The Clemson Dubcast

Fred Cunningham

Fred Cunningham is an Upstate TV news institution who's been working in South Carolina since 1984, when he left his home state of Indiana and entered a whole new world.

His first indoctrination into big-time college football was in Athens when Clemson visited Georgia for a major matchup in 1984. Kevin Butler won the game on a 60-yard field goal, and Cunningham walked away mesmerized by the experience.

"I called some friends back home and said: This isn't the Big Ten down here," he said.

Cunningham spent the better part of two decades covering sports before deciding to move to the more structured environment of news anchor.

His morning show begins at 4:30 AM, and his alarm goes off at 1:40.

"I go to bed at 7 PM," he said. "I probably should go to bed earlier."

Fred is a two-time winner of the Associated Press Best Sportscast award in South Carolina. In addition to his news duties, Fred has hosted the Miss South Carolina Pageant.

Fred also shot a scene – portraying a sports reporter – opposite actor Will Ferrell for the movie Talladega Nights.

The Indiana University graduate served as a sports reporter for WOLO-TV in Columbia until April of 1987.

Before moving to the anchor desk, Fred spent 15 years as the weekend sports anchor for 7NEWS. He covered Clemson University and University of South Carolina athletics as well as NASCAR racing, the Masters and Heritage golf tournaments, the Carolina Panthers, three Super Bowls, and the rise of the Atlanta Braves into one of baseball’s most successful franchises.

In his spare time, Fred loves playing golf, running, all while suffering the endless frustration of being a Chicago Cubs and Indiana Pacers fan. 

 

 

 

Mickey Plyler

 

Mickey Plyler visits the podcast to try to make some sense of the current college football world from bowl opt-outs, to the transfer portal, to NIL, and to Clemson's dispiriting performance in the Orange Bowl against Tennessee.

What to make of six losses for Clemson the past two years? Does it signal a significant decline worthy of Dabo Swinney making some changes, or are the Tigers on the way back with Cade Klubnik showing real promise in the last two games of 2022?

Four years ago it seemed like a Clemson-Alabama world, and entering the 2019 season there was seemingly legitimate talk of the Tigers going 45-0 with Trevor Lawrence after the freshman tore apart the 2018 CFP.

Since then there have been new arrivals to the party -- LSU, Ohio State, Georgia, Michigan, TCU -- and the Tigers and Crimson Tide found themselves on the outside looking in this season.

Plyler has spent the week fielding calls and texts on his radio show saying that the party is over for Clemson, and that Swinney needs to change his ways. What's a fair criticism? What's an unfair criticism? We try to sort it out in this postseason conversation with the WCCP-FM host.

 

 

 

 

Dubcast Rewind: Wayne ”Cheech” Coffman

We revisit this interview from November of 2018 with Clemson Hall of Fame member Wayne Coffman, an icon in athletics and academic support.

Coffman talks his relationship with Dabo Swinney, the pressures of being an academic adviser for a high-profile sport, growing up in a household of 13 children, and how in the world he got the nickname "Cheech."

Both of Coffman's parents passed away by the time he was age 18, and no one in his family had completed any education beyond high school.

At Clemson, Coffman became not only a college graduate and Atlantic Coast Conference champion in cross country, but he also went on to earn a master’s degree from the school in education counseling.

Coffman became head coach of the Clemson's women’s track and field program at age 27 and went on to coach for the next 12 years, leading the team to the first ever ACC women’s track and field and women’s cross country championships. He was a five-time ACC Coach of the Year.

Dubcast Rewind: Behind the scenes with Cade Klubnik

In December of 2021, Tigerillustrated.com reported an in-depth series of articles on freshman quarterback Cade Klubnik as he prepared to arrive at Clemson from his home in Austin, Texas.

In this podcast, we revisit the lengthy interviews we conducted then with Klubnik's mother Kim, his pastor Brad Thomas (a Clemson grad) and Klubnik himself.

Klubnik has become a sensation again after replacing DJ Uiagalelei early in the ACC championship game and breathing life into not just the quarterback position but the entire team.

Klubnik leads Clemson into its Orange Bowl clash with Tennessee on Dec. 30.

 

 

Pete Iacobelli

Pete Iacobelli, an institution in South Carolina sports journalism after having spent three decades working for the Associated Press, joins the podcast to reminisce about all the people and stories he's covered.

Iacobelli also weighs in on the more memorable public spats between coaches and media, including this week's dust-up between Shane Beamer and Post and Courier columnist Gene Sapakoff.

Iacobelli had his own private conflict with Dabo Swinney three years ago, but he said that episode didn't affect his overall relationship with Clemson's legendary coach.

Iacobelli also delves into his process, an often stressful one given tight deadlines immediately after games are complete.

He remembers having his story basically written in 2004 when Clemson had removed all doubt in a blowout win over South Carolina. But then he looked up and saw a brawl unfolding in the final minutes, and the infamous episode caused some on-the-fly adjusting as Iacobelli tried to ascertain exactly what happened.

 

Will Swinney

Will Swinney, oldest son of Dabo Swinney, joins the podcast to reflect on life in the real world as he works for a Charlotte-based real-estate development company.

This past football season was a strange experience for him as he tried to figure out how to watch games as a spectator.

"I realized how little I knew about getting around Memorial Stadium," he said. "I didn't even really know what to wear for games because I was so used to that being decided for me as a player."

Swinney recalls when the Rocky theme was so prominent for the 2018 team that Dabo Swinney brought his own DVD of Rocky 3 to show the team the night before it played Alabama in the national championship.

As the team departed the locker room for kickoff, Dabo saw to it that strains of "Eye of the Tiger" blared through the room.

Will also gives his thoughts on the recent transition at quarterback from DJ Uiagalelei to Cade Klubnik, and what he thinks Klubnik will bring to the offense moving forward.

 

 

Jacoby Ford

When Jacoby Ford was trying to get back into the NFL, Dabo Swinney wrote personal letters on his behalf to the general managers of every league team.

Ford remains close with Swinney and Clemson's football program. In October the former football and track star was inducted into the school's athletics Hall of Fame.

Ford, now coaching at his old high school in South Florida, has many thoughts about the current state of Clemson football.

With the playoff now off the table, he thinks the offensive staff should play both DJ Uiagalelei and Cade Klubnik.

With so few playmakers on the outside, he thinks the staff should do a better job of finding receiver prospects in the state of Florida.

Ford maintains that Clemson football is going to be just fine in the future, that the Dabo dynasty is not over as some claim. But in the short term, he does question some of the decisions made in last week's loss to South Carolina.

"Will Shipley and Phil Mafah are our best players," he said. "We need to feed them the ball."

Ford, who played at Clemson from 2006 to 2009 and spent four seasons in the NFL, said he doesn't have much interest in coaching at the college level. He said he would return to Clemson to help the Tigers' recruiting operation if that opportunity came about.

 

 

 

 

Nolan Turner

Nolan Turner, back in Clemson last week during Tampa Bay's open date, was able to take part in the Tigers' tailgating experience for the first time as he went to the Miami game as a fan with James Skalski and others.

Turner sits down for an extended interview to talk his remarkable life story, the impact and legacy of his late father Kevin, and what it's been like sharing a locker room with Tom Brady.

Turner said Brady has an aura that's similar to that of Deshaun Watson back in the summer of 2016 when Turner arrived at Clemson and was star-struck looking around the locker room at Watson and others who had pushed Alabama to the limit in the previous season's national championship game.

During this year's preseason practice in Tampa, Turner was on the field with backups going through the normal routine when he looked up and saw No. 12 behind center.

Turner's reaction: "Oh s---. That's Tom Brady."

Not long thereafter, Turner intercepted Brady.

His reaction: "Oh s---. I just intercepted Tom Brady."

 

 

 

Matt Baker and Eli Lederman

We check in with two writers in Tampa and Norman to get a sense of what things are like in the wake of Jeff Scott's firing, and in the midst of Oklahoma tumbling to a 5-5 record in Year 1 under Brent Venables.

Matt Baker covers South Florida for the Tampa Times. Eli Lederman covers Oklahoma for The Tulsa World.

Baker reflects on what sealed the fate of Scott, who came close to a win at Florida earlier this season.

Lederman shares what some of the complaints have been of Venables during the struggles, and answers whether Venables might have to make changes to his staff -- particularly the defensive side, which has struggled mightily with several former Clemson staffers (Ted Roof, Todd Bates, Miguel Chavis) running the show.

 

 

 

 

David Hale

David Hale of ESPN.com rejoins the podcast to discuss the state of college football, and the rather seismic development of both Clemson and Alabama looking as if they'll both be outside of the CFP for the first time in the format's existence.

Should Clemson fans be panicking after the humiliation in South Bend? Has complacency creeped into the programs in Tuscaloosa and Upstate South Carolina? Is Georgia indeed the new Alabama?

Hale also gives his take on how Dabo Swinney has handled not just the disappointment of this week, but the past year as he experienced the first major turnover on his staff since Clemson ascended to the elite level.