The Clemson Dubcast

David Paschall and Dayne Young

David Paschall has covered Georgia football for decades at the Chattanooga Times-Free Press. He joins the podcast to reflect on just how much sports media has changed over the years, and the media's own role in a demise that includes dramatically reduced access to the teams and players they cover.

Paschall also gives his take on the mammoth Sept. 4 matchup in Charlotte between Clemson and Georgia. He remembers traveling to Death Valley in 2003 and watching the Bulldogs romp 30-0. A lot has changed since, with the Tigers now one of the supreme beings in college football and Georgia trying to ascend to the perch Clemson has enjoyed.

Dayne Young works for Rivals site UGASports.com and the PR department for Georgia's school of journalism. Young once worked as a TV sports anchor but got out of the business when he realized how few people watch the evening newscasts anymore. He adapted to new ideas and now is a major part of his site's expanded digital presence, which includes regular video podcasts with former Georgia coach Jim Donnan.

Young reacts to the latest wave of attrition that has affected the Bulldogs with Darnell Washington and Tykee Smith having undergone surgery. He has some doubts about JT Daniels' ability to guide Georgia's injury-addled offense to enough points to win the showdown in Charlotte, but he thinks the Bulldogs' defensive front might be the most talented and deepest in the country.

 

 

Jim Barker

Former Clemson University president Jim Barker joins the podcast to share what he's been up to since leaving the high-pressure world of running a university.

Barker had a fascinating window into Dabo Swinney long before many other people thought the coach had what it took to run a successful football program, let alone a perennially dominant one.

Barker still teaches a course at Clemson called "The Architecture of Leadership," and Swinney's name comes up often in the class' conversations about great leaders.

Barker, who was one of the main architects of NCAA reform years ago, acknowledges that those reforms failed and says the system is broken.

Barker was a key figure in the ACC's courting of Notre Dame before the Irish joined the conference as a part-time member. As the ACC and everyone else grapples with the recent seismic development of Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC, Barker said he hopes the ACC is thinking boldly and not conventionally.

"I'm amazed that we don't use these moments in time to open up possibilities that are not just baby steps, but huge steps," he said.

 

The Dude of West Virginia

Christopher Lambert, also known as The Dude of WV on social media, became a phenomenon a decade ago during the last realignment craze in college athletics.

An avid fan of West Virginia who's not in the media business, Lambert caused a stir when he began producing news items from conversations he was having with influential people.

Lambert basically learned some journalism on the fly, realizing that sometimes people were giving him information to advance their own interests and it resulted in some mistakes in his reporting.

Now that realignment is back on the front burner with Texas and Oklahoma headed to the SEC, The Dude is back in action as he tries to develop informed opinion on what will happen next and whether West Virginia will be safe.

For the record, The Dude believes the Mountaineers will end up in a conference they probably should have been a part of all along: The ACC, which is looking to solidify its future in a volatile, cutthroat world of big-time college athletics.

 

Martin Jenkins

Martin Jenkins was a part of a class-action lawsuit that sued the NCAA and led to the recent harsh rebuke of the NCAA's model by two Supreme Court justices.

Jenkins joins the podcast to reflect on what it all means and where college athletics could be headed with athletes now able to profit from their names, images and likenesses and, perhaps in the future, getting an actual cut of the monstrous revenues college football generates.

When Jenkins played at Clemson from 2010 to 2014, NCAA rules limited schools from providing more than one meal per day to athletes. Now players at Clemson and elsewhere eat three meals a day at lavish dining facilities in addition to getting checks for cost of attendance.

For Jenkins, the wheels for joining the lawsuit were set in motion after he wrote the song "We Too Deep" and was told NCAA rules prohibited him from capitalizing on the popularity of it (it has become a staple at Clemson home football games, and the official YouTube video Jenkins created currently has more than 6.5 million views).

Jenkins also reflects on his deep level of love and admiration for Dabo Swinney. The two might have some philosophical differences on the topic of compensating college athletes, but he said it's never gotten in the way of their relationship.

Jenkins, who lives in Atlanta and works in the insurance industry, is a regular at Clemson football games and marvels at how far Swinney has taken a program that hadn't won 10 games in two decades when Jenkins began playing for the Tigers.

 

Brandon Streeter, Tyler Grisham, Robbie Caldwell, Mickey Conn, Todd Bates

Five Clemson assistant coaches sit down for in-depth discussions on their position groups.

Earlier this week, Dabo Swinney opened up his football operations building to the media and allowed his coaches to spend hours mingling with those who cover Clemson on a regular basis.

Streeter is quarterbacks coach for the Tigers. Grisham coaches receivers. Caldwell oversees offensive line, Conn safeties and Bates defensive tackles.

Clemson begins preseason camp on Aug. 6.

 

Andrew Miller

Andrew Miller, 57, has been at The Post and Courier of Charleston for decades. Because of pandemic-related budget cuts, Miller had to move from his love of sports to the business section where he's had to start from scratch in some ways as a reporter.

Miller goes back a long way to the days of Tommy West and Tommy Bowden, and he's full of stories from his time covering Clemson on a full-time basis.

In the summer of 2003 at Bowden's media golf outing, Miller was planning to be in the featured group with the head coach. He was irritated when sports information director Tim Bourret asked him for a huge favor: "Can you play not with Tommy but with our new receivers coach instead?"

That coach was Dabo Swinney.

"I didn't get in five words the entire round," Miller said of getting to know the man who'd be the Tigers' head coach five years later.

Miller reflects on how the changing nature of media access has made it harder for reporters to develop relationships with the people they cover. He also looks back to close, personal relationships he's had with various figures including Bowden, Reggie Herring, Willie Simmons, Monte Lee and others.

 

 

 

Josh Needelman

Josh Needelman joins the podcast to discuss why he chose to leave his job as Clemson beat reporter for The Post and Courier after a two-year stint in the Upstate.

Josh is from New York, and a year of being away from his family because of the pandemic reinforced to him the importance of being close to loved ones -- particularly his twin brother Scott, who is autistic and nonverbal.

Having joined the Clemson beat after covering UVA, Josh saw in full color the immensity of big-time college football -- and the always entertaining, sometimes controversial Dabo Swinney.

Josh gives his thoughts on how Swinney is portrayed in the national media and also shares his philosophy on how much or how little time is necessary to spend on social media when you're trying to cover a team and establish a brand.

 

 

Teresa Padgett, mother of Justin Foster

The story of Justin Foster's past year has been well chronicled: a year ago he tested positive for COVID and then dealt with complications that left him not remotely fit to play football for Clemson during the 2020 season.

Foster announced he was giving up football after the season, but then a vaccine shot markedly improved his COVID long-hauler symptoms. And then visits to doctors at Duke University gave him renewed confidence that he could safely return to playing football. In May he announced his return, and now he's in Clemson preparing for the 2021 season.

Justin's mother, Teresa Padgett, joins the podcast to reflect on what this has all been like for her.

 

 

 

William Qualkinbush

Clemson radio personality William Qualkinbush joins the show to talk the swirl of change in college athletics, most notably the move to Name, Image and Likeness.

Qualkinbush's views on NIL have evolved as he learns more about what the new landscape might look like, but he's firmly against a pay-for-play model that some say is a virtual certainty after the Supreme Court's scathing rebuke of the NCAA earlier this week.

Qualkinbush also talks about his career, which often brings a logjam of responsibilities including radio play-by-play for Clemson sports in addition to 15 hours a week on his WCCP-FM radio show that runs from noon to 3.

 

 

Joe Person

Joe Person has spent a long time covering the Carolina Panthers, and before that he spent a long time covering South Carolina football.

Person has vast experience dealing with powerful personalities including Cam Newton, Steve Spurrier and Lou Holtz.

Person shares what it was like to break out of his comfort zone by moving from college football to the NFL, how he goes about doing his job amid a changing media landscape that includes competition with the team he covers, and what he learned from the late Rick Bonnell who recently passed away unexpectedly.

Person had some unforgettable experiences covering Spurrier, including regular 7 AM phone calls from the Gamecocks coach when he didn't like something Person wrote for The State newspaper.

Person was present at Death Valley for the infamous 2004 brawl between the Gamecocks and Tigers in Holtz's final college game.