To those of u criticizing Herbie & Fowler's coverage (long)

Dec 6, 2015, 1:08 AM

It seems like some people are so obsessed with finding a pundit, commentator, or announcer that isn't giving Clemson the credit we deserve that their paranoia has begun to cloud their judgement completely.

It's and incontrovertible fact that some ESPN crews can be extremely biased toward specific conferences and/or teams in extremely negative or extremely positive perspectives, depending on the individual. However, you shouldn't let the overwhelming incompetence of Ed Cunningham and Jesse Palmer put you into hypervigilance where you are constantly listening to every statement and trying to find a way to interpret it as a knock at Clemson.

The obsession against all things ESPN seems to have gotten much worse this year despite the fact that we have received more coverage and more respect than ever before. It's gotten to the point that if an announcer says anything good about our opponent in a game no matter how trivial, several people will immediately interpret it as a slight to us.

After reading the post a few minutes ago about how Fowler and Herbstreit basically don't deserve to live I wanted to list several things that I remember these guys saying during the telecast that were very supportive and gave high praise to our team, players, and coaches. Those of you in the tinfoil hats somehow weren't able to hear any of these things despite how often they were said.

They spent a ton of time talking about how great Deshaun Watson is. They literally went on and on and on. They mentioned him as a Heisman candidate on several occasions and agreed that he should be in New York and strongly considered for the award. Herbstreit mentioned several of Deshaun's specific stats pointing out how impressive they are. He calls Deshaun the best dual threat QB in all of college football and says he throws the best deep ball.

They also gave Wayne Gallman more credit than he has gotten from any other announcers all year, specifically in the second half. They talked about his speed and how impressed they are with his hard-nosed running style that can turn a potential 1 yard gain into a 5 yard gain time and time again. They also discussed how he is still learning the position and how great he is going to be if he continues to improve at the same rate.

Herbie mentioned the outstanding play of Ben Boulware and BJ Goodson on several occasions. He gave them significantly more praise as a group than I thought they deserved at certain points in the game. They both had high praise for Shaq Lawson from start to finish. Like pretty much every crew, they spoke incredibly highly of his talent and level of play.

They complimented Mackensie Alexander a few times and discussed the significant growth and improvement of Tankersley throughout the year. They were highly complimentary of both Christian Wilkins and Austin Bryant as well on the defensive line.

Something that was very rare to hear was their praise of our offensive line. Herbie made a point to point out how great our offensive line has been this year even though at the beginning of the year all of the pundits were saying it would be a huge weakness and possibly prevent us from winning the conference. He mentioned Charone Peake and said as talented as he is catching the ball, he's made name for himself nationally for how great of a blocker he is and how he always sticks on his man throughout the play. They mentioned how talented Jordan Leggett is and how he is a mismatch for most opponents.

They also spoke highly of our coaching staff. They said that Venables is very deserving to be a finalist for the nation's top assistant (Broyle's Award) and that it is nearly unprecedented for a team to put 7 or the top 8 guys in the front 7 on defense in the NFL yet come back the following year and have a defense that produces at close to the same level.

They mentioned how Dabo is a great motivator and how great he is at bringing Clemson into the spotlight with his clever catchphrases and wit.

They even mentioned how we have two of the most impressive wins in all of college football this year with our wins over Notre Dame and Florida State. Herbie has had us ranked #1 in his poll for two months now. He's been extremely supportive of Clemson for nearly the entire year, especially since the Notre Dame victory.

Of course they also praised UNC, especially Fedora and Gene Chizik's ability to turnaround the defense in year one. They gave a lot of credit to several of their players also.

On the flip side, they mentioned Marquise Williams on countless occasions and talked about how much trouble he kept having trying to complete passes (until the 4th qtr when he threw the ball much better). They talked about how good Elijah Hood is but pointed out as great as he is that he couldn't run between the tackles against our defense with much success.

The only time they were critical that was unfair in any way was when TJ Green was ejected for targeting. That was an unfair analysis. But the talk about the phantom offside on the onside kick was completely warranted and would have shown significant bias toward Clemson if they didn't mention it. No football fan wants a game to end with a controversial call involved because it takes away from the team's accomplishments and gives people an excuse.

I'm sorry for the length of this post, but I wanted to point out just the positive things that I remember them saying about our team, players, coaches, and program. I'm sure there were several more examples that I don't remember off hand.

I just can't figure out exactly what was said in tonight's broadcast that leads some people to believe that Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler have an agenda against us and are openly trying to talk us down.

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To those of u criticizing Herbie & Fowler's coverage (long)

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