Friday January 13, 2012

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.

Mickey,

Dear Board of Trustees,
 
I am certain you were as embarrassed for Clemson as I was. I think we will all carry that loss with us for some time. Hopefully from the shame you will see the need to stay the course with changes in our football program until division one elite program status is achieved.
 
It appears there may be changes coming in the form of a new defensive coordinator, strength and conditioning coach and offensive line coach who will work more closely with Coach Morris.
 
Please support Coach Swinney if he decides to go in a new direction with these positions. Please do not let “family ties” keep us from improving. The bold coaching changes and commitment to facility upgrades made last year paid off. We now must continue the process. 20 years of ACC championship failure cannot be changed in one year.
 
Best Regards,
 
Scott

Scott,
Thanks for sharing. I think the board is behind this program more than than they have been for many years. I think they have a better understanding of what it takes to commit to the program now. Coach Swinney has met with several of them in the last year and those meetings made a difference. Clemson football has more support now than it has in many years.

Mickey, 

Michael

Michael,
I don't know enough about the strength and conditioning program at Clemson or other places to comment. I am not qualified to comment on that subject. I disagree about stars. They are not the most important but the reason Alabama won the national title is because they recruited a bunch of four and five stars on defense, especially in their back eight. I think recruiting is still the most important aspect of a program. I think the best players win most of the time.

Mickey,
 
I read your article today, "No Defending the Defense" today.  First, let me say we should not give the offense a pass on their performance in the Orange Bowl.  However, the defense was just horrible.  I can't imagine how Dabo Swinney can come to any other conclusion than his need to replace Kevin Steele.  Just as Billy Napier was not going to be the architect of a new offense, Kevin Steele cannot be the architect of a revival of our defense.  He often takes "full responsibility" for problems with the defense, using words to that effect.  However, repeatedly we only hear he is responsible.  We have yet to see the result of his claims that he will fix it.  Regardless of how many freshmen we play and how many people we lost following the 2010 season, the most glaring problem was simply that we did not get better on defense this season. You would think we would improve after thirteen games. We could only stop one team, Virginia Tech., because they ran out of a Pro Set.  If Kevin Steele remains our DC, then I will have to tell Dabo I am no longer "All In."  "All In" cannot be a one-sided description of fan loyalty.  It has to be reciprocated by the head coach by doing the things necessary to make the team better.
 
Best,
 
Kirk

Kirk,
I think Thursday's actions probably answered your question about Steele and the future of the defense. I am not sure I need to add anything to that.

Hey Mickey,
Do you think the downward trend of the ACC will continue? It has been going downhill for several years now. The league looks really bad compared to the time when the ACC the top conference. In the past the whole conference would have 10-15 losses in the non-conference part of the schedule if that. This year the ACC has 51 non-conference losses and even Duke and UNC have 2 each. It is really a top heavy conference unlike the glory years. thanks!
 
Steve

Steve,
I think the problem has been coaching stability. There has been so much turnover in the league from a basketball standpoint. I like the hires at Virginia, Georgia Tech and Boston College. I think they will be better but it takes some time.

Mickey,
I have seen Tigers play since the mid 60's. That said, have seen bad offenses and bad defenses. All blamed on coaches bad personnel, the weather, the referees and everything else. All this will pass and things will improve. We were not beat by 70 but by 37. Can you check and see when the last game we played, we were beat by 37?

Russ

Russ,
November 4, 2000 Florida State beat Clemson 54-7 in Tallahassee.

Hi Mickey,
 
On Monday you blogged that Clemson’s football program is “headed in the right direction”.  I’m not sure if you meant relative to last year, but if you meant relative to the Bowden years, I wonder if it just seems that way because the ACC is so far down.
* The ACC was 0-9 against non-conference teams that finished in the AP Top 25.
* The ACC was 2-6 in bowls.  (5th straight losing season.)
* The ACC was 0-2 in BCS  bowls.  (2-13 all-time).
* The ACC champ got disgraced 70-33 by the Big East champ (5-2, Big East).
* The ACC Coastal champ got beat by Big Ten Legends runner-up (not champ).
* The ACC finished last among the 6 BCS conferences in Sagarin rankings.
  (In the previous 10 years, the ACC ranked, reverse chronologically, 4, 4, 3, 5, 5, 4, 2, 1, 1, 4.)
 
I’m happy that Clemson finally won 10 games and the ACC.  (Big monkey off the back.)  But when you play 14 games, 10 wins isn’t what it used to be.  And (based on Sagarin) Clemson won the weakest ACC in a decade, in part by catching FSU when their star QB and several of their best players were injured.  On the other hand, there were 11 ACC teams that didn’t win the ACC and 98 teams below Clemson in the final AP poll.
 
Clemson’s offense was better than the latter Bowden years, but the defense was far worse—hence Steele’s ouster.  Clemson remained so inconsistent  & upset-prone that “pulling a Clemson” became cemented into the nation’s sports lexicon.   Clemson finished #22 in the AP, but Bowden finished #22 or higher 4 times between 2000-2007.
 
So 3.5 years after Bowden, is the program any better or just fortunate to take advantage of a down ACC and a down FSU?  Isn’t Clemson still a too-soft, inconsistent team that recruits really well, but then gives up more than its reasonable share of upsets to teams with clearly inferior talent (like GT & NCSU), but now, unlike the latter Bowden years, Clemson also gets whupped badly by teams with comparable or inferior talent (like NCSU, SCar & WVU)?  (Hopefully a new DC will change that.  I posted supporting links to the 2011-opponent 2-deep talent comparisons on Tuesday’s blog.)
 
I enjoy your blog.  Keep up the great work.
 
Best regards,
 
RazzMaTazz

RazzMaTazz,
You make a good point about the ACC but I couldn't care less about the rest of the league. Clemson did not win the league when it was bad for the last 20 years. I like winning the ACC and don't care who we have to beat to do it.

The Brad Hughes All-State Insurance Agency

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