We got a big star here. It's Will Vandivort from the Clemson Insider.
He's also covering the Pittsburgh Steelers. He's get a plug in for that all.
Yeah. The guy is just he's rocking and rolling coming, I believe
on northbound from the ACC meetings in the springtime. Will, How you doing,
buddy? Is the ACC back there? Falling in the ditch? What's
happening? Yeah, it's uh, it's just coming back now from from Amia
Island down there. Yeah, yeah, it was, it was. It
was really uh beautiful down there for the last two days. The first day
was raining like crazy. Yeah, but that cleared up yesterday and we have
a pretty good couple of days there. But yeah, a lot of work
and you know, a lot of peoplen't understand when we go to these.
When you go to the spring meetings, it's not like going to media day.
Media day. Everything's set up for you. They bring the coaches and
players to you and the administrators and all that. You know, it's was
all formal and everything. This is a very informal event. So they're there
to meet and figure out what's going on and how they're gonna fix things.
They're not about They don't really care about us the media, so you're on
your own. You got to be a U. You got to be a
good reporter and understand how to go talk to people and yeah and uh,
you know, and how to find stories because they're just not gonna come up
to you. Hey, will let me tell you this. You know they're
not to work. So they Now, they did set up a press conference
with Jim Phillips, I should say a press gathering. Yeah, with Jim
Phillips. There's about twelve of us that were there. They set that up
for us so we could get with him kind of go over everything there at
the end of the spring meeting. So that was nice of Amy yourfolo with
the A scy to do that for us. But uh, the rest of
it, you know, you got to walk around and you got to grab
the coaches when they wanted. The coaches do not have to talk to you,
is not required, but most do. Most are real nice. I
won't tell you the one coach who told me, no, who's the nicest,
Now, don't say dad, that will leave dabble out of It's like
when Herbstere doesn't take a game, who's the so man, Dabo was great.
Man. Dabo like we got there and we we texted Dabo as a
coach, can we talk to you? And and Dabo's like, man,
I'll be down there in a few minutes, you know. And he sat
there and he gave us a one on one And the same thing with Brad.
Brad did the same thing for us coaching Poppy the same and talk with
Clemson's former Clemson office score out of now Virginia coach Tony Elliott. Yep,
yeah, I taught to taught to Dan Radkovich obviously taught the Graham neft the
athlete. What a reunion. Yeah, you forget how many you know with
Miami, the connections there are now Virginia. It is you just it actually
just speaks to the Clemson program and how so many players and coaches and ads
have gone on to other places. It's fascinating. It is so a lot,
a lot lot went on, got a lot of stuff came out of
it. I think the biggest news, probably to me is uh obviously Clemson
Florida State is the is the is the hot topic that people want to talk
about. Also the n cua A settlement, So those are the kind of
the main topic talking waits for everybody the last couple of days. And you
know, uh, today we talked to Jim Phillips and he talked about Clemson
and Florida State and how you know, A, you know, there's no
animosity, they're they're they're they're still a member of the a CEC. We're
gonna help them out just like we would anybody else. You know, they're
not paying attention to the lawsuit. But then he says it's a difficult and
uh, it's a it's a difficult and awkward situation basically is what he says
after that. So you know, you get you get two ways about it.
But he did talk about how though that you know, they're hoping,
he's hopeful that maybe the two sides can come to an agreement and maybe get
somehow get Clemson the Flora State back on back on the fold with the acc
But you know, that's his hope. Don't know if that's realistic because he
also talked about how the the revenue sharing, how they're behind the other two
conferences even though they're trying to close that gap, ye, but there's still
just way behind. And then you're throwing the college football playoff thing that happened
now a couple of months ago, and now how the ACC is making eight
to nine million dollars less than everybody else than those other two conferences. You
know, he knows that's not good for the conference, and that's part of
the problem and why the why Clemson and Florida State are wanting now it's not
the whole reason. It's a big part of it. Obviously, there's so
many moving parts. It really comes down to, in large part, the
money. And that's that's what drives this. It's the revenue, and it's
it's the way the world, and there's so many millions, if not eventually
billions. It's stay here across the landscape of college football, not to mention
in the landscape of nil that probably needs a little tidying up in some reform,
but they we are where we are and will. On that note,
I don't know if you're a video gamer or not, but even if you're
not, you got to be excited to see a cover of a college football
game back on the map. Although I think there was a Clemson helmet on
the cover, but no jersey. I would assume that's club Nick, but
uh Ea, sports is back in the college football business. My friend.
Yeah, I'm I am a gamer when it comes to sports games. I
am, yeah, have been. I am from the generation where video games
were invented. I'm sorry, Jim Zers, but you guys did not create
the video game craze. Thank you. Look at I'm with you. We
were the Atari people, television, pong, whole position, you know.
Uh, and then and we gradually graduated to uh the Nintendo Entertainment system,
where we played a great game called football, and then we played golf and
then duck hunting. Yes, yes, so basically just sitting Uh yeah,
we're the we're the mid generation, and we're trying to teach these young whipper
snappers like Falco. We had this question the other day. We were talking
video games, sports games, and it was interesting to see the wide array
of like generations he called in. But I'm with you, man. Hey,
let's move on to the draft. Clemson had themselves a nice couple of
days there, and look, I'm fascinated to see how Nate Wiggins gels with
this Baltimore defense. And I can tell you this, and you know this
well, the reporting would indicating you reported on this Dabo was calling Eric the
coostin John Harmon, saying, you got a draft Wiggins. You got a
draft Wiggins. How about Dabbo working the phones? And how about Wiggins running
at forty time going to that Baltimore defense. I know you're a Steeler fan.
You got to give him a hat tip. He's playing with Trenton Simpson
now right. I'm not happy about that at all. Yes, I set
it up beautifully. I ain't dow it. I mean I'm mad. I'm
mad at Dabo doing that. I mean, what the hell, Davia Let
him follow somebody else. I don't want to see Wiggins, answers Simpson of
you twice a year, you know, I mean, probably tried to call
Tomlin, but Tomlin rolled another way with offensive home. I say it tongue
in cheek, obviously happy for the young man that he's getting to go live
his dream and play in the NFL, and Wiggins is gonna be a great
one. I hate that he's playing for the Ravens because I'll never be able
to perform. All these are going to your division rivals now, all of
them. Yeah, you know, it's just like you know, uh with
te Higgins over Cincinnati and when DJ Reader was there, you know, you
know it is what it is, you know, shn Watson. I wish
them all the best. I wish them all the best of luck, but
at the same time, you know, I hope they lose every game,
you know, so good luck and lose out that's right. But well the
draft for Clemson, though, I think the one that surprised me, if
I had to say it was Rooke going at number thirty what was it,
thirty four to the thirty five to the Falcons. I thought the Falcons reached
too early there. I think they could have got rook at number forty three
and not traded away a draft, a future draft pick or anything for that.
I thought that was a reach because I don't think if he was really
their guy, he was gonna be there at forty three. I don't think
anybody else will. I thought it Atlanta. Look objectively, I know draft
grades are kind of nonsense. They just received like the most F plus incomplete
of all time because I don't know what they're doing. They Rooke should have
been top forty, top forty five, but they should have gone off our
defensive line edge rusher early. They draft Pinnicks. They give Kirk Cousins in
advance of that almost two hundred million dollars. What are they doing? Bro?
They're gonna get a great player in him and he's just don't get me
wrong, but they could have saved trade value. I'm not going to get
him absolutely going anywhere. He'll be a great player, but they gave up
stuff to unnecessarily get him. Yeah, exactly. That's what was kind of
surprised me about it. You know, I love that Jeremiah Trotter's playing for
Philadelphia. If a Pallas perfect Oh that was a great moment. Huh how
about that? You know his dad and then the pictures that's gonna be.
I hope he makes it. I mean, he's got he's got add a
little bit of bulk. He's got to get a little quicker. But dude,
you saw him play at Clemson. He's got the tools. Will Van
never joins us here? Hey, when you look at the Clemson program right
now, obviously there's talk with David Kloneger, your counterpart yesterday from the Posting
Courier, and there's changes every year. You know that there's a lot of
talk about, you know, Clemson not going to the portal. I mean,
yawn, we understand that's how it is down there, and people just
need to understand that's how it's going to be. Can this team challenge for
a top four, a top eight? Can they be a tournament team as
it's structured coming up here? Can they win the ac C? Is it
too early to tell? What are the biggest question marks you have about this
team? Yeah, Dabo talked to us about it over at spring meetings.
You know, he's kind of like, I think in a way, you
know, he's kind of like, these people are saying that Clempson can't win
anymore and Clemson's falling apart and all this all because they don't go to the
transfer portal and because they don't use nil to entice recruits. And Dabo was
like, you know, that's a bunch of bull mallarchy, you know,
to him, he you know, he feels like he feels like, you
know, you could still win at a high level. And he said he
thinks they got the team. This the team they've been working towards this year.
They they've had them, He's had now a lot of these guys for
a couple of years. They developed them that they're they're Clemson players, They're
part of the Clemson culture. He feels like this team is a team that
can challenge and do some things, and he kind of anxious to see what
they can do. And he's kind of tired of people saying, hey,
Clemson's falling off because they don't know to the transfer of portal and you know
that. And I can see his point, you know, because I do
think what some people forget. And I'm not yeah, I'm not making the
excuses, but I think some people forget with Clemson and why Clemson has dropped
a little bit. I think people forget about how much COVID affected Clemson.
And I know there's people out there saying, oh, well, COVID affected
everybody. No, it didn't not everybody because it didn't affect Ohio State,
it doesn't affect Georgia, it doesn't affect Michigan or Notre Dame or Alabama.
It affects Clemson because Clemton is a very small place, very small town,
and it's it's one of those places where when you're trying to get the top
recruits that in sorry, you gotta at Clemson, you gotta you gotta bring
them to Clemson. You do. And so there was there was two years
where Clemson was not able to bring any recruits Clemson, which made it all
the more impressive, Which made it all the more impressive what Brunelle did in
terms of recruiting during that time. Yeah, but I know it's relative.
Brownell uses the transfer port more. I get it. So you know he
had that like Gerard the Giro situation. You got to bring him down to
a place that looks a lot different than any other university out there and sell
them on it. Just real quickly. We're a little short on time.
Here Will Vandervoard from the Clemson Insider. He's also covering the Pittsburgh Steelers.
We'll get that in just a minute. Here. Uh. The kickoff for
Clemson this year is down in Atlanta on the thirty first of August at at
the Falcon Stadium, the Mercedes Benz Stadium down there against Georgia, and it's
at noon, which sounds like the most one hundred ninety degree day of all
time? Why New Why why noon? For this one? Say that again?
I'm sorry? Why are they? Why are they playing? Have you
got any understanding? Is to wide this game against Georgia to the season is
a noon kickoff. I know, I saw the other games on the slate
that day. I understand this contractual stuff, but the noon for this matchup,
but come on now, no, Now, I'm surprised it's a noon
kickoff. But I think it has everything to do with television. And I
think that people at ESPN think Notre Dame, Texas A and M is going
to get more eyeballs in the primetime slot. I think Clemson Georgia would.
I don't know if that's true or not. It is what it is.
They're they're playing off the Notre Dame game. Is what they're doing when they're
not cheering for the Lakers and we're not cheering for Duke, right. I
mean the game should be a top fifteen, but we'll see. But uh,
as far as the game being being played in Atlanta, you know that
is a A few years ago, Clinton I had somebody drop off the schedule,
so did Georgia. Neither one of them could do a home in a
way. They didn't want to lose their home game, so this was a
way they could work in one of these games. Oh look down yet,
it's a beautiful venue. I think it's one of the great venues in college
football, but at the it's an a night it's a night venue though,
yang doesn't look good unless it's at night in that stadium college football. Hey,
Trey's got some Steelers questions for you. Yeah, I want to get
your pultse on the quarterback situation there in Pittsburgh. Namely, it seems like
it's probably gonna be still a bit of a competition. We know that it's
leaning more towards Russell Wilson's going to get the start, but I think Justin
Fields will have an opportunity. Do you foresee maybe Justin Fields taking the reins
later on in the season. Will it be Russell Wilson the whole season?
What are your thoughts in the quarterback situation. I think they're gonna give Russell
Wilson every opportunity to be the guy for them. Think if you see Justin
Fields, one or two things have happened. Russell Wilson's gotten injured, right
or that, or that the Steelers are really struggling and so, and I
just don't think with you know, a lot of people gave Russell Wilson some
crap last year. Me being one of them. But when you go back
and look at his numbers, they weren't actually bad. He completed sixty six
cent of his passes. He threw for over I mean thirty five hundred years
card Fnelesh. Yeah, he did a good job. Twenty six touchdown,
seven interceptions, So it wasn't like he was awful. And so if you
get those numbers from Russell Wilson, I think that's what Pittsburgh's banking on.
If you get just those numbers from Russell Wilson, then you got yourself a
playoff team, a team that can probably make some noise in the playoffs,
because the problem with the Steelers the last few years is their defense has been
loaded, but their offense has just been horrible. They go three and out
so many times. The defense is on the field so much the defense gets
injured. Right, and now you've got a situation where you can keep your
defense off the field and not they can stay healthier longer, and that gives
you a better chance to be successful, especially in big games. When you
play Kansas City and you play Baltimore, and you play the Browns and the
Bengals, you know you're more at one hundred percent, because let's be honest,
last three years, Pittsburgh has not been one hundred percent on the defensive
side of the ball when they're playing those teams, because the offense has just
been dreadful. I mean, that's the best way to describe it. And
so I think right now they want Russell Wilson to just kind of be Russell
Wilson last year, and they think that they got enough talent around him that
that that'll be enough to get them over the top. And then if they
get Russell Wilson a few years ago, oh yeah, you know, league
YTVP and taking them to the super Bowl, So then that's just a cherry
on top. And now you've got a super Bowl contender. So we'll see
how it goes. But there, I think they're gonna use Justin Fields more
in a role like a slash role. Cordell, right, right, Cordell.
I can hear hoursvorce Cordio. So tell me, do you foresee Justin
Field's returning kickoff? That's that's what I hear. I keep hearing. I'm
like, how well they're reporting it? So I don't think that's do you
like, who's who's reporting it? Who m l m L football in the
NFL rooms rumors? Is it? Do like to report it? No,
it's actual, it's actual Steelers reporters that cover the interest them. He's like
the second fastest guy on the team. He is. I just I mean,
if he's the backup quarterback, do you put him at risk on a
kickoff return? I don't know. It's a big rule change, totally different.
But if you're gonna use him like a Cornell Stewart and you're gonna you're
you're trying to get the most out of him this year, can he be
our wide receiver too to bring him back what they're trying to figure out?
Right, Yeah, he might be able to go out there and catch some
dimes. Like you're I think the Steelers are in a much better situation.
Will you remind us and our fine listeners out there where we can find your
work on the Steelers front? We know the Clemson Insider, but to direct
us to where you're doing just Yeoman's work here on the Steelers front. Yeah,
I work with the Steelers Update dot com. Go to Steelers update dot
com and that's where you find my stuff at. If you can't there,
just go to Twitter. And uh put my stories and I caught my colleague
stories on there as well, so you can always find us there. And
also Steelers update on Facebook, so uh, Steelers update on Twitter and on
Instagram. So it's great stuff. Yeah, I've been following it. Man,
it's great. And I'm dude, I'm proud of you. Got a
lot going on here with Clemson, and obviously you got football around the corner.
You got baseball going on now they just want a golf championship. Congrats.
And then of course, right around the corner, the football schedule will
be out tonight, and I can tell you. I say, by the
way, we're going to Atlanta first week. I know right in my head,
I have an entire copy of the week one schedule and we're gonna reveal
that in a minute. Hey, we'll be Good City going to Kansas City.
I mean, Kansas City's coming to Pittsburgh. Chris say about that,
it's gonna be a good Christmas slump of coal. Here's another one and he's
got forty lumps of coal and that shirt of his rented to dole out.
I'll be grid might be a good game. You know, Steelers are competitive.
Every rod Well we got to run. Man be good. Alright,
guys, we'll talk to you next time. A right man rolled that window
all Maybe he'll do more