Will welcome back, my friend. How you been I've been good. I
like this Mount Rushmore of high school sports of South Carolina. Can I throw
a name in or two please? We'd love to hear because you've covered this
sport for a long time here in the state. Let's see what you got.
Yeah. So, if I had to say, like, and I'm
gonna be a little biased here, but you know, if I had to
say, like, to me, who's the best athlete I've seen in person?
And it got you. Guys. If I won't know his name,
there might be some that will. But he passed away as a good friend
of mine a few years about ten years ago. Now, wow, can
it's been that long? It has been longer than that. Actually, anyway,
he was he he was a teammate of mine in Vamberg and his name
was Eric Bamberg. And he was one of the best athletes I ever saw
in person. I mean he could he could play any sport at a high
level. He was a highly recruited guy out of high school and just he
helped lead us to a state championship of football. And you know, he's
he's definitely one of the one of the best athletes I've seen him person then
if I had to say another name, and I'd be remiss if I didn't
say it. But this was out of doubt. DeAndre Hopkins. Yeah,
you know, and Nuke was like Eric he was he was. He was
a multiple sport player to do it all. And dude, my son,
not to interrupt you, my son Andrew, who's a huge NFL fan,
showed me. He said, Dad, do you know Hopkins played basketball?
I said, yeah, he's his highlights. I said, yeah, that
I could do it all. And dude, the stories I've heard about hop
because I never got to meet him when I covered the high school for the
Greenville News, but it's the hands he had, like Michael Jordan as Cans.
I'll tell the story real fast. So his first game, like the
only other person I seen like Nuke was the guy told me about Aaron Bamberg
who just could take do something like very like you would think. He just
makes something looks very difficult look easy. Right. So Nuke, I remember
his first game at at Daniel High School, his first varsity game, the
Woodmont quarterback, he just totally the guy. He won. My quarterback throws
this pass and new totally bathe them intercepts it and then just made all the
other eleven players that would mont just look like they need to go back to
JV. I mean, it was just the way he got he he got,
worked his way through the crowd and scored. He scored a touchdown on
it, and it was just like I looked at whoever was sitting at me
in the press box and I said, that guy's gonna play on Sundays.
I did say he's gonna play on Saturdays. I said he's gonna play on
Sunday, and and I was right. I hate I'm not bragging that,
but I just knew propecial man and to watch him in person play sports,
and to watch him play football and basketball, he was He was an electrifying
athlete, great hands and just great instincts, and that's what separated him the
great athletes when at the high school level, it's not so much the talent
that separates them, which it is, it's more their instincts. They think
differently than the rest of us, and that's what stands out with the guy
like new or not, good friend Eric Vambers, that's awesome. No,
that's a great tribute to your good friend. There, who I'm sure was
a legend in more ways than one. And of course NW Hopkins, who
remains a threat there now with the Titans, a team that we'll talk some
NFL later. With your Steelers, there's some developing news out of Pittsburgh that
we'll touch on, but boy, let's not bury the lead here. Yesterday,
Clemson's magical run through the Super Regional came to a halt in a game
that I had a chance yesterday to watch some of and had some family events
attend to, so I missed it. And then they switched the game over
to ESPNU they had camera issues. There's a lot of stuff going on,
not to mention the fact that on the field, dude some crazy things.
Let's start with the positives. Cam Kinderella, I'm telling you that play he
made in center field, Willie Mays, everybody's making the comparison, and that
home running hit just an amazing athletic feat. To be able to pull that
off in a crunch time elimination style game, that's got to be. As
you your article here at Clemson Insider Umpires lose control at end of Clemson Florida
game and you sub sort of texted this with your tweet saying one of the
craziest games you've ever seen in your life. But just talk about that performance
by Cam. What an amazing stud he is. Man, I tell you
what for him too, that three run homer first of all, I mean,
Cam's been that way all year. Is a He's a playmaker. When
you need him to be, He's gonna get that clutch shit for you.
He's gonna find a way to drive in a run. He's gonna make him
play. Now here's the crazy thing, guys, the people that don't know
Cam Tanderella never played center field until he got the pumpson. Really, but
he is the most instinctive center fielder I've ever seen out there. Clinton's had
some great center fielders in the time I've watched him, but I've never seen
a guy like him in centerfield. I mean, he he knows where the
ball is as soon as it leads the bat, so you can pay attention
to what's going on in the outfield. It's by looking at him, and
then he just makes plays like he did. That's not the first time he's
ready to play like I mean, he stole a home run in Game one
from Florida, where he goes up and just makes the heck of a catch,
and then you know, then what he did yesterday was just amazing because
that's the game. I mean, they hit the ball out there, it's
the bottom of the tenth inning. They got runner and scoring positions. I
mean the Florida Runners, they're running around celebrating, They're thinking they just going
to the College Will Series. At that moment, they don't realize think another
hour to play, because he just makes this unbelievable Like I don't know how
he did it, Like and the way in Decline, the little terrace out
there in Clemson that he had to climb and then make sure he didn't hit
the wall, that he kept the ball towards his body so the ball would
stay on his body when it came and not come out. That was just
an amazing play. One of the greatest plays I've ever seen. To be
honest with you, I'm not saying that in the moment, and that actually
covering Clemson for twenty years that I think that is the best play I've seen
for a Clemson baseball player in my twenty years covering Clemson. And then just
and then just the three run homer earlier in the ninth inning. What he
did, I mean, dude, the guy was was he was trending on
Twitter. He was the number one after he made that catch. He was
number one on Twitter Twitter. Yeah, excuse me, X Yeah, he
was number one on x trending yesterday. That tells you everybody in the country
Wall was watching what he did and was amazing what he did. They all
echoed your sentiments, Will van der Voorden in terms of those who are really
baseball purists to be able to to track the ball watching again here and you
know the ball he's starting to his left, left shoulder, goes to his
right shoulder, hits the wall, goes up the terrace, and his reaction
was priceless too, just like the fact he's like shaking his head like Nope,
not today, not today. That's that's swagger right there. So Will,
let's go through some of the controversy and again take us through what happened.
First of all in the second inning. Yeah, so in the second
inning, Jack, take me on. He what he does is he fills
a ball, a little dribbler towards the mound on the right side of the
left side of the mound, going if you're coming from the batter's uh and
it, you know, he picks it up and runs toward towards the runner,
which was Clemson's excuse me to him, my brain is not working.
O' rocky. Uh, Nolan, O Rocky. Uh. So he runs
toward no' Rocky to make the tag, and as he does, he kind
of lowers his shoulder into the Rocky and the Rocky kind of just being any
normal human being who's running full speed knows well, I don't want to get
run over, so I need to I need to just kind of like embrace
the impact of what's about to happen. Right, And so when he did,
you know, you know, Jack didn't like that tag. Leon didn't
like that, and so he kind of pushes back with a little a little
right hook as well with his love uh you know, and Bart Boatwright did
a great job in our pictures. You can see that picture on our leflearly
through that right glove up into that jaw, and then they both players kind
of pushed and shoved a little bit and jawed at each other, and then
then of course the melee, a little bit of a melee c breaks out.
Florida players on the infield, they come towards it, come some players
come out of the dugout comes towards it, and you know, and so
there's an eighteen minute delay. You're thinking, those two guys are getting tossed,
in my opinion, as they should in my opinion. You know.
So you know, I'm sitting there thinking, well, you got to toss
both guys. You know, both guys are in the wrong here. You
know, one guy started it and the other guy retaliated, and you know
you tossed them both because this TV's showing it and it's gone and goes up
to Pittsburgh for the review. Pittsburgh's making that decision. And then you know,
of course the guy that's going to be tagged is gonna get thrown out
of the game. It's Jack Crichton, who all he did was he did
what everybody else did. He ran the basis, the ending was over it.
He starts back towards on plate and jogs over to the where the incident
is happening. And because he left his position, as I use their quotes,
he was thrown out of the game. When every Florida infielder left his
position, and every Climpson player that was in that dugout left their position,
and four or five Florida players that were in the dugout left their position right,
and not a single one of those guys get tossed, nor the two
that instigated it. And guys, you know how you know who was in
the wrong is when they're in the Florida dugout and Jack kelly On is celebrating
that he didn't get tossed. That tells you he knew, oh boy,
I probably just did something that got me tossed. And and that's a big
deal because if Clemson, if he's tossed and Crimson wins the game, he
wouldn't have played today either. So that would have been a huge deal by
the way the rules work for it being tossed from a game in Ncuba.
So my whole thing was, you know, if you're not going to talk
those two guys, you don't toss to anybody, and they end up tossing
a guy who really had no did nothing to warrant being tossed on all of
it. And so it was that was kind of what started at both benches
are warned at that time. Any more altercations happened, that's it okay,
So we fast forward through the games. A couple of things happened with Florida
where you could possibly say the players maybe did something that warranted not what I
consider unsportuate life, but what these umpires today do you know? And so
you know, you probably probably say, okay, if you're gonna do that,
you probably go stop here and do that. Well they didn't, and
you're like, okay, cool, They're gonna let the game play out.
And that's the way it should be, right, That's how I wanted it
to. Everybody wanted it. And then when Clemson gets to go ahead home
run in the tenth I mean the thirteenth, thenn and Alden Massis he slammed
his back to the ground in celebration at his you know, at the Clemson
and dugout. The rest or the umpires excuse me decide, Well, right
in front of the Clemson dugout, they're going to have a conversation whether that
was unsportsmanlike. And I'm like, well, Florida just did this twice in
the game on home runs. You know, they even flipped the bat towards
the Clemson dugout. And one guy actually said some not so nice comments to
Cam Kennirell as he's round his second base a couple of times at one time,
and you didn't stop the game for either one of those guys. And
I think Jack Leggan's argument was exactly mine, like what are you doing?
Why are you stopping the game? Why you stopping the momentum? Jack leggantt
exploded because his a hold on, you didn't do it to their two guys,
and you did it to our one guy after you've already tossed one of
our guys for doing nothing. And we're we're like four hours deep into this
game by now. You know, if the tensions and frustrations are high,
this is an elimination game. So you got to give these guys maybe a
little bit of grace, But then the two of them get tossed and then
they're not tossed to the media based on NC double A rules, so there's
no postgame press or anything. Right, Well, we got to talk to
the players, but we couldn't talk to Aaron Backage because if you get tossed
down in n Cuba tournament, they will not allow you to talk to the
media afterwards, which is ridiculous, especially but it's hilly it is. So
you know, so the n C Double A comes out with their ruling earlier
on what happened, and we can get it. We understand Backage came out
of his dugout, so did Jack Legett, and that's why they were taught.
They were Warren first and then they were tossed according to what the chief,
the crew chief said in his later statement, which by the way,
didn't come out until I was already asleep, by which way, I didn't
go to the middle of I saw I tweeted out in the middle of the
night, That's what I saw it drink and I was in bed by the
time this thing got tweeted out or or the or the n C double A
sent it to Clemson and everything. I got the first thing this morning.
I woke up this morning from Clemson because I requested this, as several other
reporters did. And you know, it was like ridiculous. I'm like,
why couldn't you send this out faster? Not Clemson, that has nothing to
do with Clemson. It's not Clemson. Why the NC double A couldn't send
out his comment faster? I just thought it was kind of bogus and like
I said, I'm writing to call him on the whole situation. Did did
Clemson? I understood why Aeron Backers was taken up for Jack, and maybe
Jack should have held his emotions in check, but like you said, it's
been four and you know, five hours. At that point, the game
has gone on and emotions are high, and you know, coach Legott felt
like things weren't being called evenly and he wanted to make a case about it.
And I get it. We've seen that in baseball before. And then
coach Backets had his back and they they got Coach Backus saying that you know,
he is insighting the crowd. And you know what he was, yeah,
because he knew that they were losing their momentum their meeting. And by
the way, if you're gonna meet, go meet by the Florida bullpen,
by the Florida dugout, you know, and and meet over there and talking
about it, because none of the Florida players are gonna say anything at that
point. They're losing. And the was a gen home run, but you're
like doing it on the Clemson side and you're talking about tossing a Clemson player.
What do you think was gonna happen. Do you think they were just
gonna sit there and not say anything right, throw out one of their players.
Possibly it was totally handled wrong, and the NCAA needs to come down
on this umpiring crew, suspend them for a series a weekend. I tell
you, I hope they're not working the College World Series in the NFL.
You know how this works. I mean, we've seen guys notoriously blow calls
in playoff games, and there's no way they send them to the super Bowl.
There's no way they in fact, they take them out of the playoffs
for the next year if that happens. And hopefully for this in a sport,
in a structure that I'm still not as familiar with as you are,
Will Van Dedervort, Clint, it's an insider, but I understand the core
foundations of how this all operates here. Yeah, you'd want that to not
be the case. Don't send these guys to Omaha if they can't control the
game. But in retrospect, look, you're gonna write a column here,
Clemson insider guys, don't miss this. Will Vandervoordy's gonna have some more thoughts
on what happened but just give us your sense of what a ride. It
was a journey. Obviously, we've seen this Clemson program on so many levels
in sport in general, and basketball comes to mind. On the men's side,
the Elite Eight journey, and I mean a heartbreaking ending, but what
a great season it was at large for this team to get right on the
doorstep of Omaha. Yeah, and so people understand Florida was the better team.
Yes, Florida. I thought the right team won the game. But
don't get me wrong on what I'm talking about with the umpires. I thought
Florida was the better team and deserved to win, and they did. Okay.
So with that said, this season has been you know, forty four
and sixteen for Clemson. They were ranked inside the top ten all season long,
as they probably will finish when the season is done. I still think
they're one of the They didn't make it to omahall, but I still think
they're one of the top ten teams in the country. And they just had
a tougher draw they pulled Florida. You know, a Florida team that has
found its mojo, a Florida team that's as talented as any of those other
sevens that are going to be in Omaha, and I think they can win
it, just as I think they had just as good chance to win it
as anybody else. They just didn't live up to expectations during the season.
But this Clemson team twenty five times came from behind to win. I've never
seen or covered a team that just keep getting off the mat like yesterday was
prime example of that. Five times. Guys, they rallied in that game
yesterday, yep, five times, And that tells you what kind of team
that is and how they just don't quit. And that was their motto all
year long. Blake Wright kind of set the tone early before the season started
when he gathered his team around and said, look, guys, one thing's
gonna go down this year. We are not ever gonna quit in a game.
We're gonna play until the last out, regardless if we're winning by twenty
seven runs or down by twenty seven runs. And they carried that motto all
the way through the season. And kudos to them, kudos to coach Backage
for a great job. They got over that hump, got through a regional,
got to a super regional. So you're seeing in his two years he
won an ACC championship. He took Clemson to a regional a national seed his
first year. His second year, he wins the Atlantic Division championship, gets
Clemson to another national seed. This time, they get through the regional,
they get into a super regional, and they battle Florida to the end.
In both games. Both games were great, they really were. And so
you know, kudos to Clemson and coach Backage for a job well done.
And I think, guys, you know, I think this guy's a limit
for this program under him, I think, you know, Clinton's gonna get
to Omaha. And I'm gonna go ahead and say it. I think Eric
Beckets will probably lead Clemson to his first national championship in baseball. I really
believe that. There you go, there you have it. Hey, speaking
of arch rivals here real quick, did did you hear the news in Columbia?
Did they zero on a new baseball coach? And what do you know
about this right now? Yeah, they're gonna pull somebody out of retirement.
Where we've seen this before from South Carolina. Oh yeah, that's right,
Steve and holds uh so. And also, by the way, a lot
of people forget a guy named Paul Dietzel. They pulled out an Lsu as
well, who won a national championship in nineteen fifty nine and went on to
be a head coach at South Carolina in the sixties and early seventies. So
you know this, this is South Carolina has done this before. They like
to go get coaches that have that have done it before. Hey, and
there's nothing wrong with that, and I think they're going they're they're going to
try to see if they can re establish what they have. And I'll be
honest with you, guys, it's not like South South Carolina's like Clemson in
baseball. It's not like they're far off. It just takes maybe the a
couple moves here or there, just like you saw backats do here at Clemson.
Yep, and they're right back doing what they do. Doc John's got
a very proud baseball program. They're one of the premier programs in college baseball,
have been just like Clinton has for decades. And I see that continuing
as well, And you know what, I'm glad it will because that's what
makes the Clemson South Caroline of baseball rivalry the best of the country. That
those two teams are always at the top of the discussions and everybody's talking about
them, and they're always talking about Obahall and getting to the College World Series.
Finally, you can follow Will Vandervoord on Exit Steeler Will and you can
also watch him just do great work at the Clemson Insider Clemson Insider dot com.
So just a little Steeler nugget here. Breaking news is Trey Falco have
also a big Steelers fan, and I were talking that your boy Mike Tomlin
just got a three year extension and you cover the Steelers as well. Get
a plug in for that. Your thoughts on this a big surprise? Probably
not? And what do you think about this team moving forward? Well,
I think what did I tell you guys around November that he was getting he
was getting an extension? You did? I just could call that. So
yeah, not surprised he's getting an extension at all, you know, And
I'm glad he is, because I think Pittsburgh is building a team where they
can win for not just this year, but I think they got a team
they're building they can win for several years. And I think I think,
you know, signing Mike to a longer deal and securing that and getting all
that notion out there from the national media. Oh, is this the last
year from Mike Tomlin? And I saw one person say a few weeks ago,
if Tomlin doesn't win this year, he's getting fired. I'm like,
you're an idiot. Don't fire coach? Okay, you're just they don't they
just I mean, they ain't fired once since nineteen sixty nine. That tells
you all you need to know. You know, three in my lifetime.
Three in my lifetime. Yeah, that three in my lifetime too, And
so like, yeah, I mean, you know, we're talking fifty plus
years. And by the way, it's not like and I'm not saying that
it can't happen, because you know, if he goes one to fifteen,
it will happen. Sure, Mike time is not going one in fifteen.
That's I mean that their team is too good. They've already built. The
pieces are in place for this team to contend to the AFC. Does that
mean they're gonna win a Super Bowl? I don't know, we'll find out,
but I think they can contempt in the playoffs. I think this is
a team that can win a playoff game and contend for the AFC Championship.
I really do believe that. Okay, the last question of the Steelers and
then we're gonna let you go here. Who is starting for the Steelers and
quarterback in December? Russell Wilson or Justin Fields. That's a hall loaded question,
yes it is, you know, but load up, let's ride.
Listen. If it goes like I hope it, injuries aside, injuries aside,
if it goes early like, if it goes like I hope it does
early in the season, then Justin Fields is the quarterback throughout the year.
And I think they use Justin excuse me, Russell Wilson, excuse me,
And I think they he's Justin Fields like a slash. Yeah, I think
that's what You're like a Cordiel Stewart For those people don't know what I mean
by like a slash. I think they use him like Cordell Stewart back in
the day until Russell's ready to hang it up. So I think they're gonna
find a way to try to keep both guys. But Russell Wilson just already
hearing you know, you're hearing the TJ. Watts and you're hearing nauseie Harris,
and you're hearing these guys, they're talking about what he's already bringing into
the locker room. And keep in mind, when Russell Wilson went to Denver,
Denver wasn't like, didn't have the pieces in place that Pittsburgh has in
place, and so Russell was kind of like trying to and I think he
maybe did some things wrong and maybe didn't do a good job from a pr
standpoint making sure he's there for his teammates, if you will. I think
he learned his lesson there and he came into Pittsburgh and I think he's got
the right idea. It sounds like the Russell Wilson of old, and he
knows there's pieces in place for this team to win now. And I think,
you know, that's why you're seeing a different Russell Wilson approaching this theme
and how he's approaching the Steelers' locker room and how he's trying to make himself
fit in and how he's trying to lead. And that's something that Pittsburgh hasn't
had in a couple of years, you know, since been Roethlisberger. And
you know, Roethlisberger didn't have the pieces that he's gonna have in place.
Rouethlisberger didn't have this offensive line or a Nagie Harris, he had a rookie
Najie Harris. He didn't have these wide he didn't have a George Pickens,
right and so like, so, I think Russell sees the pieces in place,
and then he sees that elite defense on the other side, that Pittsburgh
has went out and made this elite defense to go with t. J.
Watt and Meeka Fitzpatrick. And I said, that's why I think the Steelers.
I'm not saying they're gonna go beat the Kansas City Chiefs or something.
I ain't what I'm saying, but I think they can contend. I think
they can contend in the a f C because the ASC is loaded, guys,
and it really is. And so but the personally division, let's just
let's just go beat the Browns, the Ravens and the Bengals and just you
know, which is what we do. Anyway, I'm coining it revenge.
By the way, So there's Ravens people out there who don't know that the
Steelers are seven and one against the Ravens. They mean, so suck on
that and that's what. Don't come out and go, oh they got Lamar
Jackson. We owl Lamar Jackson again. That's all I gotta say. It's
been that way. Steelers at Falcons it's the Arthur Smith Ball Week one,
and then Steelers at Broncos the Russell Wilson Let's Ride Extravaganza comes back home to
the Rocky Mountain High City. Will Van by the way, before we get
out real fast, if you guys know, but the Steelers are playing the
Ravens and hosting the Ravens the same weekend Clemson is going to Pits. I
guess he's already got his ticket. Oh, mister will vandervo the right,
that's right, I smell roadshow. I am ready for that one. Raven
Steelers. Oh, it's gonna be awesome. Not to mention that, uh
there, there's gonna be some college football playoff implications on the schedule side that
butt up against some of these games in your division. So we'll we'll have
to catch up with you next time and talk about that. Will. This
is too much fun, man, Thanks for thanks for stopping by. We'll
keep following your work at the Clemson Insider. Got some great content coming up,
and all your Steelers content as well. Be good, my man,
get some rest, Okay, I'm gonna try to you guys. I appreciate you