This Dabo baby tiger illustration from ESPN is the cutest goddamn thing I’ve ever seen. So pure, so simple, yet so dead on. Its from a story ESPN published today on how Dabo built Clemson into a monster of a program. Dabo is such a chill dude that probably would befriend a baby tiger, both on their path to global domination. I love Dabo and am a huge Deshaun Watson guy, but I’m not necessarily a Clemson stan and even I want to frame this picture.
Dabo so hot right now, Dabo.
Weird…or not so weird? Former #Clemson standout Hunter Renfrow had a dream last night that he was a @Patriots WR and was in a meeting with Tom Brady, so there’s that pic.twitter.com/uUa889kW5z
— Scott Keepfer (@ScottKeepfer) March 16, 2019
I loved Renfrow in college. While he might not be a household name, if you’re even somewhat of a college football fan you’ve seen him make huge plays for Clemson in national championship after national championship.
Renfrow gets in and out of his cuts and through traffic in a way Patriots fans have become so accustomed to over the past 12 years with Julian Edelman and Wes Welker. Plus he’s got the scrappy attitude that Bill Belichick loves as a walk on at Clemson who was a 5th year senior that became a team captain. The guy might not have the pure God given talent like other receivers that’ll get drafted before him do, but hey Chad Jackson was a physical specimen and he flamed out pretty quick. Our best receiver was a goddamn quarterback at Kent State so if anyone will take a flyer on him its the Pats. Doesn’t hurt that they currently only have two wide receivers with any real experience on the roster too.
Roll the tape!
ESPN.com – SANTA CLARA, Calif. — With stunning ease — and a freshman quarterback — Clemson toppled college football’s greatest dynasty again to become the first perfect playoff champion. Trevor Lawrence passed for 347 yards and three touchdowns and the second-ranked Tigers beat No. 1 Alabama 44-16 on Monday night in the College Football Playoff national championship game.
So I am actually going to lay out an argument here, and I implore you to stick with me.
Basically, I don’t think that just because you cannot successfully coach in the NFL, it does not mean you are a bad coach. However, I think if you are a complete and abject fucking failure in the NFL, it may be a red flag and something to keep an eye on. An analogy, for reference, is if you were to look at someone in the corporate world’s resume and after a steady climb they plateaued awhile back. They still achieve highly and work on important stuff in their current role, but never got to the next level. Why?
In the case of Nick Saban, there are no two ways about it, he was terrible as the coach of Miami. Not unlike that catchers mitt Pete Carroll with the Patriots, he could not understand the more subtle nuances of being a coach in the pros and it doomed the Dolphins while he was there. So he took his hair plugs back to the college ranks and Alabama, where he has run train on college football for the past decade or so.
So my argument is invalid right? If he’s had this much success in college he has to be a very high-level coach right? Wrong.
You see, during his time in college, Nick Saban, with his $5,000.00 suits and perfect diction has been an excellent recruiter. He woos people. He’s a good salesman. During his run of convincing half of the 5-star recruits in the country to come play for him at Alabama, he has had a pretty easy go of trampling his opponents in college football that simply fielded an inferior group of players, no offense to them. I mean, it’s basic probability when you break it down. Goliath beats David 9/10 times.
Unfortunately, Saban’s brute force luck has run out and now he has to contend with Dabo Swinney and a just-as-talented Clemson program. And what happens? They get run out of the fucking building. The team that is asked once a season if they could beat the NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE’S BEST TEAM get’s seven shades of shit beaten out of them. Because as good of a recruiter as Saban is, he has proven to just not be that good of a coach. A poor executor who can’t make in-game adjustments. Because well, if you can adjust in game you don’t generally fail to score in the second half while your opponent drops 13 to go along with the 31 they dropped in the first half. You just don’t.
So there it is. You can trust Nick Saban to sell you a race car, just don’t ask him to race it for you. You can go through him to make it to the pros, just don’t always expect a National Championship. It might not happen. Not anymore.
Yahoo – “[Dabo Swinney] celebrated the school’s first national title in 35 years by moving his team into a palatial football facility that’s both the envy of college football and a grandiose shrine to its excesses. The 142,500-square-foot expanse includes a nine-hole mini-golf course, turf Wiffle Ball field and every kind of pool imaginable. There’s a 30-yard cold tub, a lap pool, pool tables, pools with underwater treadmills and even an outdoor wading pool.. Clemson’s facility is a $55 million homage to extravagance, as impressive in recruiting circles as it is divisive in academic circles. Amid the Tiger Paw carpet, second-floor slide and barber shop – credit cards accepted! – is one nuance that can’t be written off as a superfluous overindulgence. Clemson’s nap room is the single best asset of its new facility, a common-sense addition to DaboLand that even the fussy pants at the Knight Commission couldn’t twist their britches about. Clemson hails the Nap/Recovery room as “first of its kind” in an athletic facility, but the reality is that it’s long overdue.”
I literally can’t imagine a better life than to be a 19-year old college football player on a top tier program. In between playing in pressure packed games on national TV you get to live your days in Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory.
Clemson won its first National Championship in 35 years, which no doubt brought in absurd sums of money for the school, so they celebrate by building a $55 million football mega-complex. Its got pools, pool tables, a whiffle ball field, underwater treadmills, basketball courts, mini golf, and even a barbershop.
Not to mention a 30-yard long icing pool in case the whole team wants to get a soak in at the same exact time.
But the icing on the cake has got to be the NAP ROOM. That is so gloriously excessive that you have to respect it.
Full disclosure, I think paying student athletes a stipend for the semester is a great idea to put a little coin in their pockets and then let the really good players make money off their own likeness. But I am absolutely not going to shed any tears for these teenagers who get to work out in world class facilities, are treated like rock stars, and play mini golf, then curl up in their very own nap room. Nothing like crushing a good nap.
Dabo Swinney is like the Chip Kelly of the south. An elite college coach, who’s obsessed with the minutia of football and is absolutely maniacal about nutrition and mental health. Chip had guys pissing in cups to test and rank each player’s hydration levels. Dabo’s calling guys out for not sleeping enough.
Man college really is fake life. I had to peel my ass outta bed to get to work on time today after staying up past midnight to watch the Pats last night. In college I would’ve rolled over and said man fuck that class with zero repercussions. Do that shit in your late 20’s and you’ll be working at McDonalds before the end of the month. If I could say one thing to these Clemson athletes, it’d be this:
The 300s 