Defending Billy Napier

I'm going to swim against the current a bit here and try to explain why I don't think Billy Napier should be thrown to the wolves. That's not a particularly bold defense, I know, but this also isn't a contrarian post for the sake of being contrarian. (As an aside, I can't stand those kinds of posts, don't make a case unless you're being sincere.)

Let me start with the irrational stuff that I can't defend with numbers but more with the experience bought with each soul-crushing Clemson loss I endure. I like having the youngest offensive coordinator in the ACC. I like walking up to a fan from another team and saying, "Our offensive attack just torched your team and, oh by the way, our offensive coordinator is 30 years old." I like that Clemson and Swinney have the guts to hire a 30 year old in a league dominated by experience-laden coordinators. There's something brash and brassy about that, and it contributes just a hint to the swagger in my Clemson fandom. I largely like how Napier carries himself with the media, there's less of the Bowden-esque tendency (too often shared by Swinney) to frame disappointments as resulting from events beyond his control, there's a measure of accountability in his words.

But it doesn't stop here, there are actual areas of his job performance that I like, too. He has demonstrated, not always but reasonably often, the ability to identify weaknesses in an opposing team and develop a concerted plan of attack at the start of the game to exploit those weaknesses. It isn't always spectacularly successful, but it can put points on the board. He also seems capable of stockpiling a pool of plays often consisting of slight tweaks to existing designs that he judiciously and sometimes appropriately sprinkles into his play calling. On occasion, he strings together series of plays in-game that in retrospect seem inspired.

There are of course counter-arguments, good counter-arguments, to the above (for example, given a playbook and an infinite number of offensive series a moderately trained monkey will seem inspired over the course of 6-7 plays at least once or twice) and then there are counters to the counter-arguments (for example, there is still some question over how often Dabo overrides Napier during the course of a game). But these belabor the real point: Napier has shortcomings. In my mind, they are as follows: 1) while he has designed some reasonably effective plays, it doesn't balance the shit variants he also develops and employs in a game. He needs an playcall editor to blow up his more ridiculous notions, preferably this would involve a cannon of some kind. 2) He falls in love with the passing game far too often. 3) Finally, and this is the most problematic, he cannot identify quickly enough, and thus cannot counter the adjustments made by opposing defenses.

The third point above can be overcome with years of experience, but forgiveness for this defect is not granted in BCS-caliber conferences. Therein lies the conundrum, while I think Billy Napier has a future coordinating offenses in the NCAA, he is not a boy-genius that can think circles around men twice his age. He requires what 99% of all coordinators require: experience forged in the leagues at the fringes of the BCS or during dedicated study at the feet of a master playcaller. Laugh at the imagery, but this is still very much a "trade" in the classical sense.

Billy Napier is not a fool and I am not a fool. If this season goes south quickly, and with a looming loss at UNC on Saturday this could happen much sooner than I'd like to entertain, someone will take a fall. Maybe its Swinney, but more probably Swinney is forced into deciding who takes the fall. And Napier is the fall guy Swinney built into his agreement to take the reins, the guy who was set up the second the university "busted the budget" (note the quotations, they didn't really bust the budget) to sign Kevin Steele. Napier will in all likelihood be vanquished to the fringes. In that event I sincerely hope is he finds his experience, and he takes Jeff Scott with him.

Dennis Dodd's 2009 Fail, Miami a Must Win??

This video was from last year when Miami was the best 1 loss team in the nation and on their way to a BCS bowl game according to a ton of pundits. No one gave Clemson a chance, especially an ill informed Dennis Dodd, and we won. No one gave us a chance against Auburn last week either and we should have won that game, now we are underdogs again--at home. A lot of people have really good previews up, so I won't waste your time with that. All I am going to say right now is that this is the game that will frame our season.

Last year we ended Miami's season with out win. We kept them out of the ACC championship game. A win tomorrow puts us in the drivers seat for a return to the Championship game. Miami is our toughest Coastal game and hopefully most of the suspensions hold up against UNC when we play them. A depleted GT team we get at home. I am convinced that winning the ACC Atlantic will come down to how teams fare against Coastal division foes. So lets take a look.

Florida State is still our main competition. But they are looking weaker after BYU just got spanked by Utah State! FSU beat up on Wake and Samford so have they really been tested yet? Oklahoma is a good team but struggled with Air Force so its hard to get a good read on FSU. They play at Virginia this week and at Miami next week. If we can beat Miami, it will be even harder to beat Miami when they finally return home. Lastly they have UNC in early November which might mean UNC has more players returning. They won't run away with it but might go 6-2 or 5-3.

Wake has been awful and if Maryland is competing for the title then everyone will be 4-4 so I am not afraid of them. NC State is now the darkhorse (I've always thought it was a 2 team race with us and FSU) and an interesting team we need to watch out for. I'm still not convinced but they beat GT at GT and tomorrow play VTech. If they beat Tech and we lose to Miami then I would have to put them as the frontrunner's. Could it be that all O'Brien needed was a healthy Nate Irving(who has looked pretty darn good) and a few healthy players to make a run. They also play at UNC late in the year and we get them at home, although they have a Thursday night game against FSU and the long weekend to prepare for us. Wilson is a good QB but I am not sold yet.

I laughed when I saw some ESPN peeps putting BC as a possible Atlantic division winner. I will cheer for them against Notre Dame but its been obvious to anyone paying attention that the overall talent level has diminished at BC every year since Spaz took over. Great guy I'm sure and not a bad defensive coach but without a QB and any dangerous skill players its a tall order. The defense is still stout but they already lost to VTech. What BC has going for them is the easiest Coastal schedule with Duke and Virginia but I don't see them above .500 in conference play.

The other reason we need to beat Miami is for recruiting. Sammy Watkins is the number one receiver in the state of Florida and is down to us and Miami. That is reason enough. Even Jeff Scott couldn't inadequately develop his talent (sorry, low blow). To jump into that upper echelon of recruiting where we pull in Rome, Shell, one stud LB, even Clowney (who will be there for the game), we need a marquee win like this every year. Going into the Plains was respectable but you need to beat Florida teams to steal the CJ Spiller's and hopefully Mike Bellamy's of the world on a consistent enough basis to win championship's plural.

Also with all the big matchups this week a win against Miami places us firmly in the top 25, if not top 20. Without it, it will be a long road to being ranked this season. Lastly it would be a nice self esteem boost to all Clemson fans who think we can still win the national championship this year to be able to say that we have beat the Canes two times in a row and no one likes to get beat on your Homecoming date.

Come on Tigers--help keep the families and fathers of the upstate functional this weekend.

A New Recruiting Anthem for Jeff Scott

There is nothing better for recruiting than having 2 of our newest members, Martin Jenkins and Darius Robinson, create a rap song about how much they love their school. This should be sent to all possible recruits. 21,000 viewings isn't shabby either. The season is finally coming. I don't think I can stand another puffy spring piece. Yeah we 'all in', ballin' or something to that effect...Go Tigers! (Oh and Haha!(Nelson voice) to UNC--thats what you get)(Oh and 11 walk-ons, I know Dabo you love the underdog and all but come on...)(Oh and we suck as bloggers but if anyone still reads this we will be posting again regularly now that the season is here)

Recruiting Update: Jeff Scott is Flailing

Well take all of my earlier optimism about recruiting and dump it in the trash. I thought we would have Gibson and Garcia, and then you add to that a LB and possible RB--you got a good class. Is Dan Brooks the only guy who can recruit?

Garcia is going to Maryland?? For a stupid journalism school? I have a Masters from USC's (the real one) Annenberg school for Communication and Journalism--they are the same thing...line the whole Commun faculty up around the block and undergrad degree in journalism compared to comm is pure semantics. Clemson actually has a good new media/interactive media program--this is a failure, the coaches misread this and didnt sell those top 20 academics (the ones that keep out all the good recruits) enough. How is UNC able to recruit lower scoring athletes than us is beyond me...staggering.

Shaking has a better take on this than me, so go read their post here. I too am upset that we didnt even offer the JUCO but that better mean we have a LB nailed down, like silent commit style. How can Steele be ok with this when LB is obviously the gaping hole in the D? One LB recruit wont cut it...I think Jeff Scott is a much weaker recruiting coordinator than Napier was. Its true that this year was going to be tough with Byrnes and other recruits but I'm not happy with what needed to be a bigger year. If JK Jay cant come back from injury to give some depth next year, and if Cloy doesnt return to form, bringing in only 2 lineman last year and in 2005?? looks really stupid. At least DeAndre Hopkins looks awesome--I am hoping he and Bryant can come in and contribute with Bryce McNeal--flush out or at least challenge the Marquan Jones and Brandon Clears who cant catch balls, run routes, or create seperation.

Yeah and BBall recruiting isnt looking much better...thankfully this years class is good enough to let Purnell sit on his hands for a couple years at least. Come on Dabo!!! Where is the closing spirit--get Jeff Scott to call up that list of all top one hundred recruits. Jeff Scott dont become your father...

Got to love Recruiting

So here is where Dabo and company prove their metal. I always thought one of the major bonuses about hiring Dabo was that he was going to be a solid recruiter. If you can recruit then at least you have the talent to compete every year. I thought we did an adequate job salvaging the recruits last season but nothing spectacular. But after a year in place, I want to see some home runs this year.

Dabo has a staff that has a proven track record of recruiting talent. Napier was an excellent recruiting coordinator. Fat Brad for all his flaws does have good connections in-state but I'm not sure how important that really is in modern college football. Its important but not paramount. His son is the recruiting coordinator and so far I have not been particularly impressed.

We have failed on a lot of in-state backyard talent this year and that never sits well with me. Byrnes has been a disaster and we are paying for screwing up Lattimore's recruitment. Somebody made somebody angry, blah blah blah. We lost Miller, Willis, and Lattimore. So Davis needs to prove himself to me somewhat and land some big fish. Steele, Brooks, and Harbison are all solid if not special recruiters who take the job seriously so I am expecting big things. I am interested to see how Pearman does, he is in charge of recruiting some O-Line talent we desperately need.

Right now it seems like we are going to hold on to our 18 commits so far which is very good news. We have battled back against Georgia to secure Crawford and Beasley which is big. Darius Robinson is still flirting with Auburn but we should be able to hold out. This is good news because in recent years we have been subject to a great deal of poaching from other teams.

South Carolina is putting together another solid class unfortunately. We really want Mack to go somewhere else and Quarles almost jumped ship. If Lattimore goes somewhere else then I'm not too worried. Still cant believe we lost Gilmore and Holloman last year.

Our big battles now are with stealing Max Garcia away from Maryland despite a better journalism school?? Max--journalism is dead...come to Clemson. Also the battle for Justin Parker continues to rage, we led but not so much anymore...We need a big time LB and I dont want to wait another year. We have a shot with RB White and maybe Ethan Farmer (cross your fingers). Im hoping Dabo can be an insane closer for us and we can turn in a stellar class to get some momentum back in the program.

If not I think we need some hostesses. This is scary but really pure genius. Employing girls to shadow players on facebook, texting, go to some games and then leave them high and dry after they commit. Thats a UT Wild boy for yah...