Game On Rewind: Clemson beat reporter WIll Vandervort stops by! 2023-8-11 - podcast episode cover

Game On Rewind: Clemson beat reporter WIll Vandervort stops by! 2023-8-11

Aug 11, 202318 min
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Will what's going on my friend another much. I want to answer that first question. So if my Steelers in the Super Bowl, who one guy will bring back? No doubt, I'm I call him Ben Roethlisberger. Well that's what Tray said to Actually, yeah, I was. I was tangling between Cordell Stewart and Terry Bradshaws. Well yeah, yeah. First of all, those guys are too old because you brought him off the couch. That's the point. But Roethlisberger. Roethlisberger, though, Man, he was just so

good at winning that one game for you. Yeah. I mean he's one of the best in the history of the game. And people don't believe me. Go go look at his numbers. Go look at where he ranks all times comeback wins and those kind of things. In fourth quarter wins. He's second and third all time in the history of the game. So yeah, no doubt, man, no brainer, Ben Roethlisberger. And he's, like I said, he's one of the most underrated quarterbacks in the history of the

game. The media has so underappreciated how good he was with Pittsburgh. I mean just totally underappreciated them. And when I said the media I mean the national media obviously the media of Pittsburg. Oh yeah, well you get your best coverage local, you know that. And of course Vanderboard does a great job covering the Clemson Tigers. And I'm gonna tell you some The one thing

I want to say, the new Tiger Walk. If you had a chance to strut down the whole walkway there, it's impressive, my friend, with some of the plaques of the old captains. Looks good out there. Yeah, I've seen it. They've had it when we've gone. They've had it like kind of roped off still as we've gone over there. But I think it'll be open this weekend, so I'll go. I'll go give it a shot, maybe after the scrimmage tomorrow, Yeah, and see what it looks

like. The cool thing is gonna be is just you know, seeing all the former players names there and a lot of them are covered, and so that'd be cool to see. And because it's good to see those guys get honored. And that was smarter to Abo to do it. And I thought it's another recruiting tool that he uses, says, hey, look this could be you one day. You know, That's what that But he's good at it. Those little things do matter. People think, oh, what,

that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter at the time that young man goes to the school. But when he starts thinking about what his legacy is, that matters. That starts to matter a little bit. As they get older, as you guys know and I know you think about that even more. And so if you've played your kind of that kind of legacy at a university, no matter if it's on the academic side or the athletics side, that's pretty

cool and something to be proud of. If there are certain programs across the country that might bring the nil component and make you buy one of those plaques if you're a player the way things are now sponsored by any hope working him. Thank you. I didn't want to be the one to said. Did you hear Fisher's comments Jimbo the other day talk about it's a damn shame what we've gotten to these days. The almighty dollars. I'm thinking of myself, Damn Jimbo, you might want to sit this one out, Tracy Man.

Yeah, Wilford is our guest here from the Clemson Insider. Look, the offense is going to get a lot of attention. Let's let's go into each position group as much as we can and start with the quarterback. What's the outlook on Kake Clubnic? So far, I'm hearing pretty decent things out of the reporting done there. Yeah, man, I tell you, it seems like every defensive player that we've spoken to has said something about Kake Clubnick. And it's not like we're not pressing it either. So it's not like to

beat to saying what do you think of Kake Club Nick? We're not doing

that. We're just asking questions and he comes up yeah, you know, you know, it just comes out of Barrett Carter the other day, just did it, you know, when he's talking about we were just asking in general, you know, his thoughts on the offense, what he's seen, and he gets a little bit and then he just thoughts by my Kake clubming yeah, and you know, same way with a couple other guys, and so it's, uh, it's very you know interesting that it tells me that

he's definitely the leader of that football team and he's got the respect of both units. And for I to have the respect of both units as a reason behind that, you know, Trevor Lawrence wasn't a leader because he could, you know, because he could do this or that or this thing. It's how he led the team and it's how he played on the field, and those things matter, and and players know players as the saying goes, and when they know, Okay, this guy's got my back, that's a big

deal. And so Clubmic's obviously shown that in workouts and in practices and things of that nature, where it seems like this is definitely his team and they're behind him one hundred percent. And so you know, if you're asking me, you know, what have I seen when I've watched practice, He's looked pretty good, you know, you know, he looks the part and doing the things you post. Do it again where we're just watching practice and he can't be tackled. So it's kind of hard to kind of get a total

idea of it. But you know, when you hear the players talk about it, that's another different thing. It's another beast altogether. Right now. They're really high on him. Well, Deuce Staley said at Panther's camp, overheard him when they went from practicing in shells to practicing full pads. He told us guys, we're taking off the pajamas. It's a whole different world, as you know with any KAIFU camp where you go to full pads.

Will Vanderford is our guest here on the Ingles hot Line Wide Receiver Room. It's a fascinating study. This year, you get Antonio Williams coming back into the fold. I know he's talked about a little bit through a couple of articles I've read here about wanting to atone for some things from last season. And of course you've got an interesting mix of past catchers in that room,

including the tight end room. Your early assessment on that group so far during fall camp, well, it sounds like guys like Noble Johnson and Tyler Brown are really gonna probably come in and play. They were hoping those two guys would maybe be available. Tyler Brown, he's a guy that is you know, he doesn't his body typees five to eleven one seventy. It would be great if you could add an extra fifteen pounds tank Dell size right there,

right. But he's fast as lightning. I mean, he's super fast, and he's more physical than you think a guy who's five eleven one seven. He would be and so that's a good sign where he's not afraid to get in the mix. He's not afraid to get so just because you're won seven, he doesn't mean you're not strong, right, And so he showed some good things. I've been impressed with him, and the coaches obviously have been. And then Noble Johnathan he's out there also. He's a big guy,

six three, two hundred pounds. Coaches love him. He both those guys who are working with second team yesterday, which which is good, they're getting with with Specter and Choice still Lotto out. Those guys are getting some extra reps that they probably wouldn't have gotten. And I think it's benefiting those two guys. So you're seeing them. And also you know Tick Kelly from Daniel

High School. Coaches have loved him too, and and what he's been able to do so the receivers, those guys have kind of shown a little bit more than maybe even what the coaches were hoping for. But then when you you know, go back to the guys, I think the big one is Adam Randall Man. Everybody's talking about him. Everybody talk about how he's the alpha dog. He's the guy in there, and I know it's Bo Collins room. Bo Collins a senior leader. He's your guy, he's your leader

of that room. But Adam Randall, man, he's out there, dude, I'm telling you, he looks like Mike Williams. Now from a physical standpoint, I mean he is. He's got that, He's got that in him, and like he can. And he's fast too, that's the thing. He's faster than what Adam Randall, I mean, excuse me, then, what Mike Williams was. And but I think from a physical standpoint, he's where Mike Williams was as a senior and he's only a sophomore. And

this this kid looks really good. He looks apart and from what I've seen in practice, he is the part. And if he if he stays healthy, there's no doubt my mind. Clemson has got that that alpha dog at wide receiver that they've been desperately needing. And they got a quarterback he's not afraid to throw it to him too, and that's always good. And then and then I think, you know the way they're using Jake Brenning stool uh

they you know, they're not using them in a traditional tighty inset. I can tell you guys that, yeah, he is not He's not blocking anybody. And what we've seen, I ain't seen him blocking anybody. So I've seen him out wide, out in the slot, you know, doing different things, and they're trying to They're going to use him in a lot of different ways. And you know, this is this is not what you've seen. This is not a Clempson offense that you've seen the last few years.

It's a totally different Clempson offense. And that's what they keep talking about. The defense play guys keep talking about it when they come and talk to us about how good this offense is and how they got them on their toes and yeah, they're making those splash plays and things of that nature. Well, and it gets back to what we're hearing from some of the players, including Walker Parks, regarding some of the pulling schemes now and the offensive line.

You know, you've got this kind of smash mouth air raid concept and and I'm hearing Walker talk about, you know, getting in the pulling game once again and getting some movement going uh at that offensive line. That's a big component now to what they're going to try to do here. Talk about Garrett Riley's scheme and the marriage of that with this offensive line that you're look, you're replacing your left tackle now, but you've got some parts coming back now

that that can make this thing go. They got four starters coming back in the offensive line. It's amazing how people forget about that. This time last year. They were a very young offensive line. Everybody's like understandably, so you were wondering how they were going to be well. I thought, for the most part, they weren't great last year by no stretch, but they were good. They were They were middle of the pack in the acc and

running the ball. They were middle in the packing yards per carry, they were middle of the packing sacks allowed. So it wasn't like they were bad like some people think, like, oh my gosh, clumps and offensive line was horrible. They weren't. They actually were not bad. They were pretty good, and they were right where you needed a young offensive line to be,

I thought. And then the fact that they got better as the season went along, and now you're bringing back the core about offensive line back, more experienced, they're gonna be in better shape because of the style of what this offense is, and these guys, the Clemson offensive line is way more built for this style of offense, yeah, than than what Garrett Riley had

at TCU. Yeah. And so you're that's gonna benefit this offense because of how athletic this offensive line is, as you just mentioned, with their ability to pull and stuff like that. Listen, get the guy who started at left tackle for TCU last year was one of the biggest guys in college football. He was like four hundred pounds. Okay, that's and he didn't great, Don't get me wrong. He did the best he could hard. I can tell you Garrett Riley wish he had a smaller and more athletic left tackle

over there at times, I'm sure of it. So I think that's gonna benefit Clemson, that that they're not you know, that they are more athletic, and it's gonna benefit this offense going toward. I think, and I think people are gonna be surprised by this offensive line. I really do. Yeah. I heard Dabbo last week compare the and it might have been this

week. Earlier in the week here, Will Vanderbordos our guests from the Clemson Insider compare Will Shipley and the entire backfield stable they have right now with some what Spiller had before with his running mates, and just talk about some of the running by committee that might happen. But also with that said, the fact that Shipley can be a bell cow, and he can he can certainly tote the mail listen, Shipley is gonna be the bell cow. The question

I have, and I think it's the one. Everybody wants to know. How many carries is MafA gonna get? So how many carries are Shipley and mafare gonna split? And I think with the way this offense says they want to run the ball, believe it or not, Riley random they were pretty much fifty fifty last year. They ran the ball about forty times a game.

So I think what you're gonna get is you're gonna get probably somewhere from fifteen to twenty for Shipley and somewhere from twelve to seventeen from MafA is what I think you're gonna get. And then you know they'll sprinkle in some carries here. Obviously Club Nick is gonna get six or seven or maybe eight carries a game as well, so they'll be all kind of mixed in, but I think that's kind of where these numbers are gonna be. This is gonna

be a two headed horse. If these two guys stay healthy, they're gonna lean on those two guys in that offensive line a lot. And then the way Clubmant can run and the way he kind of fits the style of this offense, it's going to benefit the running game as well. It's not going to be a smash mouth, you know, three yards in a cloud of desk kind offense, because they spread you out that's what they want to do. But they'll because they do have two physical running backs, they'll be able

to do those short yardst things when they need to. Give me a few players from the defense to keep an eye on. Obviously, Xavier Thomas his weight is down and I haven't had a chance to look at him first hand here, but you heard a lot of good reviews there, a guy who didn't get a lot of snaps last year due to injury. And then of

course, you know the linebacking corps. They've got some horses there. And in the safety room it feels like into the corners, no knock on them, but the safeties feel like the strength of that second there if you could

just kind of take us through all three levels of the defense. Yeah, we'll start with those safeties because Andrew mccuba is because of what happened at linebacker before practice started, a T. J. Dudley being dismissed from the team that really hurt Clemson and where they only have six scholarship linebackers, so they're gonna play a lot of and of course they probably wouldn't have anyway because of the way offensive schemes are today, but you canna see a lot of four

two five as Clemson's main scheme. And with that, we saw in the practices we've excuse me, the practices we've gotten to watch. We've seen Andrew mccouba playing that Nickels Sam spot, and so that's gonna be interesting to watch. Yet, Phillips and Mickens playing playing the starting safety roles, so you kind of kind of watch there. That's gonna be interesting how they use those safeties would as right now, Dabo says Wade Wood as who normally would play

that Sam Nickel spot. They're working him a lot on the inside because they want to have him ready in case he's got to come in if anything should happen to Trotter or Barrett Carter. They want to have wood as ready to come in and play one of those inside positions if they have to. That way, that not having a lean on the three freshman. They got Richard freshman, Kobe McCloud, and then you got the two trip freshman true freshman

in there in you know, Jamal Anderson. And then the other young man man is escaping my name right in the escaping my head right now his name is but I'll get that for you later. I apologize, But but they you know, they're that's kind of the concern there on the end the defensive end. They really t J Parker has really emerged as a guy they can count on out there, and they really think that he's going to be really good this year's true freshman. So he's right now, he's on that two

deep right now. He's coming in with the second team defensive end along with kay Kay deanhoff Uh. They also got Zaya Patterson that they hope to really kind of show and help with depth there as well. And then you know got Justin Maskull and Xavier Thomas. As you mentioned, we could see Ruth Aroro move out there at times. He mentioned that how he's kind of played

a little bit outside and so we could see that happening. No surprise there, and that means you're probably gonna see Peter Woods move in and play a little bit more too. On that from an interior standpoint, so you know

you've got Tyler Davis there. They're they're just they're really stacked, and it sounds like if t. J. Parker is what they think he's gonna be, then they may have their solution there at that defensive end because they were worried about what they were going to do there, and that's going to help them a lot. If they know that Xavier Thomas and Justin Maskell have some quality depth behind them, that's gonna help them a lot how they do things

and what their schemes gonna be. It's great stuff from Will Vandervoord. You can find him at stealer Will on Twitter. You can also find him at Clemson Insider. Will I got to ask you crossing over to the NFL a little bit and it's Clemson related. You got some names like Miles Murphy with the Bengals Brazil getting and they got to stop calling him Breezy. I've heard it fifty times now from New Orleans Breezy, Brian Breezy. I know it's

to drive you, Joseph crazy, Trend Simpson. I mean, what give me one or two of these guys that you're most interested Obviously we're interested in all these guys from covering them from our respective work here with the Clemson side, but but a couple of guys that stand out to you that you really keep an eye on during the really part of this season. So obviously with Trenton Simpson and uh and Miles Murphy being in the AFC North that they're definitely

gonna be my radar. I hate that Clemton that the Steelers got to play against those guys. I'm interested to see. You know, really, how Miles Murphy does you know he's the first round pick. You know, is he going to you know, is he gonna be? How explosive is he gonna be? He's going to be a guy that can be counted on this year? You know what's his hunger? How? You know there's times last year week we saw him takeoff plays. Let's just call it what it is.

Does he lose that because you know, look Miles is a great kid, smart young man. Nothing against him, but in the NFL is the guy who works the hardest is a guy who succeeds. So I want to see how how hard he works and see if he wants to be where he wants to be and get that second contract if you will. So I'm gonna be watching him, and then with Trent Simpson. He's a guy the Ravens took a chance with. They think he fits their system. You know,

he's been banged up a little bit in practice. I want to see how he's used and where he fits on with those linebackers, which you know, the Ravens probably got the best group of linebackers in NFL. As much as I hate to say it. Yeah, well it's bittersweet coming from a Steeler fan like you as well as Falco over here, But now you're more educated than ever friends on Clemson from an NFL scale, And what's coming up here

as fall camp heads into scrimmage season tomorrow. As they're scrimmaging out there, Dabo's got him working hard, and Will's doing the same and Vandervoort. Appreciate your time, buddy. We'll catch up with you sim Ahi guys, we'll talk to y'all later, and ghost Taylors

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