Monday Clemson News and Notes

With baseball in full swing and the college basketball season finishing tonight, Clemson football will again take center stage this weekend as the Tigers hos their annual spring game. Other will be by to talk about what we really learned from spring practice, but in the meantime there is always some news leaking out.

First up is Martavis Bryant's apparent turnaround this spring. We have always said that he has the ability to contribute at Clemson, but it is just a matter of putting the off-field things together. According to Dabo and several other folks, Bryant has done just that. With Sammy the only surefire thing at receiver right now, having Bryant finally make that leap would be fantastic.

Also out of spring practice, Clemson appears to be putting in some real work on special teams. Our coverage was absolutely atrocious this past year, and this emphasis is long overdue. Hopefully the players will remember this work come the fall, otherwise we will continue to shoot ourselves in the foot.

By all accounts Brent Venables' second season in charge of Clemson's defense has resulted in a marked improvement during spring ball. While there are still some concerns for the unit as a whole, the biggest key is that the unit continues to improve. No one is expecting miracles over night, but stagnation or regression can't be tolerated.

Tajh Boyd has continued his great work from the previous offseason by spending his spring break with quarterback guru Georgia Whitfield. While Boyd was certainly a leader last season, this is his team now. Hopkins and Ellington are gone, and this team is going to succeed or fail based on his leadership off the field. Whitfield has worked with Cam Newton and Andrew Luck among other quarterbacks, so a second year of work with him can't hurt.

Both basketball and football are busy on the recruiting front. Brownell certainly needs another big man or two, and he seems to pulling out all the stops. As always it is early on the football trail, but that hasn't stopped some players from taking visits and possibly changing their commitment. RB Dalvin Cook has apparently flipped his commitment to Florida. QuakingTiger will be along to later to comment on this, but I caution everyone to stay calm and remember it is a long road to the next signing day, almost 10 months in fact.