In Part 2 of our Best of 2024 podcast, we revisit some of the more memorable excerpts from our interviews over the past year:

-- Thomas Austin, on what it's like to deal with being fired by Dabo Swinney. In 2008, Austin was an offensive lineman on the team that helped Swinney secure the head-coaching job with a victory over South Carolina. Swinney even rode on Austin's shoulders to midfield that day to shake the hand of Steve Spurrier.

-- Otis Pickett, on returning to his alma mater from Mississippi to be the historian of Clemson University. A significant part of Pickett's mission is introducing and framing the public conversation on Clemson's past, which includes difficult and complicated topics on race.

-- Cliff Ellis, former Clemson basketball coach, shares numerous stories about his musical career. Had he not chosen coaching, Ellis could've easily spent his life as a professional musician. In the mid-1960s, his group The Villagers was a sensation and even recorded at the legendary Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala. Ellis remembers joining Roy Orbison on stage at a sold-out concert in Dothan, Ala.

"If you can perform in front of people with Roy Orbison behind you, you're going to be OK going up against Dean Smith and Mike Krzyzewski," he said.

-- Tommy West looks back to a totally different time for Clemson football in the 1990s when the Tigers didn't have any facilities to speak of and were so behind on that front that he once tried to stage an August practice at a local livestock arena.

 

 

 

We go back through the interview files to excerpt the most memorable sequences from our 2024 podcast interviews.

Today in Part 1:

-- Brad Scott and son Jeff Scott, on being out of the football business. Also, their insider recollections of various high-stakes recruitments including Sammy Watkins, Mike Bellamy and others;

-- Mike Noonan, who brought Clemson two national soccer titles in three years. Noonan shares his family's fascinating backstory, and the unlikely path he and his wife took to Clemson;

-- Billy Donlon, an assistant under Brad Brownell, on his life in basketball that includes formative years in the shadow of the Chicago Bulls dynasty.

-- Thad Turnipseed, looking back on all the things that came together for Dabo Swinney's program to ascend to almost unimaginable heights.

Part 2 comes Dec. 31st.

Cade Klubnik's return to Austin to face former high school rival Quinn Ewers is one of the more compelling stories of the inaugural 12-team playoff.

The story has fascinating roots, and with that in mind we revisit two interviews we conducted years ago to learn more about Klubnik's background:

-- With Klubnik in December of 2021, days before he was to fly to Clemson to begin life as a Tiger;

-- With Klubnik's high school coach, Todd Dodge, in December of 2022 as Klubnik was set to take over as Clemson's starting quarterback.

The most remarkable part of Klubnik's journey to Clemson is that he stuck with the Tigers even when they didn't offer him. He had to wait until Ty Simpson decided between Clemson and Alabama before that offer came. And meanwhile, Steve Sarkisian at Texas and Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M had already offered him.

Dodge decided to retire after Klubnik led Westlake High School to a third consecutive state title as a senior. After two years out of the game, Dodge returned to the football field last offseason when he took over at Lovejoy High in Lucas, Texas.

B.T. Potter has known current Clemson kicker Nolan Hauser since Hauser was in middle school.

Potter, who kicked for the Tigers from 2018 to 2022, was in Bank of America Stadium when Hauser drilled the 56-yard field goal that put Clemson in Austin for Saturday's first-round playoff game against Texas.

Potter says Hauser has a confidence that he lacked as a freshman and had to learn over time.

What's it like to be on special teams when the rest of the team is grinding away through physically demanding practices?

What's it like to get reamed by Dabo Swinney on national television, as Potter did in 2021 after missing two short field goals he should've made in a close game against Florida State?

What's it like to get cut from an NFL team and wonder if your football career is done?

Potter, who recently signed with the Michigan Panthers of the United Football League, has a lot going on right now including preparing for a wedding.

He shares his story here.

Thirteen days ago, Roy Philpott got the assignment of his dreams from ESPN:

South Carolina at Clemson, Nov. 30.

Philpott, a Clemson graduate who spent many years in the area working in various media capacities covering the Tigers, joins The Dubcast to reflect on a wild afternoon at Death Valley and what it meant for both teams.

There were so many twists and turns late in the game that Philpott walked away from the stadium asking himself if he did justice to the game, its stakes, and the extraordinary show put on by Gamecock freshman LaNorris Sellers.

Philpott spent quite a lot of time with Dabo Swinney and a few other staff members the day before the game.

What were his takeaways? What does he think about Swinney's ability to adapt to a rapidly changing collegiate model enough to get Clemson back to the top of the mountain?

Philpott's normally busy schedule is about to get even crazier with the overlap of college football and college basketball. He still lives in the Upstate and has no desire to leave.

 

A year ago on this podcast, Ellis Johnson correctly foreshadowed a Clemson victory in Columbia because in his mind the Tigers were just better.

Now he has no idea how to predict Saturday's Top 15 showdown in Death Valley.

"I think it's a dead-even game," he said.

Johnson has been on both sides of this rivalry, in the mid-1990s at Clemson under Tommy West and as Steve Spurrier's defensive coordinator in Columbia from 2008 to 2011 (and as an analyst under Will Muschamp from 2016-18).

Johnson is a closer observer of Clemson now because is son Charlie is a walk-on for the Tigers. Ellis' routine during the season is traveling to Clemson and watching every Tuesday practice.

In addition to sizing up this rivalry matchup, Johnson gives his thought on the tumultuous state of college athletics as the model transitions from amateurism to NIL to the full-on revenue sharing to come starting in the summer of 2025.

"The NCAA has created a mess," he said. "Letting the top level of college football get too far out of hand is going to seriously damage the overall college football scene. And when that damage happens, it's always the kids that get affected by it."

Scott Hamilton is a media survivor.

He prefers to call himself a cockroach.

Whatever the name, his current title is sports columnist for The Post and Courier newspaper and he's utterly thrilled to hold this position as the only newspaper sports columnist left in the Palmetto State.

"I feel like I'm 28 years old again," he said. "It's so exciting."

Hamilton joins the podcast to reflect on a career that has included newspapers, magazines, television, radio, and sales for a minor-league baseball team. 

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

Hamilton shares insight into his daily routine, the state of newspapers, and the current state of college football.

And yes, he's totally geeked about this week's South Carolina-Clemson showdown in Death Valley.

In a mere three years, Terrence Oglesby has established himself as a successful college basketball broadcaster and analyst.

It's taken lots of hustle and networking, but most of all Oglesby's continued upward trajectory is a tribute to his smooth style and his strong command of the game.

Oglesby's duties consist of: Analyst for Charlotte Hornets home games; ESPN; FOX; NBA TV; The Field of 68; and CBS Sports Network.

Just this past week he was in Milwaukee broadcasting a game Monday night, and by the next afternoon he was driving from Atlanta to Clemson to work his alma mater's game against Eastern Kentucky.

The former sharpshooter for Oliver Purnell spent several years living in Clemson, but last fall he moved his family to Greenville so he could be closer to the airport.

Oglesby gives his thoughts on the current state of Clemson basketball under Brad Brownell.

He's convinced that Brownell is going to lead the Tigers to sustained prominence as Brownell continues to take advantage of the transfer portal and maintaining the relationships with major donors that are necessary to pay for high-end talent in the NIL era.

 

 

 

Earlier this week, Dabo Swinney wished a happy 80th Birthday to his mother and shared some details of her positively remarkable life story.

Five years ago, Tigerillustrated.com sat down with Carol and she told the story in full.

A small excerpt:

At some point my mother noticed there was something different about how polio had affected me, compared to others. It left me weakened from my waist up and affected my upper body, but not my legs. If polio affected your legs you had no strength or use of them, never growing and never developing any muscles. These people were in big, heavy braces just dragging themselves around. Some were on crutches that held their arms up. At the time I thought: “You know, I’m so thankful.” It was better for your arms to be affected by polio than your legs.

I couldn’t raise my arms. I couldn’t use them. I couldn’t use my hands. So at first I was put into body braces that came around my body, under my arms so they could help keep my arms up. And still to this day, you can see the tremors in my hands and the atrophy. That’s what polio did to me. So I wore those braces until they would have to be changed, and then I would get a new brace. And that went on and on and on.

My upper body was so weak that I developed a bad case of scoliosis, a severe curving of the spine. Because the polio attacked my muscles, I was temporarily paralyzed. And it was drawing me way over to my left side. My body was curved so badly that had I not had corrective surgery and braces, I would have remained curved over had I lived. That’s when my mother realized something was wrong, really wrong. Even with the braces, she would take the braces off just to bathe me and put them back on. But my body would still flop to the left. So my mom took me back to the Crippled Children’s Clinic and Hospital in Birmingham. My body had to be encased as I continued to grow so it would remain straight until I was old enough to have surgery.

I was put in a full body cast and spent 14 months in it. At the time I had long hair; my mother had let it grow out into a long ponytail. And the day they were going to put me in that body cast, they had to cut my ponytail off and basically shave my head. I was almost 9 years old, and I thought that was the most terrifying thing for them to do. My mom wasn’t there; they wouldn’t allow her to be there with me. She did ask them to save my ponytail. So they did, and they put it into a plastic bag and they gave it to her and she kept it for years.

Today we present the audio from that 2019 conversation with Carol.

And we join her son in wishing her a happy 80th birthday.

 

On May 3, WYFF News 4 Sports Director Marc Whiteman shared this on social media:

Been pretty low key on social media and at work lately, and I’m ready to share some news.

Liam Finn Whiteman was born at just 28 weeks old last weekend at 3 lbs and 12 ounces. Earlier in the week, Mary and I were rushed to the hospital under the threat of preterm labor, and a little less than 72 hours later, Liam was here. We didn’t have his name picked out. We thought we had more time. But as it became apparent that he was coming, sooner than expected, we realized it was always Liam.   In Irish, Liam points to a “strong-willed warrior.” In Hebrew, a “determined guardian.” We knew whatever was coming, he’d need to be both of those things. He is already so much more.   We’re anxious to get our little guy home from the NICU, and are so confident in the incredible team of doctors, nurses and caregivers at Prisma looking after him. Progress isn’t always linear, but we’re incredibly encouraged by his growth so far. He’s a tough little nugget.   Mary and I already love him so much more than we could even fathom, and are so eager to watch him get a little bit bigger, stronger and healthier each and every day.   We’re so thankful for the village we have around us. Our family, friends and incredible co-workers have picked us up and looked after us as we grapple with each day. They’ve dropped what they were doing, rearranged their lives, and come to our side. We’re looking forward to repaying that kindness in the future, and showering our baby boy with all the love in the universe when he comes home.   After 67 days in the hospital, Liam finally came home in late summer. He is now more than sixth months old.
Marc joins the podcast to share their story.

In 2006, Patricia Watkins thought her son was going to play college football for the Florida Gators.

She had never even heard of Clemson when CJ Spiller traveled for a visit there that changed his life, and their lives.

Last week, Watkins was a part of Spiller's entourage on the field at Death Valley when he was inducted into Clemson's Ring of Honor.

It brought tears to her eyes because the first thing she thought of was when CJ tried to join a youth football team as a 6-year-old and was told he was too young (he spent that season as the water boy instead).

CJ bawled his eyes out that day when told he couldn't play. He was crying again last Saturday, but they were tears of joy and gratitude.

Watkins joins The Dubcast to reflect on the journey since Spiller's recruitment when she first heard the name Dabo Swinney.

Swinney, then the receivers coach, was the key figure in convincing Spiller that Clemson was the place for him.

And then a year later, Swinney was again the catalyst in convincing Spiller to remain at Clemson after he'd made up his mind he was going back home and transferring to Florida to join Urban Meyer, Tim Tebow and Percy Harvin.

The mother of the most important recruit in Clemson football history opens up about her story, and their story.