Dave Clawson – Page 2 – Syndication Server

This season one of Swinney’s best coaching jobs? One ACC coach thinks so

With as many losses as it’s had in a season in seven years, Clemson won’t be making a seventh straight trip to the College Football Playoff. Yet one of Dabo Swinney’s peers in the profession believes the Tigers’ coach has done as good a job as ever …

Clemson (7-3, 5-2 ACC) is understandably on Dave Clawson’s mind a lot this week. Clawson is in his eighth season as the head coach at Wake Forest (9-1, 6-0), which will make the trip to Memorial Stadium on Saturday as the 10th-ranked team in the country, according to the latest College Football Playoff rankings.

Clawson’s team can clinch the ACC’s Atlantic Division title outright with a win over Clemson, but normally it’s Clawson and the rest of the division’s coaches looking up at Swinney and his team in the standings this time of year. The Tigers have won six straight ACC titles en route to all of those CFP appearances, but without an upset over Wake Forest and some help next week, too, Clemson will be sitting at home the first weekend in December in what’s been the most challenging season Swinney said he’s ever been a part of as a coach given the struggles and attrition the Tigers have dealt with throughout.

That’s why Clawson would put this season up there with any of them that Swinney has coached at Clemson, which includes two national titles in the last five years.

“I really think this has been one of his best coaching jobs,” Clawson told reporters this week. “Sometimes when everything goes your way, things run themselves. This has not been a year where everything bounced their way. And you can tell he’s never lost his team.

“They’ve won three in a row, so the longest winning streak in the ACC right now. They’ve won five of their last six. They’re still in the hunt for the ACC Atlantic championship, and so, in my mind, this is another championship game.”

With a game against in-state rival South Carolina looming next week followed by a bowl game, Swinney said he wants to wait until the season’s over before giving himself a grade on it. But he said he’s proud of his players and coaches for sticking with it even with the offense taking a bigger step back than expected to begin the post-Trevor Lawrence era and a list of significant injuries that’s lengthened by the week.

“We’ve battled,” Swinney said. “That’s the only thing I can say. We’ve battled. We’ve found a way to win five out of the last six games and three in a row now. The biggest thing is going back to the basics and the foundation of his program.”

Running backs Will Shipley and Kobe Pace along with offensive lineman Will Putnam are expected to return for Saturday’s game after being held out last week against Connecticut, but Justyn Ross’ foot injury that will likely cost the Tigers’ star wideout the rest of the season is the latest hit to an offense that still ranks in the triple digits nationally in yards and points.

That will leave Clemson without its top three receivers against Wake Forest with Joseph Ngata (foot) and Frank Ladson Jr. (groin) already out, and both D.J. Uiagalelei (knee sprain) and his backup, Taisun Phommachanh (shoulder), are nursing injuries, too. Constant attrition has also kept the door revolving along the offensive line, where injuries and transfers have contributed to Clemson going with six different starting combinations this season.

The defense hasn’t been immune either. Starters Bryan Bresee (ACL tear), Tyler Davis (bicep) and Andrew Booth (hamstring, stinger) have all missed multiple games because of various injuries. The same goes for defensive end Justin Foster (back). Tre Williams (shoulder, other injuries) is still part of the rotation at defensive tackle but will have to have surgery once the season is over.

Yet Clemson still finds itself in contention in the Atlantic Division heading into its final conference game, which may also be the Tigers’ biggest challenge yet in league play. Clawson’s team will bring the nation’s No. 2 scoring offense into Memorial Stadium.

“We’ve got our hands full Saturday. That’s for sure,” Swinney said. “We’re going to have to play well, and we need the crowd to really get behind this group and support them no matter what. But one thing I can promise you, these Tigers are going to battle. We want to finish this season in as strong a way as possible and be the very best that we can possibly be.”

Clemson Variety & Frame is doing their part to help bring you some classic new barware and help one of the local businesses that helps make Clemson special.

Order your Nick’s barware and do your part to help. #SaveNicks

ACC coaches agree, 85-scholarship limit archaic for today’s college football

Last year, the NCAA awarded an extra year of eligibility to all student-athletes who played fall sports due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And though the NCAA is not counting that against football teams’ 85-scholarship limit this year, it will, beginning …

That is just one issue for head football coaches across the country when it comes to managing their rosters, especially when you throw in the transfer portal, the one-year transfer rule and the freedom players have to opt out at any point in the season.

Since 1992, the NCAA has limited all Division I football teams to 85 scholarships. But Wake Forest’s Dave Clawson believes that is an archaic rule that needs to be updated.

“What did a college football season look like in 1992? It was 10 or 11 regular-season games, and maybe if you were lucky a bowl game,” Clawson said at the ACC Football Kickoff this past Thursday in Charlotte. “So, the maximum amount of games you were playing back then, when they put the 85-rule in, is I believe 12 games. There weren’t playoffs. There weren’t conference championship games.

“To constantly be adding games, conference championships, rounds of playoffs, and then the roster pressure you’re now getting from a one-time transfer rule, the roster pressure from people who opt out, and they’re not just opting out for bowl games, they’re opting out in October if they don’t have the role they want or their agents are telling them in November, ‘Hey, you don’t need to play anymore, you’re already a first-round pick.’ At a certain point you just can’t keep burning it at both ends.”

That is why the ACC football coaches sent a proposal to the NCAA asking for five more scholarships to alleviate some of the headaches that have come with the optouts, transfer portal, one-year transfer rule and now the extra year of eligibility because of COVID.

“If we’re going to (expand the playoff), and it looks like there’s a good chance it’s going to happen, add a tournament, add games, at a certain point we have to go back and look at the rosters,” Clawson said. “We do not have the ability to sign guys off the waiver wire of another team’s practice squad when we get hurt at a position with injuries or opt-outs in November.

“I really think if this is good for college football, the powers that be deem that we should add games, make it a tournament, expand the playoffs, at a certain point you have to do things to help coaches manage the roster to make it safer for players.”

And that is the point. Coaches having the ability to manage their rosters freely, helps the players more than anything and limits the risk of injury.

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney points out over the next three years, coaches are going to have to figure out a way to manage their rosters if last year’s freshmen, sophomores and juniors want to stay the extra year the NCAA gave them due to the pandemic.

“It is a real problem for coaches moving forward from a roster management standpoint,” he said. “We are fortunate this year. We only have eleven seniors and I have had conversations with all of those guys, so we are able to project and do what we need to do for this class of 2022. The problem for me is the class of ’23.

“For some schools, the class of ’22 is a real problem. They may have a lot of seniors and a lot those guys might want to come back. So, how do you go and recruit? You don’t know how many scholarships you have. It is hard to ask a kid right now, ‘In two years, are you going to want that COVID year?’ These guys are just trying to be great today. So, it is very complicated and frustrating.”

Time to get the latest Clemson apparel to show your Tiger pride. Order your officially licensed Clemson gear right here!

The ‘transfer toilet’ is how one ACC coach views the portal

Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson had some interesting words when asked about the NCAA transfer portal.

Since the inception of the NCAA’s transfer portal in October of 2018, many players have enter their name in. Over 1,000 student-athletes did so in it’s first year of existence, with many more following the path the past two years.

In an interview with the Winston-Salem Journal, Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson was overtly critical of the “transfer toilet” as he so eloquently called it. The topic was breached when John Dell asked about his former running back Kenneth Walker, entering the portal and subsequently committing to Michigan State.

“The joke in the ACC room is that sometimes we call it almost like the transfer toilet. There are players that go in there, and you never see or hear from them again. This whole idea there’s a portal and a one-time transfer (rule) and isn’t this freedom great? But you are still only allowed to have 85 scholarships, and you can still sign only 25 players a year. So you have all these players going in there thinking they can go anywhere and play. There are still scholarship limits,” explained Clawson.

He went ever further saying “a lot of those players go into the portal not being informed of the national dynamics of that portal, that there are 65 Power Five programs,” going back into his comments about scholarship limits.

Clawson does have some solid points, but transfers have worked for many players including Notre Dame’s Ben Skowronek (although a different case as a graduate transfer) and former Irish now Boston College quarterback Phil Jurkovec. It hasn’t worked for many also, citing Miami’s Tate Martell.

The argument here is that if coaches are allowed to leave freely, so should players and it’s a solid point, but to a degree. Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh thinks players should be allowed to have one free transfer, where they wouldn’t have to wait for the NCAA to make a ruling on being eligible immediately.

Cases like Martell’s don’t always makes sense, as he claimed due to Urban Meyer leaving after his second season that he should be eligible right away at Miami, FL. They granted it to him but said no to Luke Ford. The Illinois native played his first year at Georgia, but he wanted his sick grandfather to see him play. The NCAA denied his request, his grandfather passing away during his season where he had to sit out a year.

The “transfer toilet” needs more rules, the NCAA must have better criteria as to what grants a player immediate eligibility and what doesn’t. This year has obviously been different, with most transfers being granted eligibility right away.

Either way, Clawson got our attention comparing the transfer portal to a toilet bowl.

Former Tennessee offensive coordinator part of ESPN’s national championship game ‘Film Room’

Alabama and Ohio State will play in the College Football Playoff national championship game Monday night.

Kickoff is slated for 8 p.m. EST (ESPN) from Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

ESPN’s main telecast will headline a MegaCast production, offering 14 total presentations of the matchup across ESPN networks.

Aug 2, 2008; Knoxville, TN, USA; Tennessee Volunteers offensive coordinator Dave Clawson instructs his team during first day of practice at Haslam Field. Mandatory Credit: Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports

One of the presentations featured is “Film Room” that will be televised by ESPNEWS.

Former Tennessee offensive coordinator and current Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson will take part in the “Film Room” broadcast during the game.

Clawson will be alongside former Auburn head coach Gene Chizik, Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze and North Carolina A&T’s Sam Washington.

[vertical-gallery id=33952]

What Wake Forest HC Dave Clawson said about Wisconsin after the game

The Wisconsin Badgers defeated Wake Forest yesterday 42-28 in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. Head Coach Dave Clawson spoke about Wisconsin football

The Wisconsin Badgers rode a four-interception performance by the defense and a few splash plays on special teams to a 42-28 victory over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons yesterday in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.

The win puts the Badgers at 4-3 to finish the year, and even though the team struggled at times as well and missed games due to COVID-19, they finished the season strong and now have momentum to carry into 2021.

When Wake Forest Head Coach Dave Clawson spoke after the game he had nothing but good things to say about the Wisconsin football program and the way they executed on the field yesterday.

“First off congratulations to Wisconsin. Good win for their program,” Clawson said. “Football is usually a game where the team that makes the fewest mistakes wins. They made a lot less mistakes than us, they played much better fundamental football. I’m proud of the way we compete to the very end. I thought our guys battled physically. But we just made too many fatal mistakes to overcome.”

The story of the game was Demon Deacon quarterback Sam Hartman’s four third-quarter interceptions, those coming after the team had only thrown one pick all year.

The Wake Forest coach discussed the turnovers, citing both mistakes from the quarterback and crediting the Badger defense for capitalizing.

“We threw one interception all year,” Clawson said. “I just think we telegraphed some things, I thought [Sam Hartman] held on to targets too long and Wisconsin did a great job of breaking on his eyes and breaking on the arm action.”

His description continued to note his offense’s missed opportunities and how they put the team in a tough spot in the second half.

“We had open guys in the first half that we missed. I thought we should’ve come out of that half up 21-7 or 28-14 and we just missed some plays” Clawson said. “We dropped the ball, we missed open receivers. And Wisconsin is just a steady, consistent program that doesn’t beat themselves. It’s not one thing, they did a great job and we didn’t play well.”

Clawson then had some words on the interceptions relating to the scheme of the plays and what Wisconsin did on defense to counter them.

“They ran a field pressure and our quarterback thought it was man, a man pressure but it was a zone pressure,” Clawson said when talking about Noah Burks’ interception. “They dropped one guy out and the ball just shouldn’t have gone there…We hit that thing earlier against man and we got a nice sideline route to Christian Beal. But that’s not where the ball goes against zone…The other the safety jumped it. We were running slant routes, we threw the ball late and the safety just jumped it. The other two I’ll have to watch closer but just not a good day.”

Here is how the Wake Forest head coach finished his comments on the game and on the Badgers’ performance.

“Credit Wisconsin, but we beat ourselves. They didn’t beat themselves, and that’s what good football teams do.”