The Clemson Dubcast

Paul Strelow

Paul Strelow, longtime recruiting reporter and analyst for Tigerillustrated.com, is also a family man and a father of five.

He's been fully devoted to the lives of his children over the years, and that's included serving as a coach of their various teams.

Strelow gives his perspective on the climate at youth and high school sporting events as fans get edgier and more willing to chastise not just refs but opposing players.

The state of the media industry is almost unrecognizable from the one Strelow joined as a newspaper reporter in the late 1990s. Where are things headed? What advice does he have for young people who might be interested in trying to join this industry?

And what of Clemson football recruiting, with the Tigers in play for an elite recruiting class in 2025? Will the people who eviscerate Dabo Swinney for being too stuck in his ways consider changing their tune?

Also, is Clemson's football program more active with NIL than is often perceived?

Finally, how confident is Strelow that Cade Klubnik can give Clemson what it needs at quarterback?

Mike Noonan

Mike Noonan, fresh off Clemson's second men's soccer national title in three years, joins The Dubcast to reflect on the journey.

In August of 2022, Noonan lost his father. And then this past November his mother passed away as Noonan and the Tigers were pursuing Clemson's fourth men's soccer national title in its history.

Noonan opens up about his upbringing, including his father's remarkable life that included:

Graduating from MIT and the Harvard Business School;

Working on the Apollo Space Project;

Modernizing Taiwan's rail system;

Playing a role in the merger of the AFL and NFL.

In addition, Mike's younger brother Mark is the commissioner of the Canadian Premier League.

Noonan reminisces about first hearing from Clemson when he was the head coach at Brown. He and his wife Deb fell in love with the campus and surrounding community on their first visit.

Noonan, who has believed in Dabo Swinney from the beginning, had a rough patch with the football coach when the building of the Tigers' opulent operations facility meant the displacement of Noonan's practice fields.

Swinney assured Noonan he and the soccer program would be much better off in the end, and when it came time to raise money for the new soccer facility Swinney lived up to his word.

"He was right," Noonan said.

Noonan also delves into his love of music, and spending time in the mid- to late-1980s watching Phish once a month in a club called Nectar's in Burlington, VT.

Noonan's wife spent college in the same dorm as Phish's members, one floor below.

Clemson will hold a parade Saturday at 11:30 AM to celebrate the soccer team's national title.

 

Billy Davis

Billy Davis rejoins The Dubcast to share what it's like having a daughter on the verge of completing a student-athlete career as a swimmer at the University of Kentucky.

Davis, one of the few Clemson fans who was fully behind Dabo Swinney during a rough 2010 season, had his own doubts over the past year: He correctly predicted the Tigers would fall at Duke in the season-opener, and he was with many in wondering if Swinney would make necessary changes to his staff.

Davis, who had a long career in the Secret Service, recalls the brawl at the end of Clemson's win over South Carolina in 1983.

Probation meant that it was his last game in a Clemson uniform.

Davis said he didn't take part in the brawl. He used it as an opportunity to run to the other side of the field and visit his girlfriend, who was a Gamecock cheerleader.

Davis is a longtime subscriber to Tigerillustrated.com, and a frequent poster on the West End Zone message board.

 

 

 

Chris Low

Chris Low, longtime chronicler of college football for ESPN.com, joins The Dubcast to reflect on the recent monumental events at Alabama.

Low, who broke the news that Nick Saban was retiring, said he received a tip about two hours before Saban announced it to his team. 

Low said Saban indicated to Alabama AD Greg Byrne late in the season that he was leaning toward retirement, but he wasn't certain of it until the morning that he actually announced it.

Though Alabama contacted Dabo Swinney to gauge his interest in the job, Low believes Washington's Kalen DeBoer and Florida State's Mike Norvell were the top two candidates on Byrne's list.

Low also gives his thoughts on the state of college football, which a growing number of people believe is unsustainable in its current form with NIL and the transfer portal creating fluid and unpredictable situations just about everywhere.

 

 

 

 

C.D. Davies of the 110 Society

C.D. Davies of the 110 Society joins The Dubcast for an extended conversation about the complicated, murky world of NIL in college football.

Davies believes the common narratives about Dabo Swinney being against NIL do not comport with reality, and a chief piece of evidence is the coach's very decision to hire Davies to preside over the football program's NIL operations.

Davies, a 1986 Clemson grad who went on to be highly successful executive in the banking and lending industry, believes his experience dealing with regulatory authorities makes him highly suited to dealing with the NCAA's ever-changing messaging and regulating of how players are compensated.

Rules explicitly prohibit pay-for-play, yet the practice is so commonplace that television announcers discuss such arrangements about specific high-profile players during their broadcasts of games.

"I see that and hear it," Davies said. "That's flat-out cheating. We haven't done that, and we're not going to do it. We're going to follow the rules."

Davies takes us behind the NIL curtain and shares what it's really like as Clemson navigates the process of fundraising for NIL, and arranging deals with its athletes.

He says "donor exhaustion" is very real, at Clemson and everywhere else. His model for the future is exploring and creating a commercial side of NIL funding that relieves a significant amount of pressure on fans to fund yet another expensive reality of major-college athletics competition.

 

 

Mickey Plyler

Mickey Plyler joins The Dubcast to reflect on Michigan winning the national title and what it means.

Is Jim Harbaugh really as bad a guy as the general college football populace believes? Should Clemson fans, who have often seen their own coach trashed in the college football conversation, have some perspective on the view of Harbaugh?

If Michigan were in the SEC, would the day-after conversation be asking if the Wolverines' defense is one of the best ever?

What of the over-the-top reactions to Florida State's playoff snub?

Are bowl games basically toast?

Speaking of food, we take a detour into one of Plyler's passions: Grilling on his back porch.

How best to cook a pork chop? Or a filet mignon?

How does Plyler master the art of cooking pizza on the Big Green Egg?

Best of 2023 (Part 2)

We look back at some of the best interview segments from The Clemson Dubcast in 2023.

In Part 2 we feature David Pollack, Jeff Scott and Lucas Glover.

Pollack reflects on what it was like to lose his job at ESPN, and the joys he took from suddenly having a lot of time on his hands to enjoy his family. Pollack is also close with Clemson defensive back Khalil Barnes.

Scott details why he's still loving being out of coaching as he coaches youth soccer and makes up for family time that was lost when he was head coach at South Florida and an assistant at Clemson.

Glover shares the story of his torturous, decade-long battle with the putting yips, and how he managed to get past it by completely changing his putting stroke.

 

Best of 2023 (Part 1)

We look back at some of the best interview segments from The Clemson Dubcast in 2023.

In Part 1 we feature Tim Cowan, Holden Thorp and Eric Mac Lain.

Cowan, a Clemson graduate, became a bit of a celebrity when he was discovered standing behind visiting coaches after their teams won at Death Valley: FSU's Mike Norvell in 2023, South Carolina's Shane Beamer in 2022, and Pitt's Pat Narduzzi in 2016. When Cowan was a student at Clemson he owned a downtown bar called Rumors.

Thorp served as chancellor of North Carolina during some of the early stages of realignment, and was a key behind-the-scenes figure as the ACC explored strategic moves. Thorp said the Tar Heels could've gone to the SEC if they wanted to, but they ended up choosing to remain in the ACC.

Mac Lain, who works for the ACC Network, goes in-depth on what it's like criticizing his alma mater during some of Clemson's rougher patches the past couple years.

Part 2 is coming this weekend.

 

 

Dabo Swinney on NSD

Dabo Swinney had two extended media appearances on National Signing Day to discuss his signings for the 2024 recruiting class.

Swinney visited with Adam Gorney of Rivals.com, then sat with the media who cover Clemson.

Swinney speaks extensively on his portal philosophy, and why portal targets weren't a match for Clemson this year.

He also raves about the four offensive linemen that are part of this class, all of whom will be mid-year enrollees.

The latest rankings by Rivals have the Tigers' class at No. 10 nationally.

Clemson plays Kentucky in the Gator Bowl on Dec. 29.

 

 

Rick Stockstill

Former longtime Clemson assistant coach Rick Stockstill joins the podcast to reflect on life after 18 years as Middle Tennessee State's head coach.

Stockstill was fired in late November, and he says his main objective now is trying to find jobs for the staffers who worked for him. 

Stockstill is full of stories from working under the likes of Danny Ford, Tommy Bowden, Lou Holtz and Steve Spurrier.

His reluctant decision to leave Clemson in 2003, for the offensive coordinator job at East Carolina, might have been the most important coaching departure in Clemson history:

Tommy Bowden filled the vacancy by hiring Dabo Swinney, who'd been out of coaching for two years and was well on his way to being successful in commercial real estate.

After a year at East Carolina, Stockstill left to work for Lou Holtz at South Carolina. He said coaching and recruiting for the Gamecocks was strange initially because he spent so many years competing against them.

"When we were at Clemson I would throw the football with my son Brent, and I'd give him signals for which route to run," Stockstill said.

The signal for a go route was Stockstill tapping his head, and the name of the play was "Gamecock Killer" in reference to Rod Gardner's legendary catch of Woody Dantzler's desperation pass in a 2000 victory over South Carolina.

"When we went to South Carolina, Brent was asking me why. I told him this is part of the profession, and we'll have to come up with some new signals."

Stockstill's first of two seasons in Columbia was 2004, which ended in the infamous brawl against the Gamecocks at Death Valley.

He remembers standing on the South Carolina sideline before the game and watching Gamecock players run to the east end zone to greet Clemson as it ran down the hill.

Stockstill turned to a South Carolina staffer and said: "These boys don't know what they just did."

Clemson dominated the game and won 29-7 in Lou Holtz's last game as coach.

Stockstill said he hopes join a college staff as an analyst.