The Clemson Dubcast

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.

 

 

 

 

Tyler Venables

In 2012, Tyler Venables and his brother Jake moved to a strange and different new world when they left Norman for Clemson upon their father becoming the Tigers' defensive coordinator.

A decade later, Tyler's sisters are going through the exact same experience in Norman after leaving the place they knew as home when Brent Venables went back to Oklahoma to be head coach.

Tyler, a junior safety for Clemson, reflects on the devastating 24-hour period in 2011 that ended up playing a major role in Brent leaving his comfort zone in Norman and doing something completely new and different with Dabo Swinney.

Tyler was only 10 at the time when Oklahoma linebacker Austin Box and Brent's brother Kirk died within a day of each other. He was too young to grasp the magnitude of it in the moment, but as an adult he still has trouble holding it together as he reflects on that immensely difficult period for his father and the family.

After Brent left for Oklahoma last December, Tyler surprised everyone and maybe even himself when he opted to remain at Clemson. He stayed because of his love for Swinney and his attachment to the holistic culture he has built over the years.

When Brent turned down the Auburn job in 2020, Tyler thought that sealed his future.

"I thought at the time: 'He's going to retire as a defensive coordinator,'" he said.

A year later, Lincoln Riley shocked the college football world by leaving for Southern Cal. And soon thereafter, Tyler's father was presented with the opportunity of a lifetime.

 

 

Charlie Whitehurst

Charlie Whitehurst returns to the podcast to share what it was like joining Pat McAfee's live broadcast during the recent Clemson-Florida State game.

The highlight of the show for Whitehurst: A show staffer doing dead-on impersonations of Lou Holtz late in the broadcast.

Whitehurst gives his perspective on the current situation with DJ Uiagalelei, who was benched temporarily last week against Syracuse after committing three turnovers.

Whitehurst revisits the 2002 change at quarterback to him from Willie Simmons. He still gets emotional when he thinks about Simmons' graciousness and warmth even as he was being surpassed in a move that led to Simmons' transfer to The Citadel.

Whitehurst has plenty of hobbies in his post-football life. He and his father restore Porsche sports cars, and Charlie just recently returned from long hunting excursions to Utah and Texas. He lives in the Atlanta area.

 

 

Bill D’Andrea

Fourteen years ago, Billy D'Andrea was the man who went to fetch Dabo Swinney from the football offices after Terry Don Phillips and Tommy Bowden parted ways.

Swinney, then the receivers coach for Clemson, couldn't understand why he was being summoned to the AD's office.

"Did I do something wrong?" he asked D'Andrea. "How long is this going to take because we're busy getting ready for Georgia Tech."

Swinney's world was rocked a few minutes later when he was told not just that his head coach was out, but that Phillips had chosen him as the interim coach.

"Who? Me? Really?" was Swinney's response as he looked at D'Andrea and then back at Phillips.

D'Andrea, who was Phillips' right-hand man during the most important juncture in Clemson football history, looks back at a time when most everyone outside of Clemson was questioning the hire at best, and mocking it at worst.

D'Andrea lives in the Clemson area and serves as a municipal judge. He also is a beekeeper, having learned the craft from the wife of former AD Dan Radakovich.

 

 

 

Mickey Plyler

Longtime Upstate radio host Mickey Plyler joins the podcast to talk about the furor he caused on his show when he poked fun at the Beastie Boys.

The discussion then moves to the calamitous situation unfolding at Oklahoma with Brent Venables' team looking back at three consecutive weeks of performances ranging from inconsistent to downright brutally bad.

What does this mean for not just Venables but the cluster of assistants and support personnel who left the idyllic situation at Clemson to join him when he replaced Lincoln Riley?

Where does Clemson stand in the hierarchy of elite teams at or near the top?

Should Clemson fans be nervous about Saturday's trip to Tallahassee against a team that looks much more formidable than in 2018 when the Tigers went to Doak Campbell and burned down the place?

We also explore why people are so confrontational and indecent now when they communicate with their fingers, instead of having respectful and maybe even enlightening disagreements.