Buckling up

For those of us who consider college football the center of the universe, the official end of summer is August when preseason camp begins.

The unofficial end is, well, about right now.

Technically there's still some vacation left, thank goodness, but now's when the mind sort of shifts from cruise control to football overdrive.

Last night, for the second year in a row, Dabo Swinney and his wife Kathleen invited the media into their home for an informal dinner and chat.

Today, we'll be at Cross Creek Plantation for Dabo's annual media golf outing.

Next week, the ACC Football Kickoff media event takes place in Greensboro, N.C.

And off we go...

I have some opinions on the vastly overinflated importance of these "media days" at which very few actual newsworthy developments occur. Talking mainly about the SEC's event, but it's pretty much become a yawn-inducing dog-and-pony show everywhere.

Will delve more into those opinions later this week, but the inescapable fact is that college football is huge and people like to talk about it and these events give people a reason to talk about it more. Nothing really fundamentally wrong with that.

Specific to Clemson, there's usually always something interesting that comes from extended discussions with Swinney, Chad Morris and Brent Venables. So looking forward to getting that opportunity later today, in addition to rare chats with the other assistants.

We had the opportunity to sit down with Swinney for several hours last night at his house, and while the arrangement was classified as an off-the-record gathering there are a few pieces of insight Swinney shared that I don't think he'd mind being publicized:

-- He's extremely confident Tony Steward is going to play in 2012. Said Steward has been working out without a brace on his knee for a while now. Said he's come a long, long way mentally. Said he looks like an absolute monster.

-- He confirmed what I've been thinking for a while now, that this could be a big year for Charone Peake. He's supremely talented and was inhibited last season by indecision that came with his first year of processing everything mentally. Says he came a long, long way during the spring.

-- Said Sammy Watkins could've gone to the NFL straight out of high school and been just fine. Said Chansi Stuckey, an NFL veteran, would have been a backup at Clemson last year. Wow.

Last, and most definitely not least: It's been a rough few weeks for the Swinney household. Kathleen's sister has been struck with a recurrence of cancer and recently underwent surgery to remove a piece of her brain. Tough, tough deal. Please keep her and them in your thoughts and prayers.

LW