Signing Day has obviously come and passed. Overall, I thought Swinney and the boys did what they could with what they had and could really benefit from Bryce Brown's decision (whenever he finishes his visits and choses a school). It also appears as though Eric Fields is moving forward to try to gain admittance to some institution.
About one week ago, I had a buddy call to ask a question that almost caused a riot in an Atlanta bar. The question revolved around the whether Swinney was chosen as a legit head coach or was he placed in the head position as a placeholder for a hire a few years down the road. The answer that I gave was simple, BOTH. When TDP and Tom agreed to split ways mid-season, there is little doubt that I was pissed as hell that TDP got worked by Tom B and his threats to leave to go to Arkansas. Hell, I was really just hoping that TB would leave and he would owe good old CU a chunk of change.
This being said, TDP was then placed in a unique situation. I really think that he wanted Dabo to lead the Tigers once it became obvious that Tom was not the man with the plan. Swinney's ability to connect with the fans, get the players to play hard for 60 minutes, and winning a few games allowed TDP to offer the position to Swinney, and pay him significantly less than his predecessor (and allowing TDP to hedge his bets here, as it would be much cheaper to replace Swinney now than Tom this time last season). Youg coach with upside yet relatively inexpensive (compared to other coaches at big schools) from a guaranteed money standpoint...
Onward to the placement of Jeff Scott as recruiting coordinator. I really don't know too much about him, only that he was the holder during his playing days at Clemson and coached at the HS level and at PC before getting on the Tiger's staff. Apparently Coach Swinney really thinks a lot of JS, so much so that the ketsup slamming Brad Scott was kept on staff after years of producing a sorry ass offensive line.
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Fair assessment of Dabo, although I think you should mention that he had the most overall upside of all of the candidates. As for Jeff Scott, I think it was probably a good move to make him the recruiting coordinator. He has been around football his entire life, is young, energetic, obviously relates to players, and knows the state of SC, which needs to be our number one recruiting priority. If we are able to snag the better part of the top 10 to 15 players in the state every year then we will have good recruiting classes every year.
ReplyDeleteThis is Fatass' last year to fix things. If this young OL doesnt have their shit together and Swinney wants to keep him as a position coach anyway, I'm calling for his head too.
ReplyDeleteI would say that while SC is our #1 priority, FL/GA should be at #2. All of our coaches know this state, but we need people go to into others and steal players.
ReplyDeleteSC just doesnt put out 15 Div 1 players every year like other states do.