Happy Wednesday! Let’s get to it.

Dabo Comments on Current Events

The refrain you often hear from people when a sports person comments on something that is not sports-related is “stick to sports!” I personally think this is a bit silly.

Coach Swinney was asked about two hot issues this week. The first concerned the North Carolina law affecting transgender people that lead the NCAA to very recently announce that it was moving seven championship games from North Carolina in protest of the law. Numerous others, both in sports and outside of sports, have also protested/denounced the law. Swinney was asked about this law because it is possible that the ACC might follow the NCAA’s lead and move its championship game from North Carolina.

Here are Dabo’s thoughts, or lack thereof, on this:

The second has to do with San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick’s protest of racial injustice by kneeling during the national anthem. A number of other sports figures have commented on it or participated in the protest by also kneeling or by raising a fist during the anthem. It has, to put it mildly, caused some controversy.

Here are Dabo’s full comments regarding Kaepernick and the national anthem, transcribed by Zach Lentz. It’s a very lengthy response. Essentially, Dabo supports Kaepernick’s right to protest but disagrees with his method. He also notes that this isn’t an issue for Clemson’s football team since they don’t come onto the field before the anthem.

These are controversial topics, but Dabo has never been one to shy away from controversial topics. Here’s his general response to critics:

Obviously he had very little to say about one issue and much more to say about the other, but generally speaking Dabo isn’t afraid to speak his mind. I think situations like this are very difficult because no matter what side you come down on or what you say, you’re going to end up upsetting a decent sized group of people. Nuance is something that is lost on many these days.

Depth Chart for SC State

These depth charts are subject to change as the week goes on. For example, last week Edmonds ended up being listed as starter at CB as the week went on.

clemsontigers.com

Thoughts/Comments:

1. With Renfrow out, Ray-Ray is now listed as a starter and the depth chart welcomes true freshman Cornell Powell. Seth Ryan is also no longer listed on the WR depth chart, which, well, it was surprising to see him on it to begin with I guess (I still <3 your longsnapping catches Seth).
2. Jalen Williams is taking Boulware’s spot as Boulware recuperates from his ankle injury. J.D. Davis is his backup.
3. Tavien Feaster is on the depth chart at KOR, but behind Scott and Fuller. C’mon Dabo, let him do it. You know you want to. Ray-Ray is now at the top of the depth chart for punt returner, which, yay! Just do a better job of catching the ball even on short punts instead of letting them roll for another 15. I swear that each week a team punts from their own 20 and pins us on our 20 because we let the ball roll.
4. Carson King. If Andy Teasdall continues to be unable to punt the ball at least 40 yards, maybe we need to see what Carson King can do. Carson is listed as the backup to Teasdall.

You can view a higher quality image of the depth charts here.

2016-2017 Basketball Schedule Released

There are other sports at Clemson! The basketball schedule was recently released:

I really don’t see why this team should drop more than 1 or 2 games during non-conference play. Expectations are going to be high this year.

Miscellaneous Items

• I don’t recall the Tiger being so athletic when I was a student. Clemson recruiting is improving in all facets!

• Deshaun Watson apologized recently for having a negative vibe in the early going and basically not being really excited to play the game. He says from now on he’ll embrace the moment.

I mean, hopefully a lot of the offensive issues right now are just players playing tight. That should just be it, right? We’ll see against SC State and then Georgia Tech on a short week.

• Ben Boulware really wants to play against SC State. Love the enthusiasm, but obviously it would be foolish to let him play and not let him rest up for the Yellow Jackets on a short week. This is a valuable chance for our some of the backup LBs to get some work. Pretty fun quote from Dabo in the link above:

Well he is lobbying," Swinney said. "I went to the statehouse one time, and I didn't know that lobbyist were real people. I didn't really understand the concept of that, but they really do hang out in the lobby, and that is what Ben Boulware is right now. He is a lobbyist. We will see.

He went on to say that Boulware probably isn’t going to play unless the game is close, which, if it’s close, will likely lead to a full-on STS meltdown.

• To follow up on Monday’s Renfrow article, in case you missed it, Renfrow will miss at least 4 games after undergoing surgery. Coach Swinney said that they hope to have him back for NC State but feel confident he will be back for FSU.

• At least someone still thinks Clemson is going to win it all. It’s Lee Corso! Wait, no, just kidding, he hates us. It’s Kirk Herbstreit!

• Finally, I missed this from a few weeks back so I wanted to link to it now in case anyone else missed it. An article on SI about Clemson’s D-Line. Apparently Carlos Watkins runs a 4.87 and Wilkins runs a 4.85 and can do backflips. Holy cow. Dexter Lawrence? 4.90.