Here he is, will Vandervoord. Happy holidays, my friend, welcome back
to the show. Happy holidays you too. We can talk about everything,
but that last part. If you want to, you well, well say
that's the cherry on top. Of course, is you and Trey both being
the Yinzer Steeler fans you are? I might spare you that one. That's
been a tough watch. But hey, Rudolph's coming in more ways than one.
Here he is, bright, shinny nose. Well, I hope he
comes. I hope he comes Saturday's I'll just take a win him since Nanny
and be happy right now, dude, that that cures all the als.
Let me tell you, hey, Will let's talk a little early signing day.
Of course, you and I haven't spoken much since the last time Clempson
played a football game, and look they close the season out strong. I
think we will reflect on that at a minute. I'd like to talk to
you about that turning point which Tyler from Spartanburg whatever, But that Notre Dame
game was huge. What went down today? Give me some names, give
me some surprises, if any, and where do they kind of stand in
the whole run of things? Right? Now say that again, I missed
the first part that just in terms of the signing day, the recruiting part
of the whole business side today, How did Clemson make out today? A
couple of names that come to mind, and how do they stack up to
some of the rankings out there? Yeah, they finished. You know,
it depends on what ranking you look at. I think two four seven has
them ranked twelve right now. I think they're fifteenth or fourteenth in ESPN,
So it's a top fifteen class. It was a good class, not a
I mean, there's a couple of stars. When you look at Sammy Brown,
the five star linebacker out of Jefferson, Georgia, Bryant Westco the five
star wide receiver out of Texas, Obviously those are the headliners of this class.
And but then you know, I think it was more of a class
where Clemson, you know, I think they signed eleven four star guys and
they you know, signed a couple offensive linemen here late to kind of close
the class off. So it was a solid class. I won't classify it
as a great and in the sense of, you know, a great class
is generally a top five class. But but we'll find out in a few
years how great they were not, because that's how those things are all based
on. Right, It's like the NFL draft, same thing. Yeah yeah,
but it's a but it's a solid class. I think, a good
class for Clemson, and it's one where they answered most of the questions they
have and concerns addressing for their roster. And and like the NFL, the
only difference is is like the NFL, because now the NFL is college football
has like its own free agency. However, the difference is you can leave
after one year in college football, where the NFL you at least know if
you sign a guy you got him for a couple of years before you have
to worry about the running off. So that's the thing about college football is
things can change. Like if you will listen, Clemson sign twenty two guys
today, Yep, if they want to all twenty two guys can leave next
year and go somewhere else. That's how ridiculous college football is. Right now,
Will Vanderboards, our guest Clemson insider, catch him out there, of
course, it's Steven Will on Twitter. You mentioned that in the context of
coach Swinny, and obviously he's evolved as much as one can with someone who
has traditional views on how the things should be done here in a game you're
reporting in your analysis just now again, I'm just kind of reading the tea
leaves here because I've been doing NFL stuff all day and I'm catching up on
some of these prospects. It sounds to me like it's not as robust as
it's been on this type of day. Would you agree with that at least
at first glance? And is there a lingering sense of frustration still from coach
Swinny about the way things are as you explained it, or is he pretty
much like most people accepted that, hey, it is free agency and be
ready for maybe a one year and ago guy. Yeah, I mean he's
I think he's accepted it like all coaches have. Coaches have accepted what the
reality is. They haven't accepted that it needs to stay this way. The
Obviously there's a lot of guys behind the scene pushing for change because now whether
they'll get it or not is the question, because the nc DOUAA didn't set
any guidelines and then make things hard when you don't set that guylines. And
but obviously roster management is the number one issue for every coach. And the
coaches aren't against players having opportunities to go, you know, experience things and
to you know, if they need a change to go do things. But
right now in the situation they are in college football rosters, I mean,
it's just ridiculous. How like, you know, you look at the transfer
portal for instance, tell me an NFL season, where a guy decides he
can just up and leave, you know, before a big playoff game.
Oh you know, yeah, And that's where we are in college football.
You know, guys can up and lead, they can turn pro. They
don't have to play. There's no I don't know. It's the roster that
like Clemson had, for instance, dramatically changed after the South Carolina game,
and you know you got guys on there that are that have opted out.
They're not going to play in the bowl game, which you know, I've
never been a fan of because I'm like, if you're not going to play
in the bowl game, then why did you play the Ducotrolunta game. Yeah,
if you if you wanted to play, didn't want to play in the
bowl game, why did you play against Notre Dame? Because like, if
you know, because Clemson was out of the playoff picture of that Notre Dame
week, So why not just go ahead and opt out the rest of that
season if that's what you want to do, because that's what you just did
with the bowl game, because you had those players could have got hurt in
any one of those games prior to this bowl game. So to use the
excuse, well, they we don't want to get hurt, I think is
bogus. And I just don't like that excuse because you could have done that
if that was truly the case, You could have did that in week eight,
a week nine of the season. Yeah, and Will, it's not
an indictment like we sound like old fogies when we talk like this. Really
it's sort of and I don't want to be patronized. It's an indictment of
the game game. But I also want to say this that like guys like
Jeremiah Trotter Junior and Barreck Carter, these are grown ass men who know what
they're doing. But there are some individuals that come from backgrounds and families where
the money is tied eight. They need something now, and there are a
lot of vultures out there waiting to take advantage in some of the ways these
nils are written up. Boy, you better just sign off your royalties for
the rest of your life. If you're not careful. It's a wild it's
a wild landscape. Will Yeah. But and that's my argument. It's like,
Okay, if money's the important thing and the reason why you're you're doing
it, then why not just break away in week eight, week nine.
That's my saying. It's like, go ahead, and that's a team.
Now, there's a fine. I think they still view a lot of what
they're doing right now as a well as kind of like an extended version of
the combine for the NFL some of these guys. But it's tough. I
think some of them truly love it. And there's a guy playing for Kentucky
right now, Devin Leary. We know that name pretty well. Uh,
he's gonna be facing off against Kate Klubnick and company. It's the Gator Bowl,
I know. Look, you go back about a year from now and
you look at it where Clemson was. You were hoping this team, if
you're a Clemson fan, could elevate back to that top four, but it
wasn't gonna happen. You could see it early on with Duke and some of
the other games, but that mid season sort of turning point. I don't
want to spend too much time on a sports caller who got under the coach's
skin. It's all ridiculous, but I think this team always had enough character
and certainly defensively, the talent level was exceptional. Wes Goodwin great job this
year. But now they made a few coaching changes. Walk us through what
they've done now in terms of adding Matt Luke, and they've also beefed up
a little bit on the defensive side of the ball with a new assistant.
Yeah, you know, Devo kind of they were already going to make the
change. He had already talked to Lemanski Hall prior to the season ending,
so they kind of knew they were making a change at defensive end, and
it was just a matter of, you know what he wanted to end his
new coach, and of course bringing Chris rump in, a guy who really
isn't new in the sense that he coached under Davo sweet before, back when
Davo was first to head coach and also under Tommy Bowden. But Chris has
grown a lot as a coach since then. Really I saw it firsthand the
other day watching him in practice. He's really changed his style in a lot
of ways and what he does. So I think that was a great move
for Clemson on the defensive end front, on the defensive line to get a
guy with his experience, has coached, you know, a guy who's won
national championships at Alabama. He you know, he's coached a ton of NFL
players, So this guy knows and he's coached in the NFL, so this
guy knows how to recruit and how to recruit. And Chris also just wanted
to kind of come back home. He's from South Carolina. He you know,
he, as I mentioned earlier, he coached at Clemson, and him
and his wife, this is the place they loved the most of all the
places they've been. And so he always told Dabbo, if I got the
opportunity, you know, if thee ever came up, I would love to
come back. And so it came open and Dabo reached out to him,
and and he's back in the Upstate and and coaching at Clemson again. And
then you know, Dabo said that at the end of the year he didn't
go into that week thinking I'm gonna make a change on the into the line,
he said, he went started evaluating the team, and as he evaluated
the offensive line, he just saw more and more that they needed to make
a change. They needed more veteran coach there, someone who can you know,
bring his experience into the locker room, not only from a you know,
coaching standpoint from but also from that experience standpoint of being on other staffs
and bringing that knowledge to the table that they need on the coaching staff.
And that was a tough choice for Davia because Thomas Austin was one of his
first captains on his on his team back in nine on his first team,
and you know it was the guy who coached with the national championships, was
a you know, analyst coach for on those two national championship teams. So
that was a difficult decision. But bringing in a guy like Matt Luke,
the guy who won a national championship in Georgia, was a head coach at
Old Miss and will he wore the ring on a recruiting trip, right,
that's right, And he and he brings that experience on the offensive line that
that they desperately needed and also that experience in that and that coaching room that
they desperately needed because when you look at the most experienced coach you have this
past year was Garrett Riley, who's thirty four years old. Yeah, so
they needed to make a change somewhere to bring some experience into that offensive coaching
room. And this was a great pick up because also, besides all the
things I just mentioned, he's a heck of a recruiter and it's gonna pay
dividends for Clemson going forward. Was what Matt Luke can do. And and
by the way, I'm a big fan of Thomas Austen. He's a friend
of mine and I hate to see him go. Uh, but you know,
I understand what Dabo was thinking and why he had to go in this
direction. Yeah, between what we talked about last year, Brandon Streeter and
now Tom Austin, who's been there forever. I mean, it's it's a
tough business. But you know, you move on and you you'll be fine.
Thomas will be and obviously Brandon will be fine, and will Vandovert's always
fine except when his damn Steelers just break break his heart. Now, I
had asked trade before the show. I said, should I bring this up
to him? And he said probably not, And I said, well,
if I do, I'm anticipating a very level headed will Vandervoort saying to me
something along the lines of, well, this is kind of what I expected
around Week one, You're Steelers. Go No, I did not expect this.
No. I wish I could say I expected them to be seven and
four and then totally fall on their face. Now, granted, they've had
guys. Listen, a lot of people don't know who don't follow the Steelers
like we like we do. But you know, Pittsburgh lost both of their
middle linebackers, yes here in the middle of the season out for the year.
They lost their third best middle linebacker out for the season. So all
three of those guys are gone. And then they you know, Minka Fitzpatrick,
now he's gonna miss I think his fifth or sixth game this season now
at safety. And oh, by the way, you just suspended the other
guy for the rest of the year, thank you NFL. So you know,
so they're gonna be without their starting two safeties and the starting middle linebackers
when they play Cincinnati this week. It's crazy. They're a different team from
that, and then of course they're probably they're not going to have Kenny Pickett
more likely too at quarterback. And it's no coincidence they've lost all three of
these games after Kenny Pickett got hurt. It's been a huge drop off.
And then we I think and I both agreed, and we still do to
a degree that Pickett and I think Trey agrees that. You know, Pickett
is not quite a Prussia line, but he is cut above what they have.
He's a glue that holds this offense together. Oh well, I mean
I thought Canada was the glue remover. He took him to the He started
playing well before this injury, and he had that good game the week before
he gets Cincinnati, right, he finally threw for over two hundred and fifty
yards and then and then was playing well against Arizona before he hurt his ankle.
There that play, when that happened, I was thinking about you,
because I think of this game, it had some type of James Connor voodoo
written all over it. And they certainly came in and played flat. But
the minute pick It went down, it's like, damn. And you know
I told you this earlier before we went on the air, and I think
you hit the nail on the head with the linebacker issue train I've been talking
about. It was it thirteen straight runs that Shane Stiken called with Trey Sermon
of all people and they Mike Tomlin team. Look, there's a lot of
smoke right now. There's a lot of fans that wont him out. Where
are you at with Tomlin? I mean, as just as a fan,
do you feel like it's time to make a change or do you appreciate the
fact that, hey, be careful what you wish for. If you ask
when the games are over, I'm like, was he a change that I'm
fired up? I'm read in the face, I'm angry, So yes,
I would definitely tell you then we need a change. But then when you
cool off and you realize, you know, you got a Hall of Fame
head coach. Look at the Panthers. You got a guy that's one before
and found ways to be successful. You kind of to me, you know,
I kind of tend back and say, no, Mike Tomlin's still our
guy, and which he can get this turned around. He deserves that opportunity.
So the journalist comes out in me, then there you go, right,
But prior to that, I'm more like the fan, and I'm ready
to burn everybody's house down and throw them out. Hopefully it didn't start with
the Canada residents, but that problem no longer exists. Now it's the Sullivan
issue, so we'll see what happens there. It's tough when you can't run
the ball and you can't stop the running this league. I don't care how
much hero did you have. It's tough. But you got three games left,
and coming up later in the show, we're gonna try to do some
like Senderella stories, possibly some wild card teams. You guys have done that
before. Two thousand and five, you win in I think he's the sixth
seed and you ran the table. Do you see it? Do you see
a team right now will that could do that? Because I do. I
see a couple of teams. I do. I do see a team.
And I was telling my brother who that team was today where we were watching
them play and beat up on the Dallas Cowboys, and that's the Buffalo Bills.
Yeah, the Buffalo Bills. This Buffalo Bills team reminds me a lot
of that Steelers team because and maybe it's because Josh Allen is a faster version
of Ben Roethlisberger, but nonetheless still a version of Ben Roethlisberger. And maybe
that's where. But they got the superstar receiver, they got the good running
game, they got a good offensive line, they have a very good defense
with the defensive minded football coach. So yes, that's a team that I
think should go on that type of run and win the Super Bowl they get
in. If Buffalo gets in to the playoffs, I think they're my team
to win Super Bowl. I really believe that. I'm gonna be pulling for
them because I know my Steelers aren't getting in because if my Steelers get in,
they are not the two thousand and five Steelers. That No, there's
no jokey over pretty fast, there will be no Joey Porter at at Cincinnati
Stadium saying we're tired of whooping your ass with the oxygen mask and what do
you call it? The escalator of shame where right down No, that's called
no, it's the loser the locators go down there. Yeah, well,
we're gonna see what happens here. Jake Browning's played well. Trevor Lawrence,
by the way, former Clemson Great. Look, I know they lost a
couple of games here, but I don't know how he got out of that
injury. That's a tough s he because I was for sure that he was
gonna miss more time. But damn get him a golf cart. I mean,
my guy Trevor up there out there in duvau making him walk all the
way to the hospital. Yeah, well, that's another team that I think
could make some noise in the playoff. I don't know if there's Super Bowl
team because I don't know if they have the offensive line to be able to
run the ball on a consistent manner in the playoffs. But but you know,
look, excuse me, Jacksonville's gonna win these next three games. They're
better than these three teams, and they're gonna they're gonna win these next three.
The Panthers, right, you know, to play the Carolina Panthers,
and you know, the Panthers just beat the Falcons nine to seven, so
watch out boy. Yeah, well, you know, and I know they're
gonna win that game. So the question would be how many fans are going
to be in the stay. That's more of the question. If the Panthers
ever needed the Cowboys as Steelers to come to Charlotte. This would have been
the year. Let me let me, let me leave you with this.
I covered the team this year, of course for iHeartRadio, and I was
in the press box for that said game. Dallas actually came to town to
visit the Panthers back in October. Guess right, guess what happened? You
wanna tell you what happened. Jerry Jones decides on that day to come to
the game with Jimmy Johnson, and he announced his pregame in an interview or
bizarre interview with I believe Aaron Andrews that we're gonna induct Jimmy Johnson into the
Ring of Honor. I know we're here in Charlotte, but I wanted to
announce it here. I guess just detroll David Tipper. It's been it's been
a hard one, Will Yeah, I know, man, I know it's
been hard for you guys. They'll be fine. I still see your analysts
up there though. You're still doing your job, and I gotta do it,
man, Will Vanderbot Clemson Insider dot com. People have my fani.
We'll talk to Clemson. Who's with you soon? And we'll get you on
the Tailgate show next week, my friend. All right, man, we'll
talk to you next week then. Oh, let's good to hear your voice.