TigerIllustrated.com - TI's Talking football with Woody McCorvey

October 30, 2009

Woody McCorvey
Special to TigerIllustrated.com

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The following is another installment in a new feature on Tigerillustrated.com with Woody McCorvey, Clemson Associate Athletics Director for Football Administration. The feature is released twice each month. McCorvey is in his second stint at Clemson, first coaching wide receivers and tight ends under Danny Ford from 1983-89.

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You could see it in this team after the Wake Forest game, just the business-like approach that this team was taking during practice. There was just something about the game at Miami. From the time we left here to go to Miami, the approach the team took when we boarded the plane, then getting down there, the attentiveness in meetings, the way they were at the movie Friday, there was some converation but not a whole lot, but it was different.

Then that morning at breakfast, and boarding the buses, even in the locker room before the game, you could just sense the confidence in the team. Even on the sidelines, players were engaged with one another and they were talking about what needed to be done to win that game.

And later in the game, in the overtime, you saw that this is a staff that will listen. The kids are out there playing. Sometimes they see things that we don't see. For Jacoby (Ford) to make a suggestion like he did to make one tweak in a play to give us an opportunity to win, you have to compliment the staff for taking the suggestion of a player, because it worked.

Now, it's another week, and another opponent. Clemson has had a long history of helping schools in the Southern Conference. At one time most of these schools around here were a part of the Southern Conference. Coastal is a member of the Big South. But when I was here last time, we played Western Carolina, The Citadel or Appalachian State or teams like that every year.

It's always good when you can share the wealth and revenue and be able to help one of your state universities. If you're going to do that, I feel strongly that you should do it inside of your borders in your state. It helps everyone. Another thing is from a fan base standpoint, you've got people who live in the Myrtle Beach area and Conway area and I'm sure a lot of our fans that are not only supporting us but are supporting them, too.

I feel like we'll have a good crowd here this weekend as opposed to us going out of state to bring in a team from Ohio or Michigan or somewhere like that.

Looking back on (Coastal Carolina head) coach (David) Bennett when he was a graduate assistant here, at that time, there wasn't a limit on the number of graduate assistants you could have. Coach (Danny) Ford was very good about giving guys an opportunity to come in and work. We were very fortunate to have some very good graduate assistants, like David. The same with Gene Chizik, who's now a head coach at Auburn, Ruffin McNeil, who's the defensive coordinator at Texas Tech, Robert McFarland, who went on to be the head coach at Stephen F. Austin, and a guy by the name of Barney Farrar, who's now an assistant coach at Southern Mississippi.

All of those guys did a very good job. But David was like the daddy of the group. All those guys were young, but he was the one who kind of kept everyone intact and made sure they did what they were supposed to do. All of them were back there in that one office together. Sometimes they'd get a little loud and carry on, but he was the one that would set the tone and look after all of them.

David was always very business-like. In staff meetings, the grad assistants all sat on the outer wall. You could always see him paying attention to what coach Ford was saying, what Tom Harper was saying or what Chuck Reedy was saying. He was always writing notes. Sometimes like we've all been at such a young age, you try things. You're willing to take risks. But I don't remember David being a risk-taker. That's the thing I noticed with him compared to some of those other guys.

He had a great work ethic. At that time, those guys were recruiting by phone. He did a great job for us on the phone. He also did a great job when kids came in on the weekend for visits. You could tell he had done his work. He had bios on all of them and had studied up on where they were from. He knew about the moms and dads and brothers and sisters, and that helped us a lot. As I look back at it, some of the good kids we signed during that timeframe, our graduate assistants were responsible for starting a lot of that.

The thing about David is that he had been a high school coach when he got here. He had done a very good job in that arena. The thing about David is that he's a salesman. He could always sell himself. David ended up going up to Catawba. He ended up becoming the head coach there eventually and did a very good job. When they started the program down there at Coastal, because of the job he had done at Catawba, he got an opportunity to go there and be the head coach. I think about what he did at Catawba and his familiarity with the state of South Carolina from a recruiting standpoint, he just knew a lot about this area, so I think it gave him a good advantage.

Another thing I like about David is that he remembers where he came from. One thing about David is that he has always been a professional. Every year when we all went to the American Football Coaches Convention, I would always see him. That's something that I've always believed in going to? being supportive of the American Fotoball Coaches Association. David has served on various committees with the AFCA, he has won region coach of the year awards, he has come in and lectured during the conventions, so he has always been active in the profession and has done a very good job. I have talked to some people since I've been back here about some of the community service things he has done down there.

Coastal has done a good job with their facilities. I had a chance to go down there last year. They have an excellent facility there for a school that size. I think the future is bright for him. I think he's going to have a very good future in this profession. It's something he'll be involved in for a long time.

I watched Coastal on film earlier this week. They do a good job. They're very multiple on defense. They're not having the kind of year this year that David would like to have. But they're always sound fundamentally. You see them use good technique and great effort. His team plays with a lot of effort and enthusiasm, and that's the type of person David is.

With us now, you have to take every game seriously today. There's a lot of parity now in college football. You can't stockpile kids in programs like we used to do. You can't go out and actively recruit walk-ons like you used to be able to do. Everybody now has decent players. You take some of those players that we got at one time, now, a lot of those kids will go and play at a Coastal or a South Carolina State instead of coming here and walking on to try to earn a scholarship.

Another reason why you can't overlook them is that a lot of those kids down there who are from this state wanted to play in a program like Clemson, so they've got something to prove. I'm sure they're excited about coming up here and playing. Some of them probably came to Clemson games and this is their opportunity to play in Death Valley, so they're going to give their best in order to be successful.

Our team is very focused on what's at stake and what's out there if we take care of business. I thought Sunday coach Swinney did a very good job of talking to the staff and letting them know what was at hand and what we had a chance to do. You look back at it, the way I see him approach this week is that Coastal Carolina is a very important ballgame, because we don't want to regress. We've got to keep climbing. We got better during the Wake Forest game. We got better last week. And we need to get better this week.

Everybody probably thought Dabo was crazy after the Maryland game saying that this team controls its own destiny. But right now, this team does. This staff does. We don't need any help. We just need to finish out. If we finish out the way he wants us to, we've got a chance to be a very good team and a championship team which has not happened here since 1991.

- Woody McCorvey

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