of it. We'll try to
get three out of this. I know we botched this
and maybe you cut the seven, but maybe even more
of an indictment on the coaching for me qualk. They
had an hour and a half to two hours in
the locker room ESPN. They told we got to break
down the whole game and rewatch the film and then
you still got outscored ten to nothing in the third quarter.

Speaker 4 (50:39):
Yeah that I mean, that's the thing. You know, Dabo
keeps talking about the respond for the team, Well, how
about make the first statement? Why you gotta respond all
the time. It's like Clemson lost the coins off in
the debate every single quarter or every single game, and
they have to respond like it's okay to speak first,
it's okay to throw the first punch. It's very clear
that the ponent is ready to throw the first punch,

(51:03):
whether they have the ball or they don't, they are
ready to throw the first punch against Clemson, and Clemson
I'm sorry to say it, but they are never ready
to throw the first punch. They have not been ready
to throw the first punch in four games. They bad.
Jeanez gets the ball first and they're talking about the
prize off side kicks, and then Jamal Anderson just turns
the runs. I mean, just just laugh. It's laughable stuff.

(51:25):
It's not if they'd be gonna laugh, you would cry
or you would punch a thing. Yeah, it's just that
you took for granted because Clemson has been so buttoned up.
Davos program has been so buttoned up with this stuff
for so long, and right now it is just bad.
Like this is not stuff falling through the cracks. This
is like major stuff that has to be taken care of,

(51:46):
that was always taken care of, that is just completely missing.
Clinton isn't winning in big things or little things. Again,
it's not like there are a few little things away.
They are several big things away from being three in
one or four it out. They are a couple of
little things, oh and four Swanny. I just don't know
how you can look at this season and feel differently

(52:07):
about it. And listen, they got two weeks to sew
on that. Every single coach, every single player has to
look in the mirror and try to figure out if
they want to do their job, because right now it
looks like there are very few people that want to
do anything but the Glory Hogs. And it just doesn't
seem like this program has cut out for tough stuff.
And I know that's not true because I've seen this

(52:28):
program do hard things. But I can't imagine this version
of this team doing hard things. I just can't.

Speaker 1 (52:33):
On Twitter at qualt Talk every day noon until three
o'clock out of bounds with qualking be in one of
five to five. The roar in the upstateis William Qualkin Bush.
You know, the one thing I said was we just
have to take dabbos. We need though at his word
about that onside kick deal, right, Like, I mean, we
don't know that they told them. We just have to
believe that they told them because those guys didn't come out,

(52:54):
they were still in. Nobody was dealt like a consequence
for the action. And I don't know, And that might
go back to accountability qualk. Anyway, let's fast forward just
a little bit. My other big concern is this, And
it's not that k Clubnik's bad, Okay, he's just he's
just off, he's in a funk. I don't know, but
the fact that when you're asked, did you consider Christopher

(53:17):
Zena and the answer is no, we never considered that.
I think to myself, like why not? Like how bad
must Christopher Azina be? That's kind of scary to me
if you don't think that he might could spark you
a little bit when cade's not in the first half you.

Speaker 4 (53:35):
Answer that question. I mean, I think the best accountability
is the bench. But here I said it today, I've
said it before. I think this program has a depth
issue at almost every position on the field. And when
you have a depth issue at almost every position on
the field, and when the starters are not afraid of

(53:56):
losing that up via the portal, which Davi is still
never said I'll repolice the starter and place ever said
that publicly. He said we'll fill the holes in the portal,
but he's never said, what're you gonna go get good players?
We're just trying to accumulate good players when you have
the development issues that clearly persist virtually across the board
at Clemson. With backups, there is no real accountability because

(54:17):
you know people talk about, oh, Dabo bets to the standard,
Well it's not best. Look when you're not afraid of
being taken out, the standard is your backup. That's it.
If you know that you're gonna be there because Cleinson's
not gonna kick you out, and you know that you're
gonna get paid by Clinton because Clemson has a ton
of money and they're gonna pay their people, and you
know that they're not gonna replace you with the portal
or even really good competition for you in the portal,

(54:40):
then you know you don't have anything to worry about
except your backup. And you want to talk about why.
And I'm not saying this is like a natural outgrowth
of the system that Clemson has, because Dabo's system has changed.
So I'm not even blaming Dabo in his system for this,
I would blame this generation of players for it more
than anything that it is not a self starting generation.
But with that said, Dabo can't keep trying to coach

(55:04):
the players from ten years ago. He has to coach
today's players in today's environment and in today's environment. In
my opinion, based on not just what's happening at Clemson,
what's happening elsewhere, the only form of true accountability is
the specter of the portal that says that you can't
just look around your own building and see the talent

(55:24):
available and think all I have to do is beat
out these jabbronis. You have to be aware of everybody
all over the country. And I would tell people this
if I were coaching today, I would be very honest,
and sometimes people say that they don't mean it. Like
I've been in enough locker rooms that I know the
conversation the coaches have, and I think I would be
able to do this. If you're a backup, you need

(55:45):
to convince me that you could start for me right now,
because if you can't start for me right now, my
plan A going into next season cannot be a guy
who hasn't played or hasn't started. I can't have plan
as that haven't started. The portal is there, it's available,
I need to spend. I can't do that to me.
Clinton has too many backups who aren't threats to play,

(56:05):
much less start. So you have starters who are not
being held accountable because the only accountability is the portal.
The accountability in the game is the bench. But I
said this to somebody earlier. I said this to one
of my sisters. I said, the only real accountability that
you have is the portal. If your bench is not
in accountability, and if you know that the guy that's
coming in behind you can't play. If you know that

(56:27):
the guy who's coming in behind you is not a
threat to you, then you don't even care if you
get benched. Because the coaches want to win, they're gonna
put that guy right back out there. I think Clinston
can hold players accountable that don't want to be held
personally accountable because of how they've not used the portal
and because of the development issues that persists. Like I said,
almost exclusively across the board.

Speaker 1 (56:46):
A guinea is on Twitter at qualk Talk qualk, so
you know, looking at the coaching staff obviously. I mean
since twenty twenty, Dabos Sweeney has been willing to make
some moves, But even now going out of the house,
I don't know that these things have worked. And I'm
kind of stunned in some respects because I think a
year ago I really felt like the offensive line was

(57:09):
looking sharp, and now I just I don't know what
I'm watching. I called it an out of body experience
earlier watching this team, because it is it is like, Okay,
this is the comparison. Do you remember back in the
sixties when Clemson in South Carolina played in that game
cop fraternity dressed up like Clemson and went out and
did like silly calisthenics before the game. That's what I

(57:32):
feel like. I'm watching, like it looks like Tristan Lee,
but he's not playing like Tristan Lee. I'm I'm and
I'm not just picking on him. It's across the board,
But I mean, what is going wrong with this group, man?
Is bizarre.

Speaker 4 (57:47):
You know, I've said this today and I really feel
convicted about this that the reason that I have issues
with Kate Club is not even really his play. Okay,
and I don't think he's played great but he he
has made some throws that are good throws. He has
put his receivers in positions sometimes catch the ball. Is
he missing some stuff in terms of where his eyes

(58:08):
are yes? Is he missing some easy stuff that should
be lay ups?

Speaker 3 (58:11):
Yet?

Speaker 4 (58:11):
Is he missing some easy physical throws?

Speaker 3 (58:13):
Yes he is.

Speaker 4 (58:14):
I'm not saying he's up perfect, but this is my
biggest indictment of his play. Look at the body language
of the player's offensive And here's what I said on
the radio today, Swanny. I'm not even saying the collective
body language of the offense is poor. I'm saying it
doesn't exist. There is no collective body language offensively for Clemson.
And that requires a galvanizing force. And it doesn't have

(58:35):
to be the quarterback, but it almost exclusively is. In fact,
it would be kind of weird if it wasn't the
quarterback and you're running back or a wide receiver or
somebody was that galvanizing force. And here's what I mean,
when's the last time you saw like significant communication even
after a big play by the players on the field.
For Clemson's offense, routinely, what happens is a play is

(58:57):
made and then they look to this sideline for the
next play, or they come out of the game. There's like, no,
you're not dap. You're not seeing people dap up their teammates.
You're not seeing the players get excited to make a play.
You're not seeing Kate get excited for people, or people
get inside of for Kate, or anybody getting excited for Randall.
I mean trustan Smith like has an out of body
experience when he makes that play, breaks half a dozen

(59:19):
tackles nobody. He's by himself. Swanna you know this, Like
there's a reason that like every coach I know, particularly
like basketball indoor sports, they count touches in practice when
you're coming on and off the field, is because you
want to feel connected to your teammates. This offense is
not connected. And I'm not talking about Kate to the
receivers like being on the same page. I'm talking about spiritually.

(59:42):
This is eleven guys in silos. And I think when
you're in a silo is when you start false starting,
and you're snapping fractiony and you're holding and you're dropping
the ball and you're not putting the ball where it's
supposed to be. And all this stuff is true of
you when you feel like you're doing this by yourself,
there's no accountability to somebody else because it's not being
asked and because you're not communicating.

Speaker 3 (01:00:03):
With other people.

Speaker 4 (01:00:04):
I think that is the biggest issue on of it.
I think it's a different problem on defense, where I
actually think body language is too positive for the number
of us that we have. I want somebody riem in
some tail. I want somebody just like couldn't air it
on my radio show going nuclear on people. Either Wood
has done a little bit of it, but I want
to see more of that. And I feel like there
are too many people who are not willing to allow

(01:00:27):
themselves or actually to take away the opportunity to make
mistakes so they can hold other people accountable. I just
think there are lots of things like that that aren't
X and o's, that aren't coaching and all that stuff.
It is player accountability that is sorely lacking on this.

Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
Team final thing. What we got about a minute. I
guess this is a pretty pretty simple one. I mean
coaching changes at the end of the season or before
I have said this, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:00:51):
If it means coaching changes. I think it would be
pretty hard to watch the tape of this game, this
past game and go into Chapel Hill with the status quo.
That means benching some important players, you know, changeers starting
lining up, coaching changes, whatever. I just think there's no
way around it. I think one of the reasons Davil
got emotional is because I think he knows he has
to get rid of some people. And I don't know

(01:01:13):
who those are. I don't know what the culprits are.
He's done pretty good job identifying problems in the past,
so I trust him on that. I'd be stunned if
there aren't staff changs at the end of the season.
I'd be kind surprised. There's not at least one change
of sometime this week. I don't have any information on that,
but just watching the last four games, you can't you
can't just wish away that the next eight is going
to be better without making any changes. I just can't

(01:01:35):
see that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
There you go. That's William Quwalkinbush here on a Monday afternoon,
hot bothered, fired up, who wee Clypson and South Carolina man,
big expectations on the Cats huh oh buddy, And not
to mention we can certainly talk about Carolina when we

(01:01:57):
get back as well. But remember my kind of warning
the South Carolina about the start of their season. Now,
I thought they had a chance to go five and oh,
and I didn't think they could, you know, maybe win
too many games at the back end that was possible.
They could go to five and o to five and seven. Well,
that's looking rough, isn't it. We'll talk about that when

(01:02:19):
we get back. Stay with us. Lawton Swan Clempson's sports
soal Comunday, boy man, one in three are your Clemson Tigers.
A week off bye week for Clemson, but as we
mentioned before the break, South Carolina game Cocks also riding
the struggle bus early this season, falling to oh and

(01:02:40):
two in the Southeastern Conference, much like Clemson oh and
two in the ACC. South Carolina this past weekend went
to Missouri, where over the years the game Cocks have
absolutely struggled. We knew that going into it, but I

(01:03:02):
think South Carolina fans and at this point now Clemson fans,
you've got to jump into this this conversation as well.
There is no easy game for Clemson. They are the
bottom of the ACC and there's not a game anymore
where I'm gonna feel comfortable based off of the effort

(01:03:23):
that Clempson is given picking the Tigers. South Carolina also
at the bottom of the Southeastern Conference, the only zero
to two team in that league, and again when I
looked at their schedule at the beginning of the season.
The one thing I will tell you South Carolina fans,

(01:03:45):
and this is a fact, your last two games versus
Clemson and the game before that against Coastal are your
easiest games remaining.

Speaker 4 (01:03:58):
I'm a Carolina listen to your show and I want
to compliment you on your even handedness between Clemson and Carolina.

Speaker 1 (01:04:06):
Well, thank you. That is my even handed take. Coastal
and Clemson are the easiest games remaining. South Carolina. This
weekend will host Kentucky. The game Cocks who are currently
two and two, hoping to not fall to two and

(01:04:27):
three because if they lose this game to Kentucky, I
don't know that they will win a game in conference.
Because here's what South Carolina has remaining at number four
lsu versus Oklahoma, who is number seven, versus Alabama, who

(01:04:53):
is number seventeen at Ole Miss, who is number thirteen
at Texas, and who is number nine, and then Coastal
and Clemson. Like, if South Carolina doesn't win this game
this weekend, the odds that they go winless in Southeastern

(01:05:17):
Conference play probably pretty good. And that doesn't mean they
can't be clympses but November twenty ninth, based off of
what I've seen, But either way, at this point, I

(01:05:38):
think South Carolina has to begin the question whether or
not they'll win a conference game if they lose this
weekend in Kentucky, I don't know that they will. And
these games are the three games Vandy, Missouri, and Kentucky
that I thought South Carolina would for sure win. And
I did not think they would beat LSU, Oklahoma, Alabama,

(01:06:00):
miss or Texas, A and M in the preseason. Now,
I say all that to note this. Remember last week
when I talked about how I thought that it might
make sense for Shane Beemer to go take that job

(01:06:20):
at Virginia Tech because I thought the path to the
playoff was easier. Would this not be the exact thing
that would deter him from staying in Columbia Like, and
it might be the thing too that make Gamecock fans go,
you know what, maybe we all just let him go.
You can't pull an oph in conference play, can you?

(01:06:42):
Because if they do, or even a one ski, if
you pull an over or a once ski in conference play,
one is seven or ZH to eight. How are you
feeling about that? Now? The game Cocks are favored by
six and a half in this ballgame. I believe, and

(01:07:07):
I'll have to double check this. I believe Kentucky is
playing their backup quarterback. I don't know if their starting
quarterback was hurt, but I would need to do a
little investigating just to see. But Cutter Bowley got his

(01:07:30):
first start of his career against Eastern Michigan through for
a couple of touchdowns. Now, I don't know how much
confidence I would have whether I'm a game Cock or
a Wildcat or anybody playing on the road in the
Southeastern Conference. But Kentucky is a team that was right

(01:07:55):
there in the mix, hanging with Old Miss. They got
beat thirty to twenty three by the As a matter
of fact, Kentucky led that game ten to nothing. They
had that game tied with five thirty eight left in
the third quarter, and then it was a couple of

(01:08:16):
touchdowns or a touchdown in a field goal, A late
touchdown in the third quarter and in a field goal
near the end of the game that pushed ole Miss
out in front. But Kentucky possessed the ball several times
in the fourth quarter, down just seven against the Rebels,
So like, I kind of get it, like this team

(01:08:40):
could beat South Carolina. They could. I don't know that
they will, but they certainly could. And if they do.
For the game Cocks, I think that means you likely
go over the league. There's a lot of football aft

(01:09:00):
to be played, and Clemson, as bad as they've been,
there's a lot of football have to be played. But
for South Carolina, this week feels like the last game
in conference where I would give them a like I
would say South Carolina should win this game. I think
in the rest of the games, I will not pick

(01:09:22):
South Carolina unless something drastic changes. And I don't think
many game Cock fans would pick South Carolina to beat
a lot of the teams they gotta face the rest
of the way if they go zero to three to
start the season in the conference, because the first three
are the easiest three and I don't think there's any

(01:09:42):
question about that. All right, quick break, keep it locked
right here, Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred. We'll talk about
what Indiana did the Illinois this past week, Lawton Swan
the show that shakes of Salthland on the Monday Clemson
Sports eight three four five zero zero eighty six. That

(01:10:03):
is the text line and the phone line. And don't
forget about our friends in Alumni Hall right there on
the corner of campus on College Avenue of downtown Clemson.
It's Alumni Hall for all your officially licensed Clemson merchandise, hats,
t shirts, Hellgate, Garymore, go check them out today. Don't
forget about those sweet dry fit Nike polos that I
love so much at Alumni Hall where Tiger fans shop,

(01:10:26):
or online at Alumni Hall dot com. All right, big
victory over the weekend for Miami. The fourth rank Hurricanes
punch Florida right in the nose. Kind of a dogfight early,
but impressive enough for the ap Pole to move Miami
all the way up to number two and give them
seven first place votes. They were number four in that

(01:10:48):
poll going into the weekend, but the team that impressed
me the most in week four was number nineteen Indiana.
They beat Illino, who was ranked number nine in the country.
Sixty three to ten, sixty three to ten. They vaulted

(01:11:10):
up eight spots in the AP pole. Illinois dropped fourteen
spots sixty three to ten. They beat a top ten team.
Indiana beat a top ten team the same way. Florida
State beat Kent State. Florida State beat Kent State sixty

(01:11:33):
six to ten. Now they did jump out to a
thirty five to seven lead in the first quarter. Either way,
the most impressive team to me this past weekend was Indiana,
probably second Brent Vinibles in Oklahoma, a twenty four to
seventeen win over Auburn John Mattier. We warned you about

(01:11:55):
Matier making the move to Norman and what that could mean.
Twenty four thirty six, two ndred and seventy one yards
and a touchdown. But the number that popped from me
ten sacks. Ten sacks?

Speaker 7 (01:12:14):
Do you know?

Speaker 1 (01:12:14):
How do you know how many sacks Clemson had against Syracuse? Three?
And I'm tired of the excuse being, oh, well, teams
are getting the ball out quick. You think you think
the team's playing Brent Minnibles in Oklahoma. Don't want to
get the ball out quick. You don't get ten sacks
on accident. But that's exactly what Brent Minibles and the

(01:12:38):
Oklahoma Sooners did this weekend against Auburn, and quite frankly, Oklahoma,
good on you, Good for you, guys. Maybe give Clemson
fans at a little ancillary team to cheer for, a
little side, a little side team to root four this season. Now,

(01:13:04):
other games around the country that maybe have you know,
some standing for you. Michigan did beat Nebraska thirty to
twenty seven. Dylan Rayola played really good for the corn
Huskers thirty of forty one, three hundred and eight yards
and three touchdowns, but not enough to beat the Michigan Wolverines.

(01:13:26):
And I hate it because I told you I was
rooting for Nebraska. I don't really have a dog in
the fight. But I'm all right if Michigan loses games
in this day and age. But yeah, the Indiana Hoosiers,
I mean, you know when Davos Sweeney when it feels
like Dabosweeny may have lost some of the team with

(01:13:46):
the way this Clemson Tiger team has looked, and then
you go and see Indiana and you know they don't
have the players that Clemson has got. But would you
want to line up against them right now. I don't
think so. And that's what I think. Dabos when he's
got to figure out when paying players was not involved, Dabos,

(01:14:08):
when you could get you to run through a wall.
Now that players are being paid, it feels like you can't.
And one thing that somebody said to me, and I
don't know how accurate this is, I would need to
do some digging. But when you're playing football, I think

(01:14:32):
we can all agree that at this point in the season,
nobody's one hundred percent healthy. But who now has the
influence on players to kind of say, hey, whether they're

(01:14:53):
good to play or not. They're agents, managers, whatever you
want to call them, or the coaching staff. And I
just wonder, again, I don't want to throw stones at
a guy like Antonio Williams certainly not meant to be
you know, he's just kind of been a guy that's
been banged up, or Khalil Barnes. They just kind of

(01:15:16):
happened to fall into the being injured in the window
that I'm talking about this situation. But what is banged
up and what is injured in this date and age,
and do guys still play like they used to play?
Through the pain. Are they willing to like they once were?
Because back in the day, you weren't getting any money,

(01:15:42):
weren't supposed to your prestige and notoriety and maybe a
chance to go to the NFL, So you wanted to
be out there to play. But if you're making half
a million, two hundred and fifty thousand, do you have

(01:16:02):
the same drive to go out and play if you're
a little bit banged up, or do you you know,
say ah, well, I'll just rest this one. Like it
does the game still mean the same to the players.
And you know, Caid Klubnett was asked this about nil
and stuff this past week, and you know, he said,

(01:16:25):
I didn't grow up thinking I was gonna make money
playing college football. And I love to hear that, and
I hope that more players, you know, kind of feel
that way about it. And you know, I want these
guys and I don't care what team they play for, Clemson, LSU,
South Carolina, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Indiana, it doesn't matter. I

(01:16:45):
want these kids across the board to play for something
more than themselves, and I think, tragically, more than paying them.
The transfer portal has created a situation where they're not
playing for the team anymore, they're playing for themselves. And
that's a big problem. And Clemson is not in the vacuum.

(01:17:09):
It is across the country. But how do you get
more out of players who, maybe because they've got more,
choose to give less. And that I think is a
conundrum that more than just Dabbo is fighting. But it's
hard to think Dabbo is not fighting it significantly after
what you saw this past weekend.

Speaker 3 (01:17:34):
What have you done for me lately? It's a fair question.

Speaker 8 (01:17:39):
Just don't lose sight of the bigger picture, don't forget history.
Lucky for us at Clemson, the answer to the questions
what have you done for me lately?

Speaker 7 (01:17:52):
And what have you done? Always are the same. We
win sometime.

Speaker 5 (01:18:08):
Sometime sometimes.

Speaker 1 (01:18:41):
Sometimes final segment on the Monday Licking Wounds edition, man
ho ho wee, good gracious, I I don't even yes
something South Carolina fans I got mad. You guys aren't
feeling too good either. Speaking of which, fans, I apologize

(01:19:07):
for not getting to the text. I will do that now, though.
One thing I will say, if you want to call
and leave a message, do that winer line or whatever,
eight three four five zero zero eighty six. I mean,
I'd love to hear from you. I'd love to chat
with you about this team and play what you think.
I mean, I'm giving you a good bit about what

(01:19:28):
I and certainly have a couple more days of doing that.
Alan from Greenville says Swane. This is rock bottom. We're
talking playoff in August and now we're one in three
after losing to Syracuse and Death Valley. It's only September.
Something's broken in this program. Yeah, I hope not, man,

(01:19:59):
I hope not. I hope this is just a glitch
in the matrix. But there was a graphic that was
put out over the weekend. I don't know if you
saw this, but if you look at like since Clemson
last won the national title, right, So, in twenty eighteen,

(01:20:26):
the Tigers had zero losses. Twenty nineteen, they had one
loss and played for the national title. In twenty twenty,
they had two losses and were in the semi final.
In twenty twenty one, they had three losses. In twenty

(01:20:46):
twenty two, they had three losses. In twenty twenty three,
they had four losses. In twenty twenty four, they had
four losses, and they're already at three and twenty twenty five,
so trending certainly towards five, which they've just progressively. They've
they've kind of done the opposite of what they did
to get here. I mean they were losing five games seven, four,

(01:21:09):
two two three one one two zero one. Like you
know what I'm saying. They work their way back now
it feels like they're working their way up. Tony says Swanee.
I love my Tigers, but this hurts. To go from
playoff dreams to one in three in a month is unreal.
Dabo's gotta fin answers quick. And that was one thing
I did start thinking about. And I'll reference Tiger Chuck,

(01:21:30):
who will laugh at this next statement. Heck, I laughed
at it when I thought it. I did start to
like think through, Okay, what are the scenarios that have
to happen? How can we salvage this season? How can
we We've already hit the iceberg? People? Can we fit

(01:21:50):
more than one person on this door floating in the Atlantic.
I don't know if there's anything to salvage. Jason, he
feels like it's salvage, well, at least again in the
texaon eight three four five zero zero eighty six. So
it feels like the sky is falling at one in three.
But I'm not giving up yet. Season is not over

(01:22:13):
beat North Carolina get some momentum and and that's a
fair point. Momentum would be nice, and I don't think
surviving Troy was the optimal way to build momentum. But
as bad as the play has been, the coaching has

(01:22:35):
been equally as bad. The decision making has been equally
as bad. And I think Dabosweni probably along the way
over the year, certainly made bad coaching decisions and the
players were able to mask his poor decisions. But now
the players haven't been good enough to mask the bad decisions,
and so questionable decisions have become bad ones. And I

(01:22:59):
go back to not calling a timeout at the end
of the Georgia Tech game as another major miscalculation by Sweeney.
Think back to the ACC Championship. You got a kickoff
in a tie game, a big kick return and went

(01:23:20):
down the field and kicked the game winner. If you
had called a time out in that moment and forced
Georgia Tech's kicker to take that kick, one, you put
the pressure of if he misses, you get the ball
where they're kicking from, not from the line of scrimmage,
you get it from where the ball's kicked close to midfield.
That means if he misses, Clymps has got a great
chance to pick up fifteen twenty yards and kick their

(01:23:43):
own field goal to win it. Number two, if you
call time out with twenty seconds or whatever it was
and he makes it, they still have to kick off
to you and maybe you can take your chance to
get a tying field goal. Now based off the way
clumps is played, no chance they get that tying field
goal anyway, but at least you give yourself a chance

(01:24:05):
because what you did was you essentially let them go
out there and yeah, scramble, fire, drill. But the dude
just could sit there and kick the crap out of
the ball and go, welp, I make it great and
if I miss it, we'll just go overtime. There was
nothing to lose for the kicker, no wonder he just
nailed it. I thought it was a bad coaching decision,
and the coaching decisions were bad this weekend as well,

(01:24:28):
and cost Clemson points in my opinion. In that Syracuse
game regardless of how Dabbo explains it. But we got
more days to talk about it. They don't play this weekend.
Remember they play next Saturday. We'll talk to you tomorrow,
So then it's always you'll take care.

Speaker 8 (01:24:43):
Now is