Tuesday P.M. Nuggets
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-- Tyrone Crowder never thought a toe injury could be so damaging.
When he went down on the first play last fall against Florida State, Crowder had no idea the turf-toe ailment would be with him for the rest of the season.
The fourth-year junior is much wiser now, and much more able to laugh about it after some much-needed time off during the winter allowed him to put it behind him.
Crowder sat the rest of the win over the Seminoles, then missed the next two games against Syracuse and Wake Forest before returning against South Carolina (54 snaps) and starting the final three games against North Carolina (62 snaps), Oklahoma (89 snaps) and Alabama (85 snaps).
Maverick Morris was a key player in relief of Crowder, but the line did have more of a physical presence with Crowder in the game.
"It's something I hadn't experienced, and I wouldn't think something so simple would hurt so bad," Crowder told us. "It was just hard to get any balance to push off. Not being able to play like I wanted and to miss those couple of games, it kind of sucked just watching my team play without me."
Even when he returned against South Carolina, he could still feel the pain despite wearing a customized cleat with a metal plate. Even when he was starting, he had to go through treatment every day. And it wasn't until late February when he finally felt normal again.
The bigger issue for Crowder this offseason has been his weight. He was close to 350 pounds during the spring and Robbie Caldwell wasn't happy about that. It wasn't the 370 pounds he weighed when he first arrived at Clemson in 2013, but it was still too much for him to be mobile enough to do what's demanded in his fast-paced offense that pulls its guards frequently.
Caldwell told Crowder it was his responsibility to lose 15 or so pounds between the end of spring practice and the start of camp, and that's what he did. He weighed in at 333 pounds before camp, and he told us last week he was still holding at that number.
"I would say I'm a different guard than most," Crowder said. "In high school I played at a consistent heavy weight and I got used to it. Coach Caldwell says I'm one of the quickest big linemen, and I'm really light on my feet. So it's not really as much about me getting heavier as much as finding the point where I'm starting to slow down."
-- The spring whispers about Clelin Ferrell have become shouts in August.
For months we've been relaying the steady drumbeat of Ferrell love from the coaches and others inside the program. So instead of going with the usual suspects for insight on Ferrell, we asked someone who's had to deal with him all offseason: Co-offensive coordinator Tony Elliott.
The battles between Ferrell and Mitch Hyatt have been quite entertaining, Elliott told us. A year ago Hyatt was thrown into the practice fire by going against Shaq Lawson, and that was instrumental in helping him prepare for top-level competition in games. Now he has to deal with Ferrell, and it's not as much of a downgrade as casual observers might think.
"Mitch is getting tested," Elliott said with a big smile. "I'm glad that Clelin is underrated right now. But he's going to be special. He challenges Mitch, and it's good for Mitch. Last year he had Shaq Lawson and Kevin Dodd beating him up every day. That made him the player that he was as a freshman, and he needed that going into his sophomore year. Well now you've got Clelin, who's emerging as a guy who can do a lot of the similar things that those guys could do. So it's a good challenge.
"I'm glad for our defense, glad for Clelin and his future. But more so for Mitch because it's keeping him focused on his technique and showing up every single day."
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