The "Three in Your Pocket" Edition

David Hood from TigerNet.com joins the show to talk about the 2025 Clemson Tigers ahead of Fall Camp kicking off.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's time or Clipson Sports Talk with Lowden Swan.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Finally, Clemson Sports Talk has come back to drive time.
Hello everybody, Loden Swan back in the saddle once again.
It is the show that shakes the South. Lay and
Clipson Sports off for you each and every afternoon as
you make your way around the great Staatee eight of
South Carolina and beyond, listening to us on the incredible

(01:03):
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it's free. The website put the dot com on it,
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of course to show the shakespare South labrought to you
in part by our good friends over at Met's Plumbing

(01:24):
seven three two drip, Drip, drip drip. You know the
jingle seven three two drip. That's Mett's Plumbing Metts Plumbing
dot com. That's the website as well. Mike, You've a
coming up in our number two. But now we're one.
We jump into an interview from the floor. At the
eight SC kickoff, we sat down with senior rider at Tigernet,

(01:45):
David Hood. Here's what David had to say about the
events and the upcoming season, which, of course, Clemson kicks
things off in just a couple of days with fall practice. David,
how are you my man?

Speaker 3 (01:56):
Well, it just got up off the floor, so I
guess I'm all right, all right, that's true. We are
on the floor here.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
So how many years have you covered this event? When
was your first acc It wasn't called kickoff? I guess
it was called media Days.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Yeah, probably my first one was in nineteen ninety nine,
I guess, and then there was a little bit of
a hiatus when I went to a lot of Brave stuff,
and then two thousand and eight. So every year, so
it's two thousand and eight.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
David Hood of course covers Clemson for Tigernet dot com. David,
I'm going to start you with a question that I've
asked a lot of people that seems to surprise me
a little bit, and that is this as good as
Clemson was after they won the twenty sixteen national title.
As good as Clemson won after they beat Alabama forty
four to sixteen. And I remember Mark Packer on SiriusXM

(02:41):
after that. You know that evening he was on the
radio and he was saying, it's a changing of the guard.
Like that felt like Dabo had ascended past Nick Saban
in Alabama. But what's crazy to me is that following year,
Clemson obviously runs it out another fourteen wins into the
National Championship against LSU. But I don't recall even that year,
that twenty nineteen season, Trevor Travis, all the pieces that

(03:04):
you had people talking as favorably about Clemson as they
are this year from the national standpoint from the outside
looking in your thoughts, Am I accurate in that assessment?

Speaker 3 (03:17):
I think this is probably the most we've heard about
Clemson since twenty eighteen. And I'll tell you. I'll tell
you a couple of reasons why the reason that team
didn't win the National championship in twenty nineteen. Not only
was Joe Burrow and that squad just a bunch of
future NFL guys, but that defensive line, you lost all
of the power rangers right right. You went from Christian
Wilkins to who's playing today? Right? You lost four starters.

(03:39):
Offensive line had to kind of retool a little bit.
You knew it was going to be a little bit
of a challenge, and that's one of the reasons that
Clemson has in so many ways not made it back
to that point. You've got to get that defensive line
back to where it's one of the best in the country. Well,
guess what, JJ Parker, Peter Woods, Demante kpe part will
help even the kids like Stefhil and Green that's coming on.
You know, there's a lot of talk about those guys.

(04:02):
Now you've got an offensive line to compliment it. Yeah,
you're good in the trenches. And then oh, by the way,
you've got some really good skill guys. A quarterback can
sling it a little bit, gonna be really good at linebacker,
gonna be really good in the secondary. You think. So
it's an exciting team. And then this schedule, while there
are potential footfall pitfalls, is not daunting like what Texas
has got to go do, like what Oklahoma's got to
go to.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Talking about kid from the first real year where he's
the guy to last season, the growth was immense. I
think everybody will admit you're not going to see that
type of jump from him, But how difficult will it
be in your mind for him to maintain what he
did a year ago.

Speaker 3 (04:39):
Yeah, I think he can maintain. I don't think it's
going to be that difficult. I think he grew up
a lot last year for Okim. Now, the key is,
I've got all of these weapons. He now knows he
doesn't have to win it by himself. And that's where
he got into trouble in the past is he tried
to make some of those those plays and they were boneheaded.
He roball right and even in the South Carolina game,
they're kind of late. Shouldn't have thrown that one little

(05:01):
pass that right down there is Jnson's driving. You have
three in your pocket, right, you got three in your pocket.
You just don't do that. And that's gonna be his
next jump. So you don't look for the statistical jump
from last year, but you look for the mental jump,
okay from last year. That's what I'm looking for out
of him. Can he prove I'm the total package back

(05:22):
here at quarterback. He's close, and he's got all those
weapons around him, and he's got Matt Loake's boys protecting him.
It's got a pretty good shot.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
I want to circle back to Clemson in a minute,
because I know you've been in the main ballroom for
a few days, and you've had a chance to hear
from not dancing.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
I have not been in the ballroom dancing. I couldn't
find anybody, right.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
But listening to a handful of coaches and players go
through the car wash, is there anything in particular from
those moments that has and we can go to the
commissioner in a minute. So let's grab the commissioner because
there were some moments there. But is there anything in
particular from anybody else that stood out to you?

Speaker 3 (06:00):
Love? Brent Key, Georgia tech head coach. Dude is a baller.
He's a baller, and he stands up there. He has
a great answer. Somebody asked him about why are you
playing Georgia, you know, in the Mercedes Benzon instead of
it Bobby Dodd. You know they had to go to
Georgia last year. They were in Athens. They had him,
you know, on the ropes late. Why are you playing

(06:20):
him there? Well, the reason is you're gonna get a
lot of money because Georgia fans are gonna buy a
majority of the tickets in that game, right, That's why.
And he said, very you know, politically correct, above my
pay grade. I'm not gonna comment on it, but we'll
go play somebody today at five o'clock a Piedmont Park.
I don't care. Roll the football out. Kind of shades
of Kevin Steel back in the day. I don't care

(06:40):
what we played, right, we'll blay on concrete, brain shine.
I don't care. Remember Kevin. It was kind of shades
of that. I love Brent Key his guys take on
that hard nosed approach. And I'm just gonna go ahead
and tell you, you know, you can look at Clemson schedule.
People never mentioned Georgia Tech. Clemson opens up with LSU,
Georgie Tech opens up at Colorado. Clemson comes home for Troy,

(07:03):
Georgia Tech comes home for Gardner Webb, and then those
three meet in Atlanta. High know it's gonna be one
hundred and seventy two degrees at Bobby Dodd. That's going
to be a fist fight.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yeah, I think, not only have they done a good
job through the portal, you know, obviously AJ Hofler going
over there from Clemson, and then of course also on
the recruiting trail, they've had an uptick. And I was
talking to somebody earlier, I can't remember, but I if
you had told me, because I too buy into to
Brent Key right now, if you had told me who

(07:34):
could have that type of success that quickly in Atlanta,
There's probably only one coach, I would guess, and that
would have been Deion Sanders. I think Dion his ties
to the Falcons, his tiest to the Braves. I think
his ability to recruit the four to h four, the
things that Jeff Collins thought he could do. Waffle house boy,
Brent Key is doing right, he is, and that's what

(07:57):
to me. He has a little swagger, open collar, there
was I happened to be in there when they were
on the stretched boots. I did not notice. I did
not notice. But you are a man of fashion, and
I am not.

Speaker 3 (08:08):
His artorial splendor stood out.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
But he's on top of like he was listening to
the guy was talking to one of the players and
said something, Oh, he's talking to to Haines King and
he said, you carried them all twenty four ties. Man,
you were a real dog in that game. And he
heard the word dog, it's like, uh, not a dog.
Not a dog.

Speaker 3 (08:26):
And I'll tell you what. One other thing stood out
to me was Mike Norvel. He approached the podium and
started screaming, I gotta watch this and never let up.
And it was you're the second person that told me
shades or shadowing of Jimbo Fisher at the end. Remember
when Jimbo would get really high pitched street you.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
Know, I we're gonna have to be I'm.

Speaker 3 (08:46):
Talking, Oh my goodness. And my first thought was, all,
I've been around coaches, you know, my entire life. Yeah,
this is more for the benefit of his players, and
you've been You've been around preachers your entire life than
around preachers my entire life. This is more for the
benefit of his players and the fans than the media
that's assembled. But then he just kept on and it
was just this hybrid. It's desperation in the term, you know, and.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
It's like, oh wow.

Speaker 3 (09:11):
He is feeling the pressure and there will be some
buy in for Florida State from people. But it's a
two win team last year. They've added a quarterback who
can put on the cape at times. Yeah, but he's
not going to throw the ball to beach. You probably not.
They could be a lot better and that means six wins.
They could be really better, and it might mean seven,

(09:33):
but they've got Notre Dame, Clemson, Miami, Alabama. I mean, yeah,
there's some there's some tough games on that schedule. And
how healthy are you going to be coming out of
that Alabama contest? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (09:45):
I think they could. They could go eight and four,
right and lose to Alabama, Clemson, Miami in in Florida.
So we'll see how it all shakes out for the
Seminoles for sure. Now, if you, David, if if you
had to give me a team before we circle back
to clems two teams, I wouldn't give you two teams
that are playing in the a SEC Championship, But Clemson
can't be the team. Who would you select? Because I

(10:07):
think there are five that I would talk about, and
I'm sure you're gonna mention two of those five. If
you had to take Clemson out of it. Who's here
in Charlotte If it's not the Tigers, you.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
Know, I would go with UH, with Loisville, Okay, maybe
Miller Miller Moss. They're scheduled to me favorable and kind
of got some home games. They get Clemson on a
Friday night, Right, who plays football on the Friday night
besides high school come on, ACC, do better anyway. I'm
not gonna go down that road anymore, right, but but
maybe Louisville and Jeff Brahm and then of course I

(10:41):
like Georgia Tech, I really do. I am not sold
on Miami, and I'll tell you why. I think cam
Ward is a far superior quarterback to Carson Beck. Miami
had a better quarterback last year, still didn't make the
A cis jam ten and three I think five. Yeah,
defense was absolutely horrific last year. Cam Wood probably had

(11:02):
some better skull players than Carson Beck has. So you
can tell me Miami is gonna make a bigger jump
with a lesser quarterback. I don't think so. Not a
fan not buying in.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
David Hood, senior writer from Tigernett, joining us here from
the floor at the ACC kickoff for a few more minutes.
All right, let's circle back to Clemson. Real quick running
back seems to be the place where everybody sticks their
hand up and says, hey, what's gonna happen here? Except
for me and you, Well, we know what's going to happen, right,
So I understand that freshman can play the position. We've

(11:39):
seen it, you know, we Heck, we've seen a year
where there was a freshman named Travis Etn who wasn't
the starter out of the gates, and Swing has been loyal, right,
But I don't know that there's been a player that's
been more loyal than Adam Randall. Right, you talk about
a story that could be written. Holy smokes, if that

(12:01):
guy comes out of the gates as the starter or
has a great season, what does that say about him?

Speaker 4 (12:08):
Is?

Speaker 2 (12:09):
You know, we talk about what the Clemson man is
and all that, Holy smokes, that guy could be a
story this year.

Speaker 3 (12:15):
Well, that was a believer in him. But you know,
we know how that goes sometimes with that, right, Like
you know me how that goes?

Speaker 5 (12:21):
Right?

Speaker 3 (12:22):
I do think Adam Randall's gonna start against LSU. Is
he a twenty two carry a game guy? Probably not,
because I don't think that's how they're gonna use him.
I think they're gonna use him kind of like he
saw against Texas. They're gonna they're gonna put him at
running back. Then they're gonna flow him out in the slot.
Then they're gonna throw him out of the backfield. They're
gonna make Deebo Samuel out of him a little bit,
That's what I think. And then you you know, then

(12:45):
it's who's coming on. Is it gonna be Jay Haynes?
Is he gonna be healthy enough? Davids? Umma? Is he
gonna be the guy? Can he kind of take that
next step? And then the freshman Gideon Davidson. He's good.
But we know, if you're gonna play for Seedar Speller,
you better learn how to pass block, right. That's you know,
that's an issue for a lot of freshmen because you know,
you come up and all of a sudden, you're a

(13:06):
Bobby Dodd and the fans are on top of you,
and it's one hundred and ten degrees and okay, it's like,
I'm gonna make the call, and you know, the center
turns around and goes, all right, we're going here, the
MIC's here, he's coming through the B gap, and all
of a sudden, this freshman's head's like, so who am
I blocking?

Speaker 6 (13:24):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (13:24):
And you get your quarterback hit, Well, you're not in
the game anymore, right, that's a problem.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
Well, you know, Mark Rick was asked about it, or
was talking about the possibility of Gideon Davidson, and Mark
Rick said, I don't think being a freshman running back
is as big a deal as people make it out
to be. He said, if you coordinate it correctly, you
can do some of the things that we did with
Warwick done when he was a freshman, and we didn't

(13:50):
really require him to do a whole lot in that
pass pro aspect of the game because they knew that.
Plus he was I mean, he worried us under sized
as well, the special but he said, man, we'd slip
him out and give him the ball, you know, on
a little screen pass out of the backfield or something.
We'd make a little hot route to him. He would
just gobble people up. And maybe that's where a young

(14:12):
guy like Gideon Davidson can make his way. I just
don't know what kind of hands he's gonna have in
year one. I do feel good about Adam Randall, who catching.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
The ball in the backfield. That's for sure he's gonna
do okay. And I do like Giddeon and I think
you're right, they're probably gonna use him use that athletic ability.
I think we saw that in the spring game. Remember
when Dentson was in and he threw that kind of
wheel route out to one of the running backs. He
made the nice little grab. That's what you're gonna see.
And this is kind of the evolution of a Garrett

(14:39):
Riley offense. Now in year three, Kate's got all these weapons.
Pick your poison, as clumpson posted on social media day
or so ago. It's gonna be fun. It's gonna be
fun to see it. And I think you know, by
mid season, we're gonna start to see that running back room,
that depth chart start to shake itself out.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
David Hood, Senior reader, Tiger at all right, final thing,
so let's flip to the defensive side of the ball
for Clempson. They go out, they bring in Tom Allen.
I remember when they hired west goodwhen there's no doubt
what I called it. I said, I called it the
most unconventional higher that I have ever seen for a
major program. That is what I said from day one.
I wanted it to work. I think you will. Everybody
wanted it to work. I'm not filming you, David, so

(15:18):
you're good. But but now you've gone out and you
brought in Tom Allen. And again, it's just one year
of coordinator experience at Penn State, but it feels like
you've kind of rehired a similar guide to Brent Minables.
Your thoughts on that higher and how impactful that could
be in twenty twenty five, Well, I've already been told

(15:40):
by somebody who's been there for Allen was there Indeventables.
He's elite like Brent was.

Speaker 3 (15:46):
And you know, part of the problem with West everybody
talks about the scheme or the fundamentals man. Brent's teams
were always going to be fundamentally sound. This team hasn't
been fundamentally sound on defense, right, But with Brent there
was always levels to his defense. You look at the
South Carolina game, and if Leonora Sellers broke that first level,

(16:07):
there was nobody there because the linebackers are tiptoing around.
What are we doing right? Secondary is off in Egypt
somewhere scouting the pyramids. They're nowhere around, you know, and
Sellers is just running wide open and free. Not gonna happen.
With Tom Allen, he is all about the fundamentals, getting
in there, teaching guys, are we gonna set the edge?

(16:27):
It was frustrating in a way, but also funding away
for somebody who likes football scheme. You watch Quinn Ewers
quinn Ewers would come up to the line of scrimmage
no matter what play was called, and he go, Okay,
t J. Parker's over here, but Peter Woods is not
over here. X number is right there. We're gonna call
an outside z on run because they'll never set the edge.

(16:49):
And the Clemson players twelve yards upfield while the running
backs running free. That's why they ran for two hundred
and eighty yards or whatever. Yeah, and that's just it's
it's unacceptable what it is. And you know somebody told me,
you know, Dabo goes in after the game, tells coaches
you lost that one, not our players. They played hard,
you lost that one, and that's why changes were made.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
You know what stood out to me from the get
go with the West Gilblin thing. And I don't want
to question how Dabo Sweeney hires. Okay, I know there
are a lot of fans and listeners that will, but
from the jump, the players called him coach Wes. I
don't think anybody's called him coach Tom. You follow me,
and I think I don't you know, maybe there's I

(17:36):
don't know if anybody calls him coach Garrett. I think
most of the guys call him coach Riley like that's
a subtle thing, but I think it's a thing where
they Sweeney unfortunately promoted a guy that was, I don't
want to call it low, but was not seen at
the same level in the mind's eye of the players
as Brent Vintables was seen, or in the mind's eye

(18:00):
of how say Tom Allen's gonna be seen or is seen.
Do you agree with that?

Speaker 4 (18:06):
No?

Speaker 3 (18:07):
I agree, And you know, here's the issue. I love
Wes love Wes is a guy. I love his wife,
love his kids. But when you have a room full
of alpha coaches Chris Rump, Nick Eason, Mike Red and
you have a locker room full of alpha players, you
can't take a beta and put him in charge. And

(18:28):
Wes's personality is not an alpha. It's just not. And
that's okay, And that's okay. He knows scheme, he knows football,
he knows how to prepare it. But being able to
go out and maybe actually teach it is one thing,
and then being that leader on that side of the
ball is another. You know, as one NFL scout told me,

(18:49):
if there's two places on the football field that you
want a little bit of a psycho coach. It's offensive line,
defensive coordinator, linebacker. Well, we know Matt Luke got that
pretty much covered right.

Speaker 4 (19:03):
Now.

Speaker 3 (19:03):
You got been Bully. Now you got been Bowling back there,
and he's a little bit weird and psycho and crazy
and uh you know, now you've got Tom Allen back there,
who's got his teeth busted out on a helmet. You know,
he's in there making diving tackles and jumping after people,
and right, that's what it takes.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
David Hood senior writer tiger Net. Check out his work
today Tigernet dot com. David is always great to see him,
My man.

Speaker 3 (19:24):
Always great. I'm glad you finally had me back on.
I'm glad you remembered my number.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
I know I got rid of your number. I just
ran into you. That's the only reason you're here. There,
you go some of our time with David Hood up
in Charlotte. A lot of fun there, all right, what
a quick break. When we come back. I saw some
interesting numbers dealing with the Southeastern Conference, and we got
Mike Eva coming up in our number two of the programs,

(19:50):
So I will definitely talk with him about that. But
when we get back, I'll give these numbers to you.
Stay with us. Clemson Sports saw the show that shakes
to south Land, Lawton, Swan, Mike, you'va coming up in
our number two, So South Carolina again. The Southeastern Conference
SEC Media Day's SEC Kickoff, whatever you want to call it,

(20:12):
The media's projected order of finish had Texas by a
wide margin as the SEC champion, Texas getting ninety six
overall votes for the conference title. Georgia with the second
most votes at forty four. Alabama was third with twenty nine.
LSU was fourth with twenty South Carolina got five first

(20:35):
place votes in the SEC, followed by three from Oklahoma,
two for Bandy, two for Florida, one for Tennessee, one
for Ole Miss, and one for Auburn. But that's not
the projected order of finish, right, that's just who they
think can win the title. It's similar. Texas is number one,
Georgia two, Alabama projected to finish third, LSU fourth, South Carolina, fifth,

(20:57):
Florida sixth, Ole Miss, seventh, Texas A and M eighth,
Tennessee ninth, Oklahoma tenth, Auburn eleventh, Missouri twelfth Vanderbilt thirteenth,
Arkansas fourteenth, Kentucky fifteenth, and Mississippi State checking in at
the bottom sixteenth. Now, Lenora Sellers was projected as the

(21:21):
first team quarterback in the Southeastern Conference. He was the
loan South Carolina player that was put on the first
team offensively. As a matter of fact, he was the
loan South Carolina player on any of the first, second
or third teams offensively. On defense, Dylan Stewart was a

(21:43):
first team defender and he was followed up on the
second team by Jaylon Kilgore defensive back. And that was
it for South Carolina on the first, second, and third
teams defensively as well. And I don't believe they had
a special teams player, But that's not what I want
to talk with. Mike.

Speaker 3 (22:04):
You about.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
The Southeastern Conference last year. As good as that league was,
you may recall it was a pretty disappointing bowl season.
I know the ACC went to an eleven and so
the Southeastern Conference was eight and seven and not spectacular.

(22:32):
But if you think about the projections in the league,
and then you look at what ESPN caused the continuity table,
which looks at each team in the Southeastern Conference, and
they were returning production levels offense, defense, and overall. What

(22:53):
sort of blew my mind is that when you look
at it the returning production rank, which is the average
from the returning production offensively and defensively, the top team
in the conference is Vanderbilt. They're third best in the

(23:15):
country in this regard with seventy seven percent of their
productivity returning seventy eight percent on offense, seventy seven percent
on defense. Texas A and M in year two under
Mike Elko is second on the list with seventy two

(23:35):
percent returning. That's seventh in the country. That's seventy percent
of their offense is seventy four percent of their defense returning.
As a matter of fact, Texas A and M has
the most returning starters in the Southeastern Conference or starts,
with one hundred and ninety two. Oklahoma is third on

(23:58):
the list with seventy percent. That's good for tenth in
college football. They have seventy seven percent of their offense
returning in just sixty three percent of their defense returning
for an average of seventy So what I haven't read
to you at this point are teams that are projected

(24:20):
by the media in the preseason as being the top
schools in the Southeastern Conference. Again, that list is Texas, Georgia, Alabama, LSU,
and South Carolina the top five. Right, So the first

(24:41):
one that you get to from the preseason poll in
that top five is LSU, and they are actually fifth
in continuity with sixty five percent of their players returning
sixty five percent of their production returning five percent offense,

(25:01):
sixty four percent defense. Alabama's down at fifty nine percent
of their offensive productivity returning in sixty nine percent of
their defense returning. Now, a big part of that, obviously,
Alabama lost their starting quarterback, and that's always gonna deliver
a pretty big hit for you. Further down that list, though,

(25:24):
South Carolina sixty six percent of their offense returning forty
nine percent of their defense, just fifty eight percent for
the game Cocks. But Texas, who is projected to win
the conference because quinn Ewrs is gone, they only have
and other players, right, they only have forty percent of
their offense returning in sixty two percent of their defense,

(25:46):
which gives them an average of just fifty one percent
of their productivity returning just over half of the productivity
returning for Texas. Ole Miss is behind them with just
forty seven percent. But Old Miss is not the bottom.
Old Miss has forty five percent of their offense returning
in forty nine percent of their defense. The bottom in

(26:08):
the conference with returning productivity is Georgia just forty six percent.
That's ninety sixth in the country with forty two percent
of their offense returning in fifty one percent of their
defense returning. So the top two teams projected in the

(26:29):
preseason in the Southeastern Conference to win. This might speak
to youth right and good recruiting are two of the
bottom three teams in turn of in terms of returning productivity.
Now part of that, too is they were good a
year ago. So any players that moved on to the
NFL or graduated go against your numbers there because they

(26:51):
probably played. Maybe more shocking of all the numbers too, though,
Old Miss with just fifty four starters or starts turning
to their roster this year, yep, fifty four All right,
with a quick break, we'll come back with more here
on a Tuesday afternoon. Don't forget well ask Mike Eva

(27:11):
about this list in our number two. So if you're
a game cock, fan peeking over the fence. Of course,
we want you to keep on doing that.

Speaker 6 (27:18):
So you could continue to peek over the fence at
the best radio showing the nation.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
With a quick break, we'll come back with more of
the show that shakes the south Lands. Stay with US
Clemson Sports back at at Lawton Swann on a Tuesday
afternoon again, Mike, you'va coming up in our number two. So,
former Clemson Tiger football player Christian Wilkins has gotten himself
into a strange, i would say, situation at the next level.

(27:47):
Wilkins was released by the Raiders on Thursday, a week ago,
but apparently he kissed a fellow player on the on
the head and the teammate took a fence to it.
According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, The incident, according to reports,
is not the only reason that Wilkins was cut. Wilkins

(28:09):
had been recovering from what's known as a Jones fracture,
which he suffered last season in his left foot. Now,
for those of you, much like your boy Swane, who
are not doctors, a Jones fracture is a fracture in

(28:32):
the fifth meta tarsal of the foot, which is the
long bone on the outside that connects to the little toe.
The fracture occurs in a specific area called the metaphysial
difisile junction. I hope I'm passing my medical school exams

(28:52):
right now, and it's about one to five to three
centimeters from the base of the fifth metal tarsal. It
can be broken based on overuse or southern twisting, which,
of course, if you are an athlete, specifically a three
hundred pounds athlete, you could see how a Jones fracture

(29:13):
could be something that ultimately happens, and then of course
you work with an orthopedic specialist to try to rectify
the situation. Now, blood supply in the area is limited,
which makes healing difficult, meaning that you have to be
pretty strict in your recuperation. Now, he again suffered this

(29:36):
injury last October, but because of how Wilkins was treating
the rehab, the Raiders voided the remaining thirty five point
two million of a guaranteed contract that were left that
was left for him. According to ESPN, Wilkins was released
with the designation of Terminated Vested Veteran Wilkins. That's the

(30:00):
NFL Players Association, the file aggrievance on his behalf, and
the union did so on Thursday now. Last week's incident
happened inside the team meeting room. One source told ESPN
the interaction was playful, but the teammate didn't see it
that way. It's not known who the fellow player is
or what the fellow player did following the incident. The

(30:22):
complaint was filed to the Raiders human resources department, which
investigated the incident. According to schefter, Pete Carroll, the Raiders
head coach, said, quote, I have no comment to make.
We made a decision on what we're doing and we're
moving with it. We'll see how that unveils itself in time.
Defensive tackle Adam Butler said that the team had quote

(30:44):
moved on from the situation, but added, whatever you're going
through as a person, athlete, non athlete, or whatever, whatever
your struggle is, if you've got something going on in life,
just talking to somebody, get some therapy. Somebody out there
in this world will hear you out. Offseason, Wilkins signed
a four year, one one, one hundred and ten million
dollars deal with eighty four and eighty four point seventy

(31:08):
five million guaranteed with the Raiders. He's spent his first
five seasons in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins, where
he posted a career high nine sacks in twenty twenty three. Now,
the whole concept of the situation with a teammate kissing

(31:34):
the fellow player on the head and the player taking
offense to it, like, I have no idea what that
circumstance was. I have no idea exactly what happened there.
There are photos, I think out there of Christian Wilkins

(31:55):
that you could find where say he's by a teammate
with his arm around him, maybe pretending, you know, to
like be giving this individual a kiss on the top
of their head or near the top of their head.
We're not talking about on the cheek. We just talked
about a guy that, to me, when he was doing that,
was just being playful in that regard. And maybe even

(32:19):
in this situation, it could have been two guys sitting
there watching a tape and Wilkins is cutting around because
maybe the player made a great play in there watching
it and kind of like one of those things where
like I love you man or whatever jokingly, and this
player filed a grievance. Again, I don't know the ends
and the outs of it all, but the Raiders seemed
to insinuate that it was more than just that moment,

(32:42):
and this wasn't something that apparently they came to as
a rash decision. Pete Carroll said that the team's decision
came after a long thought, you know, a long process
that resulted in what they call no clear path of
return for the now twenty nine year old defensive tackle.

(33:05):
Carol said on Friday, quote, we took a long time
to make our decision. We watched our way through the
whole thing. We're keeping it really clear with what we said.
We think there was no clear path to his return,
and so we just had to move on. Now. I
had some buddies who told me, and they're fans of

(33:25):
other teams, but most specifically, one of my friends, who's
a New York Giants fan, said, Dude, I would sign
that guy tomorrow. I would put Christian Wilkins alongside Dexter
Lawrence Sexy Clemson and have both of those guys on
the defensive line. And I don't know what kind of
value Christian Wilkins will have. I don't know what the

(33:47):
ramifications are with the way things are set up for
him now with this release, but I think kind of
given and that's my buddy that said, you know he
would take them immediately. I was like, well, what do
you think about the conversation around that. You know, he

(34:08):
might have been kicked out because he kissed this other
guy on the top of the head or the forehead
or whatever. And he was like, that doesn't bother me
at all. That he's just goofing around doesn't bother me
at all. So we'll see if it bothers other teams
out there, or will Christian Wilkins land on his feet
and perhaps a prime playoff contender or with a prime

(34:29):
playoff contender in the NFL. All right, quick break, We'll
keep with the NFL conversation because Hunter Renfrow is back
playing professionally, and it's in part because of his former
college head coach, Dabo Sweeney. I'll give you the story

(34:51):
and the details on that one when we return right
here on the show that Shakes the Southway and his
Clemson sports talk on Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred and
of course heard around the world on the iHeart Radio app.
Low and Swam Back with you on a Tuesday afternoon
to get don't forget about our friends at Alumni Hall
on the corner of Campus on College Avenue in downtown
Clemson for all your officially licensed Clemson merchandise hats, t shirts, Tailgate,

(35:14):
Gary Moore, go check them out today or check them
out online in Alumni Hall where Tiger fans shop. Now,
the Carolina Panthers have never drafted a Clemson Tiger, but
they do have one of the most beloved Tigers of

(35:36):
all time now on their roster. In Hunter Refro and
Hunter Infro's story, it's spectacular because here's a guy who
was basically no stars out of high school, continued to work,

(35:57):
ultimately earned a scholarship, and then goes on to make
some of the most spectacular catches in the college football
playoffs for Clemson along the way towards a game winning

(36:19):
National Championship winning reception in the final moments against Alabama.
He was a thorn in the Crimson Tide side, no doubt.
But now Hunter Infro is playing football and football locally

(36:39):
and he's in Charlotte. And according to Infro, it was
Dabo Sweeney whose encouragement and support convinced him to return
to the game after battling with Ulster native klowhit. That
is a tough one for me. I can hear it

(37:01):
on the commercials all the time. It's tough for me
to say alsur alserative colaidas woof and although immune disease,
he sat out the twenty twenty fourth season Dabo Sweeney,
who said that Hunter Renfro looked like a normal person
the street clothes, but turned into Superman once he put

(37:22):
his helmet on. In an interview with ESPN, Dabo Sween
he said Hunter Renfro told him last year, I'm done.
I'm done. I'm not gonna play anymore. But Dabo's response was,
and this was according to Renfro, why would you not play?
You have the opportunity of a lifetime. That's part of
what makes him special, Hunter renfo said about Dabo Sweeney,

(37:45):
pushing you to get pushing to get the best out
of people, just believing in you even when you don't
believe in yourself. According to ESPN, Swen he tried to
get Renfro to make a comeback last season when a
couple of teams reached out to the receiver, but he
said Renfro Rose Folks at that time was on getting
healthy playing for the Panthers, which was a team he

(38:06):
grew up cheering for when he played high school football
over at Myrtle Beach. Hunter Renfro told his agent he
wanted to play for the Panthers because they fit everything
he was looking for, and Sweeney tried to explain to Renfro,
who they're now pretty good friends. By the way, according

(38:27):
to ESPN, they take vacation's got to play golf together.
And Dabo Sweeney went out there and had a chance
to watch Hunter play and after the practice or watching
practice and after the practice, Dabo Sweeney said, Hunter loves
to play. He loves to compete. Doesn't matter if it's
pickleball or trying to throw a frisbee. I mean, he

(38:47):
just wants to compete, and that watching Renfro in the
first padded practice with the Panthers reminded him of everything
he saw in twenty fourteen when the undersized Walk Gong
wide receiver joined the Clemson Tigers. Dabo Sweeney added that
watching Renfro lose the spirit last year when he was

(39:08):
going to give up was sad for him. He said,
just got into a place where he kind of lost
his joy. He's always played for the love of the game,
but it all stems from being healthy, so it's been
awesome for him to kind of find that again. So
now we'll see if Hunter Renfro can not only compete

(39:29):
for playing time with Carolina, which I certainly believe, but
maybe more than anything, how big of an impact can
he have for a Carolina Panther team that is certainly
in need of some help this year. Like taking a
look at NFL Power rankings right heading into the twenty

(39:54):
twenty five season, no real surprise that the top couple
of teams are the Philadelphia Eagles in the Kansas City Chiefs,
followed by the Baltimore Ravens and the Buffalo Bills, then
the Detroit Lions and the Washington Commanders. That's kind of
the at this point in the mind's eye of most people,

(40:16):
the first tier. But for every first tier, there's a
last tier, and that tends to be where the Carolina
Panthers reside. According to ESPN's Power rankings, the New Orleans Saints,
fortunately for Carolina, are in their league, are rated as

(40:38):
the worst team, followed by the Tennessee Titans, then the
Cleveland Browns, the New York Jets, then the Carolina Panthers,
finding themselves fifth from the bottom. The New York Giants
are just above the Panthers, and above that you'll find
the Atlanta Falcons, meaning the Panthers are really in a

(41:03):
league where second place, second place is conceivable, and Tampa
Bay is just kind of a mid level team. I
don't think you're better than Tampa Bay, but I'm sure
Carolina Panther fans at this point if you told them
may you could finish a second in your division, they'd

(41:24):
probably take that. I think I certainly would. I think
one of the more disappointing aspects of it all for
me is seeing the Jacksonville Jaguars sitting at twenty second,
when it felt like just a couple of years ago
that Trevor Lawrence and that franchise were trending towards being

(41:47):
maybe a top ten, top twelve franchise in the league,
competing for the playoffs every season. Now you're just hoping
that a guy like Travis under can come in and
have a positive impact and lift you back up at
least into that conversation. Speaking of conversations, around the bend.

(42:07):
Mike VA. Game Concentral dot Com joins us around the band,
keep it locked.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
Each time, Clipson Sports Talk with Luwton Swan.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
Finally Clemson Sports Talk How Come Back two Drive Time,
Hello everybody, Lord, and swap back in the saddle once again.
It is the Show that Shakes the Southway and Clemson
Sports Talk for you each and every afternoon as you
make your way around the great state of South Carolina
and beyond, listening to us on incredible radio stations like

(43:17):
Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred the Midlands, heard around the
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but the dot com on it, Dog on it. That's
Clemson Sports Talk dot Com, and of course, the Show
The Shakes the southwaym brought you in part. Are good
friends over at METS Plumbing seven three two drip Drip,

(43:38):
drip drip. You know the jingle seventh three to two drip.
That's METS Plumbing, Met's Plumbing dot Com. That's the website
as well. Mike, you'va on a Tuesday afternoon and hour
number two. Mike, what's going on? Buddy? Welcome in?

Speaker 4 (43:52):
How are you?

Speaker 2 (43:54):
I'm great man, Look, we're just a couple of days
away from Clemson getting on the practice field. They kick
things off on the thirty five. How about South Carolina?
When do they get things started up?

Speaker 4 (44:03):
Yeah, so their first practice will be on August first,
they'll hit the practice field. And yeah, it feels like
I don't know about Usawannee. I mean, I know it
might be a day or two, but it just feels
like because of where the college football calendar is right now,
and you know, we'll get back to some type of
and I put it like in ear quotes normality based
on how the calendar falls in the next couple of years.

(44:25):
It just feels like this year it's just a little
bit earlier, right, Yeah, the fact that we're seeing more
games in August, and again, this is just how it rotates, right,
like having a Easter that's a little bit earlier compared
to some years. So you know, it's one of those things.
And because of that, teams are reporting a little bit earlier.
Feels like football just starting up a little bit earlier

(44:45):
across the country. I've talked to some buddies that I
have that coach at some other Power Force schools, they're
already back in the building as of Monday. So yeah,
I mean, football's here. I mean, this is really the
beginning of the season in a lot of ways, especially
now that the NFL they've already started training camp, but
for college football, they're about to start up fall camp.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
Look, it was strange for me at the ACC kickoff
because now this conference has what feels like a handful
of coaches from the pro ranks, with obviously most notably
Bill Belichick at North Carolina. You've got now Frank Wright
coaching out at Stanford, You've got Bill O'Brien up at

(45:29):
Boston College. But one of the things that happened, and
I'm missing one, but it doesn't matter, because that's not
the nature of the point. The point of my thing is,
for the first time ever, dude, Bill Belichick did not
do radio row. I could not believe it. He did
not do radio row. First time a head coach has
never talked to the local media. You think that's a
bad move by Belichick given that he's at North Carolina

(45:53):
and it's a college program and not the New England
Patriots at this stage.

Speaker 4 (45:59):
No reason why is because that's who he is. Having
said that, though, and I've said this about other college coaches,
especially at the University of South Carolina in this nil era,
that when you're not winning, and of course, as we
all know, we're in the honeymoon phase. We'll see how
North Carolina does this year. Not that I feel like
a lot of people an't expect you much of them
this year, but if they don't have that type of success, naturally,

(46:23):
what will happen. You're not going to be able to
get the same type of funding. So it's the first
thing that comes to mind in this era, Well, you
need to go around, you need to kiss babies, you
need to sign autographs, and you got to do all
that kind of stuff. So you know, it's the things
that when you're winning, it doesn't necessarily matter. It's not
the exact same. But I'm going to use an example
Don Staley in comparison to some of the other coaches

(46:46):
of South Carolina. It's not the norm for her to
do some of the appearances. She does her own appearances.
He'll make appearances. Still, she does stuff for the fans,
she does stuff for the the ge hive that they
call it. But it's not the exact same comparison to
some of the other coaches when you're talking about the
game club appearances. However, what's one thing that has been

(47:06):
consistent for Don Stealely? They have been a winning program.
So when you're winning, and again I'm just using that
as an example, I know some people be like, well,
that's a woman's basketball, but just play along with me.
When you're winning, you're able to get away with some
of that stuff. When you're not winning, you need to
do the little things, especially in the era that we're
in when it comes to nil, to be able to

(47:28):
generate number one of the buzz, but number two the
financial side of things so that you can continue to compete.
So right now for North Carolina, and this is one
thing that I've looked at, and I've had a lot
of conversations. I mean I've past week. I mean I've
been up at Foxborough having conversations with a lot of
the Patriot Beat writers. They've been asking me questions left
and right, like, hey, what do you think about Bill?

(47:49):
At ACC media day is what do you think about this?
What do you think about that? And like I told them,
I said, in his mind in Swanna, you've heard this.
A lot of your listeners have heard this Kim, the
Michael Lombardies, which is part of his support staff over
there at North Carolina. In their mind, they're comparing a
lot of the things to the NFL. And it makes

(48:09):
sense when you hear why they're saying it. Right, But
as you know, as I know, as a lot of
your listeners know who are diehard college football fans, even
if you try to look at it from an NFL lens,
it is not the exact same. And why is it,
Because year after year after year it is not going
to be consistent. There is no true cap, there is

(48:32):
no true contracts that's going to walk you in, even
though a lot of these collectives and schools are trying
to find ways. So I think that's going to be
the struggle for Belichick. So if you're not going out
there doing these things, good luck year to year. But
we'll see again. It's the honeymoon face.

Speaker 2 (48:45):
I will say, though he was wearing a suit which
I think was quite rare. So baby steps, right, baby
steps for Bill Belichick, And I was right. I looked
at they're only three in the ACC. I don't know
why I was thinking there might be four. I think,
looking back on it, what it was is that Pat
Nardoozy coaches at pitt and forreyd of reason Pittsburgh was

(49:08):
in my brain. Now it's going hold on, is there
a fourth it's out there. Plus Nardoozy looks like he'd
make a good NFL coach anyway, Mike, you've with us
here on the program on the Tuesday afternoon talking a
little college football as we get closer to kickoff of
the college football campaign. And the Maxwell Award watch list
came out yesterday, Mike, and that of course had Lenora
Sellers on there from South Carolina. That award goes to

(49:31):
the top college football player in the country. Clemson had
two guys on there with a local product from when
you were down here covering high school sports, Antonio Williams
from Dutch Fork and also Ky Klubnick. So, Mike, just
in a sense of what it means for South Carolina
and Leonor Sellers to be represented on that list when
the news broke yesterday.

Speaker 4 (49:51):
Well, let's take a step back. I'm real happy for
Antonio Williams, and I know a lot of South Carolina
fans probably are still you know better during that recruiting
process and how things went, and certainly you think back
to the game a couple of years ago when when
Antoni have a fumble on the pump return, and I
understand that, but I've got to know his stepfather, Murphy

(50:12):
Holloway for the last couple of years, going back to
everything he's done with Vic Sims, back to those Dutch
four days and and remembering Vic Sims over at Dutch FORKS.
So I'm very happy for Antonio. He's a talented wide
receiver and I hope he has a phenomenal season. But
having said that, for Leonoris, I mean, look, we talked
about this a week ago. Be able to get the
recognition that he did at SEC Media Days and the

(50:35):
fact that he was picked to be the SEC Player
of the Year, it speaks volume, especially on the offensive
side of the ball. Right, So I think the with this, right,
and I know there's.

Speaker 2 (50:44):
What ninety names, yeah yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (50:49):
Yeah, so you have you have a long list. But
having said that, still to just be in the mix
for that is an honor. I mean, I don't care
what school you play at to be even in mix
preseason wise, and I've always looked at it for one
of you like this, I don't know about you. I
don't want to speak for you, so you tell me
how you feel. But when it comes to preseason awards,
when it comes to preseason accolades, I don't get to

(51:11):
a point where I'm just whipping my pants off, spinning
it around my head, saying like, oh my god, this
is awesome. It's just like it's a preseason award, you know,
show me what you can do at the end of
the season. I've talked to some players who are on
preseason watch lesson, We've had conversations just like that. But
at the same time too, it's great for the universities
that are up, certainly clumpson having to South Carolina having
one with Leonoris. But at the end of the day,

(51:33):
that comes with responsibility and you have to go out
there knowing like, hey, look, if you have a great season,
that's not going to surprise people. Now, like there is
an expectation that's been placed on you, and certainly with
South Carolina and everything that's been talked about in the
off season, but for Leonora's it only builds up those
expectations even more so. It's about being able to block
out that outside noise and just being able to do

(51:55):
what you have to.

Speaker 2 (51:56):
Do each Saturday. Yeah, no, I tend to agree. I
think sometimes the beginning of the season awards can certainly
be overblown, but it does give you a bit of
a pecking order. What would be interesting is if you
went back through for years and said, Okay, who's the
guy that wanted that wasn't on that watch list right
out of the gate, And that would be probably the

(52:16):
real story because there are so many guys there. But
for South Carolina, again, it's a program that if you
look at say Southeastern Conference, I mean, I know they
don't go back all that far in the league, back
to the early nineties, but they've never had an individual
award winner on the offensive side of the ball. I
think the only times they've got a conference award I'm

(52:38):
talking about Southeastern Conference awards, Mike Okay, but it's only
been the defensive side of the ball. Kyle Knard I
think a year ago, and I think Jadeveon Clowney might
be the only two defensively they have ever won like
Player of the Year. So to have an offensive guy
right that's representing South Carolina on I would say any
watch list is always significant for the game.

Speaker 4 (52:59):
Cop no question about it and not to steal your
thunder and go in a different direction, but I just
want to make sure I throw this out there. Swannye okay,
speaking about there was a photo that surfaced on Dylan
Stort's Instagram on Monday. He was training with Jadavion Clowney.
So that was really cool to be able to see. So,

(53:19):
you know, I always loved one of the former players,
especially the greats, right, and we've seen this a lot
with Deebo Samuel over the last couple of years. He'd
be training guys like xavierl Lagett and some of the
wide receivers that would come through. I know that Mike
Williams from getting to know him during my time and
shout out to Mike Williams and the incredible career that
he had, not just in the NFL, but going back

(53:40):
to his days at Clemson. A phenomenal individual that a
great person. I know he recently retired. He would always
give back to the Clemson players as well. But it's
really cool to see that. So I say that because
you know, obviously, guy like Dylan Start, he's not on
this list, right, I mean, defensive players don't really see
get the same type of recognition. We know this is
the Maxwell, so it's not exactly the same type of thing.

(54:01):
But right the point that I'm trying to get at
is is there's obviously a lot of hype around him
as well, and to see him, number one, take the
time to listen to a great, and not just listen
to a great for the fact that a great like
Clowney who's got recognition in the past, like you mentioned,
I mean, he was on a lot of preseason awards,

(54:22):
but more importantly, he won a lot of awards as
well during his time in college. He's taking the time
to get back. So that was pretty neat to see.

Speaker 2 (54:30):
Mike. You agains on Twitter at Mike Underscore UVA Gamecockcentral
dot com is the website now, Mike, we talked last
time you would hear about about South Carolina being picked
to finish fifth in the conference at the SEC Kickoff?
Did they did they switch it to the SEC kickoff?
Because that was in the background. Man, is it no

(54:51):
longer SEC Media Days? It said SEC Kickoff? Did you
notice I didn't?

Speaker 4 (54:56):
I mean I referred to it as SEC Media Days.
A lot of the press relea I started as the
SEC Media Days, but you know what, though, there have
been little tweaks, so it wouldn't surprise me. Yeah, you
saying this is the first time I've heard it. For example, again,
I'm talking about the tweaks right as you know, what
did you talk about with Bill Belichick? Oh Belichick didn't
appear in radio.

Speaker 7 (55:17):
I know SEC Media day they called it digital Drive,
So uh, things are changing, money were drive? Okay, So
I don't know, maybe maybe that did happens.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
Well, at least if they start calling that loser lane,
I'm definitely not doing it, Okay, So I'll.

Speaker 4 (55:37):
I'll be I'll be front and centered. I'll have the
one right next to the door by then.

Speaker 2 (55:41):
All right. But yeah, so when you get in a minute,
go look at some photos from when the coaches and
everybody are speaking, or maybe when the commissioner's speaking in
the background said SEC kickoff. But I want to talk
to you about this because I was you know, this
is the time of the year where ESPN starts to
move that n c A A F icon up to
the front PA, so you could actually get to it
pretty quickly. And I was reading over some information about

(56:04):
returning productivity and as very well thought of as South
Carolina is I was because clips has got I think
the most in the country in terms of returning productivity.
I was looking at South Carolina and in the Southeastern
Conference might they were fifth from the bottom, And maybe
even more shocking than that for me, was the team
with the least returning productivity Georgia. I was stunned. Vanderbilt's

(56:30):
top of the list in the conference, but Georgia and
even South Carolina, Texas, those teams are at the bottom
in terms of returning productivity. Now that doesn't mean, obviously
that you're gonna not finish as well as people might
believe pre season, but I was pretty surprised to see
those schools in that bottom five of the conference. On

(56:52):
that side of things.

Speaker 4 (56:53):
So bear with me here because we're gonna do something
called mic Do's math in lifetime, which as my sixth
grade math teacher, which that would not be very good.
But on the offensive side of things, you're losing three
interior offensive lineman, three starters. On top of that, you're
losing your starting tight end, who, by the way, for
the first time, I think I have to go back
to two thousand and two. A tight end, right or

(57:15):
a non wide receiver, I should say non wide receiver
less lead South Carolina in receiving yards. And they go
all the way back to over the days one running
back Ryan Brewer led South Carolina in receiving. You had
Josh Simonson Simon excuse me, as the leader in terms
of receiving yards last year at the tight end positions.

Speaker 2 (57:33):
You couldn't fence that Ryan Brewer guy in on the offense.
Could you see what I did there?

Speaker 4 (57:38):
So you had you have three interior offensive lineman, you
have the starting tight end. You're losing rocket standers at
running back. That's five, and I want to say there's
a starting receiver in there as well. I mean they
would rotate wide receivers. So you know'll say five to
six on the offensive side of the ball. On the
defensive side of the ball, you get six guys drafted
on defense alone. On top of that, you're losing a

(57:59):
lot of depth pieces. There's four guys in the defensive
tackle position alone, defensive tackle room, excuse me, that were
either drafted or signed to NFL teams. So when you
add all that up from production standpoint, South Carolina is
replacing a lot and I think that's like the tough part, Swanny, Right,
It's like you did a lot of good things last year.

(58:20):
And as we all know, in North American sports, when
you have a quarterback, you can do a lot of
great things, right. I mean, look at Tom Brady and
what he did with the Patriots for many many years
and they had you know, with all due respect to
some of the wide receivers, yet you can do some
good things when you have a talented quarterback. But I
think with South Carolina, more than anything, what they're going

(58:41):
to need to do is, in my opinion, you're gonna
have to step up on the offensive side of the
ball because defensively, even though I don't think they're gonna
fall off a cliff, I think they'll still be good defensively.
I don't expect them to be the same type of
defensive unit last year as they were last year. Dylan
sort very talented. Well guess what we'll have in probably
this year, they'll double team him, they'll force the other

(59:02):
edge guy, which will most likely be Brian Thomas Junior,
who's the son of Brian Thomas played in the NFL
for over a decade. They're gonna put more in his
lap to step up because you're gonna need defensive tackles
to step up. I think that the defense will still
be good, but you're gonna have to have more from
the offensive side if you expect to be that team

(59:22):
that can make a push and make a and make
a run to be able to be a college football
playoff team this year.

Speaker 2 (59:27):
Again, game Coxcentral dot Com, the website Mike UVA with
us year on the program all Right, Mike Final Thing.
The news came out also on Monday that Shane Beemer
has added former Georgia Tech head coach Jeff Collins as
a defensive analyst for the game Cocks this year. This
tends to be when you when you follow it, these
things typically go one or two ways, right like, either

(59:49):
at some point he gets promoted and he's coaching, or
be next year he's often being a coach somewhere else.
This is just sort of an interim thing, I would imagine.
But how big of a pickup was this for South
Carolin with that news coming out?

Speaker 4 (01:00:01):
I think it's massive because here's the reason why. And
I know some Georgia Tech fans are like, oh, man,
like grad you took him off our play kind of
like when will Mushhamp left here Will mush Champ very
good coach, very good defensive coordinator. Now, obviously Georgia was
very talented and they probably still would have won without him.
But the point being is there's some guys that aren't
made to be head coaches, but they're good coordinators. Of course,

(01:00:22):
in this situation, he's not gonna be a coordinator. He's
gonna be an analyst. But you have a voice who
now comes in the building and he has head coaching experience.

Speaker 3 (01:00:31):
Number one.

Speaker 4 (01:00:31):
That's great for Beamer. That helps him out, that helps
the players in the room. And here's the thing, Clayton White,
and I can tell you this right now, even going
back to this offseason, there were a group of five
schools that were interested in hiring Clayton White as a
head coach. It didn't happen because Clayton's very happy. South
Carolina has paid him a lot of money to be
able to say it's South Carolina. But from talking to

(01:00:52):
people inside of that building, if South Carolina has success
this season, especially if the defense looks good, Clayton White's
gonna have his phone blow off the hook this year.
And I would not be surprised if he has an
offer where it's gonna be difficult for him to turn down.
So that's not to say that Clayton White's gonna be
leaving after this offseason, but it's if you're Beamer, and

(01:01:14):
again you look at it in the sense of what
they did with Shula. I'm not saying it's apples to apples,
but what happens offense does well, team did well. Dalla
Waggens becomes the head coach at app State. Now you
were able to promote within and Mike Chilla goes off
asive coordinator. I'm not saying this will be the exact
situation with Collins, but if God forbid, if White were

(01:01:34):
to be named a head coach somewhere, now you have
a guy within you can make that decision. He doesn't
mean you have to promote him within, but now you
have a guy that's familiar with your team and you
can make that decision. And if you want to go
in a different direction, you can still do that as well.

Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
Yeah, he's been defensive coordinator of Florida Mississippi State and
he was North Carolina's DC a year ago. Again, Jeff
Collins joining that game Cock staff, Mike budd you have
a great week. Thanks, man appreciates one of you. Two
there he is, Mike, You've a hanger with us here
an hour number two on a Tuesday afternoon, Quick Brant,
we'll come back with more of the show that Shakespeare
south Land right here on Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred
and on the iHeartRadio app. Lawton Swan back with you

(01:02:11):
on a Tuesday afternoon, just a couple of days away
from Clemson getting out there on the grid iron. And
again we've got several other interviews to try to get
to you here on the program. We had a chance
to speak with Jaden Keller, linebacker at Virginia Tech. Up
with the acc kickoff. We'll jump into that interview here

(01:02:33):
on a Tuesday. Jayden, how are you man? How's your
date been? I know we're almost at the end.

Speaker 5 (01:02:37):
Yeah, we're almost there. It's been going pretty good. You know,
I can't complain. I had a whole bunch of fun
out here today, you know, just answering questions, you know,
talking about my team, talking about my brothers back home.
So it's been a great time so far.

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
You know, we're in an era where a lot of players,
whether you're Virginia Tech or wherever. Don't stick it out,
especially if there's a coaching change. And you had a
coaching change, what very early on in your career? Yeah,
what was it that initially drew you the Blacksburg And
then ultimately when you have a chance to leave and
you have a new coach coming in, like coach Pray,

(01:03:07):
did you say no, no, no, this is where I committed.
This is where I want to be.

Speaker 5 (01:03:11):
Yeah, it's kind of how That's kind of how my
family raised me. You know, just once you start something,
you gotta finish it. And when you take when you
take the football part out of it. My mom always said, like,
go somewhere where you could go somewhere and not be
a football player, like you go and be a regular student.
And Tech I've always kind of fell home, you know,
I've always I fell in love with the campus when
when I first got there, you know, I just when

(01:03:32):
I got there, I was a freshman. I loved the coaches,
I love the campus, and like I could see myself
being a student there even if I wasn't a football player.
You know, I used to I used to be sending
the nosebleeds in the at lane stadium. When I was
a little kid, you know, with my youth leader. Wow,
he used to hear season passes. He used to bring
me up. I didn't know anything about Tech or anything.
I was just probably like eight or nine, just out there,

(01:03:53):
you know, just in the nosebleeds, just watching watching Virginia
Tech football.

Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
So now would that have been Frank Beiemer coach?

Speaker 5 (01:03:59):
Yeah, it was pre summer. I didn't even know any
players and any coaches, right, I had. I didn't know
anything about Tech when I was younger. I just my
youth leader was a huge Tech fan. He went to Tech, wow,
like twenty years ago. So he had season passed, he
had a season tickets. So I used to just come
go up there with him and go watch. Go send
the those please watch for free, and just go go
have a good time.

Speaker 2 (01:04:18):
Awesome. And then you guys, now this season, you'll open
up in Atlanta against South Carolina coach by Frank Biemer's son, Yeah,
Shane Beemer. So I mean I think they're even gonna
honor coach Bamber. Before the game, I was talking with
some folks from the Chick fil A Peach Bowl about
that that matchup. You know, whether you're Clemson playing LSU,

(01:04:38):
whether you're Florida State playing Alabama. When it's the ACC
versus the SEC, it's always a big deal. What has
kind of been your off season thoughts about that matchup
against the game Cocks.

Speaker 5 (01:04:49):
I think it's it's gonna be a great opportunity for us.
You know, Like that's kind of like whenever you're you're
a young kid and you're you're dreaming of playing college football.
You know, you're in your backyard and you're imagining all
the screaming fans, all all the all the the plays
and all that stuff. You you you picture something like
what that game would be like. You know sure and
know those that's kind of what you dream of. That's
what you want to play like. You come that, you

(01:05:10):
come to Tech to play in those type of games.
So I think the guys are the guys that are excited.
The guys are stoked to go out go to Atlanta
and go play, go play a big time arena in
front of a big time team, in front of a
lot of a lot of big time fans. So we're excited.
We can't we can't wait. You know, we got one
more preseason, We got a walk in for the preseason.
You know, gotta so we're not We're not fully there yet,

(01:05:31):
but we gotta we gotta focus on the preseason first
before we get there. But sure the guys are the
guys are excited.

Speaker 2 (01:05:35):
Jayden Keller, linebacker at Virginia Tech with us. Not only that,
you know, some teams will play I don't want to
throw anybody under the bus, but some teams will play
like South Carolina in their next games against Elon. No,
not you guys, you got you got back to back
Southeastern Conference opponents. You'll play Vanderbilt, who last season didn't
go your way. But nonetheless, another opportunity the second week

(01:05:56):
of the season to say, hey, you got a quarterback
and Kyroen Drones who's been around the block, to say, hey,
you know what, maybe the expectations that people had for
us a year ago are what we can deliver in
twenty twenty five.

Speaker 5 (01:06:08):
For sure, you know, we don't have all the hype
we had last year, which is like I kind of
prefer that, you know, not being the guy, not being
the hunted, but the hunter. So I'm definitely definitely excited
to get another goal at Vandy. I'm definitely excited to
go play those two SEC teams. It's good for our conference.

Speaker 3 (01:06:24):
It's good.

Speaker 5 (01:06:24):
It's a big game, so for all of us, and
I'm really really excited, really excited for the guys so
they can go out and experience that big time game.

Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
Now, new defensive coordator, coach Sifhkiss comes in and he's
a guy that's actually had some kind of history with
a team. I think you guys are gonna play. You
play Wofford. He was actually a coordinator or assistant coach
at Watford at one time during his career, so a
little connection for him. But what's it like when you
get a new defensive coordinator and I know you haven't

(01:06:52):
had a ton of time, but just in the sense
of the scheme and everything, and how do you think
his system will maybe enhance your game?

Speaker 5 (01:06:59):
I think it's I think it's perfect for my game, honestly.
You know, just having a coach that came from the league.
You know a lot of guys on the team. I'm
sure everyone on the team has dreams and aspirations to
get to the league, the NFL. So just having a
guy that knows what it takes, like on how to
get there, what they're looking for and the steps that
you need to go through to get there, and just

(01:07:19):
he's just he's so crucial, Like all the NFL and
like all the he's just he just knows so much
football and you can really just sit there and pick
his brain all day about like just techniques or or
past players that he's coached that he might have that
some things that they taught him that might have worked
for him, and some things. So he's just he's been
around ball for for a good time and he has

(01:07:41):
a he has a great football football mind. So anything
anything you can think of, he can he can answer
the question. He can jump right on. He'll he'll hit
you with zoom calls what past former players like, ask
them how to take care of your body, all that stuff.
So he really treats us like like we're professional athletes,
and I love that aspect of it. And the guys
are kind of like taking that very well, and you

(01:08:02):
know they're in return, they got to we got to
act like professional athletes, you know, we gotta you gotta
handle our business just like how the pros do. So
it's it's honestly been a blessing. You know, his team.
I'm excited. I'm ex Scott, I'm excited for I'm excited
for the fans to see. I'm excited for us to do.
You go out and showcase.

Speaker 2 (01:08:18):
Yeah, cause for so many years, I mean that was
really the backbone when you were there in the stands
and the nose bleeds. The backbone was special teams and
defense at Virginia Tech for sure.

Speaker 5 (01:08:28):
Yeah, we take special teams so serious. We start ever
practicing special teams.

Speaker 2 (01:08:32):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (01:08:32):
So we have a big emphasis on special teams each
and every day, each and every week. So we make
sure that we take special teams more seriously than all
of our opponents.

Speaker 2 (01:08:42):
That's Virginia Tech linebacker Jaden Keller from our time at
the floor at the ACC kick golf will come back,
put a bowl on that interview. Just about a minute
and a half or so left in that interview, and
then man, we're getting to the back end of the program.
On a Tuesday tomorrow, will play some of his head
coach Brent pro I. We'll probably dive into our conversation

(01:09:04):
at the ACC kickoff with the head of the college
football Playoff, Rich Clark, who knows where we will go
here on the program. We've got so much still in
the can after an adventurous week, or an adventurous couple
of days, I guess I should say up in Charlotte
at the ACC kickoff. As we get closer to the
college football season, the Tigers again will be on the

(01:09:27):
practice field in just two days. That's incredible, all right,
With a quick break, we'll come back with more here well,
Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred and of course on the
iHeartRadio application Stay with us, the Show that Shakes the
south Land. Lawton Swan with you, Clemson Sports Talk. Don't
forget about our friends in Alumni Hall on the corner

(01:09:49):
of campus on College Avenue, right there in downtown Clemson.
It's Alumni Hall for all your officially licensed Clemson merchandise, hats,
t shirts, Telgay, Gary Moore. Go check them out today.
Don't forget if you're a Clemson a student, faculty member,
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(01:10:12):
stones throw away from historic Riggs Field. It is Alumni
Hall where Tiger fans shop. You can also shop online
at alumni hall dot com. All right, before the break,
we were playing some of our time with Virginia Tech
hockey linebacker Jaden Keller. Again tomorrow, we're sliding into the
back end of our interviews from the ACC kickoff, but

(01:10:36):
we will definitely hear from Brent Prye. We will also,
I believe, play k Club Nick's time. I don't think
we've gotten you that here over the program on the
program over the past few days, and then we'll continue
to reset some of this stuff as we push towards
the college football season in case you've missed it, And
of course clem'son'll be on the Brightnese field in a
couple of days. But here's the back end of our

(01:10:57):
interview with Jaden Keller from the ACCK cough. So, I've
done this job a long time and there's typically two
types of linebackers I run into, Okay, the ones that
are just a little out there and the ones like
you that are a little more measured. Right, what does
it take for you on game day to flip that

(01:11:18):
switch and be the guy that you are versus the
guy I'm sitting here interviewing.

Speaker 5 (01:11:23):
Yeah, definitely, Uh, you definitely kind you have to say
you have to flip that switch. You gotta, you gotta,
whether it's like listening to music or whatever, whatever your
trigger is, you gotta you gotta flip that switch because
you're like, obviously I talk a lot louder on the field,
you know, I'm screaming, right, I'm a lot more vocal,
a lot more demanding.

Speaker 2 (01:11:39):
You're probably a lot scarier.

Speaker 5 (01:11:40):
Yeah, So just having that having that good balance of
when when to flip it on, you know, whenever usually,
like I have like a cool trigger, like whenever you
put the helmet on, maybe you can flip the switch
or whatever. But it's good that you don't want to
always be on the switch all the time though, because
you know.

Speaker 2 (01:11:55):
That's you gotta be able to turn it off, right personality.

Speaker 5 (01:11:58):
Yeah, Yeah, it's kind of like the incredible You can't
be scary all the time people talk to you.

Speaker 2 (01:12:03):
I had a buddy. I had a buddy that played
college football and he told me, he said, man, let
me tell you, linebackers are the scariest dudes. He says,
When you look up and there's a gap in the
defensive line and you could see a linebacker's house He's like, man,
it is it is something else. So again, final thing.
It will get you out here and on your way.

Speaker 4 (01:12:20):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:12:20):
The EA Sports College Football game is the second year
it's been around. I mean, how how did you enjoy
that opportunity a year ago to be in the game
and then ultimately to be back in it this year.

Speaker 5 (01:12:30):
It's a blessing, you know, you grow up playing those games.
I remember growing up the last one well I think
it was n C twenty fourteen. Yeah, I mean I
had that game on my Xbox three sixty playing it.
So I've always been I've always been a game where
I used to game a lot more in high school,
but I don't. I don't game as much now just
because you know, I'm a lot more busier. But I
definitely I'm definitely blessed to be in the game. And
I will hop on a couple of times whenever my

(01:12:52):
friend's back home in Bristol, you know, trying to get
on the game or whatever, I go play them or whatever.
So it's a it's a good Uh, it's a honestly
a blessing. It's a fun experience to be in it,
for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:13:02):
Jaden Keller, linebacker at Virginia Tech. Jade, thanks for your time, man,
thank you for having me. I mean, that dude was awesome.
I had interview that guy one hundred times, absolutely loved
hanging out with him, spending time with Jaden Keller, rooting,
rooting for that guy to have a great season at

(01:13:24):
Virginia Tech, no doubt about it. A zero three four
five zero zero eighty six. And again, I still haven't
gotten through all of my over unders, and I don't
think I had Virginia Tech looking over my list here,
I don't think I had Virginia Tech on there. But

(01:13:44):
remember they had such high expectations a year ago. And
when you hear our interview with Brent Prye, if you've
never listened to coach Priye, I thought we had I
thought we had a spectacular interview with him at the
end a kickoff, and I came away from that interview

(01:14:06):
feeling really, really confident about him as a head coach.
I just worry about the patients in Blacksburg because it's
been so long since they've had a great amount of success. Now,
one other coach out there that we talk about quite
a bit here on this program was a guy I

(01:14:28):
rooted for as a football player. Deon Sanders, head coach
of the Colorado Buffalo. Of course they'll open up against
Georgia Tech this season. Dion Sanders met with the media
at the Big twelve media days and we played some
audio from that. But then Sanders recently met with the
media because we knew he had been dealing with some

(01:14:49):
health issues, and Dion came out very honest discussing his
battle with bladder cancer and the removal of his bladder. Now,
I don't know all of the ends and the outs
of everything that Dion has certainly gone through, but I

(01:15:09):
do believe this about Dion, regardless of his bravado on
the field, I think he does want the best for
the players. Now. Dion announced yesterday that he underwent surgery
to remove his bladder after doctors discovered a tumor there,
and said that since the surgery there have been no
traces of the cancer and that he will continue to
coach this season. Now I don't know how long Dion's

(01:15:31):
going to continue to coach. Dion was fortunately, in some
respects sort of able to joke at himself in the
issues that he had with a very serious issue, making
a little joke about you know that, He said, quote,
I can't pee like I used to pee. I depend
on depends, he said, I'm making a joke out of it,

(01:15:54):
but it's real. It's real. If you see a porta
potty on the sideline, it's real. I'm just telling you
you're gonna see when the practice on the sidelines in games.
At one point along the way, Sanders even compared himself
to I think his three year old nephew. He's just
kind of saying how he's constantly having to wake up
through the night. You know, in some respects, many people

(01:16:16):
have probably got a bad view on Dion for whatever
reason in his life. But I do have to commend him,
and I have always really enjoyed watching him play the game,
and I think he's a fascinating guy to cover. But
Dion is making this public when he does not really
have to, and I think it's bringing and raising awareness

(01:16:36):
to the topic, which is so important. Sanders said, get
checked out, get checked out. It could have been a
whole other kind of gathering if I didn't. Everyone knows
somebody who's affected or infected by the sea word speaking
of cancer. So good for Dion, who's battle blood clots
and other health issues. For coming out and saying, Hey,

(01:16:58):
this is what I was dealing with, this is what
my battles look like. These are the things that I
am struggling with. Because there are people out there that
may or may not even have liked Dion prior to this.
They might be able to take his words and turn
them into a positive for themselves. And that's a big deal.
Quick break will put a bow on the show when
we return. Stay with us.

Speaker 6 (01:17:20):
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?

Speaker 2 (01:17:39):
Always are the same.

Speaker 5 (01:17:46):
We win.

Speaker 2 (01:18:32):
Final segment on a Tuesday afternoon. Man, what a great,
great day talking college sports with you again. Hard to believe.
Clemson in l s U Under the Lights seven thirty
August thirtieth Tomorrow, it will officially be one month until

(01:18:55):
kickoff and the Tigers will be one day away from
jumping on the grid iron against LSU. I mean yes, indeed,
sign me up. Current spread Clemson favored by three and
a half that number is actually up from the three
where it opened. The over undertotal on the game fifty

(01:19:21):
six and a half, so Clemson favored by three and
a half at home pretty much you consider home field
advantage being three ish points. I mean, it's a tight game.
I saw saw one of those guys that does videos
on TikTok and YouTube and things of that nature have

(01:19:43):
Clemson going eleven and one and losing the opener to LSU,
and I would venture to put that sort of in
the same lane as the conversations we've had about Florida
State here recently on this program, and that is the
fact that the Seminoles could lose to Florida, Miami, Clemson,

(01:20:06):
and Alabama and go eight and four and not feel
like they did a whole lot. Well, I can say this,
if Clemson lost to LSU and lost to South Carolina
the book end the seasons, it went ten to two throughout,
I think most of you would sort of have an
empty feeling because I don't think there's any doubt when

(01:20:27):
you take a look at the schedule that the top
two games are the first in the last one, and
the fact that those teams are from the Southeastern Conference
to me, doesn't create a indicator that the teams that

(01:20:50):
you play in the Atlantic Coast Conference aren't any good,
because I do think Clemson's twenty twenty five schedule presents
several key hurdles, including the third week of the season
at Georgia Tech, the Tigers matchup at home against SMU.
I think that Louisville on the road on a Friday

(01:21:12):
night could be tricky, and I don't want to undersell
SMU at home for the Tigers or maybe even Duke
the following week. Now, Florida State sort of up in
the air, but by the time you get to that
game in early November, depending on what the Knowles have done,

(01:21:35):
could make that match up a much more significant one. Now,
I don't personally believe that they're going to beat Alabama
in the opener, but if they were to win the
rest of their games, including a matchup with Miami, heading
into that game against Clemson, see what's one thing that's

(01:21:56):
key about that game against Florida State is they don't
play Florida till the end of the season, meaning that
they could come into that game against Clemson at seven
to one. I don't think they would come into that
game at eight no, but seven to one is feasible
loose to Alabama beat East Texas A and m beat
Kent State, beat Virginia, beat Miami, beat pitt beat Stanford,

(01:22:19):
and beat Wait. Miami's the one in the mix of
those teams that could set you back to six and two,
and based off of a two to ten year last season,
I can't take any of those games off the table
as potential losses because Florida State's issues and we wrote

(01:22:40):
about this on clemsonsportsaw dot com might be more about
Mike Norvel trying to convince himself as desperation maybe fuels
the situation in Tallahassee right now, all that being said,
when you take a look at this Clemson Tiger football

(01:23:05):
team and their schedule, though, I think there will be
an empty feeling in a ten and two team playing
for the ACC Championship if both losses come to LSU
in South Carolina, because I don't think even I in
the Midlands, in the belly of the Beast Columbia, South

(01:23:26):
Carolina with game cocks hanging out with us every day,
so you.

Speaker 6 (01:23:29):
Could continue to peek over the fence at the best
radio showing the.

Speaker 2 (01:23:32):
Nation could even manage to carry the banner that would say, well,
but what about those other games in the Atlantic Coast Conference?
Those ACC teams are gonna have to do more out
of conference as well. And so this past year, where

(01:23:53):
Clemson obviously bookended with losses to Georgia and South Carolina,
with a loss there along the way and a rather
handily one to Louisville, definitely made you feel some type
of way about how the season unfolded. But this year,
if you don't win one of those two games on

(01:24:13):
the front end of the back end, it does feel
like a major letdown about a month in advance of
the college football season. All right, we got to get
out here again. Thank you for hanging out with us
on a Tuesday afternoon. We'll talk to you tomorrow. Until then,
it is always You'll take care now and go Tigers.