The "Commitment Still Means Commitment" Edition

Clemson's recruting strategy is different than most, but even the Tigers can't avoid the difficulties of holding on to top prospects.

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Finally, Clemson Sports Talk has come back to drive time.
Hell everybody, Lawton Swan back in the saddle once again.
It is d show that shakes the south Land. 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

(01:05):
Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred the Midlands, heard around the
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The website. Put the dot com on a dog gone
at that's Clemson Sports Tell dot com and of course
to show the shakes of south Land, brought to you
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Seven three two drip, drip, drip drip. You know the

(01:28):
jingle seven three to two drip. That's METS Plumbing, mets
Plumbing dot com. That's the website, all right. So business
picking up certainly for Clemson over the past twenty four
hours and really forty eight hours if you include the
commitment just a couple of short days ago from Leo

(01:49):
Delaney to Clemson. But yesterday two new prospects in the fold.
One surprisingly kind of unbeknownst to a lot of people
was Tennessee defensive end J R. Hardrick out of South Pittsburgh,
Tennessee South Pittsburgh High School, committed to the Tigers. He's

(02:09):
a high three star prospect measurables for I think Clemson
being maybe the biggest thing here, six foot five, two
hundred and thirty pounds, Chris Rump making a move there
to bring in Hardrick. I'll get back to that one
in a minute. But then the other that most people assumed,
and it did come to fruition, and again a tip

(02:31):
of the cap to Matt Luke for the job he's
done recruiting on the offensive line, but the Tigers continue
to bolster the trenches, this time with Virginia's top offensive
lineman in Carter Scruggs, coming into the fold. We'll take
a look at the full slate of Clemson commits on

(02:53):
the offensive line, but in terms of what this did,
these past few days did for Clemson in the team
rankings according to A three and rivals which are eventually
coming together, but right now, according to ON three, Clemson
has the seventh best recruiting class with twelve four stars

(03:15):
and five three stars committed. They've got Texas A and
M with the sixth best class, Georgia with the fifth,
Notre Dame with the fourth, Ohio State with the third
best class, uls You with the second best class, and
Southern Cal checking in with the top class in the
country when you look at it by average score. Now

(03:37):
venture over to Rivals and take a little gander at
their team rankings, and you'll find the Tigers much higher,
much more well thought of than they are on ON three,
where Clemson currently sits at number two, behind only Southern Cal.
And again Southern Cal, as we noted here on the

(03:57):
program a couple of days ago, got twenty seven commits
twenty seven Clemson with eighteen commits. Now three excuse me,
thirteen four star and five three star commits according to
two four seven, just ahead of number three Notre Dame,

(04:19):
who has sixteen commits if you sort by average. And
that's probably the reason that when we look at the
two four excuse me, the ON three ratings versus the
Rivals ratings, that Clempson is a little bit lower. If
you sort by average, the Tigers drop quite a bit.

(04:42):
But just from the standpoint of what this class looks
like right now. And again, in this era, I think
we've all learned a very valuable lesson about one word
in vocabulary that used to mean something that doesn't mean

(05:07):
what it once did, and that word is committed. Oh
damn you. I mean, there was a time where when
you committed, that's what it meant. Now it doesn't always
mean committed. But my hope has always been And again

(05:29):
I cover Clemson, I unabashedly admit that fact. And for
over a decade here on Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred
the Midlands, I have said, I am the orange shaded
orange kool Aid drinking the name emblazoned in lights at
Graystone Boulevard, but the purple and orange a Clemson Tiger Nation.

(05:50):
But I call it like I see it. And while
I recognize that Clemson attempts to cruit a little bit differently,
to sort of find those players where commitment still means commitment,
it doesn't always hold. And in this era nil the

(06:14):
kind of the lack of regulation that exists, we do
see situations where players decommit, it feels like more frequently
than they once did. And that's not just that Clemson.
I think that's pretty much across the board. But taking

(06:35):
a look at what Matt Luca's done specifically, and I've
kind of talked about Matt Luca goodbit this week because
of Leo Delaney's commitment, and now you add Carter Scruggs
into the mix and you're talking about, according to ON three,

(06:55):
the two highest rated offensive lineman in Clemson since class.
But more than anything, it's the consistency across the board
with the six offensive line commits that the Tigers currently
have that I think is exciting to everyone out there. Now,

(07:20):
all of these prospects, according to ON three, are not
deemed four star prospects, but according to rivals, they all are.
The only one not a four star prospect according to
ON three is Brayden Willims, who's six foot eight, two
hundred and seventy pounds out of Lawrence, Kansas. I think

(07:44):
that would say that ON three evaluates him as a
little bit more of a project. But what you've witnessed
watching the recruiting of Matt Luke while he was at Georgia,
and while Matt Luke was that old miss you know,
one of the things that you clearly recognize is there's

(08:05):
a body type and frame that he's looking for, and
it's it's big dudes. It's big dudes, long arms. You know,
he's he's not afraid to push into the bigger girth,
so to speak. But he's really looking for the type

(08:26):
players that have plenty of length and speed and agility
and and and obviously hand strength is a big part
of it too. But I think that's what you've got
across the board here. Adam Guthrie out of Miami Trace
High School up in Washington Courthouse, Ohio, six foot seven,
two hundred and eighty pounds, four star prospect Grant Wise

(08:52):
again more of the interior offensive lineman six foot three,
three hundred pounds out of Pace High School for Ball
Factory down in Milton, Florida, ranks as a four star prospect.
You've also got Chancellor Barclay or chance Barclay, another interior
offensive linemant six four, two and eighty pounds. Carter Scruggs

(09:17):
now in the mix at six five to ninety out
of Loudon County High School in Leesburg, Virginia, oh By
the way, Barclay out of the First Academy down in Orlando, Florida.
And then according to all three, the top rated prospect
on the offensive line in this class. Of these six guys,
Leo Delaney, who committed just a couple of days ago,
six foot five, two hundred and seventy five pounds out

(09:39):
of Providence Day School, and Delaney, I think it's one
of those versatile guys that can play interior or exterior.
I mean, I think he can play at the guard
or the tackle spot. I don't know this for a fact,
but I think Grant Wise is gonna end up being
a center of four clips down the road. But man,

(10:00):
you talk about you talk about locking them in and
getting your money's worse, so to speak out of Matt Luke.
And I said it on the radio in Atlanta yesterday.
I said it on the air with you guys here
on this program as well. It is hard not to

(10:22):
like what you see from the job that Matt Luke
is doing at Clemson. And I think that when the
Tigers transitioned from Robbie Calbwell to Thomas Austin, I think

(10:44):
the thing that was likely lost was an inordinate amount
of experience. And Thomas Austin certainly was in Clemson's program,
had been coached by Robbie Calbwell, I mean, all of
those particulars go into it, but that doesn't make you

(11:07):
a good offensive line coach. That doesn't make you a
good evaluator of talent. And I think that just having
played doesn't necessary. And look, he did come to Clemson
and he spent some time on the staff, you know, like,

(11:29):
you don't just pop into that spot instantaneously. At least
I can't think of anybody that that does. Maybe there's
a handful of guys out there that that's how it works.
I mean, he was on the staff and worked his
way up as a grad assistant, and Daboswiney took a reach,
and I think after the returns it was pretty obvious,

(11:51):
and it shouldn't be. What shouldn't be discounted is some
of these guys on Clemson's roster right now that you're
counting on in twenty twenty five were guys that were
recruited by Thomas Austen. So even though Matt Luke has

(12:12):
pieced together what at this point probably ranks in the
mind's eye most people, is the best offensive line recruiting
class at Clemson's ever brought in. Ever, Thomas Austen brought
in guys like Tristan Lee, brought in guys like Blake Miller.

(12:32):
That offensive line that's coming back this year that everybody's
so excited about, guess what most of those dudes that
you expect to start. As a matter of fact, I
feel like I can say this with certainty. I don't
want to I don't want to step out of bounds.
But Walker Parks, Tristan Lee, Blake Miller, I mean, the

(13:03):
guys that you're counting on. Those were dudes for the
most part, that were recruited by Thomas Austen. But coaching, attitude, motivation,
that side of it is something that maybe everybody who

(13:24):
played the game doesn't have. And as much as I'm
sure at pained DABOSWENI to make the move a few
years ago from Thomas Austen to Matt Luke, I have
a sneaky feeling. And again, you gotta get squeezed the
most out of these oranges once they get to campus.

(13:48):
But I think most people look at what the Tigers
have done in terms of offensive line recruiting and the
impact that maybe personality and that might be a part
of it too. For Thomas Austen, that may not have
kind of clicked as well, even though again broad in

(14:08):
good players, but personality in the room also leads to
motivation in the room. And so kudos to Dabo Sweeney
because I know a lot of people kind of feel
like the change for Dabo Sweeney when he cuts ties

(14:29):
a few years ago with offensive coordinator Brandon Street, or
after he stepped into that role for one year when
Tony Elliott left to be the coach at Virginia, when
he cuts ties with Wes Goodwin to now bring in
Tom Allen. You know, if you look at it, and
we kind of mentioned this yesterday, there has now been

(14:50):
a track record of where Dabosweeney was was challenged by
a lot of people about his hiring practices and only
hiring Clemson men and so on and so forth. But
now I think it is safe to say, after what
you've seen the past three years, Dabo Sweeney's mindset on
that has changed. He's adjusted. He would still bring in

(15:13):
a Clemson guy, but I think Sweeney has been reinvigorated
by the Tigers absence from the postseason, well from the
College Football Playoff up until this past year. And I
think that like any good business owner, you evaluate things

(15:35):
and you say, how can we improve? And that's what'sen
And so now you venture into an off season where
the hype surrounding the program is as high as it's
been since probably twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, somewhere in there.
The expectations, by comparison maybe to the results on the

(15:59):
field might be a little out of bounds. I don't
want to get too crazy with that. I don't like,
I don't want to make it sound like this team
isn't capable, but it does feel like that they've been
given a bit of the benefit of the doubt because
of the return of k Clubnick. And look, you can

(16:25):
only take into account what you can take into account,
and it was a run of the College Football Playoff
in a much better Kklubnick in twenty twenty four. And
I think the presumption is that that's going to continue,
that he his trajectory is still heading in the right way,

(16:49):
and that I think maybe for Clemson people, not necessarily nationally,
because I think I think when you cover the sport nationally,
you probably have a wider or lens on the players
that are out there and the number of young guys
that it takes a while to develop and move into

(17:12):
a top flight role or become a top flight player.
But when you were kind of in that bubble of
Clemson and you think about like how good you were
with Deshaun, how good you were with Trevor, I think
it's not unfair to say that a lot of people's

(17:37):
expectations or belief about how good this program was going
to consistently be, or each player, how fast they were
going to develop, I think probably got skewed. There's nothing
wrong with that, there's nothing wrong with fans having extremely
high expectations. But I think everybody he thought the returns

(18:01):
all Kid club Nick would be faster than they were.
And for that matter, I think you all thought, and
rightfully so, that the dj uyungla era would work out.
It was, you know, Clemson. I think in the minds
I have a lot of fans almost almost got to
the point where you thought, they're not going to miss,

(18:23):
they're not going to miss. And then when you miss
on DJ and when it takes Kid some time to
really become the player that he became at the end
of last season or during last season, and now into
this season, the expectations are, Hey, you know what, Caid's

(18:48):
proven that he can do it. Why should we stop
believing that he can? And why should we not believe
that this year is going to be another step forward
for k club And it may very well be. It
may very well be. So the expectations are through the roof.

(19:09):
The Clemson Tigers getting geared up for the college football season,
Dabbos Sweeney's camps under way up in Tigertown. In Nour
number two, Will Van Derwort will joined the program. We'll
talk about your Clemson Tigers as well, about baseball and
softball season ending, all that and much more here on
the show of the shakespare south Land. But on the
interior of the offensive line, Clemson is absolutely dominating it

(19:35):
right now. The job that's being done by Matt Luke
the best we've ever seen. We'll talk with Will van
Derwart from the Clemson Insider about that Nour number two
as well. All right, quick break when we come back.
We talked with William Qualkinbush on Monday afternoon. We'll jump
into a portion of that conversation arch Song on Friday.

(20:01):
Will Van Dervoort coming up in our number two. William
Qualkoma joined this on Monday. We talked about the conclusion
of the Clemson baseball season, obviously up at North Carolina
in the Chapel Hill Regional. The Tar Heels dumped Arizona
earlier today. But here's a little bit of our conversation.
We get a welcome in qualk. How are you, Swanny.

Speaker 3 (20:20):
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. Hope you're doing well.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
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

(20:51):
that Clemson, you know, played so well at the a
SEC Tournament up until that championship game, maybe ran out
of gas there and earn I will say they earned
the opportunity a 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

(21:12):
the 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 pretty all weekend long,
if we're being honest. I mean, they had to fight
against USC Upstates good program. Obviously, the come from behind
went by West Virginia was a bitter disappointment with the
way Masstead pitched late in the season, and then what

(21:34):
happened yesterday was just the kind of the icing on
the cake. I guess for people's disappointment.

Speaker 3 (21:42):
Well, one of the things that I feel pretty strongly
about at this point is, you know, Eric Becketts sat
as press conference. I understand why he did it. He
sat as 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 year. I understand
why he did that. At his press conference. Dominic Listie

(22:03):
sitting right there, Keim Kenrose 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 die, and even at times this year, I

(22:24):
mean I even tweeted on I even tweeted on on
Saturday that Clemson'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,

(22:45):
I would have been 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.

Speaker 4 (22:55):
Bracket, we did not see a path.

Speaker 3 (22:57):
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 pitchers.
Jacob McGovern actually did Yeoman's work 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

(23:17):
they used like twelve bodies. It's one of they didn't
have twelve bodies. They had like, you know, I would
say maybe seven pitchers that you felt really good about.
Maybe eight that were healthy and that you knew coming in.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
Now.

Speaker 3 (23:32):
I might even counting Garrison Darden 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 throwing them or whatever.
But the bottom line is, look, they 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

(23:53):
that's that's terrible. But they lost because they came out flat.
That That ain't about pitching. To me, they were two
runs and then Kentucky sort of punched back, and they
just felt they committed seven errors in the ballgame. And
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

(24:15):
it was true during that three week stretch at Florida
into 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
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

(24:36):
can count on bullpen, and we can count on throwing
and catching the baseball. And when Lucas mass said blew
two saves and two innings in Tallahassee, I think that
really rocked this team. Now, they came back and won
Game two, but then they sort of laid down Flatten
in Game three. We know that happened. And I think
that similarly against Duke, when the bullten wasn't very good,

(24:59):
especially the back 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. By the way, gets the win against Upstate,
but he blows two saves in two days. Garris gave
you everything he had and even more. Eric Beckett said
he was only supposed to go one inn. They put
him out there anyway for that second inning and then

(25:21):
removed him from the game. It was 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 think there were like six seven, eight one seeds
or something like that that had twenty a strikeout rate

(25:42):
of twenty percent or higher coming in. Half of them lost.
Two of them are playing.

Speaker 4 (25:46):
Today, so in fact it was eight of them.

Speaker 3 (25:49):
It was half the field. Four lost, two have made
at Arkansas and Florida State, and two are playing today
with a chance to advance. Right, So I mean to me, Swanny,
that 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

(26:09):
only struck out seven combined batters from the other two teams.

Speaker 4 (26:12):
That's a huge discrepancy.

Speaker 3 (26:14):
Whether you want to put that on Clemson's lineup or
whether you want to put it on Clemson's picking 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 (26:34):
That's some of our time with William Qualk and Bush
from earlier in the week and again you can hear
Qualk every day Monday through Friday, a one in five
to five the row in the Upstate from noon until
three o'clock, and he's here with us almost every Monday
to talk about your Clemson Tigers. We got a break
coming up. We'll jump into a little bit more from
our time with Qualk, plus an hour number two. Don't
forget Will Van Dervoort joins the program from the Clemson Insider.

(26:57):
Qualk actually used to write back in the day for
the Clemson Insider. Now those guys over there, Jason Priester
and Gavin Oliver and of course will Van Dervart holding
it down for t C. I. We'll talk with willye
v coming up in our number two, But first we'll
jump back into a little bit more from our time
with William Walkin Bush rehashing the Clemson baseball season with

(27:18):
you as it came to a conclusion this past weekend
and today, of course, college baseball underway as Super Regional
play kicks off in four of the eight destinations for
all game. Back out of the show the Shakes to
south Land Clemson Sports tll don't forget about our friends
in Alumni Hall on the corner of campus on College
Avenue of downtown Clemson. It's Alumni Hall. Get all your

(27:42):
officially licensed Clemson merchandise, including hats, t shirts, tailgate gear
and more. Don't forget to ask about their Alumni Hall
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store and Clemson students faculty in all military received ten
percent off at Alumni Hall. Go check them out today.
It's a night hall where Tiger fans shop.

Speaker 3 (28:03):
All right.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
We were listening to some of our time with Quak
on Monday. We'll jump back into back and I asked
Quaalk about some of the frustrations that Clemson fans had
about this team, and you know, it was a fair
point that they had a lot of injuries, especially in
that pitching staff. Here's what what are your thoughts? Like,
I don't look at Eric backittch and get this mony
Lee two point zero thing that everybody wants to talk about.

(28:26):
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 last time he had a
really clutch play or a bomb or a hit that

(28:47):
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, Qualk, I mean, do you put this on
Eric Backage?

Speaker 3 (29:01):
I mean, I think to some degree you have to, right,
I mean, this is the second time in three years
Clemson boss the one to zer game at the Hall.
But but I know the crowd's not gonna be as big
for a game that they weren't expecting to be at.
I understand that. Remember it was Charlotte in his first
season where remember famously he threw Ty ollenschuck in the
game as the pitcher d H and he you know,

(29:22):
it was the first time Oland Chuck had ever hit
and because you know, Candarella 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, the same thing. It was not the same
that Tennessee game. You could totally see the human nature
of there's no way we can muster up enough energy

(29:43):
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. Uh 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, 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

(30:05):
on the mound you didn't have your best player in
Canderella out of the game. You weren't having to 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 because you lost the night
before to West Virginia. You like that, 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

(30:26):
the pitching side, Yeah, I mean, 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.
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

(30:48):
a great portal class in each of the first two seasons.
From Eric Becketts, 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 sam coming off an injury, was
not very good, Hudson Lee, Timany Walks. On the pitching side,
Kissing Birth out for the year. The returns I got
on Kissing birth early were that he was going to

(31:09):
be a nightmare in the bullpen. And I know his
numbers didn't look great at the Citadel, but I'm again,
I'm trusting.

Speaker 4 (31:14):
What I'm being told.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
There.

Speaker 3 (31:15):
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 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

(31:37):
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, for sure people get Drew Titsworth
for sure was better this year. Aiden Kannock, I think
had some girling pains.

Speaker 4 (31:52):
He added two pitches in the offseason.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
I think people have totally misunderstood that situation. I think
Kannack 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, uh, 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

(32:16):
just 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, Swannie if BJ Bailey doesn't come and rescue
you in the rotation Ethan Darden gets hurt all of
a sudden, You're just justin le Gernick wasn't very good.

(32:38):
But 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.

(32:58):
The other thing that I would say, we didn't talk
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 nineteen, they're twenty. They're still going through the maturation process.

(33:22):
People were patient with Jack Chrst. Remember this. I mean
you had the Jack krichtenbrigade out there Swannee that's online
saying Krichton ought to play every day.

Speaker 4 (33:29):
Let's give him some time, let's be patient with him, whatever.

Speaker 3 (33:31):
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 Payno. You lead the
world in strikeouts as a glove first player who committed

(33:52):
an error in Saturday's game, striking out every time. 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
brought in.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
So there you go. That's our time with William Qualkinbush
he felt like the expectations should have been a little
bit lower for some of those young guys that Clemson
brought in via the transfer portal. And again, they've made
some moves already since qualk and I talked from the
portal from the standpoint of a couple of pitchers that
they brought in, and again, it's hard to keep up
with everything. And not to mention, you know, I always

(34:28):
think about back in the day when you had that
kind of that catfishing scam. I think that's what it
was with recruiting, where there was a fake recruit that's
out there well now with the number of people that
could exist via the portal, I'm always a little bit
leery of tweets that come out until I really do
some due diligence, especially on a guy that I don't know,

(34:48):
like when you're talking about the top rated football recruits
in the country, that's one thing. When you're talking about
a random kid that's coming from another school, I always
wanted to dig in to make sure it's real. Anyway,
final segment of our one. Right around the I'm tiring
final segment of our number one, Clemson Sports started to

(35:10):
show the shakes to south Land again. College baseball Super
Regional play taking place today, North Carolina putting the smoke
job on Arizona earlier. Other matchups coming up and underway,
currently Miami and Louisville all ACC There's also an all

(35:33):
SEC matchup, remember the matchup between Arkansas and Tennessee. Tennessee
the reigning champions, Arkansas the betting favorite to win the
national championship, but Miami and Louisville underway. You've also got
at six o'clock tonight Oregon State and FSU In about
an hour they'll get started out in court Vallas on

(35:55):
ESPN two, and then tonight Auburn and Coastal Carolina at
nine o'clock. That game's on the ESPN two. It looks
like all three games today on ESPN two. Exculd me
be all four games today on ESPN. Two Tonight on
True TV, Florida and Edmonton get underway at eight o'clock

(36:15):
Game two in the Stanley Cup Finals. Edmonton leads that
series one game to none. But let's talk about the NBA,
because I said yesterday that the betting public liked Indiana
even though even though Oklahoma City at home was favored
by nine and a half and the Oklahoma City Thunder

(36:35):
had only lost one game all season to a team
from the Eastern Conference, and the Oklahoma City Thunder had
walloped the Pacers in one matchup earlier this year and
beat them in the second matchup, and ty Reese Halliburton
Tyrese Haliburton with a game winner with point three seconds left.

(36:56):
It was the latest game winner in the NBA Finals
since my Michael Jordan's walk off winner against Utah back
in nineteen ninety eight. Halliburton finishing that ballgame. And I
think the most interesting piece about it, we listened to
William Qualkinbush earlier on Twitter. The Thunder were doing exactly

(37:20):
what I expected they would do. They were controlling that game,
and at one point William Qualkinbush tweeted, you know, just
keep this game at about ten and finish it. And
that's the way it was. As a matter of fact,
the Pacers did not lead in that game until point
three seconds remained, but give them credit for closing out

(37:43):
the fourth quarter. They were down ten when the fourth
quarter started. Every time they would make a run, it
seemed like Oklahoma City would answer until the final moments
of that game. And there was a ball that went
out of bounds off of Siakam's hand with about twenty
ah man twenty two seconds left, something like that, I

(38:05):
believe it was. And I was thinking that with the
possession change, and this is why the NBA has got
some rules that are different, why Basketball's got some new
rules across the board to try to make late game
situations more interesting. I was thinking, Okay, that's going to
be Oklahoma City ball. With a twenty four second shot clock,

(38:28):
They'll be able to run out the clock. Indiana's gonna
have to foul, and I thought that was going to
be the game, you know, game over. But then the
shot clock only reset to fifteen because it was still
Oklahoma City possession, which meant the Thunder had to shoot
the ball. They did. Shake Gilgis Alec Xander, who scored

(38:50):
thirty eight points in the game, missed a you know,
a reasonably well defended jumper just outside of the lane.
The Pacers got the rebound, pushed up the floor, and
Tyrese Haliburton took the game winner. That's what his MO
has been in this playoffs. It's never say die attitude.

(39:13):
The Pacers never feel like they're out of any ball games.
And it was a huge moment in the series. But
it's not the first time Oklahoma City lost the game
at home in the in the playoffs because they lost
their home open. They lost their home opener to Denver

(39:33):
as well. I still think Oklahoma City is the best team.
I honestly, I still think Oklahoma City is going to
win this series. But man, what a moment for Indiana
and Indiana Pacer fans. Here's what it sounded like on ABC.
Not an easy spot on the floor to try to
inbound it from Mike.

Speaker 3 (39:55):
That's ga has.

Speaker 5 (39:56):
It is about a nine second different shot blotching game
flock Kildas Alexander Spins pulls up jumper, Afflamark won't go
rebound Niemann.

Speaker 6 (40:09):
The Patients will a chance to win it final seconds,
no fouls to do. Haliburton looking, Haliburton driving, pulls up
jump shot, HiT's gone with three tons of a second
remaining time out. Okay, see Tyres, Halliburton does it again.

Speaker 2 (40:29):
And people are saying, what the Halliburton is going on
around here? What a closing act? With a final moment,
the Indiana Pacers outscore the Oklahoma City Thunder thirty five
to twenty five in the fourth quarter and come away
with a one to eleven one ten win, a stunning

(40:50):
opening to this series in front of eighteen thousand, two
hundred and three fans in Oklahoma City. Game two will
be on Sunday on ABC. And if there's anything to
hate about the NBA Playoffs, and some of you say, yeah,
it's the NBA Playoffs, Game two, eight o'clock on Sunday.

(41:13):
My beef with it is how long it takes. Game
one was played yesterday, June the fifth. If they go
seven games, it'll be June the twenty second, Like, that's
that's unreasonable. There's there is no reason that the NBA Playoffs,

(41:34):
or excuse me, the NBA Finals should take two and
a half weeks to play. That's that cannot be the
norm when I was a kid. There's no chance, no
chance it took that long. As a matter of fact,
let me look up. Let me see if I can
find the dates of like a seven game series from

(41:56):
the eighties. At least it didn't feel that way. All right,
here we go. I was wrong. Seven Games nineteen eighty
four Lakers Celtics began on May twenty seventh and ended
on June the twelfth. You've gotta be kidding me. These
series have always been this long. I had no idea.

(42:18):
Will Vandimore joins us around the bing keep it locked
loss bit each time Clipson Sports Talk with Luton Schwan
to me, Swanny, it is our number two. That's drivetime

(43:09):
rater on the show. The shakesare Southland Clemson sports hellons.
Why I'm with you on a Friday afternoon. Will Van Derbort,
the Clemson Insider, joins us around the bend again. Thank
you for being a part of the program, and don't
forget the show that shakesas south Land brought you in
part by our good friends over at Mets Plumbing. Seven
three to drip, Drip, Drip drip. You know the jingle

(43:29):
seventh three to two drip that's Mets Plumbing, mets Plumbing
dot com. That's the website. All right, Will Van Derbort,
what's up, willye b How are you? My man?

Speaker 1 (43:39):
Man?

Speaker 4 (43:40):
I'm doing good man, how are you doing?

Speaker 2 (43:41):
I'm great, I'm great. Happy Friday, Happy super Regional Friday.
A lot of super regional baseball going on. We'll certainly
talk baseball here with Will Vandibort today from the Clemson Insider.
We'll talk softball and a little bit of Tiger football,
but let's start with the baseball front since there are
super regional games underway, and certainly Clempson not a part
of that. Another disappointing finish falling in a home regional,

(44:07):
will Win's Clemson finally gonna get that monkey off their back?
I know they've been to the super regional once since
twenty ten, but when are they gonna punch in that
Omaha ticket again?

Speaker 1 (44:17):
You know, as I asked Eric at the the after
they lost to Kentucky in the post game presh conference,
you know what is it going to take to get
to pill them where he wants it to be and
that means Omaha and how they're gonna, you know, build
this roster to get to where they need to be,
and he says it's simple. They need to get high

(44:39):
leverage pitchers, and they need to get they need to
be continue to be getting better guys at the plate
that can hit with power, can but also can hit
for average, and so basically what it means is he's
got to get better players. He mentioned I the reason
they went to the National Championship Series when he was

(44:59):
at MISSI again was because they had a top three
pick in a pitcher. They had two first round draft picks,
and they had three you know.

Speaker 4 (45:09):
Guys that were taken by at least the third round.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
Okay, right, there's those are high leverage guys right that
they he just mentioned he doesn't have that, Aquinison. He
had one guy, Cam Canerello.

Speaker 4 (45:20):
That's all he had.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
That's the guy.

Speaker 4 (45:21):
Now, maybe a couple of guys will get drafted, but.

Speaker 1 (45:23):
Cam's gonna be the only first round pick to have
and the other guys aren't even gonna be in the
top seven rounds probably. So that's the problem. They just
right now don't have the talent in place. And the
thing that really stood out to me the most was
an earlier question he answered was he pointed to the
roster and said, when you look at this lineup, he says,

(45:47):
you don't see forty five wins.

Speaker 4 (45:50):
And he's right.

Speaker 1 (45:51):
When you look at that lineup and that roster, you
did not see forty five wins on it.

Speaker 4 (45:56):
But somehow they.

Speaker 1 (45:57):
Found a way to win forty five games. Well, why
is that? I think Eric back is in his coaching
staff is why that is. I think they give you
so many wins just because of how good they are
as coaches. Now, definitely how great he is as the
head coach, or he wouldn't have played for a national
championship if he didn't know how to coach right. But
also you got to have the Jimmys and Joe's. He
knows that as well as anybody. And that's going to

(46:19):
be the key thing for Clemson in this offseason is
they got to improve that recruiting class, which currently is
right number twenty three in the country. And then they
if they can't improve that that, they got to find
a way to bring in some especially pitchers. They got
to come in and find a way to bring in
some high leverage guys that can that can really help
that pitching staff, because that's been the issue now man,

(46:40):
let's just call it like it is. That's been an
issue for almost fifteen years now. Clemson just has not
had great starting pitching in so long now, it's ridiculous.
I can't even mention remember when they had three? They
had three? All three weekends answered for I mean, maybe
go back to Jack Legott's twenty eleven teens. That might

(47:04):
be the last time I remember where Clinton had three
weekend pictures.

Speaker 2 (47:07):
Will van derbort With was here from the Clemson Insider.
I'll take it. I guess one step further with this
baseball conversation, Will, and then we can shift off of it.
When you kind of look at the state of the program,
you know, there's people that have gotten very critical, very
quickly of Eric Becketch. How surprised are you of that

(47:28):
given what he was able to achieve at Michigan as
you talked about, and then ultimately the fact that it
is such a short window that he's really had.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
Yeah, that surprises me a little bit because it's only
been three years, and it's not like he came into
Clemson with a full cover, right, I mean I just
mentioned you know, Cam Canerella, maybe Caden Grice a couple
of years ago and then last.

Speaker 4 (47:57):
Year obviously they had Blake Wright.

Speaker 1 (48:00):
Well that's about it. That's really the big players he's
had right the last these three years. And so they're
you know, they just don't have the talent yet at Cmeson.
That's something he's trying to get in place. And so
if I'm if I'm talking to the Clemson fans, I'm
telling you need to be patient. That's what you have
to be right now. You can't you can't expect this

(48:22):
guy to get you to Omaha immediately. And also pay
attention to what he's done with the lack of talent
that's been in place at Clemson.

Speaker 4 (48:30):
Yet he's still.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
Won forty plus games every year. And Clemson is one
of only three teams in the country that has hosted
a regional all three years three only three. That's amazing statistic.
Only three teams have hosted a regional three consecutive years now.

Speaker 4 (48:45):
So that tells you the parody in college baseball probably.

Speaker 1 (48:48):
Higher than it's ever been. And you're you got one
that's showing consistency winning forty five games a year, you know,
played in a Super regional last year. They're they're getting
they're closer than you say, be patient with Eric, because
Eric has proven he's a good head coach, a great
head coach. He's proven that at Clemson because if you
look at the rosters these last three years and their

(49:09):
issues were starting pitching on the weekends. They shouldn't win
forty five games. They really shouldn't. There's this team should
not be a forty five game winning team, but yes
they are. Three consecutive years they've won forty plus games.
They've also got an ACC championship in there. They've hosted
a regional every single year, and they've won a they've

(49:31):
advanced to a Super Regional, which hadn't happened at Clemson
end forever. So I think he's the man for the job.
I think if you're Clemson saying you need to stop
complaining about him coaching and you need to start helping
him get the ball players in here, he can get
because guess what you can do that now it's legal
now in college athletics. The fans can help get the

(49:51):
ballplayers in and they need to start supporting this program.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
I'm gonna be honest with you with us here all
the program today. All right, Well, let's shift gears to
say off ball tonight, the National Championship final game between
Texas and Texas Tech. That's significant because if Texas wins,
which I think most of America is rooting against Texas.
If Texas wins, I don't mean back to back seasons

(50:14):
the Clypson Tiger softball team was eliminated by the eventual
national champion. They had Texas. They win game one, you know,
the long Wards had to win back to back games
to get out of that series. In advance your thoughts,
I guess i'd ask you your thoughts on the state
of the Clemson softball program kind of given its infancy

(50:35):
in the job they've done the past few years.

Speaker 1 (50:38):
If this happened to let's say Texas wins to night,
and I think Texas can even that picture. For Texas Tech,
she is unbelievab dude.

Speaker 2 (50:45):
She just signed a new seven figure deal with Texas Tech.
So I guess she's gonna come back and play for
another MILLI.

Speaker 1 (50:51):
Yeah, why not, you know, And good for her to
be able to cash in and get that opportunity. But yeah,
you know, Texas's I think they got a good chance
to win this game tonight, and then when Mark the
second time in three years, Clinton was eliminated by the
eventual national champion. They lost two years ago to Oklahoma
and a game that went into extra innings that Clemson

(51:14):
actually was one strike away from winning and forcing the
game three and that Super Regional. So yeah, Clinton has
been closed, man. And you know they think they they
can eventually get to that position and get to Omaha,
excuse me, get to Oklahoma City, and you know.

Speaker 4 (51:30):
I think they're closed. I think they were really close
this year.

Speaker 1 (51:32):
As we know. You can make an argument Clemson probably
was the better team, and that tells me if Clemson
had played had figured a way to get that run
across when they were sixty feet away.

Speaker 4 (51:43):
Yeah, I think Clemson might be.

Speaker 1 (51:45):
Sitting in this same situation as Texas because they would
have been in.

Speaker 4 (51:48):
The same bracket, they would have beaten Texas, and we've
seen what Texas has.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
Done in this tournament so far. That was their first
loss in the College World Series last night. So I
was Clemson.

Speaker 4 (52:00):
Would be in position to be where Texas is right now.

Speaker 1 (52:03):
If they were able to get there, because they went
toe to toe with Texas and I fought with a
better team for the three games.

Speaker 4 (52:08):
They just you know, booted.

Speaker 1 (52:10):
The ball round in key moments and it cost them.
And that's where Texas is different than Clemson because you
take advantage of those opportunities when you get them. Clemson
did not, obviously in that second game, and that's why
Clinton went home a little early. But coach Ritman has
done a great job with this program. He's built it
from scratch. They penned check out these numbers. They've been

(52:32):
in existence for six years, but they've only been able
to play because of COVID, only been able to play
in five NCAA tournaments. So they played in all five
NCAA tournaments that they could play in and they've gone
to three Super Regionals.

Speaker 4 (52:46):
In those five years. That's pretty dog gone good.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
And you came within sixty feet of going to your
first College World Series.

Speaker 4 (52:53):
I don't know there's many programs in.

Speaker 1 (52:54):
The country that had that kind of track record when
they just start, and that just tells you the job
he's done. And also, and I said this before in
your show, those girls, that team just the closest unit
that I've ever been around associated with that's going to football,
men's basketball, and baseball as well. That was the closest

(53:15):
knitted team that I've ever been around, and that's why
they were able to do the things they accomplished this year.
And I think if they can have that same culture
next year and leave the egos at the door like
they did this year, they'll have a chance to do
this again or maybe even get top on the city
next year.

Speaker 2 (53:32):
Will Van Dervoort joined us here from the Clemson Insider.
All right, Will, I know Dabosweny's camps underway, but most
people still want to focus obviously on the upcoming season.
And I put an article up on Clemsons sports tall
dot com about CJ. Spiller. I feel like this is
kind of a money year for Spiller, a little bit
like I think maybe last year was for Tyler Grishaman.

(53:53):
Grisham's group came out and performed, and I think CJ.
Spiller's got to have a big year. From aw, what
would you say? Under uh Man? What's the right word
I'm looking for here? Will? And on the unknown group,
I think that might be the best way to put it.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
Yeah, that's it is an unknown group. I mean, outside
of Cleinson, nobody knows anything about these running backs. Right,
But if you if you follow the program enough, you
know there is potential talent there.

Speaker 3 (54:23):
Now.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
I know I'm using that P word and that P
word people don't like to hear, but Gideon Davison is
potentially you know, listen, I'm just gonna tell you this.
We had players coming and telling us about Gideon Davison. Now,
coaches players always pay attention to that in press conferences.

(54:44):
When you see players talking to the media, if they
bring up a player on their own, well we don't
have to ask about them or anything like that. If
they just bring up a player like Kate club Nick did,
and like you saw. I believe Tyler Brown brought them up.
I believe Antonio we Ms brought him up. You know,
even defensive players brought up Gideon Davis's name and talked

(55:06):
about how explosive he is and how good he is,
and that, you know, he's a guy that they think
could be a difference maker kind of guy that's pretty big. Now,
that doesn't mean he's gonna start the year because me
and you both know, Dad both Sweeney doesn't start necessarily
true freshmen right out of the gate, right. We know
that when Travis Etien didn't start right out of the
gate and running back. There's a lot of things you

(55:27):
gotta do and they got to trust you. So he's
still got some work to do in Paul camp. But
from what I've heard and then talking to the players, Uh.

Speaker 4 (55:37):
He's got a chance to be really good.

Speaker 1 (55:38):
This sounds like. And then we got to hear what
happens with you know here, Adam Randall had a very
good campus first spring at running back. You know we
we we heard about David helped me help me a
lot and say, yeah, there you go.

Speaker 7 (55:54):
Or easy or easy as as that boat calls him easy,
that's what Dabo calls him. Uh, you know, he's had
a he had a very good spring, and I think
he moved himself up the depth chart.

Speaker 1 (56:05):
You got a couple other guys. You know, Jay Hayes
is coming back off injury.

Speaker 4 (56:09):
How is he gonna be?

Speaker 1 (56:11):
You got Green who really showed himself in the Texas game,
right that touchdown pass he caught from Kate club Nick
down the scene. He played well in the postseason. You know,
is he a guy that So there's there's numbers there.
I'll tell you what I was surprised about, And I
said this on another show yesterday. I was surprised none

(56:32):
of the running backs left in the spring. Tell me
if you were not surprised by that. I was really
surprised that not in one single those running backs left.
There's six deeperent running back going into Paul Camp right now.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
Yeah, No, I think you know, if I was looking
at a guy that I thought might would leave, it
might be Keith Adams Junior. But maybe being you know,
seeing his father play at Clemson, maybe that pedigrees he
just proud to be there. I don't know, but yeah,
I think it's a good point you make because there
are a lot of guys there in the fold, and
we'll see. I called it a money ear for CJ. Spiller.

(57:05):
We'll see how things all play out there.

Speaker 1 (57:08):
Now.

Speaker 2 (57:08):
The other thing, the other reason that I kind of
got down that narrative about CJ is the fact that
you know, Dabosweeney made a move after hiring Thomas Austin
and kind of realizing even though there's, hey, these guys
on the offensive line this year, guys Thomas Austin recruited
I think across the board. But either way, you know,
I think Dabosweeny knew they had to get a little
tougher upfront. They had to get a little more technical upfront.

(57:31):
He went out and he got a better offensive line
coach than Matt Luke. And then you see the returns
on the recruiting trail Matt Luke would putting together, you know,
maybe the best offensive line haul Clemson's ever had. Now, again,
all of this has to hold to the twenty twenty
six signing day, but I will say this is looking
like quite a group of guys up front for Matt Luke.

Speaker 4 (57:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:54):
First of all, Matt Luke, we knew right his background,
go back and look at his time at Old Miss
like the guys and recruit offensive lineman. It's just that's
what he does at Georgia.

Speaker 4 (58:04):
Look what he did at Georgia.

Speaker 1 (58:05):
You know, it wasn't just because Georgia has had and
Georgia has its pedigree and it's known for being offensive
line new if you will, But he took it to
another level with those guys. Because look how many of
those guys are playing.

Speaker 4 (58:16):
In the NFL that he recruited at Georgia.

Speaker 1 (58:19):
And so yeah, I'm not surprised at all that he's
recruiting at the level he is. And then he's a
great coach on top of it, if you watch him coach,
you understand that immediately you can tell who is a
really good coach and who isn't. To me, I can
tell within minutes of watching him. Now, that's because I've

(58:41):
been around good coaches for a long time. It's it's
easy for me to recognize that. But you know, it's
he's a guy Like immediately when I saw him, I'm like, dang,
that guy's a good coach.

Speaker 4 (58:52):
This guy is different, you know, He's just different. And
so he's, without a doubt, one.

Speaker 1 (58:57):
Of Dabos Sweeney's top three. You know, you put him
up there, I think with I think without a doubt
you put him up there with Chad Morris hiring and
the BRN vinnibles hiring. I think, you know, he's up
there with Dan Brooks when Davo brought Dan Brooks in
when he first got the job, the coaches defensive tackles,
you know, I think that's where he's at in that

(59:20):
window of coach coaching resume pedigree for assistant coaches that
Davo has brought in, and it is so no surprise
he is doing what he's doing now, you know, we'll see,
Like you know, obviously, like you said, the verdicts out
on a guy like c J. Spiller, the verdict is
out on Tyler Grisham. But we saw last year finally,

(59:43):
you know, he showed he can recruit at a high
level and you saw that group get better, right as
a position grow. Yeah, and uh, and so that's.

Speaker 4 (59:52):
Kind of where you're at with CJ. And a lot
of people are at with c J. It's the same thing.
And so you know, if it doesn't work out, then
what is that.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
Well, I think Dabo has shown he'll make a change
if he thinks he needs to make a change, showed
that with a couple of people in recent years that
he's done with Wes Goodwin, with Thomas Austin as you mentioned.

Speaker 4 (01:00:12):
So we'll see what happens. But without a doubt, Matt
luke Man, I'm gonna tell you what he's He's a
hell of a recruiter, excuse my French. And he is
one heck of a dawn football coach as well.

Speaker 1 (01:00:24):
And that's a great marriage to have a guy who
can recruit at a high level but can also coach
at a high level, because sometimes you don't get that
you get a guy who's a real darn good recruiter,
but maybe not the great position coach.

Speaker 4 (01:00:35):
Right this, Matt Luke could do it both. He caned
both this as well.

Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
I noted that when his son got an offer from Clemson,
his first P four offer, there weren't many people fussing
about it. Everybody just wants to keep Matt Luke happy.

Speaker 4 (01:00:51):
Yeah, yeah, you be stupid if you do.

Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
I mean, I'm sure there's probably one or two guys
sitting in their basement that are probably complaining. I mean,
those guys are out there.

Speaker 4 (01:01:01):
You can find them somewhere.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
I'm sure.

Speaker 4 (01:01:02):
Like you know, oh, here goes Dono.

Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
Again on the football team. You know, but you're stupid
if you don't like why would you want him to
want to have to go somewhere else, like either retire
earlier then he wants to or something because he wants
to watch his kids play. Why would you If you
can get him at Clemson and you think he's a
good player, why not do it and then keep your

(01:01:24):
guy who's bringing in these high level recruits. You know,
that's bringing in these like you just mentioned, probably the
best recruiting class offensive lineman we've ever seen at Clinton.
You know why the world you're not going to because
you don't want that guy to go anywhere. You want
to keep him at Clemson as long as.

Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
You can, no doubt about it. Will Van der Voort
go follow his work on the Clemson Insider dot com
will it b have a great weekend, my man, Hi.

Speaker 4 (01:01:50):
Lone, Thanks having me, buddy.

Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
I'll talk to you next time.

Speaker 2 (01:01:52):
There you go, Will van Deibort here on a Friday
afternoon eight O three four five O zero zero eighty
six text line, phone line again, be a part of
the program anytime, any place, anywhere on our website, Clempsonsports
Saul dot com. We're going to try to put more
content over there from the show as well in articles.

(01:02:13):
Hoping to do that as we moved through the summer
and into fall. All right, quick break, we'll come in them, Clay.
When they made Clemson Sports, saw the show The Shakes
of south Land on a Friday afternoon, super regional play
underway across the country. We'll give you a rundown on
all of the games, but earlier I was watching North
Carolina and Arizona. The tar Heels were up big when

(01:02:36):
I had it on I think they were like eight
to one at the end of three innings. I think
it was ten to two the last time I looked
over at it. But in that game, they had a play,
kind of a bang bang play at first base, and
you know, they've got that new bag off to the side,
kind of the safety bag that the player can run

(01:02:57):
to that allows players and first baseman not to collide
at the bag. Kind of a safety deal that was
put in place. You know, at Clemson that bag is orange.
And I remember Clemson's softball a few years ago. The

(01:03:20):
first time I saw it, college softball had a safety bag,
but I don't think they had the safety bag this year.
I think they did, like as a maybe as a
test a couple of years ago. But I think this

(01:03:43):
safety bag is something that's a pretty smart thing to have.
I'm just shocked that Clemson can have theirs be orange.
Looking it up, I saw that in softball the safety
bag is optional. What's interesting is that, according to what

(01:04:08):
I found, the safety bag in softball is supposed to
be orange, which is perfect for Clemson. But I don't
know why the safety bag then in North Carolina would
be green. But that's baseball, so maybe baseball, you can
have it whatever color you want. But if that's the case,

(01:04:32):
why wouldn't North Carolina have it in Carolina blue or
even that darker shade of blue that North Carolina has.
I would think Carolina blue would be the color they
would want, But kind of surprising they're watching that. And
again with the NCAA Super Regional play underway, two ACC

(01:04:58):
schools in Miami and Louisville facing off three pm on
ESPN two. That got underway, Florida State and Oregon State
tonight at six o'clock on ESPN two out in Courtallas,
and then at nine o'clock in Auburn. It'll be the
Auburn Tigers in the Coastal Carolina Chanticlears on ESPN two.

(01:05:24):
Then tomorrow, I mean it's it is a loaded slate,
beginning at eleven am with Game two of Miami and
Louisville on ESPN, Game two of Arizona and North Carolina
at noon on the ESPN two, Game one between Duke

(01:05:45):
and Murray State at one o'clock on ESPNU, Game one
of LSU versus West Virginia at two o'clock on ESPN,
Game two of Auburn and Coast to Carolina at three
o'clock on ESPN two, Game one of Arkansas and Tennessee

(01:06:07):
at five o'clock, Game one of you sal A and
University of Texas San Antonio at seven tomorrow. In Game
two of Florida State and Oregon State the nightcap tomorrow
at nine pm. And I think as difficult as it
is to bounce back from losing game two at home

(01:06:33):
in a regional, I think the other thing that's probably
the most jarring, one of the most jarring things in
college baseball is if you go to and barbecue at
your superregional. That especially, like if you think about it
from the standpoint of Louisville and Miami, who are just

(01:06:58):
underway their season. If whoever loses today's game, their season
could be over by this time tomorrow, will be over
by this time tomorrow. I mean, unless you got some
kind of ungodly extra inning matchup. I mean, in a

(01:07:25):
blink less than twenty four hours, the season is cooked
for the team if they whoever it is, it loses twice.
Now there's the possibility of a game three, obviously in
all of these series, but I mean it is a
bang bang, there's no break in between. There's no day off,
no day away. It's two days and done. All right.

(01:07:46):
Speaking of being done college softball, it all ends tonight.
As last night Texas Tech beat Texas in Game two,
four to three, certainly feels like the Red Raiders should
be the national champions. The mistake that Nija Canaday made

(01:08:10):
trying to walk a Longhorn in the bottom of the
sixth inning, throwing them ball over the plate a two
run shot. The two run double lifted the longhornse to victory.
Well I mentioned this was with Will Van Derboort just
a little bit ago. Nija Canaday, who was already the
first million dollar player in softball history, now becomes the second,

(01:08:35):
as she signed another seven figure deal with the Mattador
Club the Red Raiders collective. Canaday, who I'm assuming is
going to be pitching tonight again, Texas has had two
games to see her the full length. You know, if

(01:08:57):
I was Texas Tech, you know, I'm sure you given
her talent, that she's well prepared to go another seven innings.
She was a first team All American third consecutive year
that she's done that. But I would venture to guess

(01:09:21):
that they're going to run her out there from the
jump and not even risk it, but kind of given
given her stature in the amount she's pitched, maybe you
do try to get an inning or two out of
a backup and preserve her for the final five or
something like that, you know what I mean. I don't know.

(01:09:41):
We'll see how it all shakes out again. The final
game of the Women's College World Series, the National Championship, tonight,
eight o'clock on ESPN. Recruiting on Fire in Tigertown. We'll
touch on the eighth Clemson sportstal Law and the Swan
hanging out with you on a Friday afternoon. I said
we were gonna talk a little bit of recruiting in
this segment. We'll back that up just a little bit

(01:10:03):
because on the guest line, Double O gave us a call.
Double Oh, welcome in man. Hadn't heard from me a while.
How you been, brother, been wonderful.

Speaker 1 (01:10:14):
Everything's beautiful. It's a beautiful day in my neighborhood. How
about yours?

Speaker 2 (01:10:19):
Okay, mister Rogers, I hear you.

Speaker 1 (01:10:25):
What hey don't We don't need any dead air right now.
You need to talk. You're the you're the host, I'm
the listener.

Speaker 2 (01:10:32):
Yeah, well, I mean you just said it's a beautiful
day in the neighborhood. I was, I'm thinking Fred Rogers,
it's a beautiful day for a neighbor would you be.

Speaker 1 (01:10:40):
To talk about Fred?

Speaker 3 (01:10:41):
Though?

Speaker 1 (01:10:42):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:10:43):
Well, what you want to talk about today, be guy?

Speaker 1 (01:10:46):
Well, how why did you? Why'd you let my boys
choke on the baseball team? Why they why couldn't they
get to get to J O B D O N E.

Speaker 2 (01:10:56):
I don't have much control over it. I just report
on it. If I if I had control, double your
clips of Tigers would be playing today during some of
these super regionals.

Speaker 1 (01:11:09):
That's they They have enough talent they should be playing today.
But they act like David want to play ball there
at the end of the year. So that's what happens
when you'd like you don't want to play and you're
two goods. So that's what happened.

Speaker 2 (01:11:24):
Well, I you know, I think there's a lot of
people out there. We talked with will Van Dervoord. I
don't know if you were listening earlier, but we talked
with him about it, and you know, he just feels
like pitching depth across the board is the big key.
While Aidon Kinnock is really good and Drew Titsworth is
Let me say, Aiden Konnock is great, Drew Tittsworth is

(01:11:44):
a good pitcher. Clipson doesn't really have that three day
rotation that you need each and every weekend, and that's
been a bugaboo for this team for a while.

Speaker 1 (01:11:54):
I agree, you've got to have more better pitching can
make it through the playoffs that are going on right now.
We had one good picture, right.

Speaker 2 (01:12:08):
Good the great. Yeah, I think Aiden Cannock's the best
picture on the staff. I know you like Lucas Mawstead
right the Submariner.

Speaker 1 (01:12:17):
Yes, I think those two are the best. And then
after that you don't have you have. It goes down
to about average, and then I don't think we have
a bullpen of much and nothing there.

Speaker 2 (01:12:29):
Yeah, I mean, you know mostead. I think halfway through
the year, I think with twenty some odd games left,
timber Ray said yesterday had tied or was one short
of the Clemson mark all time with saves. But the
problem is you have to get to him, you know,
And you had to get to the late seventh eighth
inning to get him in there. And even still at

(01:12:50):
the end of the year. You know, I don't know
if team's caught up with him or what, but he
gave up a couple of big hits in Friday's game.
I guess that was Friday's game against against USC Upstate
and then Saturday against West Virginia. I mean, the end
of the season for Mastead was not indicative of his numbers.
But yeah, I know, it's just frustrating.

Speaker 1 (01:13:11):
Oh, he had several blown slip boy, he blue shades.

Speaker 2 (01:13:15):
Yeah, he has games and he blew.

Speaker 1 (01:13:18):
Two or three album yes, right, yeah, sure?

Speaker 3 (01:13:22):
Did?

Speaker 2 (01:13:24):
Well? What else is?

Speaker 1 (01:13:26):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:13:26):
What else is going on with you?

Speaker 1 (01:13:29):
How come they gave b b a extension? They gave
you how many more years? Man?

Speaker 3 (01:13:35):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:13:35):
I think the extension through twenty thirty one? Maybe. I mean, yeah, look,
I know you don't like Brad bro now, I get it,
But he's the most successful head coach Clemson's ever had.

Speaker 1 (01:13:49):
Stop it.

Speaker 3 (01:13:53):
He's not.

Speaker 1 (01:13:53):
Listen, buddy, I can't think of the guy's name right now,
but he coaches for tech Rick Barnes, He's not. He
might have a better record than Rick Barnes, but he's
not a goodest coaches Rick Barnes.

Speaker 2 (01:14:06):
That might be you know, that's a debatable point you make.
That's a debatable point. I was there double o during
Rick Barnes' years. I mean, I love those seasons, but yeah,
I like that coach. Let me ask you this, though,
would you rather have a guy that's really good that

(01:14:28):
doesn't want to be there, that leaves like Rick Barnes did,
or guy like Brad Brownell who's doing a good job
got you to the Elite eight just a couple of
years ago. I know this year it was disappointing in
the NCAA Tournament with the way things finish. But he's
the winningest coach in Clemson history and he wants to

(01:14:49):
be there. That's probably the most significant thing.

Speaker 4 (01:14:52):
I know.

Speaker 1 (01:14:53):
You like him, Longton and I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:14:56):
I've fired him. I've fired him four times.

Speaker 1 (01:15:00):
Come back next year? What does he have?

Speaker 2 (01:15:03):
Okay? Or next now, that's fair.

Speaker 1 (01:15:07):
Next season? Please tell me who's gonna play.

Speaker 2 (01:15:09):
For Okay, that's dad is a fair point. I think
it's gonna be a pretty I will not say it's
gonna be a rough year, but I think it's gonna
be a very interesting year for Brad Bright now in
Clemson because it's kind of like the Clemson running back room,
Double O. Quite frankly, it's a lot of unknowns, a
lot of uncertainty.

Speaker 1 (01:15:31):
I don't think we're gonna have a problem with the
running back in football.

Speaker 2 (01:15:38):
Well, I think that's well, that's fine. But the bigger
point is, I think the basketball team's a little bit
like the running back room, and there's just a lot
of unknowns.

Speaker 1 (01:15:50):
They're they're gonna have a losing season. I don't they
might break even, but I think they're gonna have a
losing season. I think they'll lose a couple of more.
They'll have a couple of more losses than they will win.
This is what I'm saying to you.

Speaker 2 (01:16:07):
Might be right, Double Oh. Hey, I hate to cut
you off. It's great to hear from you, but I
get a break man.

Speaker 4 (01:16:13):
You love to cut me off.

Speaker 2 (01:16:14):
No, no, I hate to cut you off. Double Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:16:19):
Well, just just put add it to my contract that
I you owe me a few extra dollars for this
time that you're cutting me off, that you paid me
to be on here for another ten minutes.

Speaker 2 (01:16:29):
Well, the way I see it, you get a little
extra time to go fishing, and that's always a good thing.

Speaker 1 (01:16:34):
I'm going to catch a bass right now.

Speaker 2 (01:16:37):
Talk to you soon. Double oh, adios of megos, double out?
What all right? Double oh? He's wide open. He's still there, folks,
He's still out there listening to the show, hanging out.
As a matter of fact, h double oh. Hit me
up the other day to hit me with this one

(01:16:58):
seven three two drip drip, drip drip. You know the
jingle then with the Mets plumbing jingle. I said, man,
this guy locked in all right, speaking to me and
locked in. We've been locked in all week with you
here on Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred. We'll put a
bow on the entire week when we get back right

(01:17:19):
here on a Friday afternoon, It's Clemson Sports Talk on
Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred.

Speaker 8 (01:17:27):
What have you done for me lately? It's a fair question.
Just don't lose sight of the bigger picture. Don't forget history.
Lucky for us at Clemson, the answer to the questions
what have you done for me lately? And what have
you done? Always are the same. We win.

Speaker 2 (01:18:40):
Final segment on a Friday afternoon Clemson Sports the one man.
I'll tell you what. The weather has been spectacular. I
can't get over the temperatures that we've had here in
the Midlands. I mean, given the fact that we're it's
June sixth and the weather has not been unrelenting, is

(01:19:04):
it's incredible. I mean, it really is. I mean even today,
I know it's what like eighty nine ninety out there.
I mean it's it's hot, but it's not what you
normally get this time of year. It really does feel
pretty good. I gotta say, it feels pretty good. Even

(01:19:26):
even in the evenings. It feels like the temperature is
dropping or at least there's maybe there's less humidity in
the air. God, it's been beautiful, absolutely beautiful the past
few days. But gonna be a busy weekend. I got
a lot of stuff to put together. I got some
new what do you call it, like outdoor furniture I

(01:19:47):
gotta put together. So I've been busy. I've been putting
some of that together this week. Even debate, maybe even
on the grass today, that's how nice it is outside again.
College baseball underway North Caro with the smoke job in
Game one against Arizona. North Carolina was up seventeen to

(01:20:07):
two in that ball game, I mean, just a absolute
beat down. Both teams scored well. Arizona scored one run
in the first inning, and I'm sure that the North
Carolina faithful were a little bit concerned giving up an
early run, but they answered in a big way and
finished that game strong, and they'll look to close out

(01:20:30):
that series again. I mentioned it earlier, like the speed
in which you can be eliminated in college baseball super
regional plays wild Arizona and North Carolina play tomorrow at noon,
So much like the Louisville Miami loser today, Arizona could

(01:20:52):
be eliminated by this time tomorrow. All right, But before
I said, we were going to talk a little bit
about recruiting, and then double low gave a call. Kind
of threw us off a little bit. But you know,
we'll jump back into an eighteen guys committed. One of
the top ten classes. Certainly, no matter where you look,
second rated class according to rivals. Still a lot of

(01:21:14):
a lot of talented prospects out there on the line,
so to speak, for Clemson to try to bring in.
It is an elite group as well. When you look
at the totality of the offensive line class that's been
brought together by Matt Luke and That's that's what's I

(01:21:36):
think most impressive. You're looking at six four star offensive linemen,
a couple of those guys borderline five star offensive linemen.
You're looking at a group, and again, listen, there are
five guys on the offensive line, five spots available. Right.

(01:22:02):
Everybody in this group can't be a starter each and
every ball game. But I do think you've brought in
players that are all good enough to be starters and
if they'll work. There's some there's some guys that gotta grow.

(01:22:23):
There are some pieces here and all of them have
to grow and improve. I mean, to go from high
school to college on the offensive line, it's a it's
typically a big jump. You don't see too many freshmen
come in and have a huge impact on the offensive line.
That's that those are few and far between. It's happened, Hey,

(01:22:43):
Mitch Hyatt, you saw it happen at Clemson. Now, Mitch
Hyatt looked a little bit more like a tight end,
but he was a great a great tackle. And I
think there are certainly some guys on this list. Brandon
Wilms is one out of Lawrence, Kansas, and I think

(01:23:04):
gott to grow, got to improve. I mean maybe not
grow in height, right, I mean, he's a big kid,
but I think he's gonna have to really improve and
some of these guys have to transform their bodies a
little bit, get a little bit more, uh not lean,
but college ready. The good news is the guy who

(01:23:29):
recruited him is one of the best in America, if
not the best in America at doing just that. And
that's why I think Matt Luke, you know, Will Vanderwart
kind of brought it up. I was even thinking about
writing an article on it, ranking the top hires coordinator

(01:23:51):
coaching hires under Dabo Sweeney. I mean, I think Brent
Mivinnibles is easily number one. I think the elevation of
Tony Elliott and Jeff Scott to co offensive coordinators is
probably number two. And I think at this point number

(01:24:12):
three is gonna probably go in my book, probably gonna
go to either Matt Luke or former Clemson offensive coordinator
Chad Morse in that hier that Dabosweeny made. Let us
know what you think, Texas. This weekend, we're gonna put
the article together. We'll probably do a segment on the
show about it as well. All Right, we gotta get

(01:24:35):
out here. Y'all have a great weekend until Monday. As
always shall take care now