College Football 2023

[Panthera onca]

6 minutes ago, CRA said:

nah, some of this is just piling on.  Which is fine.  That's sports.  People claiming Clemson doesn't recruit talent anymore.  Then when showed how absurd their recruiting has been.....claiming that's now how you should measure recruiting. Sometimes teams just have a bad day.  A comical day.  Which means you lose a game where you go 200 rushing and 200 passing.... despite your previous record being 108-0 when doing that. 

A team struggling to find an offensive identity (with a new OC and essentially a new QB) lost an opening day game to a pretty decent team on the road.  

Clemson went 11-3 and won the ACC championship last year with no QB play.  They did it not just because of the stars recruits get but because they have the best overall talent on their roster in the ACC.  Which was true before kickoff and is still true today. 

But QB is still largely king.  QB play is just the ultimate difference maker.  And it cuts both ways.  It can lift a team up or knock them down several pegs.  

 

The portal is a talent equalizer for teams that can't recruit high school kids like Clemson can. You can bring in a proven college player who is ready to contribute from day 1 as opposed to developing some high school kid and not knowing when or if he will ever be ready. Dabo will have to change his views on the portal or he will never have Clem at the level of dominance they have enjoyed in the last 10 years.

[AceBoogie]

1 hour ago, CRA said:

Cade was a 5 star and the #1 overall QB of his class. 

DJU was a 5 star and the #1 overall QB of his class. 

Clemson most definitely has problems.  This recruiting angle just doesn't fly.  Clemson's worst recruiting class in the last 4 years was a still a top 10 class.  No one in the ACC is close to their classes. 

He hasn't stopped recruiting talent.  Clemson wins that contest in the ACC in a landslide.  Has he lost the ability to evolve his offense going forward without a best in all of college football caliber QB? I think that is it.  Cade was doing the same predictable junk he had DJU doing.    QB play, bad or good, is just too big of a difference maker. 

 

 

Anybody who thinks DJ was holding Clemson back last year is in deep deep denial. 

[4Corners]

4 minutes ago, Davidson Deac II said:

I think FSU might have the most talented roster in the ACC this year, in large part due to the portal.  It seems that at least for now, learning how to navigate the portal will be nearly as important as recruiting.  

Yeah FSU looks legit. UNC does as well as long as the defense holds up. Injuries of course could change a lot of things and it is only week 1. 
 

the portal is the new crootin’. Look at college basketball. Pitt basically bought a bunch of upper classmen with zero chance to go to the NBA and they had a nice season. That fat kid from Wofford or wherever NCST brought in looks like he is gonna be a second team all ACC next year. Kansas State had a great run and their coach lived in the portal. 
 

do you want some entitled 5star 18 year old phenom who is only there to get to the pros or do you want some seasoned, hungry older player with a chip on his shoulder who is coachable and playing to win ….gonna be interesting to see 

[4Corners]

5 minutes ago, AceBoogie said:

Anybody who thinks DJ was holding Clemson back last year is in deep deep denial. 

To be fair, DJ was in the impossible position of following the man the myth the legend Trevor Lawrence. Always a tough situation in sports to be the guy who comes after “the guy”

[CRA]

17 minutes ago, Panthera onca said:

The portal is a talent equalizer for teams that can't recruit high school kids like Clemson can. You can bring in a proven college player who is ready to contribute from day 1 as opposed to developing some high school kid and not knowing when or if he will ever be ready. Dabo will have to change his views on the portal or he will never have Clem at the level of dominance they have enjoyed in the last 10 years.

cool.  But I'm largely talking ACC.  And with other ACC teams using the portal....Clemson still has the best roster in the ACC. 

Now if you want to talk about Clemson competing for Nattys vs Bama vs Georgia? Yeah, that probably is a portal convo.  For Clemson to be permeant fixature in the college football playoff? Yeah, they will have to move to portal heavy team. 

and frankly, Dabo continuing the level of dominance for another 10+ years......isn't really realistic with or without the portal.   As Dabo said, getting to the mountain top is easier than staying on the mountain top.   A 20+ year run just isn't my expectation.  We are in the ACC.  

[Martin]

2 hours ago, AceBoogie said:

DJ was actually pretty damn good last year. The narrative surrounding him was bad and Dabo helped feed that narrative. DJ put up better numbers last year than Will Levis and Anthony Richardson 

I only watched 2-3 Clemson games last year and he was really bad in all of them. Couldn’t handle the pressure, bad accuracy etc. What games did you watch where he was “pretty damn good”?

[Panthera onca]

8 minutes ago, CRA said:

cool.  But I'm largely talking ACC.  And with other ACC teams using the portal....Clemson still has the best roster in the ACC. 

 

I'm not so sure about that one. FSU, UNC and last night Duke all look like they are equal to or better than Clem talent wise. State is likely there as well and they have been portal heavy. 

[4Corners]

1 minute ago, Panthera onca said:

I'm not so sure about that one. FSU, UNC and last night Duke all look like they are equal to or better than Clem talent wise. State is likely there as well and they have been portal heavy. 

State’s QB isn’t anything special. Average team at best.  If they still had Leary it could be a different story. It so funny how the state fans were salivating at the thought some bigger program was gonna buy Maye yet their own QB left for Kentucky because of NIL money. 

[Panthera onca]

Just now, 4Corners said:

State’s QB isn’t anything special. Average team at best.  If they still had Leary it could be a different story. It so funny how the state fans were salivating at the thought some bigger program was gonna buy Maye yet their own QB left for Kentucky because of NIL money. 

That's the thing with the portal though, they brought in a seasoned, experienced QB who has played at a high level previously under the new OC. He is also duel threat and Leary is the total opposite of that. Will Armstrong be an NFL QB? Probably not but he can win a lot of games for his college teams.

[LinvilleGorge]

26 minutes ago, 4Corners said:

To be fair, DJ was in the impossible position of following the man the myth the legend Trevor Lawrence. Always a tough situation in sports to be the guy who comes after “the guy”

It makes Drake Maye even more impressive. Howell was him at UNC. We have GOT to capitalize this year on having five consecutive years of elite QB play. We've never had that before. We have the best two QBs we've ever had back to back.

[LinvilleGorge]

29 minutes ago, Martin said:

I only watched 2-3 Clemson games last year and he was really bad in all of them. Couldn’t handle the pressure, bad accuracy etc. What games did you watch where he was “pretty damn good”?

He looked like the worst QB in college football in the ACC CG before getting yanked.

With that said, I never understood Clemson's play calling with him. They insisted on running him like they had Lawrence previously and Klubnik currently. But DJ is not a runner. He's a classic big bodied, big armed pocket passer. He's not a Bledsoe type statue but he's not a guy you should be dialing up designed runs for on the regular.

[weyco2000]

1 hour ago, LinvilleGorge said:

He's an ideal college coach though. Great recruiter and motivator, but not the type of Xs and Os guy that the NFL is going to be clamoring after. Well, unless Tepper gets infatuated I guess 

 

Did you watch his reactions on the sidelines? Probably why his team quit in the final quarter, hell coach gave up after that last fumble.
The lack of effort on that last TD run by Duke was embarrassing to watch, guys on Defense jogging and avoiding contact. But Dabo doesn’t take ownership of an ill prepared team or take an asswhipping like a man… he uses the word “odd” to describe a loss, like he doesn’t understand how over 400 yds total offense results in 7 points. Well maybe someone should show him his reactions, pretty much self explanatory.
 

[LinvilleGorge]

4 minutes ago, weyco2000 said:

 

Did you watch his reactions on the sidelines? Probably why his team quit in the final quarter, hell coach gave up after that last fumble.
The lack of effort on that last TD run by Duke was embarrassing to watch, guys on Defense jogging and avoiding contact. But Dabo doesn’t take ownership of an ill prepared team or take an asswhipping like a man… he uses the word “odd” to describe a loss, like he doesn’t understand how over 400 yds total offense results in 7 points. Well maybe someone should show him his reactions, pretty much self explanatory.
 

Dabo always bitches and moans on the sidelines and acts like the refs are conspiring against his team. But you don't have the success that he's had without doing a lot of things right along the way. I don't think Dabo is a great game day coach, but he is a helluva recruiter and motivator. He's basically a better version of Mack Brown in that regard.

[Martin]

7 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

He looked like the worst QB in college football in the ACC CG before getting yanked.

With that said, I never understood Clemson's play calling with him. They insisted on running him like they had Lawrence previously and Klubnik currently. But DJ is not a runner. He's a classic big bodied, big armed pocket passer. He's not a Bledsoe type statue but he's not a guy you should be dialing up designed runs for on the regular.

He just seemed to struggle a lot with his processing when under any kind of pressure. But I’m sure the caches did Jim few favors.