Siiiiiigh:
I feel like every season, we’re given these types of OPs to give hope:
-Golden compared to Butch’s first 4 yr
-Richt compared to Jimmy Johnson
-Now Manny compared to Dabo
Context is everything w/ Clemson’s rise:
1. It started with the 2009 class. The class of ‘09 was the 36th ranked class, but it had a very, Very important recruit....it was the #3 and 5 star QB Tahj Boyd. Once Tahj developed, which was around his Sophomore yr, Dabo won no less than 10 games/yr. (That happened in yr 2 1/2 of his HC tenure)
2. Dabo started using the philosophy of quality over quantity in recruiting (same as Butch.) His talent evaluation was fire. Ppl see his first two classes in 2009 & 2010 and the see the rankings of 36th & 27th and be like “omg, those were horrible classes.” They were 36th & 27th b/c they were small classes but they contained gems! Tahj Boyd, D Hopkins, M. Bryant, M. Goodman, D. Robinson, etc. Those classes complimented the misused talent that were recruited under Bowden.
3. After the embarrassing losses in 2011, and the shear amount of points given up in those games, Dabo hired one of the best DCs/LB coaches in the nation, the same guy we passed on as a HC, in Brent V. That hire paid immediate dividends.
4. Being that Dabo played WR, he knew how important the QB evaluation is, and from Tahj to DJ Uiagalelei, Dabo has hit the mark on thee most important position in football.
5. The boosters rallied around Dabo, and so did the administration. The school was investing in itself. Brent was broke off $1m to come coach, and whatever Brent needed on his side of the ball, he got w/o any ?’s. There was no penny pinching or duck tape process.
Now; let’s talk about Manny. I will give Manny credit for immediately changing the OC, But he also wasted $1m by hiring & waited to hire said OC. OK; no worries....new offensive staff brought in & hopefully some positive continuity can be established.
Let’s talk about our QB room. We are already talking about going to the portal for next season if King foolishly leaves. That’s a problem. Furthermore, we had to get King b/c our QB room was f’d up. That’s a problem. King is a fringe P5 QB that will give you some good games (see UVA) & some not so good games (see Clemson, Pitt). That’s a problem.
Let’s talk about our evals; or “possibly” lack thereof. Our classes have looked good on paper, but the guys are not living up and/or “potentially” coached up to their rankings. Is that coaching or bad evals? Furthermore, attrition is decimating us. Can’t field a competent team, when guys are leaving at an alarming pace. Either way Clemson has been kicking our *** in these depts and that started happening a while ago.
Boosters. How committed are our boosters to this school when they talk about E before W? We’ve sprayed champagne on ourselves for the IPF, while Clemson was completely remodeling their ENTIRE athletic facilities.
Here’s my point; it is absolutely foolish to compare Manny to Dabo. Miami is not Clemson & Clemson is not Miami. Until we get the QB room legit, until we get our evals right, until Manny stop thinking that scraping by **** poor teams who we are vastly superior than, is a means to celebrate like a child, until we get our recruiting in order at the two most important positions in football now (QB, and CB), then we are not going to see growth both on & off the field.
***And as a side note, can we further explain that 2010 season in which Dabo went 6-7
-The 7 teams he lost to had a combined record of 63-31 including the eventual Nat’l Champs & all teams had a winning record.
-We went 6-7 against a combined opponents record of 50-39 that included 3 teams with sub .500 records***
Not trying to break balls, but it really feels like groundhogs day around here. Clemson & Dabo is a **** poor example for us, UNLESS we see meteoric changes in the QB room & CB room & thus far that just don’t look the part.