Fine piece of recent writing and reporting by Dennis Dodd, who traveled to the Redneck Riviera to do a piece on Jimbo Fisher and his traversing of the booster-club circuit.
This isn't your ordinary story that interviews boosters in between bites of rubber chicken. It's really the most definitive piece I've seen on the Fisher transition. Or maybe transformation is the better term.
A few things struck me while reading the piece:
-- Where are all the Bobby Bowden apologists now? For years, they defended the once-great coach as he presided over a program that gradually plunged into mediocrity under his watch. Looking at all the stuff Fisher is trying to correct and revitalize, it's abundantly clear the old man's asleep-at-the-wheel tendencies were not a good thing.
-- Nick Saban is the most influential coach in college football, and it isn't even close. Saban's method for building powerhouses -- a comprehensive effort whose tentacles stretch all the way into psychology and nutrition -- is being emulated by a growing number of coaches. And it goes beyond coaches who, like Fisher and Tennessee's Derek Dooley, have direct ties to Saban. Don't think for a minute that Dabo Swinney and his staff don't pay close attention to what's being done in Tuscaloosa.
-- Winning the Atlantic Division is going to be tougher for Clemson. The Tigers have dominated Florida State since 2003, winning five of seven meetings in a run of success that was unimaginable when the Seminoles owned the ACC. Florida State appeared in the inaugural ACC title game in 2005 but hasn't been back in the four years since with Wake Forest going in 2006, Boston College going in 2007 and 2008, and Clemson going last season. You have to think the 'Noles will make more regular appearances with Fisher running the show.
Some notable passages in Dodd's column:
Fisher has all the Saban key words and catch phrases for the crowd: "process-oriented," "character", "accountability", "dependability". Same as Alabama, FSU has hired the new-agey Pacific Institute to work on players' mental conditioning and character.
FSU has also hired sports psychologists and nutritionists while quadrupling the size of the strength and conditioning staff from two to eight. Some of the stuff is a given -- an emphasis on the academic side, especially given the NCAA/academic fraud scandal. Fisher says in the last two years of the 48 guys "I've had my fingerprints on," one is below a 2.0 GPA. The freshman class at the end of the first semester had a cumulative 3.06 GPA, he says.
"There is mandatory class attendance now," Fisher added.
Team meals will be separated between a fat man's table (those gaining weight), a maintain table and a skinny man's table. While it's certainly not a new idea, a unity council made up of players has been created to deal with team discipline. The IMG Sports Academy in Bradenton, Fla. is providing training support.
"The whole infrastructure of everything, we were behind," Fisher said.
And this:
The program was in a general malaise. It was either not recruiting well enough or not developing players when it did. Sometimes both.
There was a bit of internal turmoil, too, that never quite rose to public consumption. Whether he expected it or not, Fisher says he was not No. 2 in command when he became coach-in-waiting in December of 2007. At best he was No. 4 with three other staffers: "Associate head coach" (Mickey Andrews), "executive head coach" (Chuck Amato) and "assistant head coach" (Rick Trickett).
"When the coach-in-waiting thing comes, I think it is better if you are the No. 2, but that wasn't the case," Fisher said. "That's where people thought I had control of certain things but I never did. I had control over the offense."
Moving right along, this is probably the first time the blog has mentioned Clemson's swimming and diving teams. But an interesting situation is brewing in the wake of the administration's decision to phase out the programs (swimming and diving for men, and swimming for women).
According to Ed McGranahan of The Greenville News, a lot of folks are rallying in opposition to the decision.
Foster created a Facebook page over the weekend and by Monday afternoon there were more than 7,600 members. He also received messages and calls from a number of former Clemson swimmers plus several people from the swim community including coaches and students at other schools. The Facebook “Wall” included notes from people that identified themselves as current University of South Carolina swimmers and coaches at the University of Maryland and Duke University.
“My phone has been buzzing and ringing all day from alumni swimmers and other concerned people,” Foster said. “We are making an effort to save the women’s and men’s swim teams.
“We are willing to raise the money on our own assuming that if we get such a facility they will reinstate us.”
Here's my question about the decision: Why was it made and announced soon after high-schoolers had signed binding letters of intent with Clemson? Will these kids now have to spend a year here before transferring?
This was the headline yesterday in The State: "Holloway exits SEC for Clemson."
Today, not so much.
Murphy Holloway was watching ESPN on Monday when he saw an item on the scroll stating he was transferring from Mississippi to Clemson.
That caught the Irmo native by surprise.
Holloway is transferring, but his destination remains in the air as he awaits his release papers from Mississippi, which he had not seen as of late Monday evening.
"I don't know about these rumors, because I don't know about my release," Holloway said. "So I'm just taking it day by day really, waiting on the call, waiting on until I get the release. Something got out about Clemson; that's a rumor. I don't know where it came from."
In the ACC Sports Journal, Dave Glenn gives his insight into the whole expansion circus.
Almost everyone in the ACC prefers the status quo.
In terms of the ACC expanding, keep in mind that the only schools that would add more money to the pot than they would take away — e.g., Penn State or Florida — are unlikely to be interested in leaving their current leagues.
Meanwhile, the Big East and the Big 12 will be in much more delicate positions than the ACC if the Big Ten opts to expand to 14 or 16 schools. Why? The ACC remains the third-richest league among the major conferences, so the financial incentive to leave is not as large as it is for members of other leagues.
If the Big Ten expands to 16 and the SEC decides to do the same, many believe the SEC will come after Clemson, Florida State or other ACC schools. But at this point it’s extremely speculative to say which schools would be targets, and it’s also fair to say that Clemson and FSU — like every other ACC school — have many decision-makers who would prefer to remain ACC members.
At the World Wide Leader, Mark Schlabach gives his way-too-early Top 25 for 2010.
No Clemson in there. ACC teams are Virginia Tech (5), Florida State (16), Miami (19), North Carolina (21), and Georgia Tech (22).
And Heather Dinich gives her post-spring ACC power rankings, with Clemson coming in at No. 4.
Dinich thinks more of Clemson than does Schlabach, as evidenced by her putting the Tigers ahead of the Georgia Tech Johnsons.
In more earth-shattering post-spring news, Tom Dienhart of Rivals unveils his ... wait for it ... All-Spring Team.
Speaking of Jimbo, he likes the idea of moving the FSU-Florida game to the season opener.
This, of course, will provoke the question of whether Clemson-South Carolina should make a similar move. If you're a Clemson fan, you're answer should be Heck No. The current arrangement has worked kinda well.
LW
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