Dabo has failed the team AND DJ w/ his philosophy . . .

Nov 26, 2022, 10:54 PM

Dabo, like most coaches, is acutely aware of the fact that certain critics are relentless and unreasonable, regardless of the facts - during good times and bad. And, since he's the head coach, he no doubt hears the worst of it, and hears it more often than the rest of us do. And, since it's his responsibility, and his efforts that are being criticized, and often without perspective or sober thoughtfulness - he understandably, and necessarily has to develop a certain thickness of skin - and resolve to not allow it to get to him.

That is all good. Very good. Very wise and necessary, in fact. But there is a tempting and dangerous trap that can sometimes attend this thick skin: imperviousness to **legitimate** criticism, and the consequent self-justifying posture by which you conclude that everyone being "negative" is simply a know-nothing "nay sayer." I think this is detectable in Dabo, and now it's detectable in Streeter. You **CANNOT** justify the kind of response Streeter gave to Hood w/o having an ingrained and intractable dedication to an assessment or conclusion that you are dogmatically attached to - facts be da(m)ned. Dabo spends far more time in front of mics cavalierly and flippantly dismissing the "outside voices," and the "naysayers" and such, by constructing straw men - by conflating the legitimate critiques with the incessant, professional "naysayer" class - than he does honestly self-reflectingly answering critical questions.

This conflation results in simplistically reducing the field to "supporters" and "naysayers," assuming (wrongly) by default that the middle ground - genuine supporters who have some hard words of criticism - don't truly exist, or need to be addressed. He's tried hard to get us all to believe like he does and feel as if these questions of a QB controversy are somehow unfair to DJ or disrespectful in some way. Now he has Streeter so deep in that tank of mindless "us against the world" mentality that Streeter can't field a simple question about a QB that threw for 27%, without overtly, and o taking umbrage and having a bristled psychological reaction right there in front of everyone. It's pathetic. Streeter is caught in the web of a lie that Dabo constructed . . . namely, that everyone who is willing to say what they notice about DJ, even passively by way of a QUESTION, is a disloyal, disrespectful enemy.

I admire the heck out of Dabo and am thrilled that he came to Clemson and took the program over. I don't want him fired. He's been an absolutely fantastic program builder and recruiter. But right now he's showing signs of an ego problem. He **CANNOT** be wrong. He insists on it. IT'S THE NAYSAYERS!! They're never satisfied! "If I listened to them, then we'd have never done such and such [insert irrelevant distraction here]." These are psychological games. He's wrong and has every reason to know it. If he doesn't, then we're worse off than I thought. But he's got to let go of this.

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he hasn't helped DJ at all here. All this propping DJ up over the last 2 seasons has obviously not built up in DJ into what Dabo had hoped. He's improved, but the constant spotlight of Dabo's insistent touting of him even when unjustified may have done more harm than good. DJ might have taken to losing the starting job better than having become the subject of an endless propaganda campaign. Sometimes it's better just to draw the lines and let the chips fall where they may. He could have benched DJ in favor of Cade and still been a genuine encouragement to DJ in developing him and encouraging him to still compete for the job. Instead, he played hard ball and told everyone to get in line and like it.

Dabo has failed the team AND DJ w/ his philosophy . . .

POTD*****

And furthermore . . .

Re: And furthermore . . .

No. Are you an epistemologist? ***

Re: And furthermore . . .

POTY

It makes sense now why he hired/promoted unproven coaches who are yes men.

Re: Dabo has failed the team AND DJ w/ his philosophy . . .

I don’t think anyone wants him to throw DJ under the bus.

TigerBoard POTD