Some thoughts about reactions to our program

Sep 3, 2024, 1:33 AM

There is a lot of speculation about the state of our program and no shortage of theories for solutions. I guess I’ll throw mine in the hat as well.

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I love Dabo. We would not even be relevant without him. I think Clemson fans are spoiled and entitled. I think we believe we “deserve” to be a title contender every year.

That said, I think Dabo is our problem. I do not think he has adapted well, which is understandable with such a dramatic change in the landscape of college football. Let me explain.

The biggest issues to me are:
- portal approach
- loyalty to roster players
- trust

I take a both/and approach to the portal. I agree or at least support Dabo’s player development over portal philosophy. It is very different than most teams and I think the Clemson culture is appealing to many parents and quite a few elite players Every recruiting cycle. But I think the portal is a great place to invite competition. Most kids who hit the portal want to be guaranteed playing time, so that creates a challenge. But we must be willing to bring in potential starters in positions of need. I believe there are a number of reasons why we do not strategically do this.

Most significantly, I believe there is an over abundance of loyalty to players on our roster. I love that we build men, graduate almost everyone, and invest in our players lives. That is a great culture. I believe in many cases we over-prioritize upperclassmen or existing roster players. Sometimes recruiting misses. That happens everywhere. I disagree that we do not have elite athletes at WR, TE, RB. I believe some older guys get far too much leash to run on. Wesco and Moore are stars in the waiting. We probably have at least 4 NFL WR’s on our roster right now. We may have 3 NFL TE’s on our roster, but almost certainly 2. Mafah is a monster and there are some other young studs in line. QB is different though. We only have 2 scholarship QB’s on the roster. That is bewildering. At every position on the field with the exception of QB and K there is a built in culture of backups getting significant playing time. It’s just the way it works. Backups come in for a series to rest starters. Various packages require personnel changes that bring in backups for key reps. At QB though, you rarely see a backup get anything but mop-up time unless there is a genuine QB competition. Dabo has consistently run away from QB competition. Maybe he has PTSD from Kelly Bryant (the incumbent starter and team captain) quitting the team after T Lawrence beat him out, but he has not been able to recruit a challenger for Cade and when Cade was brought in to push DJ, we know how that ended. QB is a disaster right now. We must use the portal to create competition. And this does not mean we have to abandon our emphasis on developing the players we recruit.

There are some trust issues on this team. It could be with trusting receivers to run certain schemes or our OL executing well enough. But I do not think that is primary. There are lots of rumblings, but I think the biggest issue is either a) Dabo and Riley not fully trusting Cade or b) Dabo not fully trusting Riley and Cade.

We are a vanilla offense. A lot of people say, “just take deep shots” but Cade under-threw every deep ball Saturday and continues to make poor decisions. Maybe he just can’t deliver (and I watched him and DJ play multiple games in HS and believed they would keep the train rolling for us). Many believe Dabo dabbles too much in the offense and Riley doesn’t have the freedom to run the offense the way he wants. Maybe it’s a combination.

I do not believe our primary issues are OLine, WR, TE, RB. I believe it is a combination of Dabo, Riley, and Cade.

But anyone calling for Dabo’s job needs to pump the brakes. We can still win every remaining game on the regular season schedule as well as the ACC championship. And that is likely the potential for Clemson with Dabo’s current philosophy every year. With the expanded playoffs we are likely a playoff contender every year. We have dropped from being a championship contender every year. This is Dabo’s floor likely.

If you think Clemson “deserves” to be a title contender every year I believe you are being a little spoiled. I hope Dabo continues to pivot to the new CFB landscape. But if he doesn’t I do not have high hopes that any alternative will offer better results.

Just my opinion.

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