Re: That's bull, He stepped aside because he had no choice.

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Maybe Spence was part of the O-line weakness (2-pt stance).

Oct 15, 2008, 8:01 PM

I used to think that Brad Scott was pretty weak OL coach. But Dabo's first task as head coach was firing Spence. And Brad Scott's first task after Spence left, was converting to the O-line to a 3-point stance. It's not perfectly clear to me whether Dabo forced that change or encouraged it, but from what I read, it sounded like the change came from the bottom up. (Then again, Dabo is probably the kind of decent guy who would make it sound like it was Brad Scott's idea even if it was Dabo's idea. So who knows?)

But 2-point stance aside, Rob Spence's awful, predictable, conservative, afraid-to-throw-downfield, play calling was (IMHO) largely responsible for several of Clemson's latest losses, including Wake & UMD (this year) and BC (last year).

Clemson's supposedly weak O-line pushed UMD around for the entire first half, allowing Clemson to gash them up and down the field. But in the second half, UMD stacked the box so Clemson couldn't run. But Spence didn't take advantage of Maryland selling out for the run, nor did he take advantage of Maryland's 112th ranked pass defense. Spence only threw ONE pass beyond the first down marker in the 2nd half. Clemson's O-line wasn't great, but it was good enough to beat UMD if the play calling had been competent.

Wake Forest stacked the box from the very first series. They even played FIVE down-lineman. So you'd expect Clemson to pass, right? But instead, Spence spent the whole first half trying to run, even though Wake's pass defense was ranked something like 102nd in the nation. During the 2-minute drill at the end of the first half, and then in the second half, when Spence finally realized that he needed to pass sometime other than 3rd down, the O-line generally gave Harper enough time to throw. (No less time than Wake's O-line provided.) But unlike the slippery Riley Skinner, Harper was immobile and innacurate. It's not Brad Scott's fault that Spence didn't play Korn.

Last year, Spence mostly tried to run the ball into brick walls against BC's #2 ranked rush defense instead of trying to pass against their #102 ranked pass defense (which had its starting cornerback out with injury). It was just insane. At the end of the game when Clemson was launching its final desperation drive (and BC knew for certain that Clemson had to pass EVERY down) Clemson was still able to pass right down the field. Different O-line, but it illustrates how incompetent Spence is.

I'm not saying Brad Scott is great. But I'm no longer certain that the O-line woes were 100% Brad's fault. Maybe Spence insisted on the stupid 2-point stance. And Spence insisted on having the O-line look bad by run-blocking against stacked boxes, where the defense had a numbers advantage.

GT has the ACC's best front seven, so we'll find out pretty quickly if better play calling and a more mobile QB helps. If Clemson does better against the ACC's best front seven, then we'll know that Clemson could have done better against UMD & Wake.

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Phillips: Bowden Stepped Aside for Good of the Program

That's bull, He stepped aside because he had no choice.

Re: That's bull, He stepped aside because he had no choice.

A 3.5 million dollar buyout means he was fired. End of story

Re: A 3.5 million dollar buyout means he was fired. End of story

Brad Scott

Maybe Spence was part of the O-line weakness (2-pt stance).

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