Wednesday Email Bag


by - Radio Host -

Wednesday Email Bag

Each Friday I publish your comments and answer your questions, but we will be off the next two days. Next week we will get back to this being the Friday blog. To submit a comment or questions please email me at mickeyplyler@hotmail.com.

Hi Mickey,

I have enjoyed reading everything you have to say about Clemson over the years and always enjoy your visits to Charleston with recruiting news. I highly respect your opinion as it is unbiased as humanly possible. My comment/question regards my perception of a general disrespect by much of the Media, the Oklahoma following, and even some of our fans. What exactly is it that has created the recent lack of confidence in this team by everyone except a few diehard fans? Going into the Orange bowl it seems the consensus is Clemson is overmatched. I have gone over the season multiple times in my mind and can only see the positive. I have read the comparisons of the teams player by player and position by position. Except for the obvious special teams issue, it appears to me that we are at least as good and probably better at almost all positions. I tend to look at things through those orange colored glasses, so I hope you can set me straight. I am not and X's and O's kinda guy so I must be missing something. Thank you so much and have a great time at the Orange bowl and I might as well say it Arizona too! I'll be there with you. Go Tigers!

Cal

Cal,

I think all of the talk plays right into Clemson's hands. The Tigers are the better team, but the underdog role suits this program. It helps motivation. I imagine it would be different motivation if the Tigers had just beat OU 40-6 a year ago and were a favorite. I think Clemson plays well and beats the Sooners and I think Dabo and his staff love the underdog role and the trash talking by Oklahoma.

Mickey,

I am a little late responding to your article on Clemson basketball. I was in attendance at the USC game with my grandson Friday night.

It might have been a new low for me, losing to them the way we did with more of their fans in attendance than we had.

Like you, I love Clemson basketball and remember some really good, fun times when Rick Barnes, Oliver Purnell, Cliff Ellis and others were here.

As such, I am a major contributor to the basketball program with court side seats.

I think you have summarized things very well. The success in football numbs us to the complete meltdown in basketball as was exhibited yet again in Athens. We should not let that happen. Winning basketball can be as much fun as winning football at Clemson. We have experienced that.

I really felt that Brad Brownell could be the answer to building and sustaining a good, competitive program for us. It appears that I was wrong, and we must continue to try and find the key. We did it in football, and we can do it in basketball. But, it must become a much more important priority.

Please continue in your role as a writer and radio host to beat this drum.

Bob

Bob,

Thanks for the email. The Clemson basketball job is difficult but it is not impossible. The margin for error is small but the culture has to change. It has to change within the program and outside the program. The facilities will help. The support should get better. But this program needs to change from within first. It is time to raise the expectations of Clemson basketball.

Mickey,

After the new year when football is over and we've won the national championship and the only focus is basketball, I would love to see a blog expanding on Dabo's thoughts during a presser after the Miami game when he said "It's great to be a part of a program that has the board, the head coach, the AD, and the president all pulling in the same direction." He is proud to be a part of a program where everyone is on the same page. Clearly this is not the case everywhere and I bet in most cases this is not how it is. Your blog may get a little dicey if you are being critical of particular presidents or ADs in the past but I'd love to hear your thoughts on past programs over the last 15 years or so and which of the powers were pulling against each other at different times and why that held us back, or kept our program from being able to upgrade facilities or recruit at the highest level with regards to academics. I know we were critical of the president with regards to the academic review board during the Bowden era for example. This would make for a heck of a read!

Michael

Michael,

Thanks for writing. I will do this sometime in January. Thanks for the suggestions.

Mickey,

I hope your Christmas was good one. I read your article about being disappointed in the Clemson men's basketball team this year and Stuart's insightful reply and I will defer to Clemson's history and ask what would give anyone cause to have any optimism period? Based on spending over $60 million on a revamped Littlejohn, someone is convinced that Field of Dreams is going to somehow show up in Clemson and bring basketball success. Those people are wrong.

There was no question that coach Brownell was not going to be fired last year because who in the world would want to come in and lead a team that does not have a place to play. Let's face it, Clemson is and has been a non factor in the ACC for years and the buck stops on the desk of the coach. Will recruits look differently at Clemson after the "new" (again) Littlejohn opens, will fans and students look differently on taking time to go to a game? No,unless there is a product worth looking at. Clemson must back up it's Littlejohn investment with writing a check and hiring a coach that recruits players that have a shot at the NBA and can be relevant in the ACC or we will have a $60 million storm shelter that we can be proud of. The task is a huge but hopefully there is a coach out there can do the job. A look back at history will show you there have been NBA players from Clemson and there can be again with the right coach in place.

Andy

Andy,

I don't think they are even close to having the conversation about firing Brownell, but when Clemson does go an a search for its next coach, the facility improvement will help attract very good candidates.

Mickey,

Why is the #1 team in the nation not playing in the primetime TV slot @ 8pm

They did last year.

Seems a bit disrespectful to me.

Jerry

Jerry,

I think geography has something to do with it. The Orange Bowl is east of the Cotton Bowl. That is my guess.

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Prayer List

The prayer list is a medium for our community to recognize those that are in need. If you would like to add someone to the list, please email me at mickeyplyler@hotmail.com. Please let me know when it is appropriate to remove a person off the list.

Those who need our prayers include: Jo Ann Bachman, Kenneth Bryant, Pruitt Martin, Got Igers and his family, David Rowland, Leonard, Gillespie and his family, Jim S., Daniel Rosborough, the Huffman family, Nancy Winkler, John Reeve, Vinnie Brock, Kaitlyn L., Susan Miller, Joyce Harley, Steve Proveaux, Jeffrey Greene, the Hutto family, Sherl Drawdy, Caleb Kennedy, Teresa O'Connor, Matt Jacobs, Perrin Seigler, Candee Massee, Lindsey Jordan, Sam Catoe, Tyler Felch, the Nicolopulos family, "the Jacksonville, FL guys," Kim Sims, the Coyle family, Ryleigh Tedder, Steve Lee, Kelly Trakas, Jimmy Moore, the Thomas V. family, Emary Claire Young, Kitty Bowers, Julie Locke, the Scheider family, Lauren Kittles' family, Frank Gentry, Stacey McKeown, Dale Childs, Larry Lentz, Jr., Carl Sharperson, Scott Hannon, William Perry, Tyler Swaney, Lillian, Mark Feit, David Frame, the family of Matthew M. Watson, the Dowis family, Alan Putnam, the Olivers, Lee Tate, Ronnie Abrams, Eddie Greene, the Jackson family, Bill Vader, Jim Taylor, Tina DeWitt, Rock Horne, Bobby Wayne Thomas, Emma and Danielle Carothers, Robert Ditty, Mr. and Mrs. Murray Smith, Millie Heatley, Lynn Martin and family, Michael Pinson, Jake David family, Angie Crowley, Ira, Mike Tolson, Poly Wells, Dr. Muriel Bishop, Jack Cunningham, Emily Jefford Meister, Zachary Stoller, Aaron Clackum, Pat James, Cortney Moore, William Moore, Angelia and Savannah Anderson, William Ross, Scott Johns, Frank Carroll, Brandon Thompson, Alvin Sammons, Georgine McAlhaney, Glen Davis, Mike Price, Aaron Knight, Danielle Johnston and family, Nicholas Abrams, Lana Kuykendall, Gary, Gary G., William Huggins, Jim Bennett, Chantz Fowler, Ethel McElveen, Michele Gurganus, William Gentry, Lewis Usher and Tanya Sanders, Shon Cooper, Nick Collins, Amanda Peake, Chip Turner, Nick Collins, Allen Steen, the Sturkey family, the Lance family, Nick Chrisley's family, Allison Williams, Lt. Kyle Walker, Summer and Joel Johnson, Nicole O'Donnell, James O. Johnson, Joy Pruett and family, Bill Schmidt, Jack Bailey, Gardner Family, Charles Turner, Kathy Bartholomew, Ray Sanders, David and Robin Blocker, J.R. Ray, Kenneth Kowe, Lauren Sielicki, Jenna Phipps, Mark Lawrence, Jonathan and Jacki Sullins, Peter Laboy, Kat and Carlisle Jones, Elizabeth Galloway and family, Anita McDonald, Willard Harryman, Liz Surratt, Molly Senn, Jackie Shearer, Richard Sellers, Tim Drisdelle, Dawson Bourne, Susan and Mike Brown, Julie Goodman Marshall, Willard and Dorothy Harryman, Justin Jernigan, Jack Cunningham, Mia Daughtery, Tee Senn, Skylar, Joseph Thomas, Mrs. Nelis, Jeanne Thompson, Sean Rowell, George Parker, Levon Kirkland and family, Catherine Sewell, Randy Davenport, David Vaughn, Keith Dalton, B.T., Bill Hilbig, Rita Elrod Hammond and family, Jim McKeller, Tony Alewine, Sharon Storck, Dick Baird, Richard Bagnal, Dustin and Brittany Peurifoy, Jan Allan, Josh Cox, Gregg and Sylvia Lewis, Travis Hamrick, Kaki Harmon, Jammie McKellar and babies, Karen Edwards, Jackson Lindsey, Cathy Hutson Gregg, Kristin Heckman, Jennifer Johnson, Jay Johnson, Lyndsie Johnson, Emily Davis, Hayes Davis, Judy Towe, Johnny Towe, Ken Brown, Elaine Brown, Rhonda Thompson, Tim Davis, Jacob Greinke, Jack Finley, Richard and Clara Crawford, Zach and Griffin Johnson, Israel, Frankie Allen, Bobby Allen, the Wessinger family, the Parsons family, Todd Price and family, Rosemary A Flynn, Dr. Mickey Shealy family, Mr. Gillespie, Bobbi Nicholson, Dr. Matt Stower, Tyler Kemmerlin, Parks Hutto, Patrick DeStefano, Robert Summerville, Michelle Richey, Julie Moore, Ashley Fitch, Drew Moore, Allison Williams, Nicholas Wickiser, Lena Wright, Elizabeth Bruner, Bobbi Simpson, Hammond Family, Elaine G. Duvall, Addison Grace, Bennie Cunningham, Kevin Orcutt, Alan Finley, Keith Wells, Steve Byrd, Jessica Hernandez, Wayne Mullins, Rita Alexander, Tony Osterman, family and friends of Gary Cooper, Tonya Gibson, Mary Carmen Harman, Derk Denton, Debbie Denton, Tim Vacek, Mike Vacek, Jerry Brown, and our great country and the men and women in uniform that protect and serve it every day, plus their families.

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