Confidence in the Football Program plus my .02

[Tigerzeroeight]

I’ll admit that I told myself that if we were ever ranked as the #1 team in the country at any point in my life, I would be completely satisfied with Clemson Football. Well, after witnessing 2015-2020, I lied to myself. I literally shed tears of joy when we won the natty in 2016. After the least few, especially two, years I can’t help but be concerned that we will never see that again. My main concerns in order are the following:

1. Dabo’s Mindset (Portal and NIL) - Listen, I respect his stance, but we need to at least utilize one of the two more aggressively. I think it would be easier for him to justify using the portal because you would be giving NIL to a proven commodity vs. upsetting the apple cart by giving more money to an unproven freshman than a proven junior player to get him on campus. He refuses to be serious about either. He needs to adjust his mindset accordingly.

2. Recruiting - See above and NIL money upsetting the locker room and how much 5-star guys (especially DE, QB, & WR) are commanding these days.

3. ACC Lawsuit - Where does this all go? Do we have a spot in B1G or SEC? If not, how do we make up the money gap and stay competitive?

We are in such a transitional state as a program right now, and it’s a little unsettling because I feel that we are on the precipice of mediocrity or greatness. I don’t know what decisions must be made to ensure we fall on the greatness side of things, but I hope we make the right ones. The commitment to the coaching staff the last two years has been a bright spot, but that can only do so much in the Jimmy & Joes department. Especially as it relates to recruiting and NIL money! No matter the quality of the coach or their relationship to the player $1,000,000 wins the player over $100,000 every time. Business is founded on making a profit and maximizing value, the NIL money we offer has to be close to make any of the moral parts of a program become a factor (PAW Journey, Graduation Rates, Coach Relationship, Family Atmosphere, etc.)

Am I overreacting on some of this? Does anyone feel like we are in a great spot moving forward in the current football landscape or that we, at the very least, have a plan to get back to the mountain top?