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Friday April 11, 2008

Friday E-Mail Bag

Friday E-Mail Bag

Each Friday I publish your comments and answer your questions. To submit a comment or questions please e-mail me at mickeyplyler@hotmail.com.

Hi Mickey,

I am sorry. Your article "The Rebuilding Year" fell on deaf ears. The job of any coach at Clemson University is to compete successfully at the conference and national levels. The end results need to be conference championships and a national championship. Leggett has not delivered. He has undoubtedly put a lot of effort into the program, but we do not need any more excuses. The university invests a lot of money into sports and it is not unreasonable to demand more from the coaches, especially one that has been at Clemson for over a decade!

Kirk

Kirk,

Dang. A little hard on the guy aren’t you. He has delivered a couple of conference titles. He has been in Omaha on several occasions and is a consistent participant in regionals and super-regionals. I would argue that the university gets more out of athletics than they put into it. I am glad you are not my boss.

Mickey,

I agree that many people have taken the whole Roy Williams' sticker thing too seriously. Since he was the former coach of Kansas, and enjoyed success there, and went to the game to pull for them then more power to him. I don't think anyone would have chastised Bob Knight if he had sat in the Indiana section when he was at Texas Tech. I do think though that wearing an obvious indicator of loyalty (i.e. the sticker) was too far for a few reasons. First, he is a UNC alumnus. Secondly, Kansas knocked UNC out of the chance to play for a national championship just a few days earlier. While I do not feel that what he did is incredibly egregious it rightfully does 'ruffle some feathers' among the Tar Heel faithful. I would not have found it strange had he been sitting in the Kansas section at all, but to show outward allegiance towards them I thought was a bit much. Roy is a good guy and has shown class in numerous situations, and is a minor event, but I think to Tar Heels it is insulting on two fronts.

Daniel

Daniel,

The entire thing is weird. I did have a long conversation with a coach this week about it and he made the comment that coaches are people too. He said Roy Williams invested 15 years of his life in Kansas and it is OK to expect some Jayhawk pride there. I am just glad Purnell did not do it but I understand both sides.

Mickey,

How do you decipher spring football scrimmages? I mean if we put up 70 points, that's great, but that means our defense is terrible. If our D shuts the offense down, that's great, but that means our offense is in trouble. Can you give some advice to everyone out there before the spring game weekend on how to decipher what's going on during inter-squad scrimmages and what to take away from them? I tend to not put too much into them except for the fact that it's football and I'm going to enjoy it while I can. Some tend to weigh our entire season on a 90 minute scrimmage in April. Just thought it would be a good idea before the spring game.

Have a good one,

-Wes in DC

Wes,
Great points and question. I never look at the spring game like a normal game. All I really look for is the overall team speed and athleticism. I think it would be nice to see balance because I don’t want to see glaring weaknesses on either side of the ball. I think the main thing to look for is the individuals and the individual effort too. I want to see a bunch of fast athletes running around making plays. Remember. Scrimmages can be scripted to where one side of the ball is at a real disadvantage.

Mickey,

I really don't see the comparison you offered as being similar to what Roy Williams did. They are simply not the same situations. You provided the following comparison:

"Let's say you work for the marketing department at Pepsi for 15 years as the vice-president in charge of marketing but Coke decides to hire you to head their marketing efforts. How would it go over if you showed up to work the next day in Pepsi apparel? Think a former employee for Budweiser could still wear the Bud shirt around the office if he went to work at Miller?"

Roy Williams did not show up at the University of North Carolina in a Kansas shirt. He showed up at a basketball game in Texas to show his support for his former college team, the team that pounded his team into submission two days earlier. He will go back to Chapel Hill today and start working to get the Tar Heels back to the Final Four in 2009. Now, I would have a serious problem if he showed up to support Duke for the NCAA championship game!

Respectfully,

Kirk

Kirk,
I see your point but if I know you like I think I do then I think you would have a problem if Purnell did it. Maybe not but you have to admit it was a little strange and put some folks at UNC in a weird spot.

Hey Mickey.
Love the show and the blog. I have a quick recruiting question for you. The three QBs we have offered for 09 are all pro-style QBs. I thought Spence was a big dual-threat guy. What gives?

Thanks,
Brett

Brett,
Good question but I look at it different. I think all three can move their feet. Newton is a bug quarterback but I would not say he is not an athlete. It seems like they are going after a guy that is not a Woody Dantzler but he should be able to be athletic enough to make a few plays with his feet. Willy Korn and Kyle Parker are two good examples of this. No one will mistake Korn for J.C. Watts but he is not a statue back there either.

Mickey,
Clemson basketball started the season with twelve scholarship players and ended with eleven players on scholarship. We lose three players and have three players signed to come to Clemson next year. Does Coach Purnell have any plans to get us back to thirteen scholarship athletes? Also, men's basketball allows thirteen scholarships where women's basketball allows fifteen. What's the logic?

Chasn79

Chasn79,
Two good questions. The staff would like to be able to sign one more in this class but they will be careful and sign the right one. They are not so dead set on signing a guy just to have another body. They want to get one but have no problem holding the scholarship until next year.

Title IX is the reason you have more women’s basketball scholarships than men. Across the board this is the case. Women’s tennis gets more than men. Women’s golf gets more than men’s golf. Football has 85 scholarship players so the women’s sports get more scholarships in other sports as a result.

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Posted by Mickey Plyler @ 11:18 AM EDT [ Comments [1] ]