The last three or so weeks have been a whirlwind for everybody - the off week, followed by road losses at Miami and NC State, the Tyler call, the win over Notre Dame........whew.
I hope we can put Tyler to rest after today. He was not the reason Clemson won and his call wasn’t the impetus for Dabo to suddenly change things. Tyler just got in the way of a very angry Dabo. I stood in the hallway outside of the locker room in Miami and I can tell you there was a lot of yelling going on. Not the usual quiet after a loss. I couldn’t tell who was doing all the yelling but it sounded like it was coming from the coaches’ area.
The ride home from Raleigh was apparently also noteworthy, and I’ll leave it at that. And then the Sunday staff meeting, followed by a lengthy injury report, put everyone in the building even more on edge. And there were a lot of changes last week, and we heard that practices were rough and loud.
I’ve been told that Swinney told everyone – staff, players, coaches, everyone in the program – you have 25 days to prove to me why you should be here next season. And no one was safe from his wrath. Like I said, Tyler merely got in the way.
The challenge now, of course, is keeping that hunger and keeping that drive. Interviews the past few days were very telling – this isn’t a fractured team. This group is close-knit, and I believe that if there are any players that simply don’t belong, they won’t be here next season. Dabo tried to tell us a week ago in his press conference – it’s pruning time. And he didn’t mean the fans.