The "All Rise" Edition

Clemson fans are frustrated with another baseball season coming up short of not only a trip to Omaha, but also the Super Regional round.

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Finally, Clemson Sports Talk has come back to drive time.
Hello everybody, Lawton Swan back in the saddle once again.
It is the show that shakes the south Land. Clempson
Sports Talk for you each and every afternoon as you
make your way around the great state of South Carolina

(01:03):
and beyond, listening to us on incredible radio stations like
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The website. Put the dot com on it, dog on it.
That's Clemson Sports Talk dot com. A three four five

(01:24):
oo zero zero eighty six. That is a text line
in the phone line. And don't forget the show, The
Shakes of south Land, brought to you in part by
our good friends over at METS Plumbing seven three two
drip drip, drip drip. You know the jingle, seventh three
to two drip. That's METS Plumbing, mets Plumbing dot com.

(01:44):
That's the website as well. All right, apologies for being
away last week. Obviously Memorial Day Monday, everybody's out having
the barbecue. But then if you follow on social media,
I put out that I had your duty on Tuesday,
and I wouldn't be on the air on Tuesday, and

(02:06):
it was with great hope that I would be back
on Wednesday. And if you checked in on Wednesday, you
didn't hear the sultry tones and Thursday and Friday, which again,
you know, if you're you don't have to be much
of an Einsteiner to figure this out. I got selected,

(02:30):
So I don't want to get into the minutia of
the jury duty and all of that. Thankfully, thankfully it
wasn't a criminal case, Sybil, I do want to talk
to I've got jurors, jurors, fellow jury members who are
probably tuning in today, So all rise because of the

(02:54):
show that shakes. The South Lane is back on the air.
If you're picking up when I'm putting down, I'll get
I'll get into some of the nuances of trials and
being in the courtroom. I have not been in a
courtroom for I've had jury duty, right, but I haven't
been selected. I haven't been in a courtroom like that,

(03:15):
like during a case, since probably nineteen ninety seven, so
twenty eight years or so since I've been in the
courtroom during a trial. Never been on the jury side again.
I'll get into it a little bit. The Clemson baseball

(03:36):
season comes to a conclusion disappointingly on Sunday with an
I mean, look, if you were gonna think, okay, it's
gonna be a busy day at Tiger Baseball, well they
pretty quickly let you know that you could go wrap
up any yard work or whatever errands you needed to
run to conclude the weekend as they got smoked by
the Wildcats sixteen to four yesterday, done Kingsmore Stadium, concluding

(04:02):
another season outside of Omaha. We'll hear from Eric Backetch
coming up an hour to William qualkin Bush joins the program,
and you really felt like I think, looking at the
totality of the weekend, looking at the team as they
played in the latter half of the season outside of

(04:23):
a run at the ACC Championship or the ACC Tournament
to the ACC Championship game, I think you kind of
recognized that once they got past Aiden Connock, you know,
Drew Titsworth was okay, not spectacular. Malsted and this is
the thing I can't wait to get William qualkin Bush's

(04:44):
thoughts on an hour number two, Like, what in the
world happened to Malstead, who was one of the top
pitchers in the country at the beginning of the season,
just falling off, giving up some big hits in his
final couple of outings won the home run he gave
up late in that ball game in Clemson's regional opener

(05:05):
against USC Upstate that allowed the Spartans to tie the game,
and then giving up the hit against West Virginia on
Saturday that ended up tying that game as well, And
a lot of people felt like, maybe if you stick
with Reed Garris, you know, maybe things are a little

(05:25):
bit different in giving the fact that Mastett has not
looked the same, given the fact that he had pitched
the day before, and you know, I think a lot
of confidence, a lot of confidence in Lucas Mosstet was
lost in the latter half of the season. He suffered
the loss in that game, his first loss of the year.
But I can't really remember the last time, you know,

(05:46):
he got a legit save, you know, and he was
on pace to set the all time Clemson mark. But yeah,
you know, not saying that there weren't opportunities or not
saying that he gave up game time runs consistently or
anything like that. But clearly teams were prepared for that

(06:07):
kind of side armed delivery that didn't do a whole
lot late in the season, and he didn't seem like
the same pitcher. And I think a lot of Clipson
Tiger fans are certainly frustrated. I see tweets on social
media calling Eric Backitch Monty Lee two point zero, feeling

(06:29):
like this is just the the you know, same old
same from the Clemson Tiger baseball team. And certainly there's
a level of frustration. And we'll hear from Mary Backach
coming up in the next segment to hear his thoughts
after the Clemson season concludes. But you know, they had
a ton of injuries to the pitching staff before the season.

(06:53):
During the season, guys were getting banged up, you know,
Luke Gaffney obviously, you know, I was talking with some
people about this over the weekend. Luke Gaffney's gotta be
a little bit more banged up than they led on,
because there's no way you continue to allow you know,
Colin Priest, who really didn't have a hit of significance,

(07:19):
you know, not like a clutch hit at any point
late in the season. You know, he had a home
run I think at the ACC Tournament in a game
where Clemson was comfortably ahead, and I thought to myself,
well that that figures. You know, Lord forbid, you got
bases loaded and need a hit and have that kid
up at the plate. And the fact that they never

(07:41):
turned to Gaffney to give him an opportunity to be
the DH kind of tells me because even if you
believe Jack Crichton at first base was better than Luke
Gaffney defensively at first base, how could he be worse
than Colin Priest at the plate? Like That's that was
kind of my thought at that point. But you know,
the change was never made. And so the tough part

(08:05):
I think of it all is Cam clutch Canerella, who
I think arguably is one of the clutchest players we've
ever seen at Clemson. You know, home runs in big moments.
Just if he got to the plate with the game

(08:29):
on the line at any point in his career, I
think most people felt very comfortable with what was possibly
going to be delivered from Cam Canerella. Defensively, nine times
out of ten he was outstanding. I know he had
a little misstep on a ball. I think that was

(08:52):
in the I think that might have been in the
West Virginia game. But either way, you know, looking back
the three game series at home, falling and coming up
short of another Super Regional is a bitter disappointment for

(09:12):
this baseball program. And again, West Virginia would go on
to win yesterday, a huge come from behind victory thirteen
to twelve. West Virginia scored six runs in the fourth
inning after being down six to one to take a
seven to six lead. Kentucky would rally, scoring two in
the top of the fifth and three in the sixth

(09:35):
inning to take an eleven to seven advantage. Kentucky would
tack on one in the eighth to take a twelve
seven advantage into the bottom half of the eighth inning,
and West Virginia would score six runs in the bottom
half of the eighth inning to win thirteen to twelve.

(09:55):
They end up winning thirteen to twelve. They hold on
and come away the victory, and I gotta imagine a
little bit of that. I didn't get to watch that game,
but I would imagine a part of that was probably
Kentucky running a little bit out of arms after having
to play early in the day. And I think everybody

(10:16):
understands and situations like that when you're talking about college baseball,
and Clemson was gonna have to do it, and that's where,
you know, I think you say to yourself, if you're
bitterly disappointed that the Tigers lost to Kentucky, I think
you can get over that fact by just thinking what
would it have been like for Clemson last night against

(10:37):
West Virginia with less arms than they had against the Wildcats.
I mean, you know, I think the key hope in
a game like that against Kentucky on Sunday is that
you don't really have to go to the bullpen, that
you don't really have to press yourself at a mound.

(11:01):
You know, you hope Talon Bell can go seven innings,
but that wasn't going to be the case. And the
guys that Clemson brought in out of the bullpen also
couldn't get the J O B, D O N E

(11:22):
the job done. And at some point pretty early in
the game, Tyrese who writes force over on Clemson sports
aw dot Com, Tyrese Ingram hit me up and he
was like, oh no, justin Lagernick's coming in this could
get ugly, and I don't think. I don't think Lagurnick

(11:43):
recording recording an out, and so frustrations abound. It wasn't
unique to Clemson, though, and I will say that and
have a feeling that's something William Qualkinbush is going to
talk about the almighty SEC who is valiantly hailed throughout

(12:07):
baseball season as the best conference in America. The number
one seed in the country, Vanderbilt eliminated at home by
Right State, the number two national seed Texas eliminated at
home by the University of Texas San Antonio. And it's

(12:33):
just the second time since national seeds were introduced back
in nineteen ninety nine that the top two seeds were
both eliminated in regionals. You got to go back over
a decade to twenty fourteen with number one Oregon State
and number two Florida were both eliminated. And so in

(12:54):
hindsight kind of looking back at this situation as disappointing
as it was for Clemson to lose in their region,
and I'll give Clemson this, it was arguably, with Kentucky
and West Virginia, one of the toughest regions, and it's

(13:15):
not like Clemson was a national seed. They weren't one
of the top eight seeds. I mean, it was a
tough region with West Virginia that's a good ball club.
Kentucky no slouch by any means. But there are a
lot of teams from the Southeastern Conference that are on
the brink of elimination tonight. In addition to those top

(13:39):
two teams, the fifth seed in the tournament, North Carolina
can eliminate Oklahoma today as that game's underway. A little
bit later, Murray State and Ole Miss face off and
the Racers have a chance to eliminate the tenth seed

(13:59):
in the turn tournament. You've got Wake Forest in Tennessee
this evening with the Demon Deacons possibly eliminating the defending
national champions. You've got LSU in a matchup against the
Little Rock Trojans in a game that would eliminate LSU
from postseason play. So what is that for? I think

(14:27):
Southeastern Conference teams on the brink of elimination in the
NCAA Tournament today. Oklahoma State walked it off in Athens
against the seventh seed Georgia yesterday to eliminate the Bulldogs
with an eleven to nine victory. Florida was eliminated in
that Coastal Carolina Regional. The thirteenth seeded Chanta Clears yesterday

(14:50):
beat East Carolina one to ozho to advance. That was
a tight ball game. And so we know third seed
at Arkansas. They're gonna host the Feteville Superregion. Four seeded
Auburn is gonna host the Auburn Superregional. We know Florida
State the ninth seed will advance to the super regional
round with a possibility that they could host. You've got

(15:13):
thirteen seeded Coastal Carolina, they'll play at the Auburn Superregional
against the Tigers. Fifteen seeded UCLA will host a Los
Angeles Superregional because they put in and got fortunate that,
you know, one of the top two seeds was knocked out.
Arizona won the Eugene Regional, Duke won the Athens Regional.

(15:34):
West Virginia won the Clemson Regional, UTSA won the Austin Regional.
In Louisville won the Nashville Regional. So that's how things
have shaken out thus far. Superregional play begins June the sixth.
Hard to believe it's already June. The good news is
college football coverage really begins next month, as we'll have

(15:59):
the ace SC kickoff up in Charlotte, but Super Regional
play June sixth through the ninth. Then the College World
Series gets going June thirteenth through the twenty second or
twenty third. So that's what we're looking at over the
next couple of weeks with college baseball. But a disappointing

(16:21):
finish for this Clemson Tiger baseball team that climbed all
the way up to number two in the country. You know,
some interesting comments from Eric beckittch obviously kind of talked
about how this team really overachieved, and I think in
the minds I have a lot of Clympson Tiger fans,
they probably were disappointed in the final results because even

(16:45):
though a few weeks back it felt like you might
not be hosting. Once you kind of go and get
the worm to turn a little bit at the ACC tournament,
you don't feel like necessarily, Okay, yeah we're going where
undoubtedly we're undoubtedly going to get a regional host site.

(17:08):
But they played their way into it and that kind
of shifts the momentum for fans and how they feel
about their opportunity to advance. And if Clemson were the
two seed, and this is what I mean, if Clemson

(17:30):
were the two seed and had had to go to
West Virginia and you had the same outcome, people would
not feel the same way. You could have the same
four teams Clemson, Kentucky, West Virginia, and USC Upstate, and

(17:53):
if that was played at West Virginia with West Virginia
is the one seed and Clemson is the two. While
people would still be disappointed, they would have come out
of there and said, yeah, but you know what it is.
What it is, you weren't the one seed, you weren't
really expected to advance, so on and so forth, even

(18:15):
though you believe in this team. But when you get
that home seed, the way people feel when you fall,
especially when you nearly fall against US the Upstate, and
then when you lose against West Virginia the way the
Tigers did, and then when you get beat down on
Sunday and it's your last gasp, I mean, it's like.

Speaker 3 (18:40):
You just.

Speaker 2 (18:43):
It's hard to it's hard to put into words how
fans begin to feel when you're watching that, like a
surrender flag is waved almost like there came a point
in that game where the we don't have the pitching

(19:03):
to compete and we can't score enough runs like that
became the problem, like could you even score enough runs
to make that game highly competitive late? And the answer
was absolutely no. And quite frankly, I thought the attitude

(19:25):
that I saw from the Kentucky pitching staff and the
West Virginia pitching staff was something you don't see a
whole lot of it Clemson. I get it. Aiden Cannock spectacular.
You don't see him get fired up all that Oftenrigarss
a little different story though, right Rigarriss gives you the juice,
But for the most part, it just felt like there

(19:48):
was more energy from those pitching staffs than Clemson's based
off what I saw. We's all we'llqualk about now or two.
Stay with us the show that shakes the south Land
Clemson sports talk on Twitter at Clemson Shorts, Lowton swan. Hey, Now,
if you again the Clemson Tiger baseball team yesterday falling

(20:08):
on their face literally sixteen to four seven errors in
the game, so much so that I saw people tweeting,
what's the program record? I think that was Tiger commenter
that tweeted it. Apparently the program record is twelve according
to reports against Georgia back in nineteen forty six, So

(20:28):
it was a pretty rough performance to say the least. Now,
Eric Beckich met with the media after the game along
with Dominick Listi, who played his final game in tiger
Town after coming in via a transfer portal, and we'll
hear a good bit of what coach Backach had to say,
but here are his opening comments on the Tigers loss

(20:50):
and finish to the twenty twenty five campaign.

Speaker 4 (20:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (20:54):
I mean, today obviously sucked, and I don't want to
overly dwell on how poorly we played in the game
today when big picture, you know, we have a group
of seniors in a in a in a group of
players that you know they deserve a better finish than this,
and so that's that's really the most disappointing thing. More

(21:15):
disappointing than then seven errors and too many free passes
and all the stuff.

Speaker 6 (21:19):
It's just you know, you got you.

Speaker 5 (21:22):
Got guys like Don Listy and and Andrew Chuffo and
Josh Pino and Lucas Malsett and Reed Garris and all
of our seniors that have just you know, poured their
hearts out for this team to you know, win forty
five games, sweep South Carolina, and you know we did.
We did, even though you know we didn't come close

(21:45):
to to reaching our goals here in the month of June. Uh,
there were some things that you know, we'll look back
on and say, there were some positives to take away
from this season. Very disappointed that you know, Kim Canerella
doesn't get to play in Omaha.

Speaker 6 (22:02):
That's a you.

Speaker 5 (22:03):
Know, a guy that comes around once, you know, once
every blue moon, and a special talent like that. You know,
you want to see him shining your brightest on the
biggest stage. So you know, I hate that for.

Speaker 4 (22:15):
Him, and.

Speaker 6 (22:18):
But you know, we'll I'm just in a mode right now.

Speaker 5 (22:22):
Of course, we're going to move on and look at
what needs to happen for Team one twenty nine to
not be in this position. But right now, in this moment,
right here, this press conference, it's going to be about
you know, appreciation for our seniors and you know, for
Team one twenty eight, when you look at our stats,
it doesn't equal forty five wins.

Speaker 6 (22:43):
There's no way you look at our stat sheet and
say that's a forty five win team.

Speaker 5 (22:46):
So you know, you really look at it and say,
these guys emptied the tank and squeezed every drop of
everything to have some of the success that we've had
this year. And all that credit goes to guys like
dom l See who empties the tank every single day
is do the rest of them and play as hard
as they can possibly play. So yeah, the way the

(23:09):
game was today was you know, obviously you know there's nothing,
no good takeaways of today, but big picture, you know,
this group collectively, they did everything right except you know,
we didn't finish where we wanted to.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
That's Aeric Bechetch and his opening comments yesterday following Clemson's
loss to Kentucky and the Clemson Regional. Kentucky would go
on to lose, as I mentioned earlier, after a big
lead against West Virginia, Kentucky would fall thirteen to twelve
in the final game of that regional, with West Virginia
now advancing. As I mentioned, Dominic Listy senior graduate student

(23:53):
who transferred to Clemson from Indiana State. He had spent
four seasons at North Central Illinois. Dominic Listi was asked
about becoming a fan favorite for the Tigers. Finishing his
career at Clemson, he had five home runs this season
with forty seven. RBIs was just a gritty performer for

(24:13):
the Tigers, and he was asked about his experience in Clemson.

Speaker 7 (24:17):
I mean, like Coach Beckett said, things didn't go the
way we expected or wanted, but this place still changed
my life and gave me one of the best years
of my entire life. I mean, I never would have
expected the things personally to be brought out on a
baseball field that I was able to do. And just
being embraced by all the people here. I mean when
I come in like someone like Cam, I'm one of

(24:39):
the best friends I'll ever have in my life now.
I mean, I'm just so happy to be able to
play with someone that's such a great baseball player, and
that's the fan bases here is just unbelievable. I mean,
I come from a Division III school where I'm playing
in front of fifteen to one hundred people and then
being in front of six thousand, eight thousand people. It's
completely changed my life. And I live with Andrew Truffo

(25:00):
and Josh Payo as well, and I can speak as well.
They have this place has changed their lives as well.
It's given them. They poured a lot into us, and
this is our last season of baseball ever, and it's
it's been amazing, even though we didn't get to where
we wanted to.

Speaker 2 (25:15):
Eric Beckett was also asking about how he felt like
he would remember this twenty twenty five clips of Tiger
baseball team.

Speaker 5 (25:22):
Yeah, I'd say, you know, it's a team that overachieved
to get to forty five wins, and a team that
was very consistent with their work ethic and just the
intangibles that they brought from starting day one in the
fall until until the very end.

Speaker 6 (25:44):
There was never a question of effort.

Speaker 5 (25:47):
There's never a question of attitude.

Speaker 6 (25:51):
You know that I'll just always remember this group is.

Speaker 5 (25:55):
They found a way in so many close games, so
many one run games, so many tight games, and they
just found a way to flex their mental toughness and
come out ahead.

Speaker 6 (26:06):
I mean, it's just incredible really.

Speaker 5 (26:09):
And early in the season, you know, when we our
first goal was in front of us with the game Cocks.
They that was an awesome weekend and so you know
they'll always have that. That'll be part of you know,
the the history book with this team, but we fell
short in the ACC and we fell short in the postseason,
and you know, we were we were one win away

(26:32):
in the regular season and in the tournament from being champions,
and obviously, you know, ran out of gas here. It's
a tough tournament, you know, people, you have to understand
how hard it is to get through a regional. Everybody's good,
and everyone's especially good now in college baseball, and so
you know, it's it's so important to get in the

(26:53):
winner's bracket and stay in the winner's bracket. So you know,
we didn't do it last night. And then just you know,
I'm not gonna we are not gonna let the outcome
of one game today sour.

Speaker 6 (27:07):
What were some pretty good achievements for this team.

Speaker 2 (27:10):
That's Clemson head baseball coach Eric Backetch again as the
season concludes this past weekend up in Tigertown. Wait a
quick break, We'll come back. We'll hear a little bit
more from coach Backache and Dominic Listy following the Tigers
loss to Kentucky ending the season up in Tigertown yesterday.
Stay with us, rocking and rolling on the Monday. Glad

(27:31):
to be back again. I'll talk about Jerry Duty coming
up in the next segment, but I do want to
get some more from Eric Backach and his comments. We
got William Qualkin Bush from one in five to five
to roar in the Upstate coming up around the bend
in now number two. But Eric Backage, I was playing
the audio of him talking about this team and the
achievements of this team and what he'll remember. But he

(27:51):
also did address, you know what, he understands that what
happened this season and in his previous years is not enough.

Speaker 6 (28:02):
That being said, it's not good enough.

Speaker 5 (28:06):
And so I know that I've been here for the
for the best of Clemson baseball in the two thousand
and two and you know, have experienced coming so close,
you know, playing for a national championship, and it feels
exactly like this. You know, there's only one team truly
happy at the end. And so you're you know, you

(28:28):
remember what this feels like, and you also remember what
it feels like to go to Omaha too, and.

Speaker 6 (28:33):
So you're you're.

Speaker 5 (28:35):
Playing with a chip and training with a with a
motivation to not feel like this, but also to taste
what it's like to experience the best of college baseball,
and ultimately, that's the disappointing thing. When you love a
group and you love the leaders and you love the
kids and they do go about it and they do
everything right, you just feel like they deserve to experience

(28:55):
the best of college baseball. And that's what makes the
finality of a season that falls short.

Speaker 6 (29:00):
It's so tough.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
Hey. Coach Eric Backache was also asked about cam Canerella's
final ab bat likely final ab bat. What's all with
qualk about cam situation coming up in just a little bit,
but I don't see him sticking around for another year.
He got emotional at the plate, you could see it
in his os, the fans saluting him, and Eric Backache
was asked about his thoughts on on Cam Canerella, who

(29:23):
honestly one of the most clutch baseball players I've ever
seen at Clemson. Quite frankly, yeah, I mean.

Speaker 5 (29:31):
You know, the fans are awesome. I mean, it's you.
We have one of the most passionate fan bases. So
you know, when you have a very passionate fan base,
you know.

Speaker 6 (29:40):
That you know what you're gonna get.

Speaker 5 (29:42):
They have high expectations, as do we, and I think
all of them appreciate what they've seen out of cam
Canerella the last three years. They understand they've they've some
of them have been here since coach Wilhelm was here,
and they've seen some star players come through this program,
and they recognize that they, you know, for the last
three years, they've witnessed one of the best center fielders

(30:04):
in the history of college baseball, if not the best.
And so I appreciate them showing their appreciation for cam
And then I think they recognize that, you know, Dom Listy,
Andrew Trufo, those were those were great additions to our team.
And those guys, I mean, Dom Listy gets on base
over fifty percent of the time, like that's just insane.

(30:25):
And Andrew Truffo has just played lights out shortstop all
year long, and he really has surged offensively here as
of late. And so, you know, I think I think
everybody appreciates when you get guys that come in here
and you know, and contribute to help Clemson. We experienced
that last year with some of the grad transfers, and
we got it this year with some of them as well.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
Eric Beckwards was also asked about the meeting that he
held with the team after the game was starting to
slide away from him against Kentucky and just what he
was saying to the guys at that point in the game.

Speaker 6 (30:59):
The gist of it was, we may lose the game,
but there's a way.

Speaker 5 (31:03):
You know, how we're losing is unacceptable, and so it
was more, we may lose and that's fine, but.

Speaker 6 (31:11):
You know, we're gonna we're gonna compete and play.

Speaker 5 (31:13):
To a standard these last three innings regardless of the score,
regardless of the outcome, because you know, we're not going.

Speaker 6 (31:19):
Out like this, and we did. We went out like that.

Speaker 5 (31:22):
It's you know, the lopsided score with a lot of
sloppy play, but the last the final three innings were
at least a little bit more competitive, even though you
know it was far from being enough.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
Final couple of things from Mark back at you was
also asked about if there was a thread or anything
he felt like that sort of tied all of these
teams at Clemson that he's had that have come up
short of the opportunity to get to Omaha. You know,
if there was something there that he just felt like
it kind of ties it all together.

Speaker 5 (31:53):
I just think it's it's hard to get to Omaha,
Like people don't realize how hard it is to actually go,
and you just you just you have to work your
ass off every day. It's a it's a you know,
Omaha is a lifestyle as much as it is a destination,
and you just cannot leave anything short. And so you

(32:13):
just hope that you work so hard that you get
the opportunity to earn your way there and get hot
when it means the most, and somehow find your way there.
This team's going to go, it's going. Clemson baseball will
be back in Omaha. That's going to happen, and you know,
you just but on the same the same in the

(32:33):
same breath.

Speaker 6 (32:35):
You have to earn it every day.

Speaker 5 (32:36):
You have to earn it in August and September and
October and every single day because how you get there,
there's so many different ways to get there, you know.

Speaker 6 (32:44):
But it's going to happen with this team.

Speaker 5 (32:46):
But we are always going to do what we need
to do to make sure that we're not leaving anything
on the table and recruiting the very best players and
developing them to our max potential.

Speaker 2 (32:55):
Eric back at you again talking about this Clemson Tiger
baseball team. And you know that's something I'm gonna with
William Quawkinbush about as well. Like it almost I think
in some respects has become sort of this hurdle, right
like the monkey on your proverbial back, if you will,
that Clemson kind of carries and how do you get

(33:22):
rid of all of that and say, okay, just because
we haven't been to the College World Series in fifteen seasons,
you know, dating back to their last appearance of the
College World Series in twenty ten, I mean, this is
a significant gap. Clemson made their first College World Series
appearance in nineteen fifty eight, they went back in nineteen

(33:45):
fifty nine, and there was a seventeen year gap until
they went back in nineteen seventy six. And I would
imagine in like seventy four and seventy five, I wasn't
alive for it, but people were stressing about when are
we going to get back? And it was different back then.
I mean, not the game was different, but the coverage

(34:06):
and everything, right, Like, I mean, it's really exploded. And
as much criticism as I've given over the years to
ESPN of college baseball, they certainly do a better job
now With Bren networks of getting these games on your television,
because prior to that it was basically just the College
World series that you got to see. But when you
go back and think about that gap, that's been the

(34:28):
biggest gap since the first visit in nineteen fifty eight,
and you're beginning to venture towards a lengthier gap than that,
just a couple of years off from it. And so
there's frustration for fans because when you go in ninety
five and six and two thousand and two and six,
people you begin to expect it. I mean, that's five

(34:49):
trips in eleven seasons, and now you're talking about not
being there in fifteen heading into a sixteenth year. Quick, right,
we'll come back and talk about my week last week
at jury do right after this final segment of outur
number one the show the shakespare south Lands. So I
was gone all last week Jury dudey well, Monday, Memorial Day, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,

(35:11):
Jury Duty. I won't get into the the you know,
the insight of the case, if you will. I just
kind of want to talk a little bit about the
whole process because there was a lot to it. First
and foremost, I don't always. I'm gonna be honest about this.
I don't always open my mail like the day it

(35:33):
comes in. I'm more of a guy that kind of
lets it marinate a little bit. And so by the
time I opened the letter from the Clerk of Court,
I was well past the three days to return it.
So I thought, well, that's not great, But maybe maybe
they're accustomed to this. Maybe I just show up and
I'm good to go. And apparently, yeah, I was. Just

(35:53):
had the paperwork filled out and turn all that in, right, No,
you're Miley from your house to the courthouse. But oddly,
as I turned in my paperwork was when they opened
the doors to let everybody get seated in the courtroom.
So I happened to be the first person in the courtroom.
So I sit down in the courtroom, gentleman named Larry

(36:15):
to my left. I'll tell you how I knew Larry
Moore in a minute. But we sit in. You know,
you go through the whole regal role. Do you know
all these people anybody ever committed a crime or whatever.
I mean, they're going through all this stuff to eliminate
potential jurors. And then you're down to your pool and
they randomly select the members of the jury, and so

(36:39):
we go through and the jury's getting seated and I'm
not keeping up with it. I mean, that was a
case years ago. It was a criminal case. This was
not a criminal case. But I was selected and dismissed.
I got the old we will strike that we'd like
to strike that juror. And so we're sitting there. I'm

(37:02):
not really keeping up with it, but I think they
were counting it. I think they were like, all right,
and Juror twelve. And they get to Durwor twelve. And again,
remember I was first in the room. The guy on
my left, Larry, he was second in the room. Then
there was a girl to his left who was the
third person that came in the room, obviously because you
fill in the first row, and she had already been picked.

(37:23):
And we get to Duror twelve and it's Larry to
my left. So Larry has to go. Now he doesn't
know my name at that point, I knew his because
they had just called it. And so they're like alternate
one and bingo your boy swanee. And so as I'm
walking up, you know, at this point, you're going, oh,

(37:45):
my gosh, really, this thing's gonna go to trial. And
I got to be on the jury. And not only that,
I'm the alternate, or a alternate I think had we
had two alternates. I don't think I know we had
two alternates. And so as I'm walking, you know, Larry's
taking his seat. He doesn't realize that my name got called.
He's too busy thinking about his dumb luck, right, And

(38:06):
I looked at him and I pointed, and I said,
you can run, Larry, but you can't hide. He was like, no, way,
side by side, Like there's maybe two hundred some of
my people in the room. What are the odds that
three people seated for the jury we're sitting side by side, Like,
what are the odds of that? Slim to none in

(38:27):
my opinion. But that's the way it was. And so
Larry and me and several other people whose names I
would eventually get to know on Friday, once we got
to deliberations, everybody, you know, you're really not You can't
really talk in that room. So, I mean, there was

(38:50):
a little conversation about like fashion and TV shows, but
until the last few moments, nobody was really talking about, Hey,
what's your name, but it was interesting and at a
great pool of people like I'm sure some of you
have been on juries before where well maybe some of

(39:13):
you haven't been, maybe you've never been selected. But I
would say one of the things that was amazing about
the jury that I was with was it was almost
like being on Big Brother if you've ever watched that
TV show. I mean, we all sort of had our

(39:33):
own unique personalities and they blended pretty well together. I
thought everybody had a good time considering what we were
doing and being cooped up. You know, it's it's odd

(39:54):
because you're kind of lumped into this group with individuals
that you don't know from all different walks of life.
But I you know, as an experience, I would say
it was an enjoyable one. As for the court case,
I would say it was a pretty complicated one and

(40:18):
I'm I'm thankful that wasn't a criminal trial. I will
say that, no, I don't I don't know that I
could deal with the fate of someone's life in my hands.
That would not be That would not be fun. Not
that this one was fun, but I certainly was. I
certainly had a nice time meeting the individuals who were

(40:40):
a part of it, and some of them were just
so funny, just the conversations that we had, you know,
outside of the deliberation process, you know, new shows to watch,
what you know. Some people were talking about their kids

(41:01):
and what their kids were up to and so on
and so forth. But I do feel good that I
did my civic duty. I'm thankful I don't have to
do it again for a while, unless I guess I
think they said you do. If you get called to
like the Supreme Court stuff, you gotta go do that. Fortunately,
I think I've avoided that my whole my whole career.

(41:21):
But man, yeah, jury duty all last week. I know
Christopher Thompson, who I continually stayed in you know, had
the text last week to say, well we got another day,
we got another day. I know he sent me back
the emoji of of doctor Evil from Austin Powers doing

(41:43):
the air quotes jury Duty. When I told you I
wouldn't be there, wouldn't be able to do the show
on Friday last week either, And thankfully the show is
back on. Thankfully I am here rolling along with you.
But man, it was a busy, busy week last week
with Jury Duty. That's it. Was tiring. I'll tell you

(42:04):
there's a lot to digest, all right. Speaking of digesting it,
William Walgenbush talking about Clemson baseball season around the band.
Keep it locked.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
Each time for Clipson Sports Talk with Lawton Schwan.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
It is our number two. That's drive time right here
on the show that Shakes the south Land, Clemson Sports
tal Lot and Swaney Know we get William Qualkinbush set
to join the program momentarily. Don't forget the show that
The Shakes of South lamb brought to you in part
by our good friends over at METS Plumbing seven three
two drip, drip, drip drip. You know the jingle, seventh

(43:17):
three two drip, that's Mets Plumbing, mets Plumbing dot com.
That's the website as well. Wait with Quaker Bush on
the guest line, Qualt, welcome in, my.

Speaker 4 (43:25):
Man, Swanny. I'm doing well. The sun did come out
today in the Upstate, and I know it's gonna be
a shock to a lot of people, but yes, it's
a it's a good Monday. I hope you're doing well.

Speaker 2 (43:38):
I am, and I'm disappointed. And I said this in
our number one, and I think this is fair like
if if this regional was flipped on its head a
little bit and Clemson had to go to Morgantown and
West Virginia was the number one seed and Clemson was
the two, and so on and so forth, even if
you had the same four teams. I think people feel
similar to how they feel today, except for the fact

(43:59):
that Clemson, you know, played so well at the ACC
Tournament up until that championship game, maybe ran out of
gas there and earned I will say they earned the
opportunity to host. And then when things go like they
did early on Sunday completely sideways against Kentucky, I think
it just leaves fans scratching their heads cause you're the

(44:20):
one seed and you're playing at home. I mean, what
was kind of your takeaway from this weekend watching this
Clemson team. I mean, it wasn't It wasn't pretty all
weekend long, if we're being honest. I mean, they had
to fight against USC upstates good program. Obviously, the comfort
behind went by West Virginia was a bitter disappointment with
the way Malstead pitched late in the season, and then

(44:42):
what happened yesterday was just the kind of the icing
on the cake. I guess for people's disappointment.

Speaker 4 (44:50):
Well, one of the things that that I feel pretty
strongly about at this point is, you know, Aeric Becketts
sat as press conference. I understand why he did it.
Has press commerce yesterday and he said, you know, today,
obviously today sucked. I don't want that to take away
from what this team accomplished this year. I understand why
he did that at his press conference. Dominic Listison right there,

(45:12):
Ken Kenroll's last game, all that stuff. To me, we
cannot possibly do that because why wouldn't it sour the
season that we just saw. This is a program that
has made it a point to say we're never out
of the fight, to say that we never say died,
and even at times this year, I mean I even

(45:33):
tweeted on I even tweeted on on Saturday that Clinton's
a vampire. You never really kill it, you just sun
it for a little bit. Because they they did seem
like they were coming back and look like that. You're right,
the ACC Championship Game four, they ran out of gas.
If you had gotten me to the game last night
and it ended up like this and you look at
who was pitching in the game, I would have been

(45:54):
like Okay, you know what, they ran out of gas.
And we knew that coming in, Like we said it
over and over again on our show last week that
if Clinton got in the loser's bracket, we did not
see a path for them to come out of it
because they did not have the pitching. Even to get
to Monday would be a chore. Now, they didn't use
a ton of pictures. Jacob McGovern actually did Yeoman's work

(46:16):
seeing to that with this three and a third of
spectacular pitching out of the bullpen on Friday. But so
it's not like the they used like twelve bodies. It's
one of the didn't have twelve bodies. They had like,
you know, I would say maybe seven pictures that you
felt really good about, maybe eight that were healthy and

(46:39):
that you knew coming in.

Speaker 3 (46:40):
Now, I might even counting Garrison Darden.

Speaker 4 (46:41):
Because we didn't know what we were gonna get from
those guys, and we didn't really we didn't really see Darden.
I don't know if he if he if they were
just being cautious with him, or they didn't feel like.

Speaker 3 (46:50):
Throwing them or whatever.

Speaker 4 (46:52):
But the bottom line is, look, they were gonna run
out of pitching. To me, that's not why they lost.
That's not it. They gave up sixteen runs yesterday and
that's terrible, But they lost because they came out flat.
That ain't about pitching to me. They scored two runs
and then Kentucky sort of punched back, and they just
felt they committed seven errors in the ball game. And

(47:15):
I've been talking about this for a while, Swanee, there
were two things about this team. I think it was
true of the Florida State Series, and I really think
it was true during that three week stretch of Florida
int State, Florida State and Duke that there were two
things that I felt like this team could really count on.
That they felt like, no matter what goes wrong, as
we're working through our rotation issues, as we're working through

(47:37):
swing and miss and lack of power and injuries and
guys in and out of the line up and that
kind of stuff, we can count on two things. We
can count on bullpen, and we can count on throwing
and catching the baseball. And when Lucas Malstaid blew two
saves and two innings in Tallahassee, I think that really
rocked this team. Now they came back and won game two,

(47:58):
but then they sort of laid down flat in Game three.

Speaker 3 (48:00):
We know that happened.

Speaker 4 (48:03):
And I think that similarly against Duke when the bullpen
wasn't very good, especially the back end of the bullpen,
that they just sort of didn't have it. Both of
those things eluded Clemson this weekend because you had Malstead,
who blew two saves in two days.

Speaker 3 (48:17):
By the way, gets the win against.

Speaker 4 (48:19):
Upstate, but he blows two saves in two days. Garris
gave you everything he had and even more, Eric Becket
said he was only supposed to go one inn. They
put him out there anyway for that second inning and
then removed him from the game. It was like those
were the lynch pins that were holding everything together. And
then you can go to this too, and I've tweeted
some things about that earlier today that of the I

(48:43):
think there were like six seven, eight one seeds or
something like that that had twenty a strikeout rate of
twenty percent or higher coming in. Half of them lost.
Two of them are playing today, so in fact it
was eight of them. It was half the field. Four lost,
two have made at Arkansas and Florida State, and two

(49:03):
are playing today with a chance to advance, right, So
I mean to me, Swanny, that's the biggest thing too.
This team struck out thirty three times in three games.
They struck out twenty two times in their final two games,
both losses. They only struck out seven combined batters from
the other two teams. That's a huge discrepancy. Whether you
want to put that on Clemsons lineup or whether you

(49:24):
want to put it on Clemson's pitching staff. The bottom
line is if we just say it doesn't matter, we
can't address it, whatever, then we miss it. This was
every single thing that could have gone wrong for this
team at any point this year, popping up all at
once at the worst time. And I think they had
a bad approach to the game. I just do.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
William Qualkan bush is on Twitter at quawk Talk, So
we bad approach to the game. Obviously there were some
as you said, but obviously there were also some issues
with pitching throughout the year, just the injuries that kind
of belfill this squad. And I see a lot of
people screaming the the coaching staff. I mean, what are
your thoughts, Like, I don't look at Eric backache and

(50:04):
get this many lead two point zero thing that everybody
wants to talk about. I do feel like, you know,
the expectations at Clemson are higher than what the results
have been thus far. I mean, the transfer portal exists.
But you know, Colin Priest, outside of a meaningless home
run at the ACC Tournament, I can't think of the

(50:24):
last time he had a really clutch play or a
bomb or a hit that you know, produced anything that
was like a game winning moment for the Tigers. And
then Luke Gaffney was invisible the last half of the season.
Maybe he's a little bit more injured than they let on.
But all that being said, I mean, do you put
this on Eric backache.

Speaker 4 (50:43):
I mean, I think to some degree you have to write,
I mean, this is the second time in three years
Cleton's asso one to zero game at a hall. But
but I know the crowd's not gonna be as big
for a game that they weren't expecting to be at.

Speaker 3 (50:53):
I understand that.

Speaker 4 (50:56):
Remember it was Charlotte in his first season where remember
famously through ty Ollenschuck in the game is the pitcher
d H And you know it was the first time
Olan Chuck had ever hit. And because you know, Canderella
gets thrown out in the Tennessee game. I mean I
heard some people talking about that the emotion of the
West Virginia loss was similar. You know, it was the
same thing. It was not the same that Tennessee game.

(51:19):
You could totally see the human nature of there's no
way we can muster up enough energy to be able
to do this. I did not get the same gut
punch reaction to the West Virginia game. It all happened
at once. Yeah, you had two outs quickly in the
ninth before it unraveled. But to me, it was not
the same as what happened in the Tennessee game. With that,

(51:39):
with that emotional charge and everything else, there was no
reason to come out flat against Kentucky. There was no
reason for it. You had telling Bill on the mound
you didn't have your best player in Canderella out of
the game. You weren't having a mix and match and
do certain things. You just didn't play well. There's no
reason to commit seven errors. You didn't make seven errors
in the game, becau cause you lost the night before

(52:01):
to West Virginia. You like, you can't, you can't tell
me there's a there's a through line for that Now
with that being said, well, you're talking about on the
pitching side, Yeah, I mean, I I think some of
the things that happened, and even even the portal side,
I think some of the things that happened are you know,
it's it's a regression, right, Florida State goes to the
college football playoffs and it's the portal's the greatest thing ever.

(52:23):
And then they replace all those guys with other portal
guys and they think, and the portal is the worst
thing ever. I mean, the reality is that Clinton had
a great portal class in each of the first two seasons.
From Eric Beckett, you had all the mathis, you have
Jacob hinder Lighter, you had Jimmy Overtop, you had all
those guys that came in. You brought in some guys
this year like Noah Samuel coming off an injury was
not very good.

Speaker 3 (52:43):
Hudson Lee Tivioty walks on the pitching.

Speaker 4 (52:45):
Side, Kissing Berth out for the year. The returns I
got on Kissing birth early were that he was going
to be a nightmare in the bullpen. And I know
his numbers didn't look great at the Citadel, but I'm
I'm again I'm trusting what I'm being told. There. Then
you look at the freshman class of pitchers. Callum Bell
comes in, he's heard he's coming off an injury. If
he's in that rotation day one, I guarantee you this
season looks different. Dame Moehler is going to be your

(53:07):
Saturday guy by the end of the year, if not
the beginning of the year. He gets hurt the last
scrimmage and is out for the year with an elbow injury.
You look at a guy like Brendan Bennett, who I
heard was up to ninety five in the fall and
never figured it out and kind of had a step
back with injury. There there's a lot of people saying, well,
nobody got better on the pitching staff. There's a difference
between not getting better and not being good enough. I think,

(53:28):
for sure people get Drew Titsworth for sure was better
this year. Aiden Kannock, I think had some girling pains.

Speaker 3 (53:34):
He added two pitches in the offseason.

Speaker 4 (53:36):
I think people have totally misunderstood that situation. I think
kannak one of the things that knocked him back this
year that will help him in the long run is
that he has to learn how to be a five
pitch pitcher as opposed to a three pitch pitcher. There's
a different there's a different situation that has to go
on mentally. I think maybe he and Bellinger probably had
to work through some of that over the course of
the year. Again, nobody's told me that, But that's just

(53:58):
sort of that's sort of what I'm what I'm getting there.
I mean, I think BJ Bailey was certainly better this year.
Was he good enough? No? Yeah, hit around the last
month of the year, he certainly was better. You don't
even host. You probably are going somewhere like West Virginia,
Swanie if BJ Bailey doesn't come and rescue you in
the rotation Ethan Darden gets hurt all of a sudden,
you're decided. Look, j Justin Lecgernick wasn't very good, But

(54:20):
like think about Rie Garris got better. Lucas Mas said,
certainly was better. I know it doesn't seem like at
the last month. There are a number of situations where
guys are clear Jacob McGovern guys are clearly and markedly better.
It is not the same thing as saying that they're not.
They weren't good enough, And I think if you look
at it at the number of guys that they're losing.
The other thing that I would say, we didn't talk

(54:42):
about and the coaches didn't say it. This is a
very young team. The transfers you talked about, Priests and Gaffney,
they replaced grad transfers with sophomores, and so I like,
there are people that say, well, Gafney sucks and Priest sucks. No,
they're they're nineteen, They're still going through the maturation process.

(55:04):
People were patient with Jack, remember this. I mean you
had the Jack krichtenbrigade out there, Swane that's online saying
Krichton ought to play every day, let's.

Speaker 3 (55:11):
Give him some time, let's be patient with him, whatever.

Speaker 4 (55:13):
And there's people trying to cast out Gaffney and Priests
who are a year younger than him. I think because
they had grad transfers primarily the last two years, I
think that people have really and I'm guilty to see
the ratchet of expectation for those sophomores. I think the
one disappointment has got to be Payo. You lead the
world in strikeouts as a glove first player, who committed

(55:34):
an error in Saturday's game striking out every time. Up
to me, that's the one that you go, woo boy
really missed on that one. I don't think this transfer
class was as bad or ineffective. I just think the
expectations probably should have been lower for those younger guys
that they.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
Brought in on Twitter at qual talk every day noon
until three o'clock, all of bounds with quaking being one
through five to five, the roar in the upstate. Cam Canerella,
I mean, I don't know what else you could say
about that kid. I'm not sure there's been a more
clutch player in Clemson baseball history. Just incredible to watch.
I know he had some moments this year in the

(56:09):
field that didn't work, maybe indicative of the type play
you expect from him, But dude at the plate with
a big moment on the line, man, I mean, he
was spectacular. I don't know. It's tough to compare baseball
to other sports, but how fun was it watching that
kid play every night?

Speaker 4 (56:28):
Well, it's like Robert Ory's big shot Bob, Right, That's
that's what Cam Canerella was. And you're right. I mean, look,
it's a complicated conversation to me because Cam was the
best player. Okay, he was the best player on the team.
Best position player might not even be especially in the
postseason nine and close. Okay, here's the thing. He didn't

(56:49):
give you a lot of base running. He gave you
almost no power, although he found it down the stretch
in a way that was incredibly necessary. He had no
arm strength. Like, how do you replace cam Canerella. Well,
it might be getting something out of those other tools, right,
I mean, I look, I'm not saying that you're gonna
replace cam Canerella because he's one of one. You're not

(57:09):
gonna replace his ability to find the ball, his battball skills,
his barrel control unbelievably good, his maxie at the plate
I think was sort of he had a magnetism about him.
The way he took pitches and the way he sort
of would have a stare down with the pitcher and
got so personally.

Speaker 3 (57:23):
Offended when they walk in and stuff like that.

Speaker 4 (57:25):
You're not gonna replace any of that. You're gonna have
to do it with other tools. With Avian said, I
don't think Clemson will ever see another player exactly like
cam Canerella, with his demeanor again, with his particular set
of skills and traits and with the absolute clutch gene
that just Tim and Tom again he came through, whether
it was the opposite field home run to get the

(57:47):
Tigers going when they were down four on Saturday, the
double in the gap to get them the lead, if
it was a big time catch like Florida or Florida
State or cal or Louisville. This year, I mean, it's
over over and over again with cam Caniolla. And you know,
I've wondered about a month ago aloud if he had

(58:07):
maybe played himself into coming back and maybe trying.

Speaker 3 (58:09):
To earn a little bit of money next year.

Speaker 4 (58:11):
Number One, he didn't fall quite as far as I
thought he would, and some of the mad drafts that
have come out, he's still gonna be minimum the top
fifty pick. I think the way he played in this
regional might have gotten him back in like solidly into
the first round. And I'm kind of thinking maybe back
into the first round even before this weekend. And so
he's gonna get handsomely paid because of those skills and

(58:33):
because people see his you know, the deterioration of his
arm strength and his power as residual effects from a
serious shoulder injury. That he played through for a year.
And so I think there's a lot of pro organizations who,
because they saw healthy Cam and even like injured Cam
pre surgery, put together a bunch of whether he have nine, ten, eleven,
twelve home runs something like that last year and you know,

(58:55):
stole bases before the shoulder. I think they still see
him as we've.

Speaker 3 (58:58):
Seen all the tools is maybe not at once the
last couple of years.

Speaker 4 (59:02):
He will be missed next year. They will have to
get more from some other players in the ways that
Cam could not help them this year in order to
even remotely closely approximate his game by game production. And
they're not going to replace the clutch gene. And that's
that's really one of the more disappointing parts, is like
if you could have just gotten to Omaha to see
Cam Cook in some big moments, you wonder what the

(59:25):
Tigers could have done there.

Speaker 2 (59:27):
Yeah, And I think the other thing too, Quale, like,
is it fair to say at this point the absence
from making it to Omaha has become kind of that
monkey on Clemson's back in a sense.

Speaker 4 (59:39):
Uh. I mean I think maybe so. I think more
so for fans, like I'm look My team is the
synthe red in Major League Baseball. Okay, Terry Francona is
our new manager, and I get on Twitter every day
and I see people who are who like Terry Francona
will make a decision. And I think one of the
things that people have to understand is, like, we have
been here since two thousand eleves. I still have very

(01:00:01):
vivid memories from that Monday Night trouncing that Yukon gave
to Clemson in twenty eleven. Like I remember a lot
of moments from those regionals and the Super Regionals that
Clemson has not gotten out of.

Speaker 3 (01:00:13):
Eric Beggett has.

Speaker 4 (01:00:13):
Only been here for three and so like for fans
of the Reds, people are mad because Terry Francona hasn't
watched the team for the last four years, and so
when he deploys people in certain situations, they're like, oh, man,
this guy, we know this because it's something that happened
three years ago. Well, he wasn't here, so he might
have to learn that. In person. I don't think it's
a monkey on their back as much as it's just frustrating.

(01:00:35):
I think to not get out, like not getting to
Omaha and going on the road like you start when
we started this conversation. I think that would be one thing.
The fact that Clinton has continued to lose at home
in the postseason. It's problematic. And look, I can give
you the numbers on I mean I gave you some earlier,
Like there are four top sixteen seeds that lost because

(01:00:56):
they strike out too much. In my opinion, Clemson is
one of those. There are as many as eleven, depending
on how things go today, there are as many as
eleven teams that host the regionals that are not going
to be in advancing, not to Omaha, even to the
Super Regional because that's where Collas Baseball is right now.
So these are all things where sort of Clemson finds itself.

(01:01:17):
I think for fans, the monkey is on Clemson's back,
and I think it does make you a little bit
tight and a little bit grumpy in situations like this.
I think Eric Beckett very much wants to go to Omaha.
He centers pres commerce last night. But to me, I
think this is more about like, can we just like
the last game we play on our field, can we

(01:01:38):
just make it be a win?

Speaker 3 (01:01:39):
Like no matter what it is.

Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
Seven home regionals since twenty eleven, just one Super Regional
appearance for the Tigers. William qualkin Bush breaking it down
for us here on the program. Follow him on Twitter
at quawt Talk Qualtudd. You have a great day, my man.

Speaker 4 (01:01:54):
Swannye you too, always great to be with this.

Speaker 2 (01:01:57):
There you go, William qualkin Bush here on a Monday afternoon,
A three four, five zero zero eighty six quick break.
We'll come back. We'll react to some of what qualk
had to say when we returned. Stay with us, Lawton
Swan with you on on Monday. Glad to be back again.
That was William qualkin Bush before the break, one week
await for jury duty. It was fun, wild, different, but

(01:02:19):
a lot happened since then. Clemson softball season ended. Now
Clemson baseball season concludes. We did get the announcement last
week of some kickoff times for four Clemson matchups, which
we already knew. Obviously Clemson and LSURE going to be
starting things off under the lights. But on Thursday last week,

(01:02:41):
the Atlantic Coast Conference in ESPN announced kickoff times and
network designations for four of Clemson's twelve contest including that
game against LSU at seven thirty on ABC August thirtieth,
so just a couple of months out from college football.
Additional contest announced included the September sixth game against Troy.

(01:03:08):
That game will kick off at three point thirty and
we'll be on the ACC network. So Clemson and Troy
September the sixth going to be on the ACC network.
We also found out last week that Clemson's road opener
on September the thirteenth, which is at Georgia Tech, that

(01:03:31):
game will air at noon, either on ABC or ESPN.
And I would imagine that has a lot to do
with maybe how the season starts for Clemson as we
sort of wait to determine what network that's that's on.
I shouldn't just say you know Clemson either right with

(01:03:52):
their opening game against LSU, But maybe it also deals
with how does Georgia Tech start, as they opened on
August twenty ninth at Colorado and eight o'clock started on ESPN,
and then they'll face Gardner Webb before facing Clemson. If
both of those two teams are undefeated going into that
game at Bobby Dodd Stadium, I would imagine the ABC

(01:04:15):
ESPN designation may come into play that they would make
that a national game on ABC. So we'll have to
wait and see how that all shakes out from the
first couple of weeks. That will determine what channel that
game is on. But we do know that as a
noon kickoff, and then Clemson's only kickoff that's not on

(01:04:37):
a Saturday. It'll be Friday, November the fourteenth, the Tigers
will travel to Louisville, and obviously you could probably presume
that that was going to be a night game on
a Friday, no doubt. Right, Well, that kickoff time has
been set. It will be an eight o'clock start on ESPN.
So four games now with definitive and confirmed start times,

(01:05:02):
three of which have definitive networks, still waiting to find
out what network Clemson in Georgia Tech will be playing on,
but four kickoff times, two of those in the evening,
that seven thirty start against LSU on August thirtieth, and
then in eight o'clock starting November the fourteenth, or Friday
at Louisville. Some other games that we did find out about,

(01:05:27):
and again we already knew a lot of the big ones, right,
We already knew Alabama in Florida State was going to
be a three to thirty kickoff on August the thirtieth.
We knew South Carolina and Virginia Tech August thirty first
at three, and we also knew that later that night
at seven thirty, Miami and Notre Dame would face off
on ABC, and then on Labor Day, North Carolina would

(01:05:47):
host TCU at eight o'clock. That game is going to
be on ESPN. And obviously looking over the list, there
were several other contests throughout the season that were announced,
but notable ones that I saw Louisville at Miami Friday,
October the seventeenth, that'll be a seven o'clock start on

(01:06:09):
either ESPN or ESPN.

Speaker 8 (01:06:11):
You.

Speaker 2 (01:06:12):
I also saw that Florida State's at NC State on
November the twenty first. That's a Friday game. That's an
eight o'clock start on ESPN. And they also put out
the Friday night matchup between Georgia and Georgia Tech. So
Georgia at Georgia Tech. They'll be playing out when at
Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta three point thirty on Friday,

(01:06:34):
November the twenty eighth on ABC, and that game was
played on a Friday last year as well, because I
remember sitting in the stands of a high school football
game and watching that one is Georgia came from behind
to knock off Georgia Tech and what was it eight
overtimes or some ridiculous amount of overtimes. They also did

(01:06:56):
an announce and I can't remember if this was out
before we went on break last week for jury duty,
but the twenty twenty five ACC Championship game is an
eight o'clock start on ABC at Bank of America Stadium.
So again, for Clemson Tiger fans, you got four kickoff
times three networks that you know you'll be on. The

(01:07:16):
most notable game though in the country. Week one I
think still jumping out to a lot of people is
that Clemson LSU game for a multitude of reasons, including
the fact that it is a matchup between two teams
who stadium monikers are Death Valley and has been noted
over the years, noted over the years as such, and

(01:07:40):
so when we've talked about, hey, who do you want
to see Clemson play? Who would you like to do
a home at home with? LSU? Always pops up on
that list. So we'll continue to focus on that game
as we get closer and closer. This past weekend though,
for Clemson a big recruiting weekend. Obviously, some of the

(01:08:01):
top players in the country made their way over to
Tiger Town, and you know, Clemson kind of kicking off
and jump starting the twenty twenty seven recruiting class as
well this past week as some of their first offers
or some of the first offers for Clemson, who notoriously
holds those offers until your junior season, distributed some of

(01:08:26):
their first twenty twenty seven offers. But guys who were
on campus this past weekend, including the five star linebacker
Grayson High School Tyler Atkinson, who spent some time at Clemson,
along with other major uncommitted prospects like Darius Gray offensive
lineman Alan Richmond Virginia. And it's a busy three day

(01:08:49):
experience for not just the prospects but also their families.
They get to learn about Clemson's program, they get to
kind of see campus. I know they had some competition
since this weekend and you know, all of that sort
of going inside. It coincides with having all of the
committed prospects as well on campus, so you know, really

(01:09:11):
we saw some good returns from this a year ago,
and it's a long run until the finish line. So
I think if there's anything most people have probably learned
from some of the commitments and the de commitments along
the way is you can't take too much out of
this weekend. But from all reports and the guys that
I've spoken with about it, it did seem like a

(01:09:32):
very positive weekend for the Clempson Tigers on the recruiting front.
When we come back, we'll take a look at a
graphic that Clemson Football put out that was pretty surprising
to me. When we return, stay with us Clemson Sports
saw on a Monday. Good to be back. Trying to
play catch up man a lot to get to Clemson baseball.
The season concludes this past weekend with a disappointing final

(01:09:54):
performance against Kentucky sixteen to four the final score where
the Wildcats advanced to face West Virginia last night, and
the Mountaineers come from behind in that game to win
thirteen twelve to advance to the Super Regional round of
college baseball. But during the offseason, during the downtime and

(01:10:16):
with prospective players coming to campus, including one of Clemson's
latest offers twenty twenty six wide receiver out of Phoenix, Arizona,
Devin Fitzgerald, the son of Larry Fitzgerald. Pretty cool to
see Larry Fitzgerald on campus. But you know, with a
guy like that arriving, you might want to put out
some statistics, if you will, that would spark interest about

(01:10:40):
Clemson's success offensively, and the graphic lays it out there.
Clemson is one of only three schools nationally to record
at least twenty nine thousand rushing yards and at least
forty thousand passing yards in the college Football Playoff era.
And one of the things that is so impressive about

(01:11:05):
it is really the balance. And a guy like Antonio Williams,
barring an injury, is going to cross over into the
two thousand plus yards receiving throughout his career. But I mean,
you see on the list Travis Etn who had nine
hundred and fifty two rushing yards during his tenure from

(01:11:25):
twenty seventeen through twenty twenty one, but tack onto that
before him, Wayne Gallman from twenty thirteen to twenty sixteen
with three thy four hundred and twenty nine and then
Phil Maffa a year ago or during his career, I
should say, with two eight hundred and eighty seven and
those guys racking it up wide receivers, well, Will Shipley

(01:11:48):
too at running back twy seven hundred and forty seven
during his time. T Higgins or Tavis Scott, Mike Williams,
Kate Klubnick, Deshaun Watson, Trevor Lawrence, Justin Ross just to
name a few. And you go, man, what a run
of talent. Heck saying you're thinking about it, I'd even

(01:12:11):
mentioned Amari Rodgers, like the skill position players that have
come through this program, especially on the offensive side of
the ball. I mean, it's it's been the who's who
of the best of the best in the country during

(01:12:33):
this college fotball playoff era. And sure there are teams
Ohio State, Alabama, you know a handful of them out there,
and I would imagine the graphic didn't present who the
other two teams were that fit that building. But it's
hard for me not to believe that those are the
two that certainly have had a the lion's share of

(01:12:56):
skill position talent in college football. But for Clemson to
have placed itself in that conversation for over a decade.
I mean, as much as things have been a little
bit up and down over the past five years, that's
still got to be one of the more impressive feats
in Dabo Sweeney's tenure as a head coach. Is not

(01:13:17):
that it's been without hurdles, but yet there they are
still one of the top three in that category. And
certainly they've played more games some of the seasons because
they've played fifteen And there's an advantage to that because
you're racking up four hundred and fifty maybe five hundred
total yards an additional game than maybe some other teams

(01:13:38):
out there, which would help you kind of separate yourself
a little bit. But I think you also take into
account the dj Uyunglo lay years and how how disappointing
in a lot of respects the offense was. But yet
you've still managed to be one of the top three
teams in the country in rushing yards and receiving yards.

(01:14:03):
A tip of the cap because the two dj ui
Unglo lay years twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two
were certainly disappointing. I mean, twenty two hundred and forty
six yards passing nine touchdowns and ten interceptions at twenty
twenty one for DJ twenty five hundred and twenty one

(01:14:26):
yards passing twenty two touchdowns of seven interceptions in year
two better, but by comparison to guys like Watson and
Lawrence throwing for four thousand yards to drop off to that,
And I don't remember what the rushing numbers were in
those years either, but you know, by comparison, you still

(01:14:51):
maintained with a couple of rough years like that, You're
one of three teams with twenty nine thousand rushing yards
and forty thousand receiving yards in the college football playoff era.
Now it might also and maybe this is another way
to look at it, because you can, you can always,
you know, slice things up a little bit differently. But

(01:15:16):
perhaps one thing to consider is that those years with
Trevor and Travis and Deshaun and Wayne were so good
that they push Clemson to a, you know, to kind
of the outer boundary where even some lackluster years allowed

(01:15:42):
the Tigers to stay out in front of the masses,
so to speak. An I'm guessing that might be a
part of this, but I think we're being fair to
k klubnick I mean a year ago, he probably didn't
hurt Clemson by comparison thirty six hundred and thirty nine
yards passing, and one would expect that Clubnick would balloon

(01:16:09):
that number around thirty six hundred to four thousand this
coming season with a more mature wide receiver group healthy
At this point wide receiver group, Kate's twenty twenty three
numbers weren't mind blowing twenty eight forty four passing, but

(01:16:31):
this past year, I would say he was one of
the reasons that you're probably still in that conversation and
has a chance to push you even further as it
all shakes out over the next eight months or so.
But yeah, interesting graphic put out by Clemson earlier this week,
as the Tigers are one of three teams in college
football with twenty nine thousand rushing yards and forty thousand

(01:16:56):
passing yards during the college football playoff era. All right,
a quick break, we'll come back. I'm getting out the ribbon.
We're gonna put a bowl on the show. We haven't
put a bowl on a show since what two fridays ago?
Kind of odd, but we're back. We're back in the saddle,
suiting it up in June here on Clemson sports talk
called Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred and of course on

(01:17:17):
the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 8 (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 8 (01:17:46):
We win.

Speaker 2 (01:18:33):
Final segment on a Monday afternoon Clemson Sports tal and
swine Boy. It does feel like it has been a
while since we've talked. I'm just trying to get my
sea legs under me, trying to get the voice back.
It's one thing I've noticed now two hours in you know,
doing the school job during the year, that keeps things

(01:18:57):
in check. Doing this in the afternoons also helps, I think,
keep the vocal cords ready for you know what you
gotta go through when you're doing a show for two
hours every day. So I'm gonna have to get back
into the rhythm again. I know we'll have another week

(01:19:17):
off in July. We're doing a family vacation. This one
obviously with the jury duty not planned. Got the official
release though the certificate of jury service, so I'm in
the clear on that front. Did not count as vacation,
but we were away and we may take two weeks

(01:19:38):
this summer. We'll see how things all shake out as
we get closer and closer to the college football campaign.
But yeah, college baseball at the forefront again. Third seeded
Arkansas advances. They'll host a super regional there again. Four
seeded Auburn advanced. They will host the Auburn Super Regional,

(01:20:00):
and in that super regional the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers to
thirteen overalls Evil Travel Florida State, the number nine seed
in the tournament, won the Tallahassee Regional. Coastal obviously won THEIRS.
As I mentioned in advanced to that Auburn Super Regional. UCLA,
the fifteen seed, will host a Los Angeles Super Regional.

(01:20:21):
Arizona unranked won the Oregon that was out in Eugene Regional,
Duke won the Georgia Regional in Athens, West Virginia, one
the Clemson Regional, and Tigertown UTSA won the Austin Regional
against Texas, and then Louisville won the Nashville Regional. As

(01:20:42):
the top two seeds, Vanderbilt and Texas from the SEC
both out and eliminated, didn't even have to go to
Sunday game, didn't even have to go to Monday games,
which is wild given the profile and the resume of
those two teams. But parody would seem to rule the day.
You've got six games today this afternoon that will decide

(01:21:05):
who else advances to Superregional play. Obviously, North Carolina and
Oklahoma underway. Coming up at the top of the hour,
three games as Wake Force in Tennessee face off in
the Knoxville Regional. Winner of that game advances Oregon State
and Southern Cal out in cor Vallas. Winner of that

(01:21:28):
game advances Old Miss and Murray State. Also at six
o'clock when or that one advances. Then tonight at nine o'clock,
Miami and twelve seed at Southern Miss out in Hattiesburg.
The winner of that one will advance to the super
Regional play. And then at nine o'clock third seeded LSU
and Little Rock. Little Rock yesterday given LSU the business

(01:21:55):
if you will and not if you will, In fact,
I guess, I guess might be the better way to
put it. I mean, they absolutely hammered them ten to four.
Yesterday shocking the LSU Faithful in Baton Rouge, and with
a win today, if that were to take place, that

(01:22:18):
would mean that the top three teams in the tournament,
who were all from the Southeastern Conference, would be eliminated
before super regional play. So again, that's the night game,
or that's a night game this evening at nine o'clock
as we get the exciting conclusion of regional play in

(01:22:43):
college baseball. And there's a chance in what four of
these six games possibility as William Qualkinbush noted, that four
more Southeastern Conference schools could be added to the regional
chopping block, which again that's that's a story for another

(01:23:07):
day if that shakes out that way, I mean, if
we do end up with that as a storyline tomorrow,
believe you me will take a much harder look at
the Southeastern Conference and it's postseason demise. It's gonna take
a lot for us to get to that conversation for sure.
And I may have accidentally said earlier that LSU was

(01:23:28):
the three seed. They're currently ranked number three. They're the
sixth seed. But either way, with losing Vanderbilt in Texas,
who were the top two Seeds. I mean, if you
lose more today in this evening. And I don't disagree
that each year is its own unique year, but at
what point do you have to believe that there's a

(01:23:49):
little fallacy in how good the Southeastern Conference might be
in their own mind's eye and the impact that that
has not only on college baseball, but possibly on college
football and college basketball as well.

Speaker 4 (01:24:07):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:24:08):
If there's been one impact that I would say the
expanded conferences has had is potentially the over inflation of
how good you are because of the number of teams
that conferences have. And at this point as far as
college baseball goes, the SEC has been a major letdown
this year in the tournament. We'll see if that continues tonight.

(01:24:29):
We'll talk to you all tomorrow. Until then, it's always
you'll take care now and got tigers