The Clemson Dubcast

David Hale

Writing about college football every Saturday seems like a fun and even easy job.

But being asked to intelligently summarize the invariable unfolding of 12-plus hours worth of craziness, while not missing anything important, while trying to prioritize events amid the sensory overload of games and social media, and while spicing humor into every other paragraph, is not an easy thing to do.

David Hale of ESPN.com has mastered the art of the college football recap column. Late every Saturday night, perhaps with the aid of a few adult beverages, he files a riotous, wildly entertaining and absolute must read about the day's events.

Hale, who has followed Clemson closely for all the high points of the Dabo Swinney era, is like the rest of us in trying to process how the Tigers have fallen so far on offense.

Hale gives his take on Swinney's circle-the-wagons sermon to fans that punctuated Wednesday's appearance on WCCP-FM as part of the Tigers for Tatas fundraising effort.

Also, having covered Florida State closely, Hale is an expert on what the collapse of a great football program looks like. He gives his response to the folks who say Clemson's current malaise is less a brief dip and more indicative of a program in long-term decline.

 

Harold ”Dutch” Coleman

Harold Coleman, a former Clemson football player and radio host for WCCP-FM, joins the podcast to catch everyone up on what he and his family are up to now.

After a year as an assistant at Marquette, Harold's wife Itoro Umoh-Coleman took a job at North Carolina and the family of six is now in Chapel Hill.

Harold reflects on what it's like for his children to have moved so much, and also what it's like for his wife to coach for a team she hated when she was a star player at Clemson.

Harold would also like a word with those who think the problem with Clemson's offense is play-calling. And he has some pointed words for those who think the advent of NIL is a bad thing for college athletics.

 

 

Terrence Oglesby

Former Clemson star Terrence Oglesby rejoins the podcast to share the latest on his climb up the media ladder.

Oglesby is a basketball analyst for The Field of 68, a college basketball podcast network that has already gained significant profile.

Oglesby also gives his take on what to expect this season of Brad Brownell and Clemson as the Tigers try to overcome the loss of Aamir Simms.

He also discusses why he decided to go away from the coaching route, and the importance of being there for his family as his children grow up.

 

 

 

 

Billy Davis

Former Tiger Billy Davis makes a return visit to the podcast to reflect on what it was like to reconnect with his 1981 teammates as Clemson celebrated the 40th anniversary of its national title under Danny Ford.

Davis shares what it's like for that accomplishment to be relegated to an "oh by the way" category in the shadow of the recent titles under Dabo Swinney in 2016 and 2018.

He also gives his take on the jolting struggles of the 2021 team, which has produced a 3-2 record and a plummet from the Top 5 to unranked.

What criticisms are justified in Davis' eyes? Which ones are excessive? Davis, a longtime subscriber and message-board poster on Tigerillustrated.com, gives his thoughts on social-media fan culture and the treatment of 18- to 22-year-old athletes who aren't performing as well as expected.

 

Scott Hamilton

Scott Hamilton, current sports-radio host in Charleston, started his newspaper career in 1998.

In the 23 years since he has:

Worked for several different newspapers, including as the sports columnist for the Winston-Salem Journal;

Worked as the lead news anchor for a TV station in West Virginia;

Worked as a TV talk-show host in Wilmington;

Worked as a radio sports-talk host in Winston-Salem;

Worked for Golfweek magazine;

Worked for the Sports Business Journal;

Worked for Sports Illustrated covering the Carolina Panthers;

Worked in sales for a minor-league baseball team;

Worked for Shatterbox in client acqusitions.

And to think: He went to college to become a history teacher.

Hamilton joins the podcast to talk about his wild ride, becoming close with Paul Finebaum, and what to make of Clemson’s current struggles during its 2-2 start.

He also picks Ole Miss and Lane Kiffin to pull off the upset Saturday at Alabama.

Mickey Plyler and Joe Giglio

Mickey Plyler of WCCP-FM joins the podcast to share what it's like when so much criticism is coming from fans through the airwaves in the midst of Clemson's offense scoring a total of 17 points in two games against Georgia and Georgia Tech.

What's fair criticism and what's over the top? What's the answer for this offense, and are things going to get markedly better in the near future?

Joe Giglio visits to reflect on his transition from a long career in newspapers to a radio talk-show host for WRAL. Giglio attended N.C. State and covered the Wolfpack for decades. He gives his take on Dave Doeren, who since taking over in 2013 has just one victory over a team that finished in the Top 25. Have the fans soured on him? Do they even care enough to run him out of town?

Do the Wolfpack have the juice to knock off Clemson? Is this really Doeren's best team when State couldn't come close to beating Mississippi State a couple weeks ago?

And what's the reaction in Raleigh to Will Shipley, who has all sorts of family ties to the Wolfpack, going to Clemson and becoming an instant sensation as a playmaker for the Tigers?

 

Joey Batson

Longtime Clemson strength and conditioning coach Joey Batson joins the podcast to share the story of the open-heart surgery he underwent this past summer.

Batson, 60, lost his father to a heart attack in the 1970s when his father was 39 years old.

 

 

Andy Staples, Cole Cubelic and Brett McMurphy

Andy Staples and Cole Cubelic join the podcast to give their takes on the state of Clemson football after the Tigers' 10-3 loss to Georgia last week.

Does Dabo Swinney need to adapt to keep up with the Bulldogs, Alabama and Ohio State? And what of an offensive line that was overwhelmed in the opener? Will Clemson be good enough to get into the College Football Playoff for a seventh consecutive season?

Brett McMurphy visits to chart his visionary course through various mediums over the course of his career -- from newspapers to web sites, to ESPN and now to The Action Network.

McMurphy was the center of one of the most remarkable stories in media history after he was laid off by ESPN. As he continued to collect bi-weekly checks from the network, he got around a non-compete clause by merely posting his scoops on Facebook -- major scoops that ESPN then had to chase.

 

 

 

Mark Bradley

Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution remembers being intimidated at sharing press boxes with the likes of Lewis Grizzard, Furman Bisher, Dave Kindred and numerous other giants of the sportswriting industry.

Bradley gradually developed a style all his own and is known as one of the best of his craft in sports column writing -- especially when facing murderous deadlines.

What was it like to sit next to Grizzard and his old-school typewriter in a press box? What was it like doing a story on the holder for Kevin Butler's 60-yard field goal that beat Clemson in 1984? 

What's it like being told by Hawks coach Mike Fratello that he's done with you, that "you stabbed me in the heart?"

What was it like, seven years ago, hearing that Steve Spurrier waged figurative war on him after Bradley wrote (accurately, as it turned out) that Spurrier might not last much longer at South Carolina?

What's it like dealing with the vast modern-day restrictions on media access that make it much more difficult to develop relationships with the people you cover?

Bradley is a trove of entertaining anecdotes from his decades spent telling the world what he thinks. He also gives his take on what he think will happen in Saturday night's mammoth showdown between Clemson and Georgia.

 

 

 

 

Behind the scenes at Kite Hill Brewing Company

Clemson's first brewery has been a long time coming, and a long time working for the two co-owners who continue to juggle demanding full-time jobs in addition to getting Kite Hill Brewing Company off the ground after opening their doors in early July.

The Clemson Dubcast goes on-site to interview the key players, including master brewer Mike Fuller. An avid Clemson fan and longtime Tigerillustrated.com subscriber, Fuller spent time out west and then the better part of nine years in Asheville. As he worked his way up the brewing ranks, he had a dream to return to Clemson and give the city its first brewery. Last December he answered an ad posted by co-owners Bobby Congdon and Bryon Leggett.

Congdon is the assistant director of Clemson's Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design and Graphics. He's also married with two children.

"I'm making it work now, working through some annual leave," Congdon said. "And I have a forgiving boss that likes beer. So that helps."

Leggett has a background in chemical engineering and works in business development for a Wisconsin-based contract manufacturer, a job that consumes 50 hours a week by itself. He said he's worked 90 to 100 hours a week the last few months. He's married with a 9-month-old infant at home.

Leggett and Congdon met as students while working for Clemson's student radio station. They both graduated in 1998.

"Our vision is to have a community gathering space with something for everybody," Leggett said. "So it's not just about the beer."

Congdon started home-brewing in 2005 inside an apartment not far from Kite Hill's present location in Patrick Square.

"By the third batch we started talking about how cool it would be to open a brewery in Clemson," Congdon said. "That persisted for years and years, but common sense said 'Don't do that. That's insane.' But about four years ago I sent an e-mail to Bryon. I had been drinking beer, and I got the idea: 'We should actually do this!'"