Big-picture perspective and current state of affairs
By: Larry Williams
CLEMSON -- Not long ago, a few reporters were late to Brian Kelly's press conference and he made a joke about fining them for being late in the future.
One of the reporters was celebrated, in viral fashion, for her immediate response to Kelly:
"Maybe if you win we'll be on time."
The retort was highly unprofessional. But since it came after a loss, Kelly's first as a head coach at LSU in dispiriting fashion to Florida State, Kelly was the one who came off looking bad for getting schooled by a person who covers him.
A few months later, Kelly's team is preparing for the SEC championship and no reporter would dare clap back at him in such a fashion.
And that's really the rub: Results are what have always shaped perceptions, actions and reactions, but far more now than ever the most recent result is what invites wild swings between glorification and outright mockery.
In 2022 the public conversation surrounding the highly popular endeavor of college football is an absolute rollercoaster. That's largely because of how much instant opining and judging we do with our thumbs instead of face-to-face, but that's not the only reason.
The fact that gobs of new revenue streams have largely gone to the head coaches of these football teams makes them more justified targets when things start to turn sour.
But then we get to differences of opinion on how to define "turning sour." And that's where we get to the current state of affairs with Clemson football.
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney and veteran D-End Myles Murphy are shown here in Death Valley last Saturday. (AP)
If you're a Clemson fan who walked into Death Valley three days ago prepared to bring your best, as requested by the head coach in advance of the noon game, it was certainly dispiriting and even devastating to walk out a loser.
You walked in still holding out hope that this team had something really special -- special defined as playoff special. You walked out facing the sobering and even stunning reality that the only thing special on the field that day was the special teams of the visitors.
The head coach himself was unquestionably devastated by the defeat. If there are two losses that have been more painful to him in one regular season than this one and the Notre Dame debacle, we'd like to see them.
But Dabo Swinney's job is also to move on, to avoid wallowing in misery, to focus on things still left to achieve. And as hard as it is to recognize that there are still important goals left on the table, as easy as it is to say what happens from here means nothing, the reality is such emotional reactions are overheated at best and asinine at worst.
Swinney is not taking kindly to the idea that DJ Uiagalelei should've been benched during Saturday's game, or to the idea that he should just go ahead and get started with the Cade Klubnik era for better or worse this Saturday.
This Saturday in Charlotte. This Saturday in the ACC championship game.
This Saturday, which presents an opportunity to do something that seemed almost impossible for two decades before his elevation to head coach.
Swinney caused a bit of a stir two days ago when this reporter asked him about the pecking order at quarterback, and whether Uiagalelei is still the starter.
His response: "Are you saying DJ is the reason we lost the game?"
Our response: "No, we're asking if he's still the starter."
He caused another stir last night on his radio show when he responded to a question from a fan about what decisions he might have to make to resuscitate a passing game that has declined sharply the past two years.
"There’s nobody that works harder to represent Clemson and cares more about Clemson and the brand of Clemson than me. I promise you that. Because I know where we’ve come from. And I know when we won that championship in 2011 it hadn’t happened in 20 years. We hadn’t won 10 games in 20 years.
"Now we win 10 games and it’s like nobody cares. You go to the ACC championship, nobody cares. That’s not true. A lot of vocal minority people don’t care. But I ain’t ever listened to them people. And I ain’t ever gonna listen to those people. So I hear ya, but I’m gonna keep doing my job. And again, I’ve got bosses. And if they don’t like how I do my job then they can send me out to pasture. But I’m gonna show up every day and keep giving it everything I’ve got, every single day, as long as I’ve got breath in my body, and I’m going to surround myself with people that I believe in, because that’s what we’ve got here.
"We’ve got a bunch of great people and great kids that work their butt off to create the consistency that is so rare."
He's edgy, and understandably so after losing to his rival for the first time in nine years.
Maybe part of this is Swinney marking his territory in the same way he did 11 years ago after his team was drubbed by South Carolina in Columbia. That followed a similar drubbing at N.C. State, and Clemson fans were finding it hard to get excited about a trip to the ACC championship game against Virginia Tech.
At that time he launched into a rant about something Gamecock radio man Todd Ellis said that Steve Spurrier said, and a few days later the tirade was viewed as a masterstroke because Clemson climbed off the mat and destroyed the Hokies.
Swinney shifted the target from his players to his words. That was the story in the run-up to a game no one thought Clemson would win, not the story of his players being thoroughly outclassed the previous two weeks.
Maybe that's a part of what's at work here. But another part is that Swinney justifiably is irked that an accomplishment once considered special is now taken so much for granted that some folks -- not many, but some -- are urging others not to even show up in Charlotte on Saturday.
As if no one felt pain last year in not making it to the ACC title game for the first time since 2014. As if no one, this past offseason, was hoping Clemson could get back to Charlotte and claim its eighth ACC title in 14 seasons under Swinney.
As if the Orange Bowl suddenly might as well be the Cheez-It Bowl.
This is flawed thinking, even if some scrutiny and criticism of the man and the program is not flawed.
The man has a long memory, one that includes an estimated 5,000 fans showing up in the wee hours that Sunday morning in 2011 to welcome back the conquering heroes from Charlotte.
Yes, this was the same coach who said hours earlier on national TV that the championship was "only for the fans who are all in all the frickin' time."
Yes, these were some of the same fans who had given up on the team and perhaps the man himself as they walked down the ramps at Williams-Brice Stadium just seven days earlier.
It's possible for a coach, in the heat of difficult moments, to word things in an imperfect way that doesn't go over well with everyone.
But it's also possible for everyone on the outside to lose some big-picture perspective during the same moments.
In the grand scheme, Brian Kelly came out the winner from that exchange with the reporter after one game amid widespread ridicule.
In the grand scheme, this Clemson team can still achieve something even if it doesn't achieve what it wanted.
CYBER WEEK DEALS on a TON of officially-licensed CLEMSON apparel and gear at The Tiger Fan Shop HERE!
By: Larry Williams
CLEMSON -- Not long ago, a few reporters were late to Brian Kelly's press conference and he made a joke about fining them for being late in the future.
One of the reporters was celebrated, in viral fashion, for her immediate response to Kelly:
"Maybe if you win we'll be on time."
The retort was highly unprofessional. But since it came after a loss, Kelly's first as a head coach at LSU in dispiriting fashion to Florida State, Kelly was the one who came off looking bad for getting schooled by a person who covers him.
A few months later, Kelly's team is preparing for the SEC championship and no reporter would dare clap back at him in such a fashion.
And that's really the rub: Results are what have always shaped perceptions, actions and reactions, but far more now than ever the most recent result is what invites wild swings between glorification and outright mockery.
In 2022 the public conversation surrounding the highly popular endeavor of college football is an absolute rollercoaster. That's largely because of how much instant opining and judging we do with our thumbs instead of face-to-face, but that's not the only reason.
The fact that gobs of new revenue streams have largely gone to the head coaches of these football teams makes them more justified targets when things start to turn sour.
But then we get to differences of opinion on how to define "turning sour." And that's where we get to the current state of affairs with Clemson football.
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney and veteran D-End Myles Murphy are shown here in Death Valley last Saturday. (AP)
If you're a Clemson fan who walked into Death Valley three days ago prepared to bring your best, as requested by the head coach in advance of the noon game, it was certainly dispiriting and even devastating to walk out a loser.
You walked in still holding out hope that this team had something really special -- special defined as playoff special. You walked out facing the sobering and even stunning reality that the only thing special on the field that day was the special teams of the visitors.
The head coach himself was unquestionably devastated by the defeat. If there are two losses that have been more painful to him in one regular season than this one and the Notre Dame debacle, we'd like to see them.
But Dabo Swinney's job is also to move on, to avoid wallowing in misery, to focus on things still left to achieve. And as hard as it is to recognize that there are still important goals left on the table, as easy as it is to say what happens from here means nothing, the reality is such emotional reactions are overheated at best and asinine at worst.
Swinney is not taking kindly to the idea that DJ Uiagalelei should've been benched during Saturday's game, or to the idea that he should just go ahead and get started with the Cade Klubnik era for better or worse this Saturday.
This Saturday in Charlotte. This Saturday in the ACC championship game.
This Saturday, which presents an opportunity to do something that seemed almost impossible for two decades before his elevation to head coach.
Swinney caused a bit of a stir two days ago when this reporter asked him about the pecking order at quarterback, and whether Uiagalelei is still the starter.
His response: "Are you saying DJ is the reason we lost the game?"
Our response: "No, we're asking if he's still the starter."
He caused another stir last night on his radio show when he responded to a question from a fan about what decisions he might have to make to resuscitate a passing game that has declined sharply the past two years.
"There’s nobody that works harder to represent Clemson and cares more about Clemson and the brand of Clemson than me. I promise you that. Because I know where we’ve come from. And I know when we won that championship in 2011 it hadn’t happened in 20 years. We hadn’t won 10 games in 20 years.
"Now we win 10 games and it’s like nobody cares. You go to the ACC championship, nobody cares. That’s not true. A lot of vocal minority people don’t care. But I ain’t ever listened to them people. And I ain’t ever gonna listen to those people. So I hear ya, but I’m gonna keep doing my job. And again, I’ve got bosses. And if they don’t like how I do my job then they can send me out to pasture. But I’m gonna show up every day and keep giving it everything I’ve got, every single day, as long as I’ve got breath in my body, and I’m going to surround myself with people that I believe in, because that’s what we’ve got here.
"We’ve got a bunch of great people and great kids that work their butt off to create the consistency that is so rare."
He's edgy, and understandably so after losing to his rival for the first time in nine years.
Maybe part of this is Swinney marking his territory in the same way he did 11 years ago after his team was drubbed by South Carolina in Columbia. That followed a similar drubbing at N.C. State, and Clemson fans were finding it hard to get excited about a trip to the ACC championship game against Virginia Tech.
At that time he launched into a rant about something Gamecock radio man Todd Ellis said that Steve Spurrier said, and a few days later the tirade was viewed as a masterstroke because Clemson climbed off the mat and destroyed the Hokies.
Swinney shifted the target from his players to his words. That was the story in the run-up to a game no one thought Clemson would win, not the story of his players being thoroughly outclassed the previous two weeks.
Maybe that's a part of what's at work here. But another part is that Swinney justifiably is irked that an accomplishment once considered special is now taken so much for granted that some folks -- not many, but some -- are urging others not to even show up in Charlotte on Saturday.
As if no one felt pain last year in not making it to the ACC title game for the first time since 2014. As if no one, this past offseason, was hoping Clemson could get back to Charlotte and claim its eighth ACC title in 14 seasons under Swinney.
As if the Orange Bowl suddenly might as well be the Cheez-It Bowl.
This is flawed thinking, even if some scrutiny and criticism of the man and the program is not flawed.
The man has a long memory, one that includes an estimated 5,000 fans showing up in the wee hours that Sunday morning in 2011 to welcome back the conquering heroes from Charlotte.
Yes, this was the same coach who said hours earlier on national TV that the championship was "only for the fans who are all in all the frickin' time."
Yes, these were some of the same fans who had given up on the team and perhaps the man himself as they walked down the ramps at Williams-Brice Stadium just seven days earlier.
It's possible for a coach, in the heat of difficult moments, to word things in an imperfect way that doesn't go over well with everyone.
But it's also possible for everyone on the outside to lose some big-picture perspective during the same moments.
In the grand scheme, Brian Kelly came out the winner from that exchange with the reporter after one game amid widespread ridicule.
In the grand scheme, this Clemson team can still achieve something even if it doesn't achieve what it wanted.
CYBER WEEK DEALS on a TON of officially-licensed CLEMSON apparel and gear at The Tiger Fan Shop HERE!
