The "Uh-Oh Opener" Edition

Clemson falls 17-10 to open the season against LSU, and there are a lot of questions about what we witnessed in Death Valley. 

Episode Transcript

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

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

(00:49):
Hello everybody, Lawton Swan back in the saddle once again.
It is the show that shakes the South wanyan 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
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(01:13):
The website with the dot com on It's all Gonet.
That's Clemson Sports. Saw dot com e O three four
five zero zero eighty six out of the gates on
a Tuesday after being all for Labor Day. Glad to
be back with you. College football last night, the Bill
Belichick era looked like it was starting off like Gangbusters,

(01:36):
finished with quite the fizzle as TCU wallop North Carolina
in Chapel Hill. More on that one coming up in
just a little bit. Of course, our fine feathered friends,
the South Carolina game Cocks, hanging out with us, peeking
over the fence each and every day, went to Atlanta
and came back with a victory over Virginia Tech, ironically

(01:56):
involving a punt return in a game between mean Frank
Beamer's old squad and his son, Shane's new squad, who
figured that there would be a big play in special
teams made by one of those two teams, as that's
typically where the bread has been buttered over the years
for a Beamer coach ball club, and it was Shane's

(02:18):
team that took advantage. Also in the Atlantic Coast Conference,
Miami giving a little boom boom boom to the Notre
Dame Fighting Irish. Also the top team of the country,
Texas arch Manning knocked off Dabo Sweeney earlier today had
a little something to say about the haters, if you will,

(02:39):
of arch Manning and quarterbacks like Kye Klubnick. And of
course you didn't come here to talk about everybody else.
You came to talk about the team that resides in
the upstate of South Carolina, the Clemson Tigers, who fell
seventeen to ten against LSU on Saturday night. And there's

(03:01):
a whole lot to get to with that one, and
we have full coverage of it all on our website,
Clemsonsports Talk dot Com. All right, so there's a lot
to digest out of all of this. That's the first
thing I'm gonna say. I don't believe that it is
as simple as one particular thing. And I wrote about

(03:22):
this on Sunday following the game. Dabosweeney, I feel like
has been more critical of k Klubnick than he has
been of Garrett Riley, But there has been criticism of
Riley getting away from the run. Now. We also put
out on our website the keys to victory of these

(03:45):
games each and every week, and one of the keys
to victory in this ballgame, in my opinion, came down
to Clemson's defensive line versus LSU's offensive line. And while
Clemson looked menacing throughout the game on the defensive front,
they never really generated the type of pressure and or
concern that I thought they would that would get Garrett

(04:08):
Nusmeyer playing off tilt. Instead, I thought the inverse happened.
I thought LSU's defensive front got to a veteran led in,
a veteran Leyden Clemson Tiger offensive line putting pressure on
k Clubnick. Clubnick in those moments sort of reverted back
to the club that we had seen before and again,

(04:31):
when your quarterback and your best players not making plays,
it's incredibly difficult to win ballgames. And k Clubnick did
not make enough plays. He did make enough plays with
his arms, he did make enough plays with his legs,
and because of that, Clemson starts the season zero to one.
And Key two for me was k Klubnick's legs. And

(04:51):
ultimately he had two five yard carries, two seven yard carries.
He ended up with a net rushing total of one
yard in the ballgame. That's not good enough. And it's
absolutely unequivocally not good enough when you get away from
the running game as early as Clemson did and you
never give yourself a chance to really establish anything on

(05:11):
the ground. Add to that, Key number three for me
was winning the turnover bat winning the turnover battle, and
Clemson did that. But sometimes winning one out of the
three keys is not enough. And so from there you
address the elephant in the room. What is the issue?

(05:36):
Is it club Nick? Is it Garrett Riley? Was it
the fact that Antonio Williams got injured very early in
the ballgame and could not return one of your star
players on the offensive side of the ball, Or dare
I say, was it perhaps that the Bayou Bengals, who
are now in the Ape Pole ranked number three in

(05:56):
the country. Is it perhaps the fact that LSU just
might be a pretty good football team? I mean, is
that's something you guys might let slip betwixt your ears
for a moment Because LSU went into Clemson, fell behind,

(06:22):
and yet still battled back and mustard enough to come
through with a seventeen ten victory. And you can argue
about whether or not Barrion Brown's catch was a touchdown.
We'll get into that later. I tend to look at
the way the rule is written, and I think it's incomplete.
I don't really care what you think. It's not a
big deal at this point. It's just a part of

(06:43):
the game, a part of the narrative, whether it's a
seventeen ten game or twenty four to ten game, and
how you want to witness that. But based off of
my knowledge of the rules, I thought it would be
ruled incomplete, and it was. And you can't go back
and change any other plays in the ballgame. You want
to argue about whether or not there was a pass
interference on LSU that could have been or you know,

(07:04):
a first down conversion for Clemson. You want to argue
whether or not a passing inference that was called wasn't
when it was not in Clemson's favor. Like, there's a
lot of a lot of ways that you and I
can digest all of this, and that's what we do
here on the program. It's just weird that we're doing
it on a Tuesday. We typically by Tuesday have begun

(07:24):
sort of the healing process for our listeners here on
the program. But let's kind of walk through the things
that I wrote about in an article called LSU had
the answers Clemson is still searching after opening season loss.
It's over on our website right now, clemsonsports Talk dot com.

(07:45):
And oh, by the way, you can text us A
three four five h zero zero eighty six. And don't
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two two six seven one oh eight. METS Plumbing. Aight,

(08:06):
oh three two two six seven one oh eight. So
is it Garrett Riley like that? I think is the
first place a lot of people are turning because you
look at three consecutive seasons of incredibly sluggish starts out
of the gates for an offensive guru who is supposed
to come in and change things for Clemson and get

(08:28):
them back to where they were Chad Morris, Tony Elliot,
Jeff Scott days. Instead, you have an opener at Duke
a couple of years ago where you score seven points
and you bumble and stumble your way around. Last season,
you get beat thirty four to three in Atlanta by
a very good Georgia team. Let's not take anything away

(08:48):
from how good the Bulldogs were a season ago, and
Clemson certainly matured and got better from that game to
the finish, and even I noted, and you guys hated
it a year ago when I noted that I thought
Clemson played pretty well, especially considering how good I thought
Georgia was, but you didn't want to hear that then.
And then, of course this season's ten points in the

(09:11):
first half. You did have a lead, but inability to
pick up Keith third downs, fourth down conversions and miss
wide receivers and things of that nature that just went awry,
including late in the game when you needed the most
K Clubnick wasn't there? Club Nick reverted back and looked

(09:32):
an awful lot like the kid that he was a
couple of seasons ago. And Dabosweeney has been very critical
of K Clubnick. We've put a lot of that up
on our social media channels. Follow us everywhere, TikTok, Instagram,
we are where you are. Trust me on that. What
I felt like we missed with Garrett Riley though in

(09:53):
this ballgame, if indeed you believe it was Garrett Riley,
and I'm saying it's quite plausible, is you have a
running back in Adam Randall who is a converted wide receiver,
and rarely in this game did you have him motion
out into a wide These are things we talked about

(10:13):
in the show. Now listen, I am undefeated as an
offensive coordinator in college football, yet I am also winless.
But I talked about here on this program what the
benefits could be for this offense if LSU comes in
in a traditional structure offense or excuse me, defensively in
a traditional structure and you're lined up with a single

(10:37):
back and you flank him out, and now you're taking
advantage of the fact that maybe they don't have a
nickel in the game. And if they do have a nickel, well,
now maybe he's in a little bit more of a
situation he might not really want to play in. And
let's face it, Harold Perkins as a freak, he was unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
But.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
You didn't motion him out. You never came out and
spread them out and motioned him in. There were just
some things I thought you could do creatively, Like when
you tell me I have a converted running wide receiver
at running back, to my creative juices are flowing. If
I'm an offensive coordinator, think about what I can do.
I mean, imagine for a moment that Adam Randall was

(11:22):
a converted quarterback. He had converted from wide receiver to
quarterback or excuse me, from quarterback to wide receiver. You know,
you think, man, what could we do? We could motion
to give me the body, could throw the ball, like,
There's so much you could do. And I feel like
a lot of that was just left on the table.
Vanilla Bland. And then on the other side, Joe Sloan

(11:46):
dialing up things that really helped LSU, including a couple
of plays that were identical passes out to the flat
quick passes and picking up seven six yards a pop.
You gotta be more creative. You gotta be more creative,
in my opinion, if you're Garrett Riley, is it kay, Clubney?

(12:08):
I mean maybe there's a part of me that watched
him When he brings a snap and he doesn't step
up in the pocket, he begins to roll out too soon.
That just becomes so predictable to watch. You know, I
want to see club He's not the biggest guy, but
he's a pretty big kid. I want to see him
step up into the pocket, makes some big throws from
in the pocket. Don't immediately bail, because what you do

(12:32):
is you've got an offensive lineman who's engaged and he
has no leverage to the outside on the defensive end
other than to hold. And so when you run out
and you get outside of your offensive lineman's shoulder, I mean,

(12:53):
it's game over at that point. The defenders just gonna
have basically a free release to you, unless the offensive
tackle is willing to take a ten yard holding penalty.
Over and over. You felt like groundhog Day watching that
thing happen again and again with this Clemson offense. So

(13:17):
maybe it is kid even late in the game, Dabosweeney
talked about how he felt like he had Tyler Brown
open for a touchdown and didn't see him rolled out
for whatever reason. And lastly, maybe it's maybe it's Antonio Williams.
I can't though, imagine, like in my brain, I can't

(13:39):
look at in my brain, I can't look at Clemson
to say, yeah, you know what, that one single piece
is the reason that the ship sank on Saturday night.
I don't believe that, not one bit. And I think
Antonio Williams is a great football player. I do not
think Antonio Williams is that type of football player, especially

(14:00):
wide receiver. I mean wide receivers impact on the game
is generally pretty minimal. They're not typically guys that win
or lose you the game. That's the quarterback, that's the
running back, and mostly it's the quarterback. But even still,

(14:24):
if you just assume for a minute that you think
it was Antonio Williams or you think it was the
fact that the wide receiving group wasn't stronger, I'll ask
you this, why didn't Clemson at some point say, well,
we've got Adam Randall. Can we put Adam Randall in

(14:44):
it wide out and shift a running back in like
Gideon Davidson or David Izia mume Like, is that so
much of a reach to believe that if you felt
like you were shorter man at white out, that Adam
Randall the former whe out and could do the job.
I don't think that's a reach. And then there's the

(15:06):
last variable, LSU. And based off of the fact that
LSU vaulted up to number three in the polls and
Clemson barely dropped. Based off of that fact, I'm going
to assume that the majority of voters think the reason

(15:29):
Clemson lost seventeen to ten was because of LSU, That
LSU was just underrated as a top ten team, and
Clemson was a little bit overrated, and that's okay, and
that is okay, And so the value Bengals vaults up

(15:51):
to number three, Clemson drops back in the AP pole
to number eight, and you settle in and you go
out and you try to get better every week. Dabosweeney
made some harsh criticisms, as I said of k Klubnick,
no doubt about it, but one thing is true. You
could have beat whomever State forty two to three this

(16:13):
past week and felt really good about yourself. You can
go out and put it on the line. You can
go out and put it on the line against the
top opponent. Whether you're at Clemson, whether you're at LSU
like next year, doesn't matter. It's about the opponent. And

(16:34):
LSU was spectacular. I thought, defensively, offensively. No shame in
losing that game seventeen to ten. And here's what I'll say.
And for those of you that joined later, I may
talk about this again, but if you flip the score
for a minute, if you flip the score right now

(16:56):
and you say Clemson won that game seventeen to ten,
I think most of you would say, WHOI man, we
were lucky to beat. That was a good team. But
it's funny how when your team's on the losing end,
you don't feel like the team that got beat was
a good team. You've written down in the dumps and
how bad are we? Here we go again, maybe, just

(17:17):
maybe the way you would have viewed LSU had Clemson
escape seventeen to ten. Now, I don't deny. I think
if Clemson had won seventeen to ten, you'd still be saying,
I can't believe we left so much out there. But
that's how Sweeney feels with the ten That's how Sweeney
feels about the ten points. They left a lot out

(17:37):
there and they feel like they were in the game
and should have won it. Heavyweight matchup Dabosweeney called it.
It's just when you get beat, you feel like you
were pounded to submission, and that really wasn't the case.
Right Clemson is driving inside the fifteen, kind of like
the South Carolina game a year ago. Two straight home

(17:58):
losses for Clemson have come down to the final moments
where you're driving to score. Against Carolina, all you needed
was a field goal. K Club that made a bad
decision there, and this one you needed a touchdown. He
made a bad decision as well. I don't think this
was about how bad Clemson is. I think it does

(18:21):
raise concerns. I think it does raise concerns about Garrett
Riley and k Klubnick, but not to the point of
like panic. But at what moment do they get good
enough that when you're in the heat of a battle
against the top ten team that those two guys can

(18:41):
guide you to a victory. That I think is the
bigger question for Tiger fans, as are three, four or
five HS here zero eighty six. That is the text
line and the phone line. And again, you can be
a part of this program anytime, any place anywhere on
our website, Clemson's Sports Talk. That's Clemson sports Talk dot com.

(19:05):
All right, when we come back on a Tuesday, so
weird to be listening to like dabosweeney postgame reaction audio
on a Tuesday. He actually met with the media today
and talk more about this Clemson Tiger team. We'll have
some of that for you tomorrow on the program. But
since we're still kind of in the recapping the weekend

(19:29):
portion of the week for us, we'll give you that
Dabosweeney postgame audio coming up here. We'll give you a
little bit of that nowur number one, and some of
that for you in our number two. All right, keep
it lock right here on Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred
the Midlands. Of course, you could listen to Clemson Sports

(19:50):
Talk the show The Shakes of south Land each and
every afternoon from four until six o'clock. Keep it a
lot right here to hear from Dabosweeney's post game stay
with us. Back at it on a Tuesday afternoon, the
show The shakespare south Land all right postgame, Dabo swing
He met with the media again following following Clemson's seventeen

(20:11):
ten loss to LSU, a disappointing start to the season.
As I mentioned earlier, the first games in the tenure
of Clemson offensive coordinator Garrett Riley have left a lot
to be desired. And I know we could certainly point
a k clubnick as I mentioned, but go read the

(20:32):
article on clemsonsportsaw dot com. It's not science, right. You
can't isolate variables to cause everything changes, including the team
you play. So we'll just see. I mean Troy game
coming up. You gonna play as good as you can
and I don't know that you get challenged as I

(20:53):
mentioned earlier, again unless Florida State holds up to be
what they look like they might can be in South Carolina.
Yai YEAHA, I mean the measuring stick games just aren't
there frequently enough. Anyway. Here's Dabo Swingey after Clemson's disappointing

(21:13):
lost lsu'd open the season.

Speaker 3 (21:16):
I want to thank our fans. I mean, what what
an awesome, awesome environment that was. It was special. Uh,
I had so many, so many former players here too.
It is great to see a lot of those guys
and you know, certainly disappointed that we didn't get it
done for them. Uh, but man, the crowd was awesome,
the environment was awesome, beautiful night. It was a heavyweight fight.

(21:38):
I mean, listen, that's uh, that's that's that was just
simple as that, just a heavyweight heavyweight Uh, you know fight.
As far as the football game, and you know, just
a couple of plays, they made a couple more plays
than we did, and we made a couple more critical
errors than they did, and in games like that, that's
that's usually the difference. But there were a lot of
positives in the game. And first of all, defensively, we

(22:02):
were tough. We were tough, we were physical, and you know,
outside of the first run, at the last fifty eight minutes,
I think they averaged two point eight to carry And
so I really thought, you know, we did a lot
of great things defensively that we can build on. Just
too many costly penalties. I mean, you know, we win

(22:23):
the turnover margin, we got the lead at half, it's
tied in the fourth quarter, and you know, just the
third and I don't know what he was third and
eleven or twelve or whatever. And you know, just you know,
those are plays that can haunt you. And we don't
get off the field there, and they go on and
get a score. Were rough the quarterback and they go
on and get a score on that drive. And we

(22:45):
had plenty of but I will say this, our defense
responded after that. They got a couple of big stops,
gave it back to the offense with a chance to
go tie the ball game, and and just didn't quite
get it done offensively.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
That's Stabo Sweeney resetting Clemson's loss to LSU, and again
during his call in teleconference on Sunday, he talked about
how he felt like Clemson after going back and watching
the tape. I believe he was during this teleconference he
felt they abandoned the run too early. And I tend

(23:19):
to agree with that, and obviously you were transitioning to
a converted wide receiver at running back. And I feel
like and I brought this up a couple of weeks ago,
like sometimes dabos when he can almost be too positive
and create two too significant of a buzz about something.

(23:43):
I mean, look at their running backs. Adam Randall five
carries sixteen yards, did have a touchdown. Tyler Brown carried
at one time for seven yards. He's not a wide receiver. TJ.
Moore one time for five yards. Not a wide receiver.
David Izzie Mume three times for five yards in K
Clubnick eight times for one yard. Mc Garrett Nusmier out

(24:05):
rushed k clubneck. Now it wasn't by by the yard.
Garrett I had four carries for two yards. But for
crying out loud, gotta have a bigger impact, gotta be
got gotta have a bigger impact. And yes there were sacks.
LUs you had two for twenty two yards. Clumson had

(24:28):
one for twelve that one being will Helt's sat coming
off the edge. Good to see. Will help there. But
the offense, the offense was the issue, and part of that,
davilas Sweeney says, was losing star wide receiver Antonio Williams
very early in the game. Here's Coach Sweeney on that.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
Offensively, you know we lost we lost Antonio in the
first series. Uh so, you know that was certainly disappointing there.
But you know, plenty of opportunities and we just we
missed our opportunities. I thought we got away from the
run too early. We didn't. We didn't run the ball
effectively at all, something we'll have to improve on. But

(25:10):
there were plays there. We had a couple of big
drops and a couple we missed, missed opportunities. And uh,
but but the same thing I'll say about the offense
they they played. They fall to the last play, and uh,
just again, I didn't think we handled their pressures very well. Uh,
nowhere near close to what we're capable of offensively, and

(25:32):
I mean nowhere near We're We're we are much more
capable of that, and the guys will be disappointing when
they see some of the missed opportunities on tape. But again,
you got to give L. S u credit because they
made a couple of those critical plays and again that's
the difference in a game like this in the fourth quarter.
So you know, congratulations to them. But a lot of

(25:53):
positives I thought. I thought there were some really huge
plays made. You know, we had a couple of great
plays by our tight ends. We had a couple of
great plays outside. It's good to get Tyler Brown back
out there. And you know, had some nice key plays
forces too as well. But and then I thought special teams.
You know, we had a big punk return at the
end of the game to set up a short field

(26:14):
and a chance to go tie the ball game. We
had every opportunity right there and just again didn't quite
get it done. And I thought Jack Smith did a
nice job for his first time in an environment like that.
He had one big punt out backed up and then
he had another big one late there in the game,
so you know, it was proud of him.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
So best Staboswen. He talked about some of the positives
that he saw, and he's right about Jack Smith punting
the ball. I know that's a little thing, but it
was a thing that most people were concerned about, and
it was not the reason Clemtson didn't win this ball
game against LSU. And this was a game I said,
if you were worried about it, that that might be
a game where it could come into play. I think

(26:53):
the bigger issue is with figuring out is this about
k club Nick versus time up to your competition nineteen
to thirty eight, just fifty percent passing two hundred and
thirty yards, no touchdowns in an interception, or is this
about Sunny Dykes at TCU when Garrett Riley was there

(27:17):
really having a bigger impact on the offense than Garrett Riley? Like,
did Clemson push in on a bail of goods that
can't deliver creativity? I think it's a valid question at
this point, even though it's still very early in the season.
Stay with us, Lawton Swam back with you on a
Tuesday afternoon. We'll talk about the polls and then we'll

(27:39):
talk about some of the games from this past weekend,
and the polls will sort of dictate to you obviously
how some of these games went. But Ohio State in
the AP poll is the new number one. The Buckeyes

(27:59):
move up from number three. They get fifty five first
place votes, by far the most after their victory over Texas,
And you know, it was a tight matchup, There's no
doubt about that. We knew that it was going to
be a good game. There's a reason you go play
these games. Texas had some opportunities at the goal line

(28:22):
they didn't capitalize on. The Ohio State made some big stops.
The Buckeyes went it fourteen to seven, and they were
actually up fourteen to nothing. Texas scored their first touchdown
with three twenty eight left and so a cushion for sure,

(28:46):
and I think that's part of the reason why Texas
was punished more for their loss on the road than
Clemson was for their loss at home. Penn State remained
number two LSU, and by the way Penn State played Nevada,
I mean, it was a nobody, nobody game for them,

(29:08):
But LSU jumped up to number three. They also got
three first place votes. They were nine a week ago.
They vault up to number three. Georgia, who was number five,
moves up one spot in the poll. Then you've also
got Miami, who beat Notre Dame this past weekend. And

(29:32):
I'll be honest, I thought that was a surprising result.
I thought Notre Dame was the better team. But Miami
wins it twenty seven to twenty four, and quite frankly,
watching it, Miami felt like the hungrier team. Notre Dame,
fresh off of a national championship game run, seemed like

(29:57):
the team that expected to win the game, and Miami
played like the team that wanted to win the game.
The two teams battled throughout the first quarter in Miami
was the first to get on the board with fourteen
oh three remaining. In the second quarter would take a
seven tozzing lead. Notre Dame bounced back about nine minutes

(30:19):
later to tie it, and then right before the half,
Carson Beck let another ten plays seventy five yards scoring
drive from Miami to give them a fourteen to seven lead.
Then they came out and scored and expanded to a
twenty one to seven lead in the third quarter. Notre
Dame would answer earlier early in the fourth, trimming get

(30:39):
back to a twenty one to fourteen game, but the
field goal with nine to forty two left would get
Miami a ten point lead. The Fighting Irish would get
a field goal with five thirty two left in the
fourth and a touchdown with three to twenty one remaining
to tie the game. Kind of shocking, I think the Hurricanes.
But then with one oh four left, ten plays, forty

(31:00):
six yard drive and a forty seven yard Carter Davis
field goal gives Miami the final margin in the victory.
Carson Beck twenty of thirty one with two touchdowns two
hundred and five yards in the game. CJ. Carr nineteen
of thirty, two touchdowns, one interception and two hundred and
twenty one yards passing, so Notre Dame falling in Miami

(31:27):
getting a bump in the polls because of their victory
at home, up five spots to number five. Oregon moved
up one spot to number six. The Ducks also have
a single first place vote right now. Texas at h
to one, fell from the top spot down to number seven,

(31:47):
Clemson fell from number four to number eight. Notre Dame
falls from number six to number nine, and then South
Carolina moves up three spots after their win over Virginia Tech.
The game Cocks now a top ten team, moving up
from number thirteen into the AP top ten. And also,

(32:10):
I'll add to that for our fine feathered friends hanging
out with us, And of course you're always welcome to
be here.

Speaker 4 (32:17):
So you could continue to peek over the fence at
the best radio showing the naked.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
The late great Cleveland Man. Right there after South Carolina'll
after I talk about South Carolina, I'll get to the
remaining teams in the AP pole. But I told Gamecognation,
I told you I thought the Virginia Tech game was
going to be a tight one, and quite frankly, it was.

(32:43):
And what a weird score that game produced. Several strange
scores throughout the final twenty four to eleven. South Carolina
pulls away late, but the Game Cocks went up seven
to nothing early. A nice punt by Virginia Tech in
the first quarter and the Hokies get a safety with
four thirty three left to make it seven to two.

(33:07):
Then a few minutes later in the second quarter, Virginia
Tech gets a field goal, and now it's seven to five,
and I'm thinking it's like watching a bad soccer match.
Then the Game Cops get a field goal with three
forty two left in the second to make it ten
to five, and then Virginia Tech closes out the half
with a fifty six yard field goal to make it
ten to hit the break ten to eight. At the break,

(33:31):
all I can think about was Clemson North Carolina nineteen eighty,
the Tenacious Game where Clypson got a ten eight win
in Chapel Hill. Then in the fourth quarter, the two
teams would enter the fourth quarter ten to eight, tight
ball game. I told you it was gonna be a
good one. Vicari Swain had an eighty yard punt return
to give South Carolina a seventeen to eight lead. Virginia

(33:56):
Tech would get a field goal with nine minutes left
to make it a seventeen to eleven game. I mean,
these scores are just bizarre. And then Nick Harbor had
a big sixty four yard reception with seven forty two
left to put the game Cox up twenty four to eleven.
So in this game you had scores of seven to two,

(34:17):
seven to five, ten to five, ten to eight, seventeen
to eight, seventeen to eleven. I mean, twenty four to
eleven's bad, but it's not as weird as the other
one's in my opinion. All right. Anyway, Game Cocks are
in the top ten after their Week one victory, rounding

(34:37):
out the AP top twenty five era Illinois number eleven,
Arizona State twelve, Florida thirteen. Florida State jumps way up
to number fourteen after their victory over Alabama. More on
that one. We get back Michigan fifteen, Iowa State sixteen,
SMUs seventeen, Oklahoma eighteen, Texas A and m IS nineteen,
oh Miss twenty, Alabama twenty one, Tennessee twenty two, Indiana

(35:02):
twenty three, Texas Tech twenty four, and Utah's number twenty five.
Stay with us Clemson sports song on a Tuesday. All right,
I'll tell you what. We'll get into this Florida State
Alabama thing a little bit later in the program. I
do want to get to it, though, but there's been
just so much like movement on the Alabama deal. So

(35:26):
the Crimson Tide literally get punched right in the face
by Florida State after driving right down the field and
essentially looking like they were gonna cover the spread and
all that. But they dropped back to number twenty one

(35:48):
in the polls. And I saw this note and I
had to bring this up. The Seminoles were fifteen spots
outside of the AP top twenty five. They jumped up
to number four team with the win, and Alabama fell
all the way back to number twenty one. As I mentioned,
that's the lowest ranking since Alabama was ranked number twenty

(36:10):
four in the two thousand and eight preseason poll. That
was the second of Nick Saban's seventeen teams in Tee
Town and the one you might recall that beat Clemson
in the season opener in Atlanta. The Tigers back then
had all of the buzz and pomp and circumstances a
little bit like this year, and Nick saban squad came

(36:34):
in and just ran right over the Tigers in Atlanta.
That was the game that sort of set the stage
for Dabo Sweeney ascending to the head coaching position just
five games following that loss. But that's how long it's
been since Alabama was that far down in the polls.

(36:59):
I mean that it's shocking. And there's some other numbers
we'll get to We'll get to them later. About Kellen
de Boor, I think the big concern that the Boor
has to have is people do not care at Alabama

(37:23):
about his buyout. That is, they do not care. And
I remember when they made this higher, I remember wondering
if this was the right fit simply because first off,

(37:48):
anybody that's following Nick Saban is going to be a
bad hire, I think for the most party. I mean,
unless you hired Debo Sweeney. But even that, for Alabama
fans is not gonna, you know, pacify their urge for

(38:11):
Nick Saban. And I think the big problem that Kellen
de Boor has, more than anything, is the fact that
Saban is still very visible in the sport on college
game day and still looks like he could do the

(38:33):
j op. You know what, I'm saying he could do
the job. Now, Kellendibor's buyout is just shy of seventy
million dollars after he signed an eight year, eighty seven
million dollar contract to take over the program after Nick
Saban retired. Now, think about that, you paid this guy

(38:55):
eighty seven million dollars to come coach. I mean, this
was setting him up to be fired from the get go.
Like the success that he had at Washington was good,
but it's not eighty seven million dollars good. He wasn't

(39:17):
gonna get eighty seven million dollars coaching at Washington, I
can assure you. And so I think Alabama overpaid for
Kelen de Boor. And now with what he's done since
he's been there, in his fourteen games or whatever it is,
I think it's fourteen if I remember correctly, you're talking

(39:41):
about a guy that has underperformed. And I feel like
if Texas A and M could pay seventy seven zero
point six million to get rid of Jimbo Fisher seventy
seven point six, I feel like Alabama fans can scrape

(40:06):
up seventy million. I mean, I don't think that's unreasonable,
especially given how good they've been and the amount of
money and income that they've generated. And I think the

(40:27):
fans could also certainly would certainly be willing to stroke
a check to change it up. But my goodness, I mean,
what happened there in Tallahassee that that was hard to

(40:51):
watch if you're an Alabama fan. I know that for
a fact. We'll talk more about that in a little bit,
all right, I'll tell you what. Let's go through the uh,
the coaches poll, because we did not give that one
to you. The coaches polled us like this, Ohio state
number one, fifty nine first place votes, Penn State two

(41:14):
with six first place votes, Georgia three with a first
place vote, LSU four with a first place vote, Oregon five,
Texas is six, Miami is seven, Clemson is eight, Notre
Dame is nine, Arizona State is ten, South Carolina is eleven,

(41:34):
Illinois is twelve, Michigan is thirteen, Old Miss fourteen, Florida
is fifteen, SMU is sixteen, Tennessee seventeen, Iowa state eighteen.
Florida stayed up to number nineteen. Alabama only drops the
number twenty in the coaches poll. Twenty one is Indiana
twenty two Texas A and M twenty three is Texas Tech,

(41:59):
twenty four Oklahoma and number twenty five, rounding out the
Coaches poll top twenty five b y you So Clemson
at number eight, basically swapping spots with L. S U
in the Coaches Poll. Essentially, all right, wait a quick break,
we'll come back with more. Hopefully. Mike Youva joins us
around the ben big news on Mike Eva.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
When we get back, it's time for Clipson Sports Talk
with Lowton Swan call me Swanny.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
It is our number two. That's drivetime writer on the
show The Shasy Southland, Clypses, Sports talt Log and swineing
out with you of course, the show The Chasas south
Land and brought to you in part by our good
friends over at mets plumbin mets plumbing dot com. Two
two six seven eight. That's mets Plumb and that's two
to six seven one oh eight. Mike Eva set to

(43:27):
join the program. Momentarily got some big news for y'all.
Mike Youva coming up as the news came out, and
I'd known about this for a couple of days, but
Mike Eva has been hired by Coastal Carolina as their
Associate Athletic Director for Communications in Media. So a pretty

(43:49):
cool gig for Mike could be coming back to South Carolina.
Of course, his fiancees from down here as well, and
he joins us now on the guest line, Mike, what's
up man? Congratulations buddy, No.

Speaker 5 (44:01):
I appreciate it. It's a multiful to be able to say,
you know, essentially the SID but just we're gonna be
like a it's gonna be a more modern role. We're
gonna still be able to do some TV and radio
stuff and be able to tell stories and in ways
that we've done over the last decade with covering the
game Cocks, even covering Clemson for those Tiger fans that

(44:21):
aren't familiar, I cover those two national title wins. So yeah,
looking forward to being able to do that for a
guy in Chance Miller, who you know, during his time
as an associate ad at Carolina did a lot of things.

Speaker 6 (44:33):
So we're looking forward to being back in the Palmetto State.

Speaker 4 (44:36):
Man.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
That's awesome, dude, I know you're excited about it. Coastal
getting a great guy with you coming over there and
your experience, I know it's gonna be awesome. So when
when you find out that this is a possibility, I mean,
I've got to imagine. Now, Look, I'm in the media.
I'm also out of the media. You know, I have
a full time job as well, so I understand how

(44:57):
that works. But I gotta made just something like this
in an athletic department you jump at pretty quickly. I mean,
it sounds really cool.

Speaker 6 (45:07):
It's one of those things. So when Chance first reached
out to me about it, I was a little hesitant.
And the reason why was because I really enjoy being
a reporter as sound as crazy as it may sound. Yeah,
it's like getting back into TV as much as I have,
like in and out. You know, we joke all the
time about with TV. It's just like we all have

(45:30):
the same complaints that a lot of people have when
you're working at a local TV station, and yet it
just it sucks you in. It's kind of like quicksanding.
You enjoy certain things as well with it. So, look,
I've enjoyed covering the game Cocks, I've enjoyed being on
the beat, and I think that the reason more than anything. Swanny,
and I'm sure you could attest to this when you're
just focused on one team and being able to do

(45:52):
what I did, which was at Watchbox and covered a
bunch of teams and then just covering South Carolina. It
was awesome to be able to build stronger relationships, stronger
rapport with with not just the coaching staff, but with
the players as well, and just the community. So that
was something that even though I was doing the Rhode
Island stuff, the TV stuff, I was, I really enjoyed

(46:12):
the community and everything that you know, we've been able
to build together for the last decade. But when you
mentioned when you have a guy like Chance and an
opportunity like this, even though it's new and in a
different location than I've ever been, I mean, he's he's
he's a rock star. I'm not just saying that because
I'm gonna be working for him. I felt that way
when he was at South Carolina. You know, you hit

(46:34):
your wagon to him and you just say, hey, thank
you for this opportunity, and you just you just go
out there and bush detail every day.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
Mike, You've again joined us follow him on Twitter at
Mike Underscore UVA and again a new gig for Mike
at Coastal Carolina. He and his fiance are going to
be making their way back to the state of South
Carolina as he will be the new Associate Athletic Director
for Communications in Media. Mike, I know your family's up

(47:03):
there in New England where you are now, but I
would imagine your wife's family is probably just over the
moon with the fact that you guys are going to
be coming back to the Palmetto State.

Speaker 6 (47:14):
Oh, no question about it. Yeah, she grew up just
an hour away from Conway, and I know she's excited
to get back to Columbia as well to be able
to see her little nephew that her sister you know,
had and just what maybe a year and a half ago.
So she's enjoyed being an auntie. But I know, just
being up here it's made it a little bit trickier
to be able to see little Whalen. So I know

(47:36):
she's excited to get back down there. And I'll tell
you what. I'll tell you what. I spent all this
money on our winter coat for right for Christmas. I
don't know if she's gonna have to wear that again.
I mean it was this really nice jacket. Here, I
am being nice guy, Mike, And yeah, I don't know.
I mean I have to go take her to like

(47:56):
Alaska or something in the winter to get something out
of it.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
Well, maybe maybe Coastal will have some games that are
in areas where she's able to travel with you, and
it'll be some cold weather matchups in a sport.

Speaker 6 (48:08):
Mike.

Speaker 2 (48:08):
Let's keep our keep our options open, right.

Speaker 6 (48:12):
Yeah. But and you guys know too. I mean, I'm
sure as soon as we get back down there, we're
gonna get our Southern blood backing us backing up quickly,
and we'll start complaining when it's like lower than six
degrees out. So I'm sure you know she'll get used
out of that coke.

Speaker 2 (48:25):
Mike, you'vil with us again talking about his new gig
over at Coastal. So, Mike, for our our fine feathered friends,
and I guess even the Coastal fans are technically our
fine feathered friends. But for our gamecock listeners peeking over
the fence and hanging out with us, Uh, what will
that mean for them? In terms of your coverage of
South Carolina?

Speaker 6 (48:44):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (48:44):
Based off your post on social media, it sounds like
things are gonna be winding down for you. You got
one more big piece at some point over at game
Cock Central. But uh, this is it. I would imagine
it's quite bittersweet for you.

Speaker 6 (48:56):
Yeah, no, it certainly is, because, like I said, I mean,
this is some thing I've really enjoyed and the community
has really welcomed me with open arms. As I mentioned,
you know, to be a Yankee coming down here. You know,
I've always I got some great advice when I got
into TV Swannee wherever you go go in that as

(49:17):
if you're a guest, because you are at the end
of the day, and even if you know, even though
I was in Colombia for about a decade, it's just
like I'm not from the originally I didn't go to
South Carolina. I'm always gonna appreciate the values and everything
else throughout the state. And I've always valued my time
in the Palmetto State, whether it be Columbia, even going
up to Clemson and Greenville, and you know, obviously now

(49:39):
heading out towards Myrtle Beach and Conway, I'm excited. I'm
excited because it's just something about that state that I missed.
Even though you know, New England is my home, I
feel like, you know, home has really been in that State.
So I'm looking forward to getting back down there. It's
gonna be tough not talking about the game Cocks because
I've enjoyed covering them, and you know, who knows, maybe
they have a phenomenal season and Game Cox fans can say,

(50:03):
all right, well Mike got here like right towards the
end of the Spurier error and as soon as he
leaves now we're starting to win some serious football games again.
Maybe he was just a bad luck charm. And if
that's the case, I'll be that guy. I'll be the
fall guy whatever we need.

Speaker 2 (50:17):
Mike, you've again fall. I'm on Twitter at Mike Underscore UVA.
So now, man, I guess I'll have to get with
you off the air. We're gonna either this is gonna
become like a coastal segment or we have fought somebody
to talk about South Carolina with us. What am I
gonna do on Tuesdays Mike? Without you? Oh?

Speaker 6 (50:38):
I know, Well, we can have some guys over at
game Cooks and so, I mean West Midgell, Chris Clark,
Kevin Miller, Jeck Veltrie. They do a great job. So
we can hook someone up if I'm not able to
talk about the game Cocks, I will say, you know,
we'll see how football season goes for the Seawana Clears.
Obviously a tough, tough outing in their Week one match
up against Virginia, but well, you know, obviously there's still

(51:02):
gonna be a lot of excitement from baseball after what
they were able to accomplish this past season. So whatever
we can do to you know, to spread the wings
of the shawna clean. I don't I don't think that's
the phrase that anyone in Conway has ever used before,
and they probably won't don't want me to use it
again because that probably just didn't sound as it sounded
better in my head.

Speaker 2 (51:21):
No, great, I think, well, you know what it reminds
me of.

Speaker 6 (51:27):
I'll share a quick story when Will mush Champ was
on staff. I can't remember which beat writer it was.
They were talking about, you know, storming to the football, right.
The reporter described it as flocking to the football, because
you know, he had more of that like Belichick Saban
this too. When he was in front of the camera,
he broke character and he was just like flocking to

(51:50):
the football. Really, I don't think I've ever told my
players flocking to the foot because I please don't say
that again. I'll never forget that.

Speaker 2 (51:59):
There you go. Well, I'll be honest. When Colin Cowherd
did his thing, Mike, you know, he would say, you're
in the herd, and so I was like, what's what's
like a bunch of swans together? And it was a flock.
So I was like, you guys are in the flock.
So yeah, come hang out in the flock. All right,
let's talk about South Carolina and listen, we're just gonna

(52:22):
keep it the bird theme here. It was the game
Cocks in the Hokies over in Atlanta playing in the
Falcon Stadium. Mind you, what is happening right now, Mike?
And so South Carolina pulls away late. Funny that special
teams were involved in that a punt return in a
matchup strategic too, right, because Shane Biemer could have accepted
a penalty, but he said, no, no, no, we got

(52:43):
Beamer ball on our side. Now we're gonna have another
go at this punt return. And they get the eighty
yard punt return from Swain and South Carolina you know,
explodes at the end, finding Nick Harbor for I think
it was a sixty four yard touchdown to pull Away.
I said here on the show, I thought it would
be closer than people thought were scores throughout that entire ballgame.
What was your takeaway though from South Carolina's first weekend

(53:06):
of college football in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 6 (53:08):
I think the big thing is just defensively, despite the
fact that you're trying to replace six guys who were drafted,
and obviously a lot more from a depth piece as well.
I mean, some of those guys that are signed on
practice squad or one undrafted, they are still very, very fast,
and I think that is something that Clayton White, even
going back towards the end of the twenty three season

(53:30):
with South Carolina's defense, they struggled. They struggled, I mean
they were banged up a multiple positions, and what they
decided to do towards the end of the season they
switched things up from a four to two five to
a three three five and being able to do that,
they really have taken advantage of their speed over the
last couple of years. So I think speed fred Johnson
what he was able to do a linebacker, He's only

(53:51):
a sophomore. He's going to be a stud co SEC
Defensive Player of the Week. But something else that stood
out to me swanee about that punp return. Two things. One,
if you go back and watch the film on that
Jeron Willis, he was a transfer from Old miss a
couple of years ago linebacker. He had an opportunity to
absolutely decapitate a one of the gunners for Virginia Tech.

(54:16):
But instead he did exactly what you're taught to do
in this era now, which is you just get big
and you run by and you have your hands up.
So that little mental awareness not to do something stupid
staves South Carolina that touchdown, which at that point was
massive because the offense wasn't doing anything. But number two,

(54:37):
Virginia Tech, what are you doing with your personal protectors?
Offensive linemen? If you have a linebacker out here, if
you have someone that could actually, I don't know, move,
maybe you make that tackle. I had no idea why
they had offensive linemen out there as personal protectors, Like
this is the freaking NFL. That was just dumb, dumb.
So I look, I know Beamer ball starting in Blacksburg,

(54:59):
but man, that did not look like being and ball
anymore over there. That was just I still cannot comprehend
why you would have an offensive lineman as a personal
protector when you need to go down the field to
make a.

Speaker 2 (55:09):
Cackle Mike, how do you sort of judge I guess
Leonora Sellers play in this game. I mean the opening drive,
he looked like the next Heisman Trophy winner, right, and
then things sort of cooled off for him. Yeah, And
it's funny how you see that in college football. Hick
Alabama is the quintessential version of that. This week they

(55:32):
go right down the field against Florida State and then
can't move the ball for like three or four possessions
and really the rest of the day. But I mean,
how do you judge the way he played because out
of the gates, man, he looked unbelievable.

Speaker 6 (55:45):
Yeah, there were a couple drops. There were a couple drops.
I know Harbor had that tough drop earlier.

Speaker 2 (55:50):
Oh my gosh. There aren't many us say I would
have called, but I think I would have called that one.

Speaker 6 (55:57):
So I think of that, I think of the incompletion
with which was an incredible throw by Sellers. And I
know game cock fans, we can sit here, we could
talk about what's a catch with not a catch? You know,
it is what it is. There's no point for me
to make a big fuss about it, right, but that
throw was incredible, and that's a throw that when NFL

(56:17):
scouts are evaluating him, even though it was an incompletion,
that's something that they're gonna watch. It's a beautifully play throw.
I think that in the first half, outside of that
opening drive, I think he just got a little, i
don't know, a little too excited. He needed to calm down.
I talked to some of the coaches on staff late
Sunday night and into Monday, and that was something that

(56:37):
they mentioned that he had happy feet that you know,
maybe he was going through his progressions just a little
quick because he wanted to get outside of the pocket.
But then once he was able to settle down, and
of course the touchdown pass in the second half to Harbor,
that would be something that everyone talks about. But we
were able to see Sellers get into the mode that

(56:59):
we've seen him get in too, certainly going back to
last year. And I'm not trying to add salt to
the wound cumps in fans, but you guys know what
I'm talking about. So I think once he was able
to do that Swany. We saw him obviously break off
some tackles, was able to extend plays the offensive line.
It wasn't necessarily a banner day when you have three
new interior offensive linemen, but he was able to do

(57:20):
some good things. So, you know, look from a completion standpoint,
maybe the numbers weren't like video game numbers, but I
felt like what he was able to do. He gave
South Carolina enough, especially in the second half. But I
want to see what he can do this week, and
I want to see what the offense can do. If
they could run the football, if they can run the
football with the RPOs that they incorporated, the play actions,

(57:40):
the speed of course that Harbor has, and what he
was able to demonstrate. I don't know how you can
stop this offense, but it's going to have to come
down to whether or not they can run the ball consistently,
which I do believe they have the running back to
do that. I believe in oscar Adaway. I think Fazon's
a shifty running back. I think will be more of that,
you know, one to two instead of just having one guy.

(58:03):
But I think they can do enough just because you
have sellers who's just so dynamic again.

Speaker 2 (58:07):
South Carolina will host South Carolina State at WILLIAMS. Brice
Stadium seven o'clock on Saturday. That's now a top ten
ranked South Carolina team. Mike, before we get you out
here today, I'll let you turn your thoughts to Clemson.
I wrote several pieces on the game. The Tigers dropped
from number four to number eight, weren't overly punished for

(58:30):
their loss to LSU seventeen to ten. Similarly, I would
say to the way Texas was treated with a close
loss against Ohio State, your thought on what you saw
from Clemson, because I'll be honest, I was disappointed in
the creativity offensively. I think some of it is certainly LSU,

(58:51):
but I'd like to have seen Clemson be a little
more creative.

Speaker 6 (58:54):
So I'm gonna be consistent, right, I'm not just gonna say, Okay,
you know, South Carolina their first game. We got to
give them some time to be able to, you know,
figure some things out. I think they can get better.
That's the tricky thing when you go into a first
game and you don't have a preseason, right. I mean
that's something that Beemer has talked about and nauseum going
back those days as a grad assistant that on every level,

(59:15):
youth football, high school, pro, they all have some type
of preseason game. College you don't. So I want to
start thereby And I know that these games are, you know,
scheduled years in advance. But I want to give Clemson credit.
And we've talked about this before in the past against
Georgia too, right, Like, they go out there and they're
not afraid to schedule these marquee matchups week one. Having

(59:38):
said that, I know that that's no Constellation Prize. The
Clemson fans, they're not looking at it probably that way.
But I think the thing about it is from an
offensive standpoint, Yeah, they came out very slow, and I
think naturally because of the high expectations that have been
placed on Kate Klubnick, not just in Clemson, but from
a national standpoint. I think because of that, that's one

(01:00:00):
of those reasons why I think a lot of people
probably looked at it the next day and they're just like,
why can't they figure things out? So give credit to LSU.
I mean, they were due for a season opening win,
haven't been able to do that. And Brian Kelly error
until this past weekend. And I think from just an
offensive standpoint for Compson, because I think Compson's defense, I

(01:00:20):
still think they're very, very, not just good, but I
think there's still one of the more elite defenses, especially
with their front. But I think that offense will come
along what we saw right here, and that's the beauty
right now with this new college football playoff model. I
think that's the other thing too. It's if this was
a I don't know, five years ago, ten years ago,
I don't know if I would have been saying the
exact same things that I'm saying now. But yeah, a

(01:00:44):
little surprising, but at the same time too, not just
simply because it's that week one. You truly don't know
what you're going to see from some.

Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
Of these games. Mike Buddy always appreciated. Get congratulations on
the new gig at Coastal Carolina. Can't wait to talk
to you again, all.

Speaker 6 (01:00:58):
Right, Swannie, appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:59):
Shouts it up there go Mike, You of a man.
What an awesome opportunity for him. All right. Don't forget
our friends at Alumni Hall. If you're up in Tigertown
on the corner of campus on College Avenue and downtown
Clempson this week for the Troy game. For all your
officially licensed Clemson merchandise, hats, T shirts, T'll get gear more,
go check them out today or online at alumni haul
dot com. Go through our website, that's the easiest way.

(01:01:22):
Go over to Clympson Sports. T'll find a link to
Alumni Hall bam. And remember it's not just Clemson. If
you go to alumni haul dot com. There's a ton
of college football fan bases you can support by going
over there. And if you're you know, maybe you're a
Clemson grab at your wife's at Tennessee Grad or whatever,
go check it out Alumni Hall. All right, Dabosweeney again postgame.

(01:01:44):
All of that, We've got more audio coming up here
on the program for you as we push forward towards
the second week of the season, Clempson. I mentioned Troy
three thirty on the ACC Network this weekend from Memorial Stadium,
the Tigers at thirty three and a half point favorites
against South Carolina hosting South Carolina State. No line on
that one seven o'clock start on ESPN plus. I believe

(01:02:08):
it's the channel. All right, we'll talk to you when
we get back right here on Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred,
keep a lot for more of the show The Shakes
the south Land. Clemson's sports saw the Show that Shakes
the south Land. So we heard from Dabosweeney some in
an hour number one, we'll hear a little bit more
from his postgame comments, because there's are some valid points

(01:02:30):
that he makes as well. And I brought this up
going into Friday, and again I thought Clemson was a
team that could go undefeated. I thought if they beat
LSU was certainly a possibility. I think LSU and South
Carolina are the two games that Clemson really just kind
of off the hoof of looking at it would have
had to navigate to go undefeated. But as I mentioned

(01:02:51):
earlier this summer, going undefeated incredibly, incredibly difficult to do.
And there's a reason that in Clemson's history only a
handful of teams have ever done it or even gotten
to the final game undefeated, and this one obviously. Now
back to back home losses in Death Valley, losing to
South Carolina the end the season a year ago, losing

(01:03:13):
to LSU to open this year, four consecutive losses to
SEC opponents and let's be honest. As I had noted
earlier in the show several times, this is the third
opener under the offensive coordination, if you will, of Garrett Riley.

(01:03:40):
And in those games, Clemson scored seven points at Durham,
Clemson scored three points in Atlanta, and ten points at
home against LSU on Saturday. That's a grand total of

(01:04:02):
twenty points in three games in openers under Garrett Riley.
And I get it, Cade's been the quarterback in all
three as well, but at some point it's got to
be on the coordinator to get creative. And there were
moments in that game where I thought they were creative
and maybe this turns out to be a really good team,

(01:04:25):
but that was about as vanilla as it could get.
And I think some of it has to do with LSU,
no doubt said that throughout the show. I think some
of it has to do with LSU. But I think
a lot of it has to do with the person
that Garrett Riley looks at when he brushes his teeth.
I feel like a lot of this, the more I

(01:04:46):
go back through, it falls on Garrett Riley, And again,
no way to deduce that scientifically, but that's kind of
where I lean right now, and I'm sh that's where
I lean. But if it quacks like a duck and

(01:05:06):
it walks like a duck, then it's probably a duck.
And I kind of feel like a lot of this
goes back to him either way. Dabo Sweeney did say, hey,
look man, we've been in camp and this was our
first game, and he is a guy that talks a
lot about preseason games, and we've talked about early season
issues even watching some of those other games that took

(01:05:29):
place before Clemson in LSU, the early season issues that
teams can have a lack of rhythm, et cetera, et cetera.
After being in camp for weeks. But here's what Deabo
Sweeney had to say, because he's right, win or lose,

(01:05:52):
you still had to get ready to go face Troy
this coming week. Here's coach Sweeney following Clemson's seven team
ten lost l s U.

Speaker 3 (01:06:01):
Regardless of what would happen in this game, you win
or lose the game. Uh, you know, we got to
go win next week and so nothing's changed when it
as far as when it comes to that. So our
focus is, you know now that we now we've played
a game. You know, we just spent three weeks plus
in a camp and now we've played a game, a
hard fought game, and there are a lot of good
things on tape, and then there's a lot we can

(01:06:24):
learn from and we got to grow from it. And
I don't have any doubt. I really believe this is
going to be one heck of a football team when
it's all said and done. I really do. I think
I think this this is going to be a really
good team. Disappointed and again the outcome tonight, uh, but
the focus will be to just learn and grow from it.
And you know, we got to go win next week.
We got another opportunity next week, a long season ahead,

(01:06:46):
and you know, so we've got to be resilient and
lock in and focus on what we control and that's
again learning from this, having a good Monday practice and
trying to trying to get on track next week. Started
getting some WS.

Speaker 2 (01:07:03):
Davo. Sweeney also talked about Ronan Hannafan and we actually
put out a story on Ronan on Monday. The converted
wide receiver. You know, we talked all off seas about
the converted wide receiver, Adam Randall but Hannafin converted from
wide out to safety a year ago, and Sweeny did
have some positive things to say about him coming into
the season. And then Hannafin went out and played really,

(01:07:26):
really well. Even when Khalil Barnes was out, you maybe
felt like, oh, what are you gonna do? But man,
Hannafan was flying around the field. Twelve tackles in the game.
He was far from perfect by any means, but man,
what a bright spot he was for Clemson with his effort.

(01:07:46):
Here's Dabo Sweeney talking about Ronan Hannafan and what he
brings to the table on the defensive side of the ball.

Speaker 3 (01:07:53):
He's active, I mean, he's just gonna get better. I mean,
just needs to play and doing big mistackle. I was
that on a screen. I think they threw a screen
or something and kind of got loose and that was
that was a you know, probably his worst play. But
he's just he's just a very active player. He's going
to be around the ball. He's gonna play with relentless effort.

(01:08:14):
He can run, he's again physical, so he'll get better.
That's just he just needs to play.

Speaker 2 (01:08:20):
And I thought, ron hand if it played really well,
I thought he looked like a natural. I know, he
got the one play where he got a little bit
banged up. He said after the game that he just
kind of had this breath knocked out of him. When
I initially saw it, the way the hit went and everything,
I thought it was like a clavical I thought it
was going to be, you know, an injury that was
going to keep him out for an extended period of time.
But he recovered after getting the breath knocked out of him,

(01:08:43):
and you know, he looks He honestly seems to fit
the look at what you would want on the defensive
side of the ball, which is great. I think that's
a fantastic, fantastic development for Clemson the secondary because he's athletic.
I don't I don't have his size right in front

(01:09:04):
of me. I can't remember. Let me see, let me
pull this up on the Google machine. I want to
say he's about six three two twenty six three two fifteen. Yeah,
but he's flying around the field. Looks like he's got
the personality of a defender and kind of a hard nosed, gritty,
determined guy. I really liked the way he looked out

(01:09:29):
there for Clemson. Now, I didn't see a moment where
I felt like he got himself in coverage trouble, but
maybe that's something that could come down the line. But
as far as just you know, kind of playing the game,
I thought he did a really good job, really good job.
When we come back as Florida State legit, we'll touch
on what the seminals did to Alabama over the weekend.

(01:09:50):
Right after this, the show that Shakes the South Leyan
Clemson's Sports Talk Lawton Swan on a Tuesday, I may
have said at some point that's the way, that's the
way it goes when we have holidays, and I certainly
apologize for that if I did. I hope you had
a great Labor Day yesterday and I had a chance

(01:10:12):
to lock in watch North Carolina and TCU. But I
want to talk about another team in the Atlantic Coast
Conference that had a huge weekend, Florida State. And you
may recall on this program that right here on the show,

(01:10:34):
Faxon Children said I think Florida State's gonna win the
game out right, And I thought, what are we talking about?
Faxon Alabama fourteen and thirteen and a half point favorite
something like that In Florida State, as I mentioned earlier,
gets the job done. The job done thirty one seventeen.

(01:10:54):
The Seminoles went down seven to nothing in the early going,
but they would bounce back as Tommy Castellanos led a
seven play seventy five yard scoring drive capped by a
nine yard touchdown to tie the game with three or
four left in the first quarter. Then in the second

(01:11:15):
quarter is when the Seminoles would take control, and as
a matter of fact, the Seminoles would go on a
twenty four to zero run through three quarters well up
until the five pot fifty nine market in the third quarter,
when Alabama finally got back in the score book with
a forty yard field goal to make it twenty four

(01:11:35):
to ten, But by that point you felt like the
Crimson Tide were in real trouble. Well in the fourth quarter,
with eleven minutes left, Ty Simpson found Rico Scott for
a six yard touchdown off a seven play sixty three
yard scoring drive to pull Alabama within seven, But Florida

(01:11:56):
State would go on and finish the game off with
a ten play seventy five yard scoring drive capped by
a fourteen yard rush from Gavin Salchuk to make it
thirty one seventeen. And on that drive, that final drive
of the game for Florida State, Mike Norvell, who, as

(01:12:22):
you all are well aware, Mike Norvell is not someone
whom I am a fan of. But up by seven
on their own thirty four, with about nine minutes in change,
remaining fourth to one, if you turn it over, you're

(01:12:44):
giving Alabama the ball just thirty someid yards from Peydert,
Mike Norvell went for it. Maybe it was Gus Malson
went for it. Flor The State gains four yards, picks
up the first down, they would go on down the
field and that would be the drive that would culminate

(01:13:07):
in an expanded thirty one seventeen lead, and the Seminals
would go on to win that ballgame. And Tommy Castellanos
backed up his talk Castellanos said before the game, and
I was shocked by his comments that Nick Saban wouldn't
be there to save Alabama. And Saban wasn't there. And

(01:13:32):
Kellen de boor Is you think things are You think
people are frustrated in Tiger Town with Clempson losing the LSU.
Imagine being a two touchdown favorite and getting beat by
two touchdowns to open the season, and your name is Alabama.
More on that in a minute. But Castellanos goes nine
of fourteen, that's it, for one hundred and fifty two yards.

(01:13:55):
Very efficient, nine to fourteen. He also carried the ball
sixteen times for seventy eight yards. Florida State rushed the
ball forty nine times in this new offense for four
touchdowns and two hundred and thirty yards. And there's a
lot of criticism of Alabama the way they played defensively.

(01:14:16):
A lot of people talked about loafing, a lot of
guys not putting forth the same effort that they feel
like Alabama put forth. When Nick Saban was the head
coach and there was a stat I saw over the weekend.
This is one of those like Holy col kind of
stats because it's almost it's almost impossible to believe. But

(01:14:43):
Nick Saban coached two hundred and thirty games in Alabama
and he had four losses to unranked teams during that stretch.
Kellen de Boro, on the other hand, has coached fourteen
games and just lost his fourth game to an unranked opponent.

(01:15:03):
It was serious about that, very very serious about that.
I think that all of the hubbub around Clemson is
certainly warranted, absolutely warranted. But the hubbub around Alabama is insane,

(01:15:28):
absolutely insane, and maybe rightfully so. Again, they were fourteen
point favorites, but you don't know what you got. You
don't know what you know until you get out there
on the field. And I think what Clemson benefits from,
what Texas benefits from, what Notre Dame benefits from, is

(01:15:53):
that those games, all losses for those teams, all ranked
preseason in the top ten, were very close, tight, hard
vault ball games, whether you ended up on the good
side or the bad side. And and let's just flip
it for a moment, just to settle this for some

(01:16:14):
of you, because you you can't get a time machine
and go back and fix it.

Speaker 5 (01:16:25):
It.

Speaker 2 (01:16:25):
Had Clemson won seventeen to ten, let's just flip it
for a moment, how would you feel about the LSU
team that you saw, and how would you feel about Clemson.
My hunch is you would say, man, we are fortunate
to win that game. That's a really good LSU team.
And I would also guess that LSU fans, if they're

(01:16:50):
not Homer J. Simpsons, I would think that they would
agree and say, yeah, you know what, we're glad we
won that game. That was a tough, hard fault game.
Now they probably fel like they should have wanted by
a little more because of the incomplete pass. We could
certainly talk about those, because South Carolina dealt with one
of those as well. We could talk about that in

(01:17:11):
a minute. But I think the reality is is that
when you go out and put it on the line
against a really good team in Week one, you have
moments like this, it doesn't necessarily make you bad. You're
just not maybe as good as you hoped. Final segment,
flip side, stay with.

Speaker 4 (01:17:25):
Us, What have you done for me lately? It's a
fair question. Just don't lose sight of the bigger picture.
Don't forget history. Lucky for us at Clemson, the answer
to the questions what have you done for me lately?

Speaker 2 (01:17:47):
And what have you done?

Speaker 4 (01:17:48):
Always are the same. We win.

Speaker 2 (01:18:41):
Final segment on the Tuesday Clemson Sports Talk Lawton Swine.
So there's like great debate out there about the catch.
I've seen l s U fans saying, hey, that game
should have been twenty four to ten because Barrion Brown
called a touchdown reception here's what I'm gonna say. And

(01:19:01):
and there was a similar play in the South Carolina game.
I can't remember who it was that made the catch
or lack thereof for the game Cocks either. And I
know you guys will want to get in here with
your comments on this, and I'm sorry to do this
segment at the back end of the program, But here's
the deal. The difference is, and it's it's not I

(01:19:26):
don't love it. First off, I really don't love it.
But the difference is that when you are attempting to
make a catch in today's world of college sports, unless
you make a football move, and unfortunately, stumbling as you

(01:19:47):
are falling to the ground is not considered a football move.
You have to make a controlled maneuver. You have to
be in control your body, not you are just falling
from running an elite route and a superb throw from

(01:20:09):
your quarterback. Not to mention you want to talk about
like stock Up, Garrett Nusmeyer stock Up after his performance
in Death Valley, I didn't talk to any scouts. I
saw scouts there from Miami and other teams, and I
was like, man, I bet they were blown away by
that guy who we looked apart club Nick. Not so

(01:20:30):
much more on that, I'm sure throughout the week. But anyway,
you think about that deep ball in the catch, and
here's the thing. Unfortunately, the rules indicate that you have
to maintain possession through the ground. Well, yes, Winnie, but
he took a couple of steps in bounds and then

(01:20:50):
went out of bounds. But the problem is, because that
rule says through the ground. Let's assume he makes that
catch at midfield for a moment, right that he catches
the ball very similarly to what he did, and he's
at midfield and he takes a couple of strides and
goes out of bounds, and the ball shifts and pops
free or whatever. It just moves in that case, unlike

(01:21:11):
the ground quote causing a fumble, which we know the
ground can't do. If the ground jars the ball to
the point where it moves or shifts in their hand,
and the wide out does not maintain possession, not he
keeps it in his hands, not he repossesses it. If

(01:21:32):
you lose possession, And the sad part of that word
possession in the current landscape doesn't necessarily mean that the
ball escapes your your hands possession is merely having the
ball where you can, where you are controlling it, not
where it is freely moving. And whether you disagree with

(01:21:56):
those calls or not, the fact of the matter is
the moment. I saw the replay because I understand how
the rule works in both cases, with people around me
saying no. In the press box, people are like, no, Swan,
you're wrong. I'm like, guys, I'm telling you, the ball shifted.

(01:22:17):
It's gonna be incomplete. I don't love it. It's not
even you know, it's not. It was Clemson either the
ball shifted. The Carolina situation the same. And I saw
another one this weekend. Yeah, I can't remember what game
it was, but it's I don't love the rule, but
it is the rule, and it's unfortunate the way it's worded.

(01:22:39):
I tend to believe that a catch should be a
play where a player gets possession of the ball and
does not lose possession completely, Meaning the ball doesn't pop
far out to the ground, you catch it, you bring

(01:23:03):
it in. Maybe it shifts, maybe it doesn't. Who cares?
Did you keep it in your arms? Did it ever
hit the ground? Like to me, the Burying Brown play
looks like what should be a touchdown. The play for
the South Carolina kid, whoever it was, it might have
been Nick Harbor, looks like it's supposed to be a touchdown.

(01:23:24):
But because possession is not dealt with as a thing
where you have to completely lose the ball, it's about
losing control in their mind. I just I think the
rule is unfortunately fairly poorly written, and it does not
give the benefit to the white out, even if the

(01:23:46):
rule said the ball may shift but cannot come free
onto the ground, like, I don't mind too much when
a guy catches the ball and has it cupped and
rolls under it, you know, kind of rolls over and
keep like I'm in favor of more catches being awarded
for outstanding play. I am in favor of that, but

(01:24:10):
based off of the way the rule is currently written,
both catches by virtue of the way, and yes, I
said catches, both of them because of the way the
rule the work the rules are written are incomplete passes unfortunately,
and I hate it because it's gonna end up biting
Clemson just like it bit South Carolina, just like it

(01:24:32):
bit LSU. But that's the way it's written. I don't
love it. We'll talk more about tomorrow. Until then, as always,
you'll take care now and go Tigers.