The Clemson Dubcast

Joe Giglio

What is Dave Doeren really like?

Is he as much of a jerk as Clemson fans like to think?

Joe Giglio has covered N.C. State since Doeren's arrival in late 2012 and says the coach hasn't been easy to get to know during his long tenure in Raleigh.

Giglio, formerly a longtime newspaper guy who is currently a radio talk-show host and contributor to WRAL TV, joined the podcast on the drive home from Clemson to talk about what Clemson's convincing victory meant for Doeren and the Wolfpack.

A passage from the column Giglio wrote from Death Valley late Saturday night:

While winning is in Clemson’s DNA, NC State’s double helix is laced with wasted shots and what-could-have-beens. Much of the ’21 State team, which finished 9-3 overall and 6-2 in the ACC, came back for one more crack at the elusive ACC crown.

The two main players that didn’t — All-American left tackle Ickey Ekwonu and receiver Emeka Emezie — are proving to be a huge void to fill.

Clemson’s defensive front, even without injured star Bryan Bresee, dominated the Wolfpack blockers on Saturday night.

“They won the line of scrimmage,” NC State coach Dave Doeren said. “Their D-line played really good.”

The Tigers also got a bounce here and made a break there. That’s what good teams do. Dabo Swinney’s coaching staff has changed but the concepts remain solid.

The basic premise — ride your stars, die with your fastball — remains as true as the ride down Route 76 into town is long and filled with radar guns.

 

Tye Hill

Tye Hill watched every bit of last week's double-overtime victory over Wake Forest.

He's a hardcore Clemson fan. And, as a former cornerback in college and in the NFL, he pays close attention to his old position.

Hill, who lives in the Atlanta area with his family, joins the podcast and goes deep on proper coverage technique.

He was as frustrated as any Clemson fan with all the penalties drawn and catches allowed, but he says he's optimistic about what the scorching trial by fire will mean to this group of corners moving forward.

Hill remembers his own trial by fire in 2003 when he moved to corner from running back and found himself covering a bunch of imposing, talented receivers every day in practice.

Hill explores how much offensive football has changed in the last decade-plus, and how much harder that makes it for defenses to adjust.

He also shares what he's up to these days, and how he satisfies the competitive urges that can no longer be quenched by playing football.

 

 

Ben Boulware

Ben Boulware is a business owner.

He's married.

He's usually asleep by 8 PM.

Boulware said even he's surprised that he's all grown up now. He's come a long way from his playing days as a bombastic, freewheeling force of nature for Clemson's football team.

"I'm 28," he said. "But I feel like I'm 58."

Boulware, co-owner of The Junkyard fitness centers, said it's been an adventure opening a location in downtown Clemson. 

Boulware is now the voice and face of Clemson's pre-game entrance to Death Valley, as a video booms his commands to the players and fans to give everything they have to sustain the Tigers' reputation for greatness.

Boulware remains close with Brent Venables, the most important figure in his playing career. He shares a story from 2014, his sophomore year, when he was upset that the wasn't starting over Tony Steward and he told Venables he was quitting the team.

Venables laughed and told him he wasn't going anywhere. Boulware started the next game, and by the end of the year he was contributing a pick-6 in the Tigers' bowl destruction of Oklahoma.

Two years later, Boulware was giving a speech at Death Valley as the fans and team celebrated the Tigers' 2016 national championship.

 

 

 

 

 

Justin Falcinelli

In addition to his full-time job as a data analyst at Northrup Grumman in Baltimore, Justin Falcinelli is spending considerable time working to affect change as a member of the College Football Players Association.

As a member of Clemson's football team from 2015 to 2018, and the starting center on the team that smacked Alabama 44-16 for the national title, Falcinelli has a deep understanding of how big and profitable college football has become.

He also believes athletes should have a bigger share of the revenues that are currently being spent on skyrocketing salaries for coaches.

The thrust of Falcinelli's efforts is to secure long-term health care for college athletes. In his mind, that's the least that big-time athletics can do for players who often face lifelong health issues after playing a violent game.

Falcinelli also looks back to the amazing run he was able to be a part of, when Clemson rose from pretty good to perennially great.

In the 2018 CFP semifinal against Notre Dame, Falcinelli suffered what ended up being a serious ankle injury. He pushed through as the Tigers' offensive line protected Trevor Lawrence and allowed for the Tigers to slice apart the Crimson Tide's defense.

Falcinelli graduated from Clemson with a degree in management and then earned his MBA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mickey Plyler

Longtime Upstate radio host Mickey Plyler rejoins the podcast to talk about the quarterback situation at Clemson.

With DJ Uiagalelei having shown clear progress and Cade Klubnik having brought a spark in his limited duty, what's the right play right now for Clemson's coaching staff?

What are the pros and cons of giving Klubnik more prominent action to see what he can do?

And how might this play out long-term this season?

Plyler has heard plenty on this from listeners to his WCCP show. He gives his take on a crucial juncture in Dabo Swinney's brilliant coaching tenure.

 

Dustin Fry

Dustin Fry is in no hurry to get back into college football coaching.

He spends most of his time with his wife and two young boys in the hills of North Carolina. He helps out coaching offensive and defensive line at the local high school near Tryon.

He is savoring life, and that's hard to do these days in the coaching profession.

Fry was on the support staff at Clemson under Chad Morris, and then he got his big break when Morris landed the SMU job and asked Fry to come with him to Dallas.

After three years it was off to Arkansas, where the staff jumped into the deep end of the SEC and thought they'd have time to build something.

As it turned out they didn't last two years. Morris was fired after a 2-8 start in his second season.

Fry, who's from Summerville and played offensive line at Clemson, became disillusioned with the soul-sucking, non-stop routine of recruiting and preparing for games.

"It's become so intense in the profession that even when you win a game you only get to enjoy it for a few hours before you're breaking down film and getting started on the next game," he said.

Fry said he was texting just this week with South Carolina assistant Justin Stepp, who he was with under Morris at SMU and Arkansas.

"He asked me: 'Do you miss any of this shit?'" Fry said. "There's times I do. I'm not going to sit here and say college football is over for me. But I really enjoy the time I spend with my boys, picking the oldest up from school and being around him for a few hours every day. Just to have a real life -- I've made some good friends up here and it has nothing to do with football. 

"I've joined the golf club up here and met some great people. It's just awesome because I've never gotten to do anything like that. I've never gotten to be around non-coaching, non-football situations. It has been nice to step back from it for the last few years."

Matt Bockhorst

Matt Bockhorst joins the podcast to talk life after football, and working just a short walk of the beach at Isle of Palms.

Bockhorst also helps dig into the current developments along Clemson's offensive line, which has received a big boost by freshman Blake Miller showing he's worthy of being a starter at right tackle.

Bockhorst revisits the experiment of moving from guard to center a year ago, and recalls when he knew Clemson's offensive line was in trouble against Georgia and Jordan Davis.

Bockhorst spent this past spring around the program and gives his take on the new offensive direction under Brandon Streeter.

Will freshman Cade Klubnik quickly take over for a faltering DJ Uiagalelei, or will DJ reprise the excellent playmaker everyone saw when he started against Notre Dame and Boston College in 2020? Bockhorst gives his perspective on the quarterback battle that everyone is talking about and thinking about.

 

 

Gary Stokan and Kelly Quinlan

Gary Stokan has been one of the major movers and shakers in college football over the past two-plus decades.

As the CEO and president of the Peach Bowl, Stokan has been instrumental in making Atlanta a prominent player in college football.

When he was in his 20s, Stokan worked for shoe companies and helped seal sponsorship deals with Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.

He still kicks himself for letting Michael Jordan get away to a struggling company called Nike. The sneaker business was forever changed when MJ and Nike joined forces.

Stokan gives some insight into why Clemson's opener against Georgia Tech will have a capacity of just 45,000 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

He also shares what it's been like to develop a friendship with Dabo Swinney over the years as Swinney built Clemson from a perennial underachiever, to a really good program, to an elite one.

Kelly Quinlan, longtime chronicler of Georgia Tech football, provides a pulse on the Geoff Collins regime and looks back at the mistakes Collins made starting out. The Yellow Jackets have won a total of nine games the past three seasons, and a rigorous 2022 schedule has enhanced the likelihood that this will be Collins' final season on The Flats.

Quinlan was close with Paul Johnson during the coach's long tenure at Georgia Tech, and he still communicates with him regularly.

Asked if Johnson might be taking some satisfaction in the struggles that followed his departure, Quinlan responded:

"I'm sure he's sitting there with a glass of bourbon and puffing on a cigar and getting a chuckle out of this."

 

Where Are They Now, Part 2

In a continuation of summer conversations with 30 prominent former players, we catch up with the following:

Matt Bockhorst

Jim Stuckey

Willy Korn

Landon Walker

Dustin Fry

Levon Kirkland

Robert Carswell

Woody Dantzler

Each player is asked the same three basic questions:

1) What are you up to now?

2) What are your thoughts on the state of Clemson's football program?

3) What are your thoughts on the state of college athletics, which is facing major change with the advent of NIL and freer ability to transfer to different schools?

These interviews were conducted for The Clemson 30 series of articles that were published at Tigerillustrated.com.

 

Tavaghn Monts

When Tavaghn Monts decided to return to Clemson in 2019 to complete his degree, he discovered he had a 1.63 grade-point average.

This was the fallout he wasn't aware of from 2006, when he left school to try out with the Cleveland Browns. He neglected to drop the courses, and that left him with all F's at the end of the semester.

After making the President's List during the 2019 fall semester while commuting to Clemson from Atlanta multiple times a week, he made the Dean's List in the spring of 2020 and then the President's List again in the summer of 2020.

In August of 2020, he received his degree in PRTM. And now he works for Clemson as the executive director of Momentum Bike Clubs, a group-mentoring initiative for middle- and high-school students in Greenville and Pickens counties with a mission to transform the lives of young people.

Monts, who played defensive back at Clemson in 2001, 2003 and 2004, joins The Dubcast to reflect on his remarkable journey that includes walking five miles to work as a Waffle House manager in Atlanta.