The similarities between Dabo and CTB are fairly striking
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Dabo sweeney is loaded with top 5 roster talent. We are just now catching up with 5 years of recruiting misses. Dont think so.
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They have the portal figured out
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We had a really good string of recruiting from Morsell onward. The talent just hasn’t panned out. You could say the same about Dabo. Dabo reached the heights of the sport and has since fallen into a bucket of “good but not great.” Same for CTB post national title. Dabo loudly rejects the portal. CTB literally has an athletic article doubling down on his approach
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Tony doesn’t reject the portal though. He’s embraced the change if you look at the numerous portal additions we have made. The talent we have had is NOWHERE NEAR what Dabo has at Clemson in football. The 2022 class just arrived and the early returns of Dunn and McKneely were solid/game changers when they were on the floor. The 2022, 2023, and 2024 classes are talent infusion we havent had in a while and once they get seasoned it’s going to be a different product from the last few years. There isn’t an uptrend happening with clemson, and the solution isn’t more talent which they already have.
Anyways this is the football thread
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I’m not going to derail this thread any further but I’m sorry the comparison is appropriate. Clemson may have had more talent than CTB relatively, but their results have also been better relatively
Dabo struck gold with Deshaun Watson which led to Trevor Lawrence which all led to multiple Natties. When, for a few years in between and after, Clem lacked a superstar QB, they have been fallen off. This year appears to be more of the same that we saw with DJ Uiagalelei.
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Replace Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence with Deandre Hunter and Malcolm Brogdon
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Comparing football to basketball gets a little murky. Dabo kind of missed on DJ Uiagalelei but not at the Casey Morsel, JAR, Traudt level. Uiagalelei looks like he may be okay up at Oregon St.
What Dabo failed to do was rebuild his defensive line that had about 9 All Americans zooming around. When Clemson was at their best that was stellar. From an offensive standpoint Clemson never had great skill outside of the QB position. Hunter Renfrow was not your stud WR. Travis Etienne was a special back.
There’s so many more moving parts on a football team that generally speaking 1 player will not make or break your squad even if it is at the Quarterback position.
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5 stars out of high school with kids we developed?
Watson = #3 dual threat qb out of HS
Lawrence was just straight up #1
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Broadly agree, but would just note I think there were a few years in there where they produced a couple great WRs. De’Andre Hopkins, Sammy Watkins, and Mike Williams are who I am thinking of.
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Agree, I’m painting in broad strokes here. There has been elite level talent that went through Death Valley. But even with that, they weren’t always considered the offensive juggernaut, it was Venables defense along with stellar QB play that they hung their hat on.
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Yea their QB recruiting was so strong that they had top 20 5stars riding the bench and transferring out. Even Uiagalelei was a 5star ranked No.2 I believe maybe No.1 at his position.
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Basically the only similarity between Tony and Dabo is that they both won the national title and then havent since their last national title.
- Tony has overembraced the portal. Dabo doesn’t use the portal
- Dabo has such an immense stockpile of talent Tony could never imagine having. Would be the equivalent of 13 top 40 guys on the roster.
- UVA basketball is finally hopefully after losing some veterans and regaining recruiting momentum. Clemson football is trending down bad and already have talent so there is no “recruiting momentum” to swing them back up
- also just the inherent differences of football and basketball in the sports themselves that make comparison difficult.
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Didnt Clemsons strength coach come with TE to Virginia football?
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I believe the assistant strength coach? Or maybe the actual one? I do vaguely remember that
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Both programs also were at their best when they had two lead guys. Both coaches have gone against the grain when it comes to major trends affecting the sport.
If you can find a better college football coach that is comparable to CTB be my guest. But you’re missing the forest from the trees
It was the Ast. Strength Coach. Clemson retained their normal one.
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Part of the problem at that level is ego. Case in point did anyone listen to Dabo’s on field interview before the game?
He was asked how much of an impact new offensive coordinator Garret Riley was going to make? He said we brought him in to run THE CLEMSON OFFENSE. Well Dabo that was an arrogant thing to say. Back in the day that offense with the talent he was bringing in they would have run for 350 yards and duke would have had about 25 carries for 30 yards.
Still have to get those Jimmy and Joes to run a bland offense like they have been running.
The game is leaving him behind.
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Big longer term concern from Clem is the TV revenue disparity vs. other top 10 programs in the SEC. It’s a very tough neighborhood to recruit in and if your geo coverage, staff, NIL, etc. face some restrictions vs. Bama, Jawja, UF, LSU, UT, Auburn … it will eventually show up on the field. Football revenue at Clem is truly lifeblood for the rest of the school. If they are gapped, it will eventually show up in other non-revenue programs and even in academics. Same thing is true for FSU, maybe even more so.
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