Coaching Decisions, Feaster, and other thoughts...

Oct 18, 2016, 10:39 PM

Clemson is right now in a boom when it comes to football success. I can only think about 3 other programs who have been more consistent in the past 5 years: Alabama, OSU, and FSU. Each of these programs have won a championship in that time period.

You can put me in the camp of "I trust these coaches". Dabo has literally taken this program from a mediocre, inconsistent program to a program where the fans expect ACC and National Championships. We all remember the time when we were happy to beat a NCST or BC especially after a big win. Now we longer are happy with winning. We have to win fashionably and comfortably. I'll be the first one to say that we have been sloppy when it comes to offensive execution, but I'm not completely down on the play calling. If our guys had executed (i.e. not fumbled) then Scott/Elliot aren't taking as much heat about the play calling. I mean they did run up 495 yds of offense against NCST. Now the run game has been subpar as opposed to last year. I put some of that on the offensive line and some on play calling. But I understand what Elliot/Scott are trying to accomplish. You have to make the opponent respect the run and defend it. Also, I believe teams are scheming to take away any edge running by Watson or jet sweeps plays. There were a number of plays where McCloud got smashed as he motioned as the fake man.

This brings me to Feaster. I believe he is an excellent talent, but there is a reason why the coaches haven't played him as much as some would have liked to have seen. It may be the complexity of our offense and the role that the RB plays in pass protection or maybe he just doesn't know enough plays or he isn't seeing the lanes well enough yet. Recall we have seen Feaster play this year in a meaningful game. He was the kick returner in the Louisville game. And he looked like a true freshman. Kickoffs are a great opportunity for someone with Feaster's skill set to showcase what he has, but time after time he kept running into the wall of defenders. Eventually, Dabo pulled him and put Scott in and we all know what happened later in that game. I gave Dabo his props for pulling Feaster because he wasn't getting the job done. I trust in what he has established at Clemson and in his evaluation of talent. I believe that we sometimes as fans remember the days where when we had the occasional 4/5 star talent and they would start immediately. But now we have the luxury of having many talented players on our team and now there has to be some short of pecking order. It's our right has fans to disagree with it, but we are making decisions based off of limited information and emotion. I still remember the Clemson faithful wanting the Cullen Harpers, Kyle Parkers, and the Willy Korns of the world to start. A few were good for a season. But once they hit a tough spot, we just changed our minds and went on to the next person. The coaches don't have that luxury. Their jobs are on the line if they make a bad decision.

I believe this has become my favorite Clemson team. They have championship potential which is exciting. But they have been under the most pressure that I can remember of a Clemson team. They are expected to win by 50 and Watson to look invincible and for no one to challenge us. That simply isn't the case. I, for one, have adjusted my expectations for this team. I'm no longer judging them by if they win by 50 or not. I'm enjoying this ride because I don't know when it will end. And after reading some of the comments after this past game, you would think that Dabo was on the hot seat. Yeah, I will still give my two cents about the team's performance and expect them to perform to their potential. But I will not dog out the coaches and players just because Clemson didn't win the way I thought they should.

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Coaching Decisions, Feaster, and other thoughts...

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