It's Will Vandervoort. It's Steeler Will on Twitter for all Clemson Tigers dot com.
Will, we're closer to the NFL season. We're closer to college football
than ever. You know, you're excited, you know you love it this
time of year. Man, come on, now, yeah, this is
this is a kind of a Steeler started training camp yesterday, um and they
were the last team the NFL to start, and uh, so yeah,
I'm excited about the season started here. In a couple of weeks they played
the Niners. UM, and I started about excited about preseason. I don't
get into preseason as much, but I but I do enjoy watching um some
football, and so I'll I'll turn it off for like an hour, I
mean, excuse me at quarter, um, to see what the first team
guys look like. And then I'll turn it off once they're done. Um.
You know, so yeah, I have a little fun with it and
enjoy it when it comes around. But yeah, training camp starts here at
Clemson, uh next Friday, a week from today. So you know it's
um, it's it's on now. It's football season, guys. It's no
longer thinking about it. What's gonna happen. It's here, it's here,
and look, the landscape for the NFL changed dramatically when free agency hit back
around the Reggie White days. The same can be said in a lot of
ways for college football with the portal and nil to that end. I know
Dabo Sweeney at ECC Kickoff, among other topics, had spoke about the transfer
portal approach. Where are we right now in terms of Dabo's perspective on that.
Has it changed all evolved? Did he have anything that he mentioned that
was different than what he said in the past. No, he's still pretty
much you know, as he says, He's like, listen, guys,
I told you this before, right. He says, I'm gonna be the
same approach. It's like, if I need to pull somebody out of the
portal, I do. But I liked what he said though. He says,
if I have to, you're gonna tell me that there's a guy better
than Peter Woods at deepensive tackle right now that's coming out of portal. You're
crazy. Yeah, He's like, there's not. He's like, you know,
I'm gonna go ahead and get a guy that I think. If I've
got a guy that I think as a recruit as better than anybody in the
in the portal, then I'm gonna stick with the kid I recruited, he
says. If it comes to it, I get into a situation where we
need to get a player, something's happened and we got to get one,
I go get it, he says. Right now. They haven't really,
in his mind, had to do that. And so, you know,
it is what it is. I know some people out there like, well,
well what about the wide receiver position. They've been so hurt and decimated.
Yeah. True, But he likes the guys he's got on his roster
right now, you know, better than anybody in the portal. He likes
him Adam Randalls, he likes a you know, a Boucollins. He likes
those guys better, you know. And so that's that's kind of where they're
at. Fans are shopping hungry right now for Clemson. And look, hey,
look, if you're a Clemson fan, you get it to a CE
degree. Justin Ross hell before that, Yet, Sammy Watkins got hop It's
been an embarrassment of riches over the years at receiver, and there's challenges there.
But I'm with you on that because and I think I agree with the
coach too that you look, you've got a brand new offensive coordina and Garrett
Riley, who's going to be doing things a lot different in terms of structure
some of the power air raid stuff we're looking at here. And I found
it interesting. I saw an article on y'all's website, all Clinston Tigers dot
com from Kayla Abercrombie give her credit for this. Will Putnam was at ACC
media day and they talked a little bit about the makeup of their offense and
he had this to say, Garret Riley gives us versatilities at offense to do
either or when it comes to pass the run. He's a three year starter.
You're talking about Will Putnham in particular, and just the philosophy that the
offensive line has in this in terms of the way this offense looked. How
important is it to be connected in terms of offensive line play as it always
is, but especially in this air raid system that has some wrinkles to it.
I tell you, I bet you tender one. When Garrett Riley saw
that he had four of his five started offensive lineman coming back, that probably
excited him. Yeah, because it starts there. You gotta have continuity upfront
with the offensive line. Crenson's running game put it was a pretty darn good
running game last year had a thousand yard rush. You had a guy that
you had two guys that can buy for more than twenty touchdowns. Um,
so you got another guy who had on a six hundred yards rushing. They
got a pretty darn good running game there averago for one hundred and seventy something
yards of game. But they wanted to run the ball as your Climpson could
run it. And I think what you're gonna see with gart Riley is as
he said a couple of weeks ago when he got together with the media,
you know they're gonna be. They're gonna be a dirt raid. In other
words, you know everybody wants to call him the air raid. Well go
back, hold on, back that up now. Yeah, let's get this
real clearly on tape so we can use it for a promo. What did
you just say? He called it because it's a dirt raid. Another they're
gonna be, They're gonna be ground and pounded. You know I didn't catch
this the dirt raid. Oh you gotta put it on a Teacher's the Day.
That's his name of a band. Welcome to Dirt Raid Live from the
spartanburg RATORI did. He's gonna lean on the running game. That's the strength
of this offense right now until they until they can figure out what they're gonna
do with the um with the rod receivers and who steps up and does Adam
Randall, who you know. We heard Kay Pubnic yesterday talking about how you
know, how great of a spring he's had, and I mean the offseason
he's had, and how listen, this guy's healthy. Now you guys are
gonna see why. We were also like, oh my gosh, back in
the day, back in our January and early spring of last year, when
they were talking about all the plays he was making and he, Jake Cluby
says, you guys that are doubting, He's like, you're gonna be in
for something, you know, and so um, if that I hit,
that hole's to be true. And you got a Jake grinning stool who's six
foot eight. Now I think he went another I think he grew another inch.
So you know, you've got this guy that could do some things.
Tied in. You got will Shipley at running back. People forget hell,
oh my goodness, there's an always to see running back and Will Shipley behind
them. But it all starts with that offensive line. And I think,
you know, Clemson's offense is gonna be fine. I don't think the issue
is what people think is going to be always laugh. I hear all these
people, you know, doubting plems his offense. And it starts with people
say, well, there's a big question mark on the offensive line, and
I'm like, what question mark on the offensive line? Four starters back?
I mean they lose McFadden. Yeah, thus McFadden and he was a fantastic
player and he's working his way through the NFL now. But then, look,
that's not the entirety of their offensive line. I agree with you,
and look, I'm not sticking up for Clemson or any team. I cover
them every week, full disclosure, you know that. But that old line
was I think needing, as you said, dirt raid, which I will
forever remember. That's a great fit for this line. They're athletic, they're
nasty, they get out there in space. Will Vanderford is our guest here
on Game On. Now. Look, you wrote an article about Clemson not
thinking about the playoffs, but the ACC Championship instead remind us again, you
know, for those of that aren't Clemson fans, and you know, I
consider myself an analyst, but I know the tenets of what he lives by.
What are the goals for Debos Winnie? Every year there will Yeah,
the goals are first they do they want to win the opener, so that
Duke game is one of the goals, to win that game first. Then
after that they want to qualify for the a C Championship. Now used to
be you know, win the Atlantic Division, but that no long there's no
longer divisions anymore. So it's qualified for the a C Championship. And however
that that will come about then when the state championship against South Carolina is goal
number three. When the ACC Championship is goal number four, and then goal
number five is when the closer. The closer can be a bowl game,
you can be in a national championship game. So that's kind of the way
it is. Clemson never has winning a national championship as a goal, and
you're never gonna hear Davos when you talk about that. That's not what the
goals are. And he wants the team to focus on winning an ACC because
his thing is, if you win the opener, you get to chuffing the
ACC championship game, you won your state title. He's like, and you
win the ACC, you're likely gonna be where you want to be if you
do all those things. So if you do those first four goals, you're
gonna have all opportunity to finish that fifth goal with a national championship because you're
gonna be in position to do that. So it's not a He doesn't come
out and say it as a goal because he's like, some teams are different
than others. And he says, if I lay if I lay that pressure
on him every year to win a national championship, He's like, that's a
hard standard to live up to. You just can't win. I know fans
don't understand this, but you just can't win a national championship every year.
All right, It's just not possible. Okay. Imagine if we said this
to Clemson fans about fifteen twenty years ago, Like, y'all chill out,
you can win it every maybe five years. All right, we'll take it.
But once it happens, it's a lot like I guess stealer fans back
in the seventy you get hungry for it. It becomes the standard, and
I think Dabbo has done a great job. Messaging is so important with these
young kids out there that are playing. They're grown men, but they're still
young and hard. You got to teach them a lesson or too, and
especially the fans just to hey, y'all work with us here. To get
there is hard enough to win, it is even harder defensively. Help me
understand a little bit of what we're looking at in the front seven. It's
a little different. Obviously there's some players that we'll be moving on to the
NFL. Of course, said you got Jeremi Trotter still in the mix,
and obviously Exavier Thomas. Hopefully we stay healthy there West good when you're getting
into your two. Now is the full time coordinator. What's the state of
the defense for the Clemson Tigers this year? Well, they're not They're not
in bad. The defense is in good shape. As we know. Is
the strength of this team. Um, I think if they stay healthy,
I think this defense has an opportunity to be one of the top five defenses
in the country. Um, They're gonna get after the quarterback. They're gonna
play a lot of that four two five kind of style. Yeah, West
West good when I was talking about that last week. They're gonna they're gonna
mix it up. You'll see him in four three as well, but they
played. They're gonna play a lot of that four two five because they have
that kind of player, you know, with their linebackers and what they can
do with those three guys and how they can play them and mix things up.
So that's where it starts. The number one concerned I think for me
is depth at defensive end, you know, experienced depths, I should say,
because I think they have playmakers there. It's just they had to play
a lot of football, and I think that's that's that's the concern early in
the season there, So Xavier Thomas and just a Maskull God stay healthy until
those guys can get those reps in and get to where they need to be
behind them. So and then the secondary, I'll be honest, this is
probably the most experience and deepest secondary Clemson has had under Dabo Sweeney. They
are good, they are talented. A lot of people are that are kind
of doubting that you know, saying the secondaries Clemson's weakness, they're going to
be in for a surprise because they got some shut down corners there. I
think Nate Wiggins starts to I think having Sharon and Jones back and healthy is
gonna be a big deal. Guy who's a fifty year guy, understands the
system better than anybody. And then you look at the safety positions, how
they're just loaded. Where a guy like r J. Mickens is your third
safety and he's probably an All American candidate. I mean how deep they are
at that position. So you know, Andrew mccouba is gonna go back playing
safety. So those people out there that are worried if Andrew mccoub is going
to be playing corner anymore, he's not gonna put him back get safety so
he doesn't have to worry about playing multiple positions. Also, you know,
Mickey Cohn told us a couple of weeks ago that a lot of people don't
realize how injured he was last year, and especially that elbow injury. That
when you're trying to play corner, that's like the worst position to have an
elbow injury, and that kid tried to play through it and help the team
as much as he could. So people need to kind of understand that,
and I think layoff Andrew mccouba if you will. He's gonna think bounce back
and have a good a good junior year and will put himself in position I
think can do some good, great things, So especially since all he's got
to worry about playing safety again. Yeah, it's a good rule of thumb
for athletes in general, no matter what the money or the nil is at
pro or college level, you don't know everything about everything as a fan,
even as a talker like me, So when you learn that kind of stuff
behind the scenes, you can understand why maybe there were a few struggles there.
I thought even in that week Forrest game last year, when they had
to make plays, they did and the secondary it was tough sledding for a
while, but Dabo Sweeney's teams have always rebounded nicely from moments that have been
below their standard. The College Football Playoff is honestly in the back of everybody's
mind. Here. You mentioned the goals that Clemson has in front of them,
and central to that, it's one game at a time. You can't
overlook Duke I promise you that I think you agree with me there. Charleston
Southern they're always tough and fistep, but they'll take care of that game.
And then Florida Atlantic should be interesting a night game, and then Florida State
looms. We'll get to that game. But just do Clemson, how they
match up and how vital is it not for Clemson just to win this game?
And win is important and it's not a given. But on Labor Day,
how important is it for Clemson to get the win on the road and
go into this stretch ahead of Florida State playing their best ball. Well,
I'll tell you what. First of all, people need to get out of
their here that Clemson is gonna beat Duke like a drum exactly. Um,
this is a very good Duke football team who Mike Yelko has got. God.
I'm playing confident and it starts at quarterback with the Riley Leonard, who
to me is one of the top three quarterbacks returney this year in the ACC
and he can he can do it both. He can run, he can
pass, um, he's a big guy. Um. I think he had
almost he was like third or fourth in the a SEC last year and rushing
touchdowns as as a quarterback. So you know understand who you're playing. Here's
the duke team that brings back seventeen starters from a team that won nine games
a year ago. Yeah, people think duke. They think instantly, the
day's gone by. We're okay, there's Duke called the calendar. We can
move on. That was the central But my point here is Elko's a hell
of a coach. They won nine games, and Riley Leonard and more than
that. Will just a thought on this if you will. It's it's in
their house and it's opening night, and what a huge culture role when it
would be we saw Shane Bieber have that kind of moment with his team in
Tennessee, Uh, coming down there and getting whooped on. I'm just saying,
I'm not saying Clemson is gonna lose this game. I'm just saying,
watch out for the watch out for the robes to be tripped up upon,
because it can happen in a heartbeat in the a sec. Well, think
about this way. Clemson's bringing in all those things you just said, and
they're bringing in a new offense. Ye playing the first game. Yep,
there's gonna be mistakes. There's gonna be problems that they have to work out
and the kink. So it's not gonna be pretty, is what I'm trying
to say. So I'm telling Clemson's hands now. I'm not saying Clemson is
gonna lose, because I think Clemson is a better team and I think Clemson
matches up well with them. What I'm telling you is it's gonna be a
dog fight. Clemson, I think will probably when I think are a twelve
point favorite right now, I can see that being a ten to twelve point
game. That's what I'm saying. Clemson's going late to kind of put it
away. And I can hear Clemson's hands right now. On Tuesday, after
we go, oh my gosh, we're horrible. There's Riley. You know
you call the other jack guy. Yeah, this is Buck from Easily.
I want to say something about Garrett Riley. He ain't throwing the ball to
tight end. Hain't nothing changed. It's gonna be the same. Chad Morris
the coordinator. Now that here. Now, of course, what does fans
will forget about. What the fans will forget about is that Chad Morris struggled.
Member of the Walker game, Clempson offense got booed off the Seal of
Sason in two. Patient, be patient, let things, let things go
in place, and understand if a you're playing a good team and Duke and
be you got a brand new offense and that very first game, here's the
thing not going to be smooth. Lets defense is really good. And here's
the thing. We're covering the team for the Tiger tailgate show'd right there on
the edges of a beautiful lake down there, beautiful stadium right in front of
us. It's a good life at Clemson, no matter if you win one
game or two. But I can tell you right now after how it ended
last year, that is a hungry program. Especially when we had Shane Beamer
on our show the other day. Shane couldn't be nicer. Shane could have
been more complimentary. But I guarantee at Clemson fans that did not sit well
with them in their own house, they'll get a chance to go back this
year to down to Willie B and make up for it. So a lot
of great matchups, a lot of fascinating storylines. If we had more time,
we go through them all. But will we're gonna catch up a lot
with you coming up here, not only on the Eagles Tiger Tailgate Show on
ninety two point five the BSc, but right here on game all man,
you're the best. To have fun up there in Charlotte and be well,
my friend. All right, thanks, appreciate you man. We'll talk to
you next time.