Tigerillustrated.com's Mail Call

Michael M. - Ft. Payne, AL: Do you think there will be major changes on the offensive side of the ball after the season? I cannot help but think Dabo will return for next season. Do you agree? What is your opinion about Terry Don's future?

ARD: I agree with you that Dabo will be the head coach at Clemson in 2010. I don't really see any circumstances at this point that would lead me to believe otherwise. They're committed to him, and he's committed to them, so he'll back next year.

With regard to offensive staff changes, it's never too early to speculate, I suppose, but I think if things do not improve, Dabo will surely be compelled to take a serious look at his offensive staff. Head coaches make evaluations of their staffs after the season anyway, but given the personnel they have on offense, there's no reason for them to be this inept. Maryland's defense couldn't stop air prior to last Saturday, and Clemson's offensive performance up there was the latest in a line of blunders and miscues. Play-calling was bad, there was - again - no offensive identity, the line up front couldn't block the same front seven that gave up 268 yards rushing to James Madison, 246 yards rushing at Cal, and 207 yards rushing versus Rutgers. There's a reason Maryland went into last Saturday's game allowing 411 total yards a game, dead last in the ACC.

Terry Don's approval rating is very high with many Clemson people, and conversely it also has sunk exponentially with many other Clemson supporters. When things are bad on the football field at Clemson, then ultimately many people in the athletics department are put under the magnifying glass by fans. At the end of the day, that's not exclusive to the head coach or an athletics director.

Jeremy G. - Clemson, SC: What do Larry, Ryan and you think is the best ESPNU infomercial invention - Perfect Brownie Pan, the Snuggie, Shamwow, Awesome Auger, or the pressure washer thingie? Thanks.

ARD: You have got to be kidding.

I haven't purchased either. Sorry. Can't help you there.

Brad S. - Columbia, SC: Where is the up-tempo offense? We heard about it all off-season, but have yet to see it on a regular basis. We've used it in early game drives and in the last drive against Maryland and we've moved the ball. Why don't coaches use this more often?

ARD: That's an excellent question. I'm out of town this week, but Larry will meet with Billy on Wednesday, and will pose that question to him. Larry and I were talking about that very issue at the TCU game. Because you are correct; it is something Clemson's coaches placed a very heavy emphasis on this off-season.

Barry B. - Seneca, SC: We all agree there are issues on offense. Apparently huge issues. Could it be that the issues are not players, or play-calling, but poorly designed plays? I've seen offensive linemen moving guys, but into the same area, creating no space. Other people wanted these receivers. They're fast enough to run to open space. Seems like good schemes allow you to do more with less. But we do less with more. What are your thoughts?

ARD: And that my friend is why the offensive staff has taken a beating from fans? because they're doing less with more. They returned four starters on their offensive line, they've got Marquan and Jacoby in the receiving corps, C.J. Spiller, Andre Ellington and Jamie Harper in the backfield, and a tight end corps that returned intact, but here in the open date you look back on what they've done, and the most glaring stat is just two offensive touchdowns in the last 13 quarters.

Play-calling is impacted by blocking up front. You don't have to do a lot of elaborate things on offense if you're blocking people. And they're not blocking people. Therefore they can't sustain drives. They can't put teams away. I think if you polled the average Clemson fan, they'd tell you there's no confidence whatsoever this line will convert on a third or fourth and one.

J.R. - Greer, SC: This may be a dumb question but are our receivers coached in the proper mechanics of catching the football? In other words, are they trained in proper hand and finger positions when receiving the ball above the waist, below the waist and over the shoulder? I recognize that many of their drops seem to be from looking away too quickly. Often, they do not appear to be looking the ball into their hands before trying to run and make a play, but they also seem to be weak on proper pass-catching fundamentals and technique. As a former receiver, the frequent drops by these great athletes are driving me to drink. In fact, I think I hear happy hour calling now. Thank you for your insight.

ARD: In short, from the standpoint of fundamentals, I will tell you they're getting the same coaching Derrick Hamilton received. They're getting the same coaching Kevin Youngblood received. Dabo has had a heavy hand in coaching receivers this year, even as a head coach.

I disagree with you in the reference of 'great athletes.' I wouldn't dub Xavier Dye or Brandon Clear or Terrance Ashe as great athletes. I think Jaron - in time - can be an impact player for them, and I see that same potential with Marquan Jones. But outside of that, they're very average at receiver.

Back to your fundamentals question, I think Dabo repeatedly acknowledging they've done a poor job of coaching fundamentals - from Saturday until Monday in his teleconference - is an admission obviously that they've fallen short in that area. Saturday, in fact, in his post-game news conference he said, "Obviously I've done a poor job here (fundamentals)."

First and foremost, they haven't shown that their offensive game plan is a good one, yet. They haven't shown production following halftime adjustments, something the previous offensive staff was ripped for. And execution - across the board - has been bad, with the exception of Spiller and for the most part the tight end corps. Ultimately, it all falls back on coaching. I know C.J. took up for Dabo Saturday, stating, "It's not coach Swinney. Coach Swinney isn't even out there," but coaches are ultimately responsible for the performance on the field, whether it be penalties, poor execution or turnovers. They're responsible because they're the coaches. And they're the ones responsible for acquisition of personnel.

Johnny M. - Greenville, S.C: Mr. Ard, thanks for all y'all do on the Web site. I have one question but I want to vent first. I've gone to Clemson games for 33 years now. I've poured tens of thousands of dollars into the program. I do not regret that. I love my university and our football program, but I will not accept losing. I want championships. I want 10-win seasons, but that's never caused me to bail. In three weeks, we'll still be below .500 even if we beat Wake. Because we're going to lose to Miami. Here are my proposed changes and I base this off of many, many people I have talked with about our program who I place a lot of trust in.

A.) Dabo Swinney needs to be our head coach in 2010. I like the guy. But one thing - Get him away from our play-calling. He needs to keep his hands out of that.

B.) He must fire the following coaches - Brad Scott, Jeff Scott, Andre Powell, Danny Pearman and Chris Rumph. Brad Scott has had ten years to produce here. We are pathetic on the offensive line. The things he has touched have regressed - offensive line play, evaluations in recruiting and his recruiting responsibilities in general. He doesn't even go on the road as much as he used to. But with all this, we continue to pay this man over $200,000 a year. He's had 11 years. It's time for a change there. Jeff Scott was a defensive graduate assistant coach last year whose only moment in glory is taking a high school team to a state championship several years ago. That was great but it does not mean dip on this level.

Powell is not the football coach Burton Burns was. Our running backs do not play well without the football. Powell also is not the recruiter Burns was. Never has been. He never will be.

Pearman is not a good football coach. I know he is one of our own and I thank him for his time at Clemson as a player, but this guy has been all over the ACC and there is a reason for that. He's also a lousy recruiter. Why in this world we took Billy Napier out of North Carolina to put Danny Pearman up there is lunacy. Pearman will not produce for us on the recruiting trail. Wait and see. It will be proven shortly. Dabo hired him because the two are best friends and everybody knows it.

C.) Billy needs to be demoted and should be our tight ends coach. He is not ready to be our offensive coordinator. I know he is young and has good ideas and overall I think he is a good recruiter but he does not need to be calling plays at Clemson.

D.) Dabo needs to make either Dan Brooks or Kevin Steele recruiting coordinator. Billy's biggest faults are his ego and arrogance. We are struggling at Byrnes High School now because of his arrogance. The coaches at Byrnes do not like him and they will not help him. Jeff Scott isn't the guy to go in there and clean it up either.

E.) Rumph is a good guy but he is not a good recruiter. And he is not a good defensive ends coach. Our defensive ends UNDERACHIEVE so badly and he's the reason for it. Ricky Sapp is an athletic freak and everybody in the NFL knows it but he does nothing on the field. Why he did not have 10 sacks the last two years is purely because he has not been well-coached. How much do you want to bet that Sapp and Bowers would have many, many more tackles for loss and sacks if they were in Bud Foster's defense? You know I'm right here. Rumph should be at a school like East Carolina or UAB or Memphis. Dan Brooks and Marion Hobby are the best defensive line coaches we've had here in the last 20 years. Just give Brooks the whole defensive line.

F.) Dabo made good decisions when he went out and got Steele, Brooks and Harbison. He needs to go after Hugh Nall or Robbie Caldwell to coach offensive line. He needs to write a check for $130,000 and hire Bobby Bentley to be our offensive coordinator. That will help our offense and will once and for all clean up our problems at Byrnes.

G.) TDP needs to move on. I am sick and tired of him not even bothering to show up at IPTAY speaking events. Billy D'Andrea always goes for him. And nobody wants to hear what Billy D has to say anymore. He will say anything to our faces to pacify us. He is a yes man, just like Bob Mahoney. Only Mahoney smiles more.

TDP also has a blind spot with so many people under him, like Katie Hill for starters. Katie Hill needs to be fired on the spot and then sent to a charm school where she can learn how to treat other human beings. TDP also is an excuse-maker. I am tired of hearing about how Kyle Young searched the world over to help us find a Division I-A opponent. We should have just had the balls to hold Central Michigan to their contract with us. But we didn't. Also, TDP should have never had to reconsider the TCU game time. He should have known initially that 1 p.m. sucked hard. But the reason he didn't is because this man is so out of touch with our fan base. Give him his paycheck, put him on a slow boat to China and let him take naps to his heart's content during his golden years in retirement.

H.) My question is this: Do you see Dabo firing these coaches at the end of the season? Do you see TDP getting fired? If not, the guy that's not going to fire him - I presume Barker - do you see him getting fired? If not, who may I contact after Thanksgiving to recommend Barker's firing as well? Thank you sir.

ARD: With regard to your desire to see football coaches fired, I'd have no way of knowing something like that, not here in the first week of October. Dabo handpicked his staff, and has been unwavering in his support of them thus far, which includes his offensive staff. After the season, head coaches evaluate their programs and their coaches. As for what decisions he could make in December, I'm not even sure that's on his radar right now. As for TDP, here on October 6, no, I don't see him getting terminated. The concerns that you have, given your questions, are probably best directed to the Board of Trustees.

Rob W. - Wilson, NC: Good job. I'm a big fan of your work on T.I. Why did they decide to be so blatantly conservative once we got to the 35-yard line up at Maryland? Lastly, we see coaches at schools doing so much more with less talented kids, and when we have a kid who's highly recruited, he does not perform and he's called a miss in recruitment. In reality, doesn't that mean we missed on the coaching hires for the offense?

ARD: Larry will interview Billy on Wednesday, and they'll discuss the Maryland game. I'm out of town this week. My apologies.

With regard to misses, that works in several different ways. It depends on the situation. Ultimately it falls on the coach. Coaches are responsible for acquisition of personnel, so ultimately misses are on them. A kid like Cory Lambert is a situation that's unique because everybody wanted him. And if he comes out of high school tomorrow, they'll again offer Cory. The reason why is because you'll hit on that kid (6-5, 300 LB, athletic, long-arms, good knee-bend, flexible, excellent HS film, better than average movement skills, quick feet) 8 times out of 10.

Clemson has for several seasons been criticized for not getting enough out of its offensive personnel, really a lot of it has come since the 2002 season or post-Woodrow Dantzler era. I think it's a fair criticism as well.

There have been a lot of success stories in that over the last seven years they've signed and developed a lot of under-the-radar kids who not a lot of people wanted - Nathan Bennett, Roman Fry, Aaron Kelly, Tyler Grisham, Michael Palmer, Chris McDuffie, Barry Richardson, Tommy Sharpe - but also they have not gotten a lot out of players who were expected to be significant contributors or I should say players who were expected to help lift the program to another level.

Thanks for the compliments!

Randy L. - Woodruff, SC: Given the way that our offense has played this year and the fact that CBN basically ran from his responsibility to be accountable, do you think this was justified that CDS calls more plays than we are aware of and CBN did not want to pass the blame to his boss after the MD game? If this is true, can you give us the approximate ratio of Dabo calling the plays?

My other question is why are our wide receivers such poor blockers? IMHO this is a major factor in our running woes. Thanks for your candid comments yesterday about the state of the team.

ARD: Tim Bourret, Clemson's sports information director, has said publicly him not calling Billy to the press area after the Maryland game was an oversight on his part. I've known Tim for a long time. If he flat out says he didn't call Billy, then I believe him. I wasn't there. Larry covered the game in Maryland for us, but I have no reason not to believe Tim on that. And Billy - for what it's worth - has never declined an interview or denied a request in post-game before, not ever. So that lends further credibility to what Tim said, as well as Dabo, who emphasized that no one on his staff has been avoiding the media. The last coordinator I remember who went out of his way to deny media interviews was John Lovett. Rob Spence mysteriously was absent on a few occasions, but he never denied a request to speak to reporters, after being fetched by SID personnel, contrary to popular belief.

Dabo is the most involved, hands-on head coach I've ever seen at Clemson. Larry and I talked at length about this in the off-season, as you'll recall. Dabo has his hands in every aspect of his program, from the operational side of things and strength and conditioning, to of course on-the-field coaching. To what extent he's stepping in and overriding Billy and or flat out calling plays, I do not know. And they've never divulged that. Tommy Bowden himself - at times - overrode some play calls, though it was a rarity. The head coach always reserves the right to override a play call.

I admit I'm very surprised to see the breakdowns in blocking at wideout, given that some of the more glaring mistakes have come from players who are three years into this program. And that's not acceptable. Dabo has stated numerous times over the last several days that he's not satisfied with their approach to coaching fundamentals, and as a result it was a key emphasis in practice Monday. How much improvement you see in this area on game day in two weeks, I don't know. But I think again it's unacceptable and I think you've got to address some serious issues with your coaching staff if you're sitting here in the second week of October going back to the drawing board and altering your approach to teaching fundamentals. That - publicly - simply reflects negatively on a coaching staff as teachers and or instructors. I think that would be fair to say. Certainly Dabo believes that's a fair characterization.

There are three things head coaches typically won't admit - #1., they've had a bad recruiting class, #2., they had a bad spring practice and #3., they've done a poor job coaching. And Dabo has been vocal on No. 3 a lot this week. I think that - in and of itself - goes a long way with fans. It doesn't ease the pain after a loss, but it does show that you've got a coach who's being as accountable - publicly - as he can possibly be.

Thanks for the kudos, by the way.

Wilson R. - Charleston, SC: What has happened with the offensive line? We've returned four starters. Three out of five linemen that are starting were four stars. Five years under Brad Scott and look what we have. This tells a blind man that someone has failed. Give me a reason why the line will be better next year.

ARD: It's probably the biggest surprise to me through the first five games of the season. Players learn a lot when they play a lot. Regardless of who the coach is, when you have four of five starters back, I don't think anybody looks at that situation and forecasts anything other than improvement. Dabo said on his teleconference Sunday - and rather emphatically - that the offensive front is much improved this year. I disagree. Through five games I don't see improvement. I see a unit that's constantly stuffed at the point of attack, a group that's not sustaining blocks, a unit that has done very little to open running lanes. The proof is in the pudding. The proof is in the production. And their run game is where it is now because they're not knocking people off the ball up front.

67th nationally in rushing offense isn't where they need to be. In a year where they're not going to be as strong in their receiving corps, you're breaking in a new QB, then obviously you want to try to lean on your ground game. But that hasn't been the case. The 200 yards rushing in the opener against Middle Tennessee is skewed because a lot it came in the fourth quarter when the game was already out of hand.

The projected starting lineup in 2010 would be Hairston at left tackle, Dalton Freeman or Mason Cloy at center, Freeman or Cloy at left guard, Antoine McClain at right guard and Landon Walker at right tackle. By that reckoning, on paper - which is where our jobs are done - one would expect improvement. But again, I thought they'd be more productive at this point, and it hasn't happened.

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