Some Random Thoughts Before the Film Review
by DrB on Nov 28, 2010 9:53 PM EST
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PrintI watched it, and unlike previous games against the Clucks, I wasn't raging and throwing stuff at the TV like my long lost cousin. It went pretty much how I expected it to go, and Dabo and Kyle Parker pretty much gave up. If Dabo doesnt realize how important this game is to his job, he will now.
People are looking for someone to blame for it all, but everyone should remember that the fans all jumped in behind Dabo Swinney when he was hired. I had my reservations about it, but didn't protest it. Not much point coming out against it when the minions are all going crazy for him. As a group we made an emotional decision without looking at the situation clearly. Swinney is admirable man by some accounts, but as Mark Antony said, so was Brutus. He's not qualified for the job. The worst part of it is, he's so arrogant that he thinks we're all stupid. He thinks I'm just a nameless, faceless 5%'er that doesn't see what improvement there is on the field and how we're so close. He doesnt understand something very basic to football, that his idol Bear Bryant subscribed to, which is that you must be committed to one system, no matter what, to win. Clemson doesn't run one cohesive system, we run plays from two books and some that are stuck in haphazardly, and there are clearly two minds running the offense.
Well the film don't lie Dabo Swinney, and we examine it every week. You don't know what youre doing. Steven Orr didn't show one thing last night for Auburn. All he had to do was throw it up for Jeffery and hand it off to Lattimore; it was a vanilla gameplan. He didn't have to, we shot ourselves for him.
As FF and I said to each other after the game, I feel somewhat sorry for Billy Napier and Jeff Scott. Its hard to take a new job on when you don't have enough experience and there is no one around who can teach you things. I couldn't do my job if I didn't have an old-timer teaching me the ropes. I'm sure many of you have had similar experiences. Billy had to learn from Rob Spence. Unfortunately, even though I do not think Napier sets our gameplan, he's about to be pushed on a sword for Swinney. The OC will always be the fall guy when the offense sucks. If I were you Billy, I'd jump off the sinking ship and go be an ace recruiter somewhere else, learn from an experienced coordinator or head coach, and if you're really a good coach then you'll rise back up.
Jeff Scott seems to have learned nothing about WRs when he was a player here, and less since, because aside from Nuke Hopkins I don't see any ball skills. We can't put all the blame on him though, as we have two other guys with WR coaching experience at practice. I like our young WRs, and I'm hopeful that the newcomers will be as talented as they've shown on film, but I have no faith in our WR coaching (no matter who is to blame) to see them truly develop.
Aside from our defensive staff I don't have faith in our coaches anymore at all. I've held off on calling for Swinney to be fired, because he should get his 3rd year, and he would whether we like it or not. I have the suspicion that Swinney would name himself OC if Napier leaves, or give it back to the horrid Brad Scott, who the fans will just heap praise on after landing serious consideration for Recruiter of the Year. I've already seen what Brad can do to an offense, and people forget that Tommy took away much of his playcalling duties when things weren't working. In my mind he hasn't done squat as a coach since taking Carolina to the Carquest Bowl.
If he named an outsider OC, and then let him bring in his own people, Dabo might be able to turn things around offensively. If he insists on keeping his buddies on the staff, and continues to interfere with the playcalling, we might have another Tony Franklin-Auburn situation on our hands. Best bet is for Tommy Bowden to get the Vandy job and take some of these guys away.
Not much else to say about this offense really, Parker gave up and cleaned out his locker last night, and I don't expect him to start the bowl game. I have not been happy with how he's handled his periodic benching. I'd be somewhat surprised to even see him play. It should go to Tajh Boyd. Neither one of them looked like they were well coached last night to me, so who knows how Tajh will do there or next season.
About the only thing that would give me any hope for Clemson's football future is TDP being axed. I've been tinkering with an article on that for a bit, so that will go up soon I hope. I've heard the rumors of Bobby Johnson, and though I do like Bobby Johnson as a man, he has no experience at this job...so why would anyone expect him to come in and give us the direction we need? Aren't we going through this problem with the head coach and OC right now? Clemson has to have a guy that has a concrete plan to improve our athletic program, and the fundraising acumen to do it. I don't think that is Bill D'Andrea or Bobby Johnson or Mike Hamilton. We need a house cleaning here, not simply hiring a "good Clemson man" to do a job he shouldn't be doing, without a full-on AD search.
For the film review, we'll have that up next weekend I think, and we'll look at tape on whomever we get for the bowl game that we don't deserve to go to. We're switching over to basketball and recruiting now, so hopefully something positive happens there.
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I posted early in the year that the underlying problem is we do not have a clear cut identity or philosophy on offense. Thats football 101.
The best thing for Dabo’s career and Napiers career: Billy take a job as RC or OC under a very experienced HC to give him better guidance. He will be a successful D-1 coach he has a lot of things going for him. Dabo has to hire an offensive coordinator that is very, very experienced and has alot of winning under his resume. I.E. Robert Anae, Bryan Harsin, Randy Clements. I like Harsin because he should be easy to afford and get away from Boise because Peterson is not going anywhere.
Question 1) What role does Woody Mccorvy really play in the office? He is a proven coordinator and why are we paying him for a non-coaching role exactly?
Well, I do NOT agree with you on McCorvey. He was such a good OC that he was fired from
a pathetic MSU team/program. If he gets the OC duties, just pack it in. In two-three years Clemson will be annually 3-8. He’s obviously not even a qualified WR coach. We have him, Dabo, and Jeff Scott (3 supposed WR coaches) and our guys cant even catch a cold!
you miss understood me. I am asking why did we create all of these new positions within the football office, and what exactly does he contribute. It is without a doubt he has coordinator experience and at one time he was considered one of the better ones in the country. There is no need for so many support positions on salary if we are not getting results.
I disagree there
Clemson badly needs those support personnel to do things that the Coaches have to do currently. In my mind the less the coach has to do outside of coaching, the better. If the support people can handle transcripts, academic concerns, and the like, all the better. If there are multiple football coaches brought in as your S&C personnel, all the better, because they don’t have contact rules like the 11-man staff does during the season/offseason, they can see them all year long.
Alabama has over 20 support personnel positions just for football. Clemson doesn’t have half that.
My beef is that they have the wrong people in some of the positions.
I gotta admit DrB
that was not the kind of article I was expecting coming from you. I guess the culmination of this wasted, shitty-ass season has taken the edge off of you. I truly thought that would be a hell, fire. and brimstone kinda article.
I wasn’t nervous or pissed off either last night. If you have critiqued their performances all year long, which I have partly through keeping up with your articles, then you knew what was gonna happen. I only wish SOS had not been so conservative and just piled the fuck on and made it nasty. After the pick 6, he was very vanilla in his playcalling.
The only good that might come from this is that now Clemson might feel forced to make improvements since the perception is that SCAR is evolving into a superior program. Right now a third loss in a row to SCAR looks likely unless some unforeseen events occur, but I do not think anyone has confidence in Daboo to right the ship. He can recruit. He can make sales pitches. He can’t outdo/out coach other good football coaches.
3 losses in a row to the Chickens would solicit an immediate pink slip or so I would think.
Our best bet on finding an OC might have to come from someplace that is going thru a transition like Miami but Whipple is not the kind of OC this place needs. Daboo is hell bent on running a spread and he needs to hire someone with spread offense experience. Problem is why anyone would come to Clemson if there are not some internal forces to cause a transition. We might have to hire another WR coach to run the offense if/when BN leaves.
What a fine mess this admin has weaved. I hope there are some consequences for repeatedly making poor management decisions.
The Fire and Brimstone came earlier in the season, when it should have, don’t think there’s any more need for it.
Almost everything about this game that needs to be said has been, and our problems are just so obvious at this point that there’s no need for a detailed breakdown, everyone who watches can see it.
I’d like to say one thing about Parker though. I do not think we should be holding him as a scapegoat for this season one bit. He has played like a champ at many times this year and despite being consistently let down by his receivers and pass blocking, not to mention the coaches and playcalling. His play did tail off at the end of the season and he got happy feet, but I find it hard to blame him so much for the latter because he just consistently gets the shit kicked out of him while standing in the pocket. I don’t buy this stuff about him being afraid to take a hit because of his baseball career, although I do believe that that career choice definitely hurt his focus on the year and had he been 100% committed to football we would have seen a better leader and player.
However, he was not the only player on this team to either make boneheaded plays, play good fundamental football, or quit during a game/play. Almost every player on this team has done that to varying degrees this season, Parker is just in a much more visible position.
How to handle this situation now? Some writers seem to think he’s done and will just leave school at this point, but if I were brought in as the head coach right now I think I’d try to convince him to stay on while being committed to giving Boyd significant (I mean actually significant, like around 50% of the snaps, not like he has had in other games this year) playing time. I think Dabo will be sowing bad seeds for himself if turns a player into a scapegoat, especially when he seems to be at least somewhat well respected by his teammates. Not that it really matters because we all know we’ll have another .500 season in the ACC next year, lose to the Chickens, and Dabo will be out….
The blame on Parker goes w the territory
QBs get more credit than they deserve when things go well. They also get way more blame when things go down the shitter. Just think about the Miami game last year. How many picks did Kyle throw ?? But he made the throw in OT to Jacoby that won the game so we forgive him.
I think getting his ribs hurt vs Auburn scared the crap out of him. He had $$ in his eyes the rest of the year and wasn’t going to risk his baseball career for 9 more games playing QB.
Mentally.. he’s done. Give Taj all the 1st team reps for the next month. CBS is projecting us to land in the Independence bowl vs Air Force on Dec 27th. What a f’n joke.
I do not blame Parker for the lack of offensive production, and do not see him as a scapegoat.
That said, there was no reason to leave him out there after the pick six because we were done, and Tajh may as well get the experience. Same is true with the bowl game. Parker can go play baseball, and Tajh can start getting ready to take over next year.
There is something in these Hills!
by Tigerplowboy on Nov 29, 2010 9:50 AM EST up reply actions
So when do heads start to roll?
If it were me, then I would make changes right now and get the new coaches in to work with the players leading up to the bowl game, because at this point it is all about getting ready for next season. However, I am not sold on the notion that a lot of changes will be made, because a) they do not want to lose recruits (which is a terrible reason not to make changes), and b) everything I hear sounds like Dabo believes in his coaches. I will say right now that if Dabo does not make some changes to the offensive staff, then I am not sure he makes it through next season.
There is something in these Hills!
Best hope of staff changes is probably Tommy Bowden at Vandy
I am sure Furman is looking at our clusterfuck of a program and asking themselves if they really want to hire an inexperienced HC too. Dumbo’s comments about Billy indicate he is not going to be fired. We all know that Brad Scott is never going to be fired after 7 years of underperforming positions he is responsible for, he must have pictures of Barker or Phillips or something.
Sawchik saying he hears Napier is 3rd on Furman's wish list. Regardless of how good
or bad of a coach BN is, the outlook is just not good unless Daboo mans up accepts a few obvious truths.
Unless a new AD comes in and forces it, I doubt any heads roll.
Dabo will sink or swim with the current group.
No need to spew fire & brimestone about our sorry lose. After all, they are who we thought they were.
I had to watch the game with 3 coot grads. Believe it or not, they actually felt sorry for us. Even Spurrier did not run up the score when he obviously could have. I, too, have no faith in the Athletic Dept. or leadership at the school. I little faith can be instilled by a complete overhaul of the Offense & AD. You have been very fair in your assessments all season, and it appears that Dabo was believing his own hype. Even the Post & Currier had an article this morning discussing Dabo’s immaturity. We’ll see what changes are made, if any. I was very disappointed by KP’s performance & attitude. I appreciate what he has done for CU, but he did not display the character of a team leader.
Sawchik has been more and more critical
of them and how they handle things. He sees that they are screwing up week in and week out.
As does Strelow.
Don't see Dabo surviving now;
past next year. Surely they will make him replace the offensive staff. if not, next year will be a disaster. After watching every game this season, it is apparent that the team has no respect for Dabo. The offense doesn’t believe in the game plan; and they play waiting for something bad to happen. It does, and they know the coach is helpless. Dado follows TB’s lead, in applying rules to the players. Parker has been given special treatment; and so have others (the superstars). That doesn’t build team chemistry. Maybe that happens everywhere; but it is wrong. I expect that Steele will be gone, if he can find a job. He knows what is coming. The other assistants will be looking as well. Dabo is all talk; no substance. He should have followed the advice of Stallings and Ford, and cleaned house. Too late now.
We need steady pressure on this issue and not let up until change is accomplished.
There is no doubt that a winning athletic program in the major sports at Clemson is not a top administration priority. Oliver Purnell, the most successful coach we have ever had in basketball and our best chance to win on Tobacco Road left in the middle of the night: This was swept under the rug and never addressed in the main stream media. A young, very nice guy with no head coaching experience was hired as a football coach and is not able to blend a very talented group of players into a high quality team. Talk to everyone you know. Have your facts correct. And keep the pressure up for change at the top that starts with a pink slip for TDP. And BTW, you can be a top notch university with great academics and athletics. Just ask those folks at Stanford.
really?
OP was “the most successful coach we ever had” ?
Bill Foster took us to the Elte 8
Cliff Ellis took us to the sweet 16, and was a Tate George miracle from the Elite 8
Rick Barnes took us to the sweet 16 and 3 dances in his only 4 seasons.
OP proved you can go 15-0 in the non conference by playing the Citadel and SW Missouri St, and every year his teams struggled down the stretch including an 0-3 record in the big dance when it mattered. We became a punch line on Sportscenter. Every one knew that once we hit February.. his teams crumbled. I could not be happier that he is Depaul’s problem now.
It looks like we now have a coach that is capable of teaching the game and has shown in the early going that he knows how to manage a game on the sidelines.
No one has ever been able to recruit
ballers to Clemson and it probably isn’t gonna happen with this coaching staff either. It was a major reason Barnes left and a major reason OP left. The two recruits they got for this class were holdovers from the OP regime. Brownell’s offense requires skilled players which is exactly the type of player no coach has ever been able to get to come to Clemson.
In a few years, everyone will be talking about that time OP took us to the dance 3 years in a row and how those were the glory days.
While I wouldnt agree that OP was the best ever
(that would go to Barnes in my opinion), I do think the fact that OP left in the middle of the night and that it wasnt really addressed is a valid point.
Bill Foster coached at Clemson during the 1975-84 seasons. He is the second winningest coach in Clemson history on a percentage basis (.595).
Purnell’s record: 138-88 (0.611)
Winning %
Is a reflection of playing one of the worst non-conf schedules in America for 10 years. When you consistently start a season 13-1 by not testing yourself.leading up to ACC play…. that’s what happens.
OP won 10, 9, and 9 games in the ACC in the last 3 years.. which is commendable, but given that the ACC has fallen from the best basketball conference in America in the 80s and 90s.. to a mediocre conference at best… that’s not saying so much.
we are now Duke… and a bunch of average teams.
Very similar to football… Going 4-4 in conference in the SEC is something to be proud of. Going 4-4 in the ACC is pathetic.
As a Carolina fan, I am not here to start trash
But to say that I know how you guys feel. After the loss up there 2 years ago, it was clear that our team didn’t show up to play and that there were some coaching changes that needed to be made. Luckily, we have an administration that is behind our program and one of the best head coaches in the game. I think that is going to be the difference between our programs going forward.
The unthinkable part was that Clemson allowed its AD to put up with Tom Bowden’s crap for years, give him an expensive extension before giving him the boot after nine months, then let the architect of this whole mess make another football hire then a basketball hire.
Clemson Sports Analysis and Insight
www.shakinthesouthland.com
Clemson's play-calling is just so predictable. Run on 1st down. Fail. Get behind the chains and pass.
Then in the case of the SCar game, get so far behind that you have to pass every down. Everybody in the stadium know what’s coming about 80% of the time.
I’d like to see Clemson fire Dabo. But that won’t happen so I hope Dabo hires a decent OC, like Mark Whipple.
Mark Whipple is NOT a good OC.
I can’t STRESS IT ENOUGH.
That man doesnt do what he should with that offensive skillset he has. Miami fans are infuriated with him in large numbers.
Besides that, he is exactly the wrong type of OC.
If there is an opening at OC, which it looks less and less likely, Daboo needs to hire someone with a spread offense mindset background. This is so when Daboo interjects his own calls then at least the team will have some idea who is supposed to be on the field and what the play is supposed to accomplish.
I dont want Mark Whipple.
His resume and extensive NFL experience may be pretty impressive but his results at Miami were not. He would probably be remembered here as the second coming of Rob Spence (without quite as many bubble screens).
It is hard to believe now that Whipple looked to be Tom O’Brien’s replacement at BC.
Clemson Sports Analysis and Insight
www.shakinthesouthland.com
Bowden to Vandy??
If that happens it could be amazing for us, as he would likely raid some of the guys leftover from his regime here and force Dabo to at least bring in new blood.
by PenthouseTiger on Nov 30, 2010 11:06 AM EST reply actions
It doesn't seem likely that Bowden would hire the crappy offensive staff that got him fired.
More likely he’d try to hire the good defensive staff members who helped save his job all those years at Clemson, despite an anemic offense.
There have been 48 FBS head coaching changes since Bowden was fired, and (to my knowledge) he hasn’t made anybody’s short list— not even for mediocre schools like UVA or Memphis. I won’t be shocked if Vandy hires him (because they have such low expectations), but I think that there’s a better chance that Dabo will hire a new OC, regardless of what Bowden does. I don’t see Dabo taking the reins and clearing house by canning the Scotts, Powell, et al. I hope I’m wrong.
the potential of getting fired never stopped him from getting rid of dead weight on his staff either
Clemson Sports Analysis and Insight
www.shakinthesouthland.com
I’d love to see an article or comment in the future on a coach by coach basis who is pulling their weight and who isn’t. Seems to me that Billy Napier may have the most potential on the offensive side of the ball(Swinney on down) and BN himself may not be worth keeping.
by Fort Hill on Nov 30, 2010 11:15 PM EST via mobile reply actions
I’ll look forward to them. I think your work throughout the season gives a good idea about some who are not up to par.
by Fort Hill on Dec 1, 2010 7:44 AM EST via mobile reply actions
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