Will welcome back, my friend. How you been I've been good. I like this Mount Rushmore of high school sports of South Carolina. Can I throw a name in or two please? We'd love to hear because you've covered this sport for a long time here in the state. Let's see what you got. Yeah. So, if I had to say, like, and I'm gonna be a little biased here, but you know, if I had to say, like, to me, who's the best athlete I've seen in person? And it got you. Guys. If I won't know his name,
there might be some that will. But he passed away as a good friend of mine a few years about ten years ago. Now, wow, can it's been that long? It has been longer than that. Actually, anyway, he was he he was a teammate of mine in Vamberg and his name was Eric Bamberg. And he was one of the best athletes I ever saw in person. I mean he could he could play any sport at a high level. He was a highly recruited guy out of high school and just he
helped lead us to a state championship of football. And you know, he's he's definitely one of the one of the best athletes I've seen him person then if I had to say another name, and I'd be remiss if I didn't say it. But this was out of doubt. DeAndre Hopkins. Yeah, you know, and Nuke was like Eric he was he was. He was a multiple sport player to do it all. And dude, my son, not to interrupt you, my son Andrew, who's a huge NFL fan, showed me. He said, Dad, do you know Hopkins played basketball?
I said, yeah, he's his highlights. I said, yeah, that I could do it all. And dude, the stories I've heard about hop because I never got to meet him when I covered the high school for the Greenville News, but it's the hands he had, like Michael Jordan as Cans. I'll tell the story real fast. So his first game, like the only other person I seen like Nuke was the guy told me about Aaron Bamberg who just could take do something like very like you would think. He just
makes something looks very difficult look easy. Right. So Nuke, I remember his first game at at Daniel High School, his first varsity game, the Woodmont quarterback, he just totally the guy. He won. My quarterback throws this pass and new totally bathe them intercepts it and then just made all the other eleven players that would mont just look like they need to go back to JV. I mean, it was just the way he got he he got,
worked his way through the crowd and scored. He scored a touchdown on it, and it was just like I looked at whoever was sitting at me in the press box and I said, that guy's gonna play on Sundays. I did say he's gonna play on Saturdays. I said he's gonna play on
Sunday, and and I was right. I hate I'm not bragging that, but I just knew propecial man and to watch him in person play sports, and to watch him play football and basketball, he was He was an electrifying athlete, great hands and just great instincts, and that's what separated him the great athletes when at the high school level, it's not so much the talent
that separates them, which it is, it's more their instincts. They think differently than the rest of us, and that's what stands out with the guy like new or not, good friend Eric Vambers, that's awesome. No, that's a great tribute to your good friend. There, who I'm sure was a legend in more ways than one. And of course NW Hopkins, who remains a threat there now with the Titans, a team that we'll talk some NFL later. With your Steelers, there's some developing news out of Pittsburgh that
we'll touch on, but boy, let's not bury the lead here. Yesterday, Clemson's magical run through the Super Regional came to a halt in a game that I had a chance yesterday to watch some of and had some family events attend to, so I missed it. And then they switched the game over to ESPNU they had camera issues. There's a lot of stuff going on, not to mention the fact that on the field, dude some crazy things.
Let's start with the positives. Cam Kinderella, I'm telling you that play he made in center field, Willie Mays, everybody's making the comparison, and that home running hit just an amazing athletic feat. To be able to pull that off in a crunch time elimination style game, that's got to be. As you your article here at Clemson Insider Umpires lose control at end of Clemson Florida game and you sub sort of texted this with your tweet saying one of the
craziest games you've ever seen in your life. But just talk about that performance by Cam. What an amazing stud he is. Man, I tell you what for him too, that three run homer first of all, I mean, Cam's been that way all year. Is a He's a playmaker. When you need him to be, He's gonna get that clutch shit for you. He's gonna find a way to drive in a run. He's gonna make him play. Now here's the crazy thing, guys, the people that don't know
Cam Tanderella never played center field until he got the pumpson. Really, but he is the most instinctive center fielder I've ever seen out there. Clinton's had some great center fielders in the time I've watched him, but I've never seen a guy like him in centerfield. I mean, he he knows where the ball is as soon as it leads the bat, so you can pay attention to what's going on in the outfield. It's by looking at him, and
then he just makes plays like he did. That's not the first time he's ready to play like I mean, he stole a home run in Game one from Florida, where he goes up and just makes the heck of a catch, and then you know, then what he did yesterday was just amazing because that's the game. I mean, they hit the ball out there, it's the bottom of the tenth inning. They got runner and scoring positions. I mean the Florida Runners, they're running around celebrating, They're thinking they just going
to the College Will Series. At that moment, they don't realize think another hour to play, because he just makes this unbelievable Like I don't know how he did it, Like and the way in Decline, the little terrace out there in Clemson that he had to climb and then make sure he didn't hit the wall, that he kept the ball towards his body so the ball would stay on his body when it came and not come out. That was just
an amazing play. One of the greatest plays I've ever seen. To be honest with you, I'm not saying that in the moment, and that actually covering Clemson for twenty years that I think that is the best play I've seen for a Clemson baseball player in my twenty years covering Clemson. And then just and then just the three run homer earlier in the ninth inning. What he did, I mean, dude, the guy was was he was trending on Twitter. He was the number one after he made that catch. He was
number one on Twitter Twitter. Yeah, excuse me, X Yeah, he was number one on x trending yesterday. That tells you everybody in the country
Wall was watching what he did and was amazing what he did. They all echoed your sentiments, Will van der Voorden in terms of those who are really baseball purists to be able to to track the ball watching again here and you know the ball he's starting to his left, left shoulder, goes to his right shoulder, hits the wall, goes up the terrace, and his reaction was priceless too, just like the fact he's like shaking his head like Nope,
not today, not today. That's that's swagger right there. So Will, let's go through some of the controversy and again take us through what happened. First of all in the second inning. Yeah, so in the second
inning, Jack, take me on. He what he does is he fills a ball, a little dribbler towards the mound on the right side of the left side of the mound, going if you're coming from the batter's uh and it, you know, he picks it up and runs toward towards the runner, which was Clemson's excuse me to him, my brain is not working.
O' rocky. Uh, Nolan, O Rocky. Uh. So he runs toward no' Rocky to make the tag, and as he does, he kind of lowers his shoulder into the Rocky and the Rocky kind of just being any normal human being who's running full speed knows well, I don't want to get run over, so I need to I need to just kind of like embrace the impact of what's about to happen. Right, And so when he did,
you know, you know, Jack didn't like that tag. Leon didn't like that, and so he kind of pushes back with a little a little right hook as well with his love uh you know, and Bart Boatwright did a great job in our pictures. You can see that picture on our leflearly through that right glove up into that jaw, and then they both players kind of pushed and shoved a little bit and jawed at each other, and then then of course the melee, a little bit of a melee c breaks out.
Florida players on the infield, they come towards it, come some players come out of the dugout comes towards it, and you know, and so there's an eighteen minute delay. You're thinking, those two guys are getting tossed, in my opinion, as they should in my opinion. You know. So you know, I'm sitting there thinking, well, you got to toss
both guys. You know, both guys are in the wrong here. You know, one guy started it and the other guy retaliated, and you know you tossed them both because this TV's showing it and it's gone and goes up to Pittsburgh for the review. Pittsburgh's making that decision. And then you know, of course the guy that's going to be tagged is gonna get thrown out of the game. It's Jack Crichton, who all he did was he did what everybody else did. He ran the basis, the ending was over it.
He starts back towards on plate and jogs over to the where the incident is happening. And because he left his position, as I use their quotes, he was thrown out of the game. When every Florida infielder left his position, and every Climpson player that was in that dugout left their position, and four or five Florida players that were in the dugout left their position right, and not a single one of those guys get tossed, nor the two
that instigated it. And guys, you know how you know who was in the wrong is when they're in the Florida dugout and Jack kelly On is celebrating that he didn't get tossed. That tells you he knew, oh boy, I probably just did something that got me tossed. And and that's a big deal because if Clemson, if he's tossed and Crimson wins the game, he wouldn't have played today either. So that would have been a huge deal by the way the rules work for it being tossed from a game in Ncuba.
So my whole thing was, you know, if you're not going to talk those two guys, you don't toss to anybody, and they end up tossing a guy who really had no did nothing to warrant being tossed on all of it. And so it was that was kind of what started at both benches are warned at that time. Any more altercations happened, that's it okay, So we fast forward through the games. A couple of things happened with Florida where you could possibly say the players maybe did something that warranted not what I
consider unsportuate life, but what these umpires today do you know? And so you know, you probably probably say, okay, if you're gonna do that, you probably go stop here and do that. Well they didn't, and you're like, okay, cool, They're gonna let the game play out. And that's the way it should be, right, That's how I wanted it
to. Everybody wanted it. And then when Clemson gets to go ahead home run in the tenth I mean the thirteenth, thenn and Alden Massis he slammed his back to the ground in celebration at his you know, at the Clemson and dugout. The rest or the umpires excuse me decide, Well, right in front of the Clemson dugout, they're going to have a conversation whether that was unsportsmanlike. And I'm like, well, Florida just did this twice in the game on home runs. You know, they even flipped the bat towards
the Clemson dugout. And one guy actually said some not so nice comments to Cam Kennirell as he's round his second base a couple of times at one time, and you didn't stop the game for either one of those guys. And I think Jack Leggan's argument was exactly mine, like what are you doing? Why are you stopping the game? Why you stopping the momentum? Jack leggantt exploded because his a hold on, you didn't do it to their two guys, and you did it to our one guy after you've already tossed one of
our guys for doing nothing. And we're we're like four hours deep into this game by now. You know, if the tensions and frustrations are high, this is an elimination game. So you got to give these guys maybe a little bit of grace, But then the two of them get tossed and then they're not tossed to the media based on NC double A rules, so there's
no postgame press or anything. Right, Well, we got to talk to the players, but we couldn't talk to Aaron Backage because if you get tossed down in n Cuba tournament, they will not allow you to talk to the media afterwards, which is ridiculous, especially but it's hilly it is. So you know, so the n C Double A comes out with their ruling earlier on what happened, and we can get it. We understand Backage came out of his dugout, so did Jack Legett, and that's why they were taught.
They were Warren first and then they were tossed according to what the chief, the crew chief said in his later statement, which by the way, didn't come out until I was already asleep, by which way, I didn't go to the middle of I saw I tweeted out in the middle of the night, That's what I saw it drink and I was in bed by the time this thing got tweeted out or or the or the n C double A sent it to Clemson and everything. I got the first thing this morning.
I woke up this morning from Clemson because I requested this, as several other reporters did. And you know, it was like ridiculous. I'm like, why couldn't you send this out faster? Not Clemson, that has nothing to do with Clemson. It's not Clemson. Why the NC double A couldn't send out his comment faster? I just thought it was kind of bogus and like I said, I'm writing to call him on the whole situation. Did did
Clemson? I understood why Aeron Backers was taken up for Jack, and maybe Jack should have held his emotions in check, but like you said, it's been four and you know, five hours. At that point, the game has gone on and emotions are high, and you know, coach Legott felt like things weren't being called evenly and he wanted to make a case about it. And I get it. We've seen that in baseball before. And then coach Backets had his back and they they got Coach Backus saying that you know,
he is insighting the crowd. And you know what he was, yeah, because he knew that they were losing their momentum their meeting. And by the way, if you're gonna meet, go meet by the Florida bullpen, by the Florida dugout, you know, and and meet over there and talking about it, because none of the Florida players are gonna say anything at that point. They're losing. And the was a gen home run, but you're like doing it on the Clemson side and you're talking about tossing a Clemson player.
What do you think was gonna happen. Do you think they were just gonna sit there and not say anything right, throw out one of their players. Possibly it was totally handled wrong, and the NCAA needs to come down on this umpiring crew, suspend them for a series a weekend. I tell you, I hope they're not working the College World Series in the NFL. You know how this works. I mean, we've seen guys notoriously blow calls in playoff games, and there's no way they send them to the super Bowl.
There's no way they in fact, they take them out of the playoffs for the next year if that happens. And hopefully for this in a sport, in a structure that I'm still not as familiar with as you are, Will Van Dedervort, Clint, it's an insider, but I understand the core foundations of how this all operates here. Yeah, you'd want that to not be the case. Don't send these guys to Omaha if they can't control the game. But in retrospect, look, you're gonna write a column here,
Clemson insider guys, don't miss this. Will Vandervoordy's gonna have some more thoughts on what happened but just give us your sense of what a ride. It was a journey. Obviously, we've seen this Clemson program on so many levels in sport in general, and basketball comes to mind. On the men's side, the Elite Eight journey, and I mean a heartbreaking ending, but what a great season it was at large for this team to get right on the
doorstep of Omaha. Yeah, and so people understand Florida was the better team. Yes, Florida. I thought the right team won the game. But don't get me wrong on what I'm talking about with the umpires. I thought Florida was the better team and deserved to win, and they did. Okay. So with that said, this season has been you know, forty four and sixteen for Clemson. They were ranked inside the top ten all season long,
as they probably will finish when the season is done. I still think they're one of the They didn't make it to omahall, but I still think they're one of the top ten teams in the country. And they just had a tougher draw they pulled Florida. You know, a Florida team that has found its mojo, a Florida team that's as talented as any of those other sevens that are going to be in Omaha, and I think they can win it, just as I think they had just as good chance to win it
as anybody else. They just didn't live up to expectations during the season. But this Clemson team twenty five times came from behind to win. I've never seen or covered a team that just keep getting off the mat like yesterday was prime example of that. Five times. Guys, they rallied in that game yesterday, yep, five times, And that tells you what kind of team that is and how they just don't quit. And that was their motto all
year long. Blake Wright kind of set the tone early before the season started when he gathered his team around and said, look, guys, one thing's gonna go down this year. We are not ever gonna quit in a game. We're gonna play until the last out, regardless if we're winning by twenty seven runs or down by twenty seven runs. And they carried that motto all the way through the season. And kudos to them, kudos to coach Backage for a great job. They got over that hump, got through a regional,
got to a super regional. So you're seeing in his two years he won an ACC championship. He took Clemson to a regional a national seed his first year. His second year, he wins the Atlantic Division championship, gets Clemson to another national seed. This time, they get through the regional, they get into a super regional, and they battle Florida to the end. In both games. Both games were great, they really were. And so you know, kudos to Clemson and coach Backage for a job well done.
And I think, guys, you know, I think this guy's a limit for this program under him, I think, you know, Clinton's gonna get to Omaha. And I'm gonna go ahead and say it. I think Eric Beckets will probably lead Clemson to his first national championship in baseball. I really believe that. There you go, there you have it. Hey, speaking of arch rivals here real quick, did did you hear the news in Columbia? Did they zero on a new baseball coach? And what do you know
about this right now? Yeah, they're gonna pull somebody out of retirement. Where we've seen this before from South Carolina. Oh yeah, that's right, Steve and holds uh so. And also, by the way, a lot of people forget a guy named Paul Dietzel. They pulled out an Lsu as well, who won a national championship in nineteen fifty nine and went on to be a head coach at South Carolina in the sixties and early seventies. So you know this, this is South Carolina has done this before. They like
to go get coaches that have that have done it before. Hey, and there's nothing wrong with that, and I think they're going they're they're going to try to see if they can re establish what they have. And I'll be honest with you, guys, it's not like South South Carolina's like Clemson in baseball. It's not like they're far off. It just takes maybe the a couple moves here or there, just like you saw backats do here at Clemson. Yep, and they're right back doing what they do. Doc John's got
a very proud baseball program. They're one of the premier programs in college baseball, have been just like Clinton has for decades. And I see that continuing as well, And you know what, I'm glad it will because that's what makes the Clemson South Caroline of baseball rivalry the best of the country. That those two teams are always at the top of the discussions and everybody's talking about them, and they're always talking about Obahall and getting to the College World Series.
Finally, you can follow Will Vandervoord on Exit Steeler Will and you can also watch him just do great work at the Clemson Insider Clemson Insider dot com. So just a little Steeler nugget here. Breaking news is Trey Falco have also a big Steelers fan, and I were talking that your boy Mike Tomlin just got a three year extension and you cover the Steelers as well. Get a plug in for that. Your thoughts on this a big surprise? Probably
not? And what do you think about this team moving forward? Well, I think what did I tell you guys around November that he was getting he was getting an extension? You did? I just could call that. So yeah, not surprised he's getting an extension at all, you know, And I'm glad he is, because I think Pittsburgh is building a team where they can win for not just this year, but I think they got a team
they're building they can win for several years. And I think I think, you know, signing Mike to a longer deal and securing that and getting all that notion out there from the national media. Oh, is this the last year from Mike Tomlin? And I saw one person say a few weeks ago, if Tomlin doesn't win this year, he's getting fired. I'm like, you're an idiot. Don't fire coach? Okay, you're just they don't they just I mean, they ain't fired once since nineteen sixty nine. That tells
you all you need to know. You know, three in my lifetime. Three in my lifetime. Yeah, that three in my lifetime too, And so like, yeah, I mean, you know, we're talking fifty plus years. And by the way, it's not like and I'm not saying that it can't happen, because you know, if he goes one to fifteen, it will happen. Sure, Mike time is not going one in fifteen. That's I mean that their team is too good. They've already built. The pieces are in place for this team to contend to the AFC. Does that
mean they're gonna win a Super Bowl? I don't know, we'll find out, but I think they can contempt in the playoffs. I think this is a team that can win a playoff game and contend for the AFC Championship. I really do believe that. Okay, the last question of the Steelers and then we're gonna let you go here. Who is starting for the Steelers and quarterback in December? Russell Wilson or Justin Fields. That's a hall loaded question, yes it is, you know, but load up, let's ride.
Listen. If it goes like I hope it, injuries aside, injuries aside, if it goes early like, if it goes like I hope it does early in the season, then Justin Fields is the quarterback throughout the year. And I think they use Justin excuse me, Russell Wilson, excuse me, And I think they he's Justin Fields like a slash. Yeah, I think that's what You're like a Cordiel Stewart For those people don't know what I mean by like a slash. I think they use him like Cordell Stewart back in
the day until Russell's ready to hang it up. So I think they're gonna find a way to try to keep both guys. But Russell Wilson just already hearing you know, you're hearing the TJ. Watts and you're hearing nauseie Harris, and you're hearing these guys, they're talking about what he's already bringing into
the locker room. And keep in mind, when Russell Wilson went to Denver, Denver wasn't like, didn't have the pieces in place that Pittsburgh has in place, and so Russell was kind of like trying to and I think he maybe did some things wrong and maybe didn't do a good job from a pr standpoint making sure he's there for his teammates, if you will. I think he learned his lesson there and he came into Pittsburgh and I think he's got the right idea. It sounds like the Russell Wilson of old, and he
knows there's pieces in place for this team to win now. And I think, you know, that's why you're seeing a different Russell Wilson approaching this theme and how he's approaching the Steelers' locker room and how he's trying to make himself fit in and how he's trying to lead. And that's something that Pittsburgh hasn't had in a couple of years, you know, since been Roethlisberger. And you know, Roethlisberger didn't have the pieces that he's gonna have in place.
Rouethlisberger didn't have this offensive line or a Nagie Harris, he had a rookie Najie Harris. He didn't have these wide he didn't have a George Pickens, right and so like, so, I think Russell sees the pieces in place, and then he sees that elite defense on the other side, that Pittsburgh has went out and made this elite defense to go with t. J. Watt and Meeka Fitzpatrick. And I said, that's why I think the Steelers. I'm not saying they're gonna go beat the Kansas City Chiefs or something.
I ain't what I'm saying, but I think they can contend. I think they can contend in the a f C because the ASC is loaded, guys, and it really is. And so but the personally division, let's just let's just go beat the Browns, the Ravens and the Bengals and just you know, which is what we do. Anyway, I'm coining it revenge. By the way, So there's Ravens people out there who don't know that the Steelers are seven and one against the Ravens. They mean, so suck on
that and that's what. Don't come out and go, oh they got Lamar Jackson. We owl Lamar Jackson again. That's all I gotta say. It's been that way. Steelers at Falcons it's the Arthur Smith Ball Week one, and then Steelers at Broncos the Russell Wilson Let's Ride Extravaganza comes back home to the Rocky Mountain High City. Will Van by the way, before we get out real fast, if you guys know, but the Steelers are playing the Ravens and hosting the Ravens the same weekend Clemson is going to Pits. I
guess he's already got his ticket. Oh, mister will vandervo the right, that's right, I smell roadshow. I am ready for that one. Raven Steelers. Oh, it's gonna be awesome. Not to mention that, uh there, there's gonna be some college football playoff implications on the schedule side that butt up against some of these games in your division. So we'll we'll have to catch up with you next time and talk about that. Will. This is too much fun, man, Thanks for thanks for stopping by. We'll
keep following your work at the Clemson Insider. Got some great content coming up, and all your Steelers content as well. Be good, my man, get some rest, Okay, I'm gonna try to you guys. I appreciate you