Tom Luginbill – Page 2 – Syndication Server

Notre Dame has two commitments selected in ESPN’s fantasy ‘23 recruit draft

It’s a great pair they selected

Call me a sucker for a good fantasy draft, I just love them. Doesn’t matter the sport, it’s just fun fodder to look at and ESPN took a stab at one today that I have yet to see before. Each of their recruiting analysts, Craig Haubert and Tom Luginbill, selected a starting lineup of 2023 recruits (insider), minus specialists.

It was a very interesting exercise, as they didn’t just select the top 44 overall recruits, they each had a strategy behind their selections which saw two Notre Dame verbal commitments selected. Find out below which pair of recruits got picked along short explanation of why there were picked.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Mike on Twitter: @MikeFChen

ESPN analyst pegs Clemson-Louisville as under-the-radar matchup he’ll be watching

On College Football Live this week, an ESPN analyst was asked to give an under-the-radar matchup he’ll be watching in Week 11 of the college football season. Tom Luginbill pointed to Saturday’s contest between Clemson (8-1, 6-0 ACC, No. 10 CFP) and …

On College Football Live this week, an ESPN analyst was asked to give an under-the-radar matchup he’ll be watching in Week 11 of the college football season.

Tom Luginbill pointed to Saturday’s contest between Clemson (8-1, 6-0 ACC, No. 10 CFP) and Louisville (6-3, 3-3) at Death Valley.

The Tigers are hoping to bounce back from last Saturday’s 35-14 loss at Notre Dame, their worst loss to an unranked opponent since 2011 when they lost to NC State by 24 points.

“I’m really interested to see how Clemson responds,” Luginbill said. “Still a ton to play for if you’re the Tigers – possible ACC Championship, double-digit win season. What do they do? It’s been a long time since that team’s taken a tail-kicking, and Louisville’s suddenly 6-3.”

“Yeah, and playing well on defense,” ESPN/ACC Network analyst Roddy Jones added.

Louisville’s defense enters Saturday’s game ranked third in the ACC in points per game allowed (19.4).

Clemson’s offense is coming off its worst game of the season against Notre Dame, which held the Tigers to a season-low two touchdowns and a season-low 281 yards of offense.

Clemson, which has already clinched the ACC’s Atlantic Division and will play for the conference title on Dec. 3, needs two more wins to secure its 12 straight season with at least 10 wins.

Saturday’s game between the Tigers and Cardinals is set for 3:30 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN.

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ESPN analyst ponders ‘chaos’ CFP scenario

On Wednesday’s edition of ESPN’s College Football Live, a graphic was shown displaying the remaining schedules for a trio of College Football Playoff contenders – No. 4 Clemson (at Notre Dame, vs. Louisville, vs. Miami, vs. South Carolina); No. 6 …

On Wednesday’s edition of ESPN’s College Football Live, a graphic was shown displaying the remaining schedules for a trio of College Football Playoff contenders — No. 4 Clemson (at Notre Dame, vs. Louisville, vs. Miami, vs. South Carolina); No. 6 Alabama (at No. 10 LSU, at No. 11 Ole Miss, vs. Austin Peay, vs. Auburn); and No. 7 TCU (vs. Texas Tech, at No. 24 Texas, at Baylor, vs. Iowa State).

ESPN’s Tom Luginbill weighed in, stirring the pot by bringing up a hypothetical scenario that would cause chaos in the CFP picture and lead to plenty of debate within the CFP Selection Committee.

“One of those three teams we just showed on that graphic is Clemson, probably the most heavily scrutinized team in the top six,” he said. “And you look at their schedule remaining. I mean, if you get even a one-loss Big 12 conference champ and then a one-loss Pac-12 conference champ, and if Clemson were to have a loss, now that’s the chaos we all deserve in college football.”

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ESPN analyst credits Clemson, asked if he’s surprised by cheap shots at Tigers

ESPN analyst Tom Luginbill recently appeared on ACC Network’s ACC PM show with Mark Packer, Tre Boston and Taylor Tannebaum. Packer asked Luginbill if he’s surprised by how many in the national media are still trying to find holes in Clemson’s game …

ESPN analyst Tom Luginbill recently appeared on ACC Network’s ACC PM show with Mark Packer, Tre Boston and Taylor Tannebaum.

Packer asked Luginbill if he’s surprised by how many in the national media are still trying to find holes in Clemson’s game and that some talking heads – like Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt – are still taking cheap shots at the Tigers despite their perfect 8-0 record to this point.

“Yeah, I am a little bit,” Luginbill said. “In regards to Joel, I’m not so sure that happens with Joel if Michigan isn’t in that bundle of 3, 4, 5, 6, and who could be one of those four teams. If they’re not in that, then I don’t know if he makes that tweet. He broadcasts a lot of Big Ten games. And listen, if you’ve been watching Clemson – and I had them obviously to open the season, then I had to watch an awful lot of them as I was getting ready for Wake Forest – you have to give that team a lot of credit.”

Luginbill, who served as the sideline reporter for Clemson’s season opener against Georgia Tech, lauded Dabo Swinney’s football team, running back Will Shipley and especially the Tigers’ defense.

“They’re resilient. They’ve improved in certain areas,” Luginbill said. “The running back has really matured and become a dude. Defensively, I don’t care what anybody says – we can criticize and we can nitpick – but there are very few teams, maybe if any in college football right now, that are playing with the players that they’re playing with in their defensive front seven. First-rounders, second-rounders, two-deep draftable guys. Wiggins is a high-profile guy. This is a really good defensive football team, and it’s easy to nitpick.”

Luginbill added that the common theme of past College Football Playoff teams has been dominant play up front on the defensive line/in the front seven like Clemson features again this season.

“I know this. The one staple when it comes to College Football Playoff inclusion is defensive front-seven play, defensive front-four dominance, and that’s the re-occurring theme, whether it’s been Ohio State, whether it’s been Georgia, whether it’s been Alabama, whether it’s been Clemson in the past,” he said. “You notice the common denominator there? Yeah, you have to be a good offensive football team and you’ve got to have some quarterback play, but that’s the difference. That’s why Oklahoma hasn’t been able to win a College Football Playoff game.”

Dear Old Clemson is excited to announce a limited edition football and poster signed by Clemson’s Avengers.

ESPN analyst provides his take on Tigers’ QB situation

An ESPN analyst recently discussed Clemson’s quarterback situation during an appearance on ACC Network. ESPN’s Tom Luginbill gave some props to Dabo Swinney for the decision he made in the Tigers’ 27-21 win over Syracuse at Death Valley on Oct. 22, …

An ESPN analyst recently discussed Clemson’s quarterback situation during an appearance on ACC Network.

ESPN’s Tom Luginbill gave some props to Dabo Swinney for the decision he made in the Tigers’ 27-21 win over Syracuse at Death Valley on Oct. 22, when Clemson’s head coach pulled starting signal-caller DJ Uiagalelei in the third quarter following his second interception (and third turnover) of the game.

Uiagalelei was of course replaced by true freshman Cade Klubnik, who rallied the Tigers from what was an 11-point deficit at the time he came in with around five minutes left in the third quarter. Clemson’s offense scored 17 points in four drives with Klubnik at the helm, as opposed to only 10 points in the eight drives Uiagalelei led prior to being benched.

“Listen, Dabo Swinney did what the head coach is supposed to do, and that’s do what’s best for the football team,” Luginbill said on ACC Network’s ACC PM show. “When the guy holding the ball, the guy playing under center – as well as he’s played up to that point, and we’ve seen significant improvement – he didn’t have his A game that day. He was costly. They’re very fortunate to come out of that game with a win.

“So, Dabo Swinney can’t worry about DJ Uiagalelei’s feelings. I know he’s propped him up, he’s trying to create a level of confidence with the young man. He’s definitive to a fault. And in that moment, what did Dabo Swinney do? He didn’t do what was best for DJ’s psyche. He did what was best for Clemson’s football team. And if that means going to Cade Klubnik and Cade Klubnik comes in and makes a couple of plays, scores 17 points, everybody goes rah-rah and everybody loves it because guess what, everybody loves the backup quarterback, particularly when he’s a highly touted true freshman coming into a season where the incumbent didn’t play well last year.”

Luginbill continued, giving his take on the Tigers’ quarterback situation going forward and whether he thinks Uiagalelei has a short leash as the starter.

“Yeah, I do (think there’s a short leash) to some degree,” he said. “But I also think there’s enough equity in the 2022 season that DJ Uiagalelei has generated to allow him to try and course correct, allow him to get back on track. Now, does that mean you go a couple of series for a quarter and you screw it up and now all of a sudden we’re going to yank you right out of there? I don’t know. I think that remains to be seen. I think a lot of that’s going to be based off a feel on the sideline.

“But number one, Dabo did the right thing. DJ acknowledged it, which was extremely mature. He said all of the right things postgame, I loved that about him. And Cade Klubnik still hasn’t played a lot of football. Yes, he gave them a spark, but he hasn’t played a lot of football. Maybe he’ll end up being the guy. Maybe he won’t.”

Despite throwing two interceptions against Syracuse and also losing a fumble that was returned 90 yards for a touchdown, Uiagalelei has only been intercepted four total times in eight games this season while throwing for 17 touchdowns and completing 64.1 percent of his passes for 1,803 yards.

Klubnik, who went 2-of-4 passing for 19 yards against Syracuse, has completed 9 of his 19 passes for 85 yards and a touchdown across five games this season.

Dear Old Clemson is excited to announce a limited edition football and poster signed by Clemson’s Avengers.

ESPN analyst discusses Shipley and Clemson’s ‘fierce’ defensive front

On ESPN’s College Football Live this week, ESPN analyst Tom Luginbill talked about Clemson’s defense/special teams heading into the upcoming season. If Luginbill could choose any combination of defense and special teams to have, he said he would …

On ESPN’s College Football Live this week, ESPN analyst Tom Luginbill talked about Clemson’s defense/special teams heading into the upcoming season.

If Luginbill could choose any combination of defense and special teams to have, he said he would take the Tigers’ combo in those phases of the game.

“I think they’ve got the deepest, most fierce two-deep in the front four of any defense in college football, at least heading into the season,” Luginbill said. “And then you take a look at their running back, who’s on the verge of maybe breaking out as a premier player in Will Shipley, and he’s a top return man returning as a top performer in the return game. So, if he stays healthy and that defense stays intact, I like that combination of kicking game and defense for Clemson. Oh, by the way, the placekicker’s back at Clemson as well.”

The kicker Luginbill alluded to is of course B.T. Potter, who enters 2022 with a 53-of-71 career mark on field goals and a 185-of-186 mark on PATs in 55 career games (40 starts), while also entering 2022 averaging 64.26 yards on 368 career kickoffs with 280 touchbacks.

Clemson is coming off a 2021 campaign in which its defense ranked second nationally behind only defending national champion Georgia in points per game allowed (14.8) and eighth nationally in total defense (305.5 yards per game allowed).

Although defensive end Xavier Thomas is expected to miss four to six weeks with a foot injury suffered in last Saturday’s scrimmage, the Tigers still boast an ultra deep and talented defensive line with the likes of Myles Murphy, K.J. Henry, Justin Mascoll, Bryan Bresee and Tyler Davis among numerous others.

Clemson ranked 15th nationally last season in average kickoff return yards (24.86), with Shipley averaging 27.1 yards on 14 kickoff returns.

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ESPN analyst: ‘The sky is not falling in Clemson’

Many other college football programs would gladly take what was perceived as a “down” year for Clemson in 2021. But for the Tigers, their uncharacteristic season was considered a disappointment because the standards are so high for Dabo Swinney’s …

Many other college football programs would gladly take what was perceived as a “down” year for Clemson in 2021.

But for the Tigers, their uncharacteristic season was considered a disappointment because the standards are so high for Dabo Swinney’s program that had won six straight ACC Championships and been to the College Football Playoff six years in a row until both of those streaks were snapped last season.

At the 2022 ACC Football Kickoff in Charlotte, Swinney spoke about last season’s struggles for his team that lost two of four games in the month of September and three of its first seven games before concluding the campaign with six consecutive wins to finish 10-3 and reach at least 10 wins for the 11th straight season.

“Adversity and disappointment is good for everyone, and you usually find out what you’re made of,” Swinney said. “Adversity either grinds you up or shines you up, and it truly depends on what you’re made of. And that team was sitting there 4-3 last year, and man, a lot of challenges, a lot of injuries, and we played our best football with our least personnel down the stretch and won six in a row and finished 10-3. We’re not going to win the championship every year. We went to six playoffs in a row, we didn’t make it to seven in a row. But if we can continue to be a consistent program year in and year out, then we’ll continue to have those special seasons.”

Looking ahead to the upcoming season, ESPN analyst Tom Luginbill was asked during a recent episode of College Football Live what his sense is regarding whether Clemson will be able to bounce back in 2022.

“That they didn’t crumble when they were 4-3 a year ago, because keep in mind – everybody in that locker room, everybody in that building, everybody in that community over the last decade has never experienced failure,” Luginbill said. “They’ve never experienced adversity, they’ve been constantly patted on the back. College Football Playoff appearances, national championships, ACC Championships, and that team grinded and they galvanized. And listen, was it perfect? No. They had injuries, they had youth, they were ineffective in the offensive line and quite honestly, they were ineffective at quarterback. But they were elite on defense a year ago, were able to win six straight games, including the bowl game, to get to 10 wins. So, the sky is not falling in Clemson.”

Luginbill went on to say he sees Clemson being in the hunt to make the College Football Playoff once again – if…

“The question’s going to be – we know they’re going to be good on defense, they’re going to be much improved in the offensive line, and those young players that played on the perimeter, including (running back) Will Shipley, if he can stay healthy, some of those wide receivers, they’re going to be talented – can the quarterback make the plays, whether that’s D.J. Uiagalelei, whether that is the freshman Cade Klubnik?” Luginbill said.

“The difference between D.J. last year and what they had with Trevor Lawrence and Deshaun Watson is a lack of accuracy. He was not an innately accurate passer, and that wasn’t all his fault. But at the end of the day, they’ve got to get their explosive plays back on offense, they’ve got to be consistently accurate and make the routine plays that are there to be made in the passing game. If they do that, Clemson is a College Football Playoff contender.”

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ESPN analyst weighs in on ‘the big, looming question’ with Clemson

Filling in for Wes Durham to co-host the Packer and Durham show with Mark Packer last week, ESPN analyst Tom Luginbill talked about the big question mark for the Clemson football team entering the 2022 season. “The big, looming question that …

Filling in for Wes Durham to co-host the Packer and Durham show with Mark Packer last week, ESPN analyst Tom Luginbill talked about the big question mark for the Clemson football team entering the 2022 season.

“The big, looming question that everybody asks is what’s going to be the answer at quarterback?” Luginbill said. “At the end of the day, all of the other pieces of the puzzle are in place. I mean, Will Shipley’s got to stay healthy. They’ve got to be able to keep the same three, four wideouts on the field consistently so that you generate some consistency from quarterback to targets. But I think defensively, they’re going to be loaded. But the question is going to be that guy right there, Cade Klubnik, the true freshman.”

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney made it clear that D.J. Uiagalelei was still the starter exiting the spring, but Klubnik is certainly pushing Uiagalelei after performing well in his first 15 practices as a Tiger this spring.

Regardless of how Clemson’s quarterback competition plays out and which signal-caller the Tigers turn to this season, Luginbill believes throwing accuracy at that position will be key to getting the Tigers’ offense back to the explosiveness it lacked last season.

“I don’t care how tall anybody is, I don’t care how big you are, I don’t care how strong your arm is, I don’t care how good of an athlete you are — in Clemson’s particular case, I care about where the ball goes,” Luginbill said. “Where does the ball go? Clemson last year had one of their lowest average yards per pass attempt of any team that Clemson has had. Average yards per pass attempt is a direct reflection of explosive plays, lack thereof in this case.

“So, they’ve somehow got to become more consistently, sustainably accurate with the football and be able to get that intermediate to vertical passing game back where they get those explosive plays.”

Dear Old Clemson’s first event is July 24. Now there is a new way to support Clemson student athletes. Come out and meet the freshmen football players at this meet and greet autograph session. If you sign up for certain club levels you get free access to all Dear Old Clemson events. Purchase your tickets today at Dear Old Clemson.

ESPN analyst explains why he thinks last season was Swinney’s ‘best coaching job’

For the first time in seven years, Clemson didn’t make it to the College Football Playoff last season. The Tigers didn’t vie for their third national title during Dabo Swinney’s tenure, and their streak of consecutive ACC Championships was snapped …

Despite all that, an ESPN analyst believes the 2021 season was a display of the best coaching job Swinney and Clemson’s staff have done since Swinney first took the reigns of the program as the Tigers’ head coach more than a decade ago.

“For me, I think it was the best coaching job that Dabo Swinney and his coaching staff have done since he’s been at Clemson, to right that ship, to not allow things to go in the tank, not allow things to snowball downhill,” ESPN analyst Tom Luginbill said on the Packer and Durham show last week.

A year ago, Swinney’s team suffered two losses before the month of October for the first time since 2014 before bouncing back to win eight of its final nine games, including the final six, to finish the season with a 10-3 record (6-2 mark in ACC play) and extend their run of consecutive seasons with 10 or more wins to a school-record 11.

When the Tigers capped the 2021 season by beating Iowa State, 20-13, in the Cheez-It Bowl to earn their 10th win, Clemson became only the third program in history ever to post 11 consecutive 10-win seasons, joining Florida State (14 from 1987-2000) and Alabama (14 from 2008-21).

Clemson now has 18 seasons of 10 or more wins in school history, with 11 coming under Swinney, who helped the Tigers stay afloat during a season last year in which they endured inconsistent quarterback play, battled a slew of injuries and faced plenty of adversity.

“I look at Clemson, because Clemson a year ago took so much public heat because for the first time in a long time, things weren’t going well,” Luginbill said. “The quarterback was going down a path that was not good — wasn’t accurate, couldn’t get the ball downfield. And then you have opt-outs, you have injuries, and they start off and for the first time in gosh, I don’t know how long, they actually had to face some adversity and some criticism.

“When you’re going through that and you’ve had such a run where you haven’t had a lot of that – you haven’t had a lot of criticism, internally and externally, you haven’t had a lot of injuries, you haven’t had things that can seep into your locker room and your building as a negative – when you experience that and you haven’t, what’s the first thing that a lot of people do? They would fold. They would cower, they’d find a way to make excuses, because they don’t know how to respond to it. This team did the exact opposite.”

Luginbill compared Clemson’s season last year to NC State’s campaign in 2019 and believes what the Tigers went through in 2021 from an injury and depth standpoint will only benefit them this coming season.

“It would have been three years ago, the season prior to the COVID year when they had all of those injuries,” Luginbill said of NC State. “And the next thing you know, all those guys that had to play that shouldn’t have, and all of the depth that was established. You look at that now, and that’s why NC State is being thought of the way they’re being thought of.

“Well, the exact same thing happened to Clemson a year ago. Clemson had, especially on offense, ended up playing with a bunch of guys they weren’t anticipating playing with. Now, it might not have been ideal at the time. By the time you got to the end of the year and now you’ve got an offseason, Clemson knows a lot more about their football team and their roster and what they have. Because of that, that’s going to help them I think transfer that over into this fall.”

Packer reflects on Clemson’s ‘absolute butt kicking’ of Bama, calls out ‘SEC talking heads’

On the Packer and Durham show on ACC Network this past week, Mark Packer and ESPN analyst Tom Luginbill, who was filling in for Wes Durham to co-host the show with Packer, discussed the topic of what the most dominant season in Clemson football …

On the Packer and Durham show on ACC Network this past week, Mark Packer and ESPN analyst Tom Luginbill, who was filling in for Wes Durham to co-host the show with Packer, discussed the topic of what the most dominant season in Clemson football history is.

Packer and Luginbill agreed that it’s unquestionably the 2018 season during which the Tigers ran the table and finished the season with a perfect 15-0 record to become the first major college football team in the modern era to go 15-0.

That Tiger squad, of course, capped the 2018 campaign by throttling Alabama, 44-16, to win the College Football Playoff National Championship on Jan. 7, 2019, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.

Trevor Lawrence went 20 of 32 passing for 347 yards and three touchdowns in that contest, which really wasn’t a contest considering the outcome. Justyn Ross racked up 153 yards and a touchdown on six catches, while Travis Etienne also added a couple of scores on the ground and tallied 86 yards on 14 carries.

Clemson’s defense held Alabama’s offense, which had averaged nearly 48 points per game coming in, to just 16 first-half points.

Here’s what Packer and Luginbill had to say about that game against Alabama and the most dominant season in Clemson football history:

Packer: “You have to just go back a couple years, right — 2018, 15-0, going to play Alabama. I still remember all the SEC talking heads that are still upset to this day. ‘Oh, Alabama’s going to beat them sideways, Trevor Lawrence has never seen a defense like this.’ OK, that’s cute. How about them taking a knee to make sure they didn’t put a half a hundred on Nick Saban that night. That was an absolute butt kicking. What a great team.”

Luginbill: “You could make an argument that team is comparable, I think, to the 2019 LSU team.”

Packer: “I think we had a run here — Clemson in ’18, LSU in ’19, I think Georgia’s team last year was special, Alabama the year before during the COVID year. We really had kind of a crazy run here over the last four or five years where you’ve just seen teams for the ages, right, for the ages. That LSU team in ’19, which beat, ironically, Clemson in the national championship game, what they were doing offensively — did to everyone that year — was spectacular. But it really kind of started with the ’18 Clemson team, in my opinion.”

Luginbill: “I agree. I don’t even think that’s a debate.”