How much stock should we put into Clemson's loss against Duke in week one?

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Subscription auto renews. Some call her the Dabo Sweeney whisper. I don't. I call her Grace Rainer from the athletic college football reporter, recruiting analyst and somebody who covered Clemson for a long time and I loved your piece in the athletic. If I could just quote from well your tweet about it is this uh must we recalibrate our expectations? It has been. There's a cottage industry of people right now slamming the Clemson Tigers and Dabo Sweeney just because they lost to a good football team on the road in opening week.

Or should we be making more of this than we are? I think when you look at this Clemson team they needed to come out in the first game of 2023 and have some style points for lack of a better word right? Like we wanted to see this offense make progress. Obviously it's been a couple a tough couple of years with DJ Uyengar Lele and Brandon Streeter at quarterback and offensive coordinator and Dabo made a huge statement this off season by firing Streeter which was a really big move for him.

He's extremely loyal. He loves his Clemson guys and so I think we all were looking to see what Clemson's new offense would look like and then it looked exactly like it did in 2022 and 2021 and so that's where I think the questions are being raised in terms of what is this Clemson team? What is the path forward? Where do we view them in terms of the college football landscape right now? That's not to say they won't get back to the top but after what we saw Monday night and after what we've seen the last two seasons I think it's fair to sort of question where are they in this landscape.

Grace Rayner from The Athletic you can follow her on Twitter at GMRayner. How much of this is about Dabo's very public stance against using the transfer portal and how much of it is and maybe it's both how much of it is some misses when it comes to a lot of five stars but not all five stars are the same and not all five stars develop the same way. It doesn't look like they have the same level of talent and it hasn't for a few years just at the wide receiver spot. There was nobody who stretched the field against Duke. Nobody and I think that that was the most glaring part right is when you look at this offense it has been built on big time wide receivers go up and get it guys. T Higgins, Mike Williams, DeAndre Hopkins, Sammy Watkins like the list just goes on and on and on and this offense doesn't have that and when you look at the wide receivers they got some pretty big time recruits. I mean Adam Randall was a big time prospect.

Bo Collins. These are guys that should be able to do it and so it does make you have to question the development a little bit. All right so you were talking about the wide receivers and they haven't quite lived up to expectations. Let me just interject this is it possible that the quarterbacks I know DJ had a great game by the way for Oregon State in his debut out west. Is Cade Klubnick is he that guy?

I think the jury's still out on that right. I think that that's also fair to question just I mean yes we have the wide receivers are under a ton of scrutiny as they probably should be but I think we need to see more from Cade. His sample size is obviously pretty small. He looked great against North Carolina in the ACC Championship game last year. Big time prospect out of Texas played to the highest level in high school football. I think he can do it but I thought he looked overwhelmed at times. I thought his decision making was not great against Duke and I think that we need a little bit more time before we're ready to crown him the next elite Clemson quarterback.

Grace Rayner at GM Rayner on Twitter from The Athletic is joining us here in the Adam Gold Show and we also should point out that were a couple of red zone turnovers and maybe a block kick from having a different narrative about the game. We're talking about how Clemson beat Duke and I again I'm the guy who thinks that Duke was going to be better than the nine win version from last year. The record might not have reflected it but people will not that you would ask anybody this Grace but I had been predicting a Duke win all summer long because I legitimately think Duke is good.

Now did I really think would I have bet money on it? No I don't think I would but I think Duke is good and I think Duke showed themselves to be very talented on the defensive line and in the defensive secondary and their offense is pretty good and I think Riley Leonard is one of the best quarterbacks in the country not just the ACC but with all of that said I do recognize that this was more about Clemson than it was about Duke but why do you think Dabo is such a target for everybody because I think that Dabo even though he's kind of old school to a poem maybe to a fault I think Dabo's a lot of what's good. Yeah I think he's become he's just become a lightning rod in college football right he's very opinionated and he is unapologetic in the way he feels about the college football landscape and one of the things I really respect about him and one of the things I really like about him just from a media standpoint is that you never walk away wondering I wonder what Dabo Swinney really thought or I wonder what I wonder what Dabo Swinney how he actually feels but that has opened him up to scrutiny you know I mean college football is changing at a rapid pace right now you know that we all know that there's more opinions than ever and so he's got his and and other people have theirs and so one of the one of the downfalls of being so honest is that people are gonna feel like they can pick you apart. All right before we let Grace Rainer go and I appreciate your time in two weeks two weeks two weeks I guess this week and next week should be wins for Clemson I'm not I'm not trying to assume anything but Charleston Southern and Florida Atlantic Clemson should be two and two and one when Florida State comes to town how hard or how difficult will it be to not look all the way to that game as that's where Clemson gets redemption? Yeah I mean certainly that's the game we all care about right I know that Dabo behind the scenes will be preaching to his team you know don't overlook your next two opponents but these next two games I think for all intents and purposes are cleanup games sort of get your confidence back some fix some of those miscues and then I think in two weeks is when we'll get our next real look at Clemson I don't think we can take much from these next two weeks but once Florida State comes to town that is going to be the next true litmus test I think for this Clemson team. Yeah I don't think you could take things positively out of the next two weeks you might be able to take some things negatively if it still doesn't look like it's supposed to look. Real quick what were your thoughts on Florida State from game one? I thought they looked excellent you know we heard so much about this Florida State team in the off season and there was so much hype and we were all curious okay can they actually go and do it and what are they actually going to look like and Norvell I think has used the the transfer portal really well he's been very smart with the additions there I think Keon Coleman is a bona fide star and this you know they did it against a big-time LSU team that was the most impressive part to me is that Florida State didn't go out and stomp a cupcake in week one they made a pretty powerful statement right from the from the get-go. At GM Rainer on Twitter from the Athletics she covers college football she's national now and recruiting as well I appreciate your time Grace we'll talk again and thank you. Big game for the Tar Heels coming up on Saturday against App State at Keenan Stadium hoping that Tez Walker will be able to play had his hearing today with the NCAA this is a final shot and it's the first time that Tez Walker personally has been in front of the committee now this was done virtually it was done over a zoom call so I don't know if that matters or not I really don't but it was the first time he had been able to address the committee with like his own you know emotions if you will everything else had been done via a portal where he just explains himself but in this case they got to actually hear him talk the word is that he presented his case his emotions well I don't know that we would hear if he didn't or maybe we shouldn't even expect that he couldn't but the word is that he did very well we do not have a a response from the NCAA yet which I know it's crazy let's say Thursday I know it's crazy let's say Thursday 5 15 game right so we are 52 hours roughly from kickoff might be good to know how the NCAA feels about that because as I said earlier if you're going to declare him eligible I mean he should have played last week so how about let's not take two games two significant games out of Tez Walker's season let's you know let's let's think about that so I'm hoping the NCAA will grant him eligibility to play and do it honestly today I don't know when they're going to respond they didn't respond was it Tamari Fox last year they took like a month before they said yeah no so I mean just get to it let the kid play um but as I pointed out earlier and we talked about it yesterday and if you want to read a really good piece about it I got I retweeted it last night or yesterday afternoon Greg Barnes piece from inside Carolina does a great job explaining it and it left me being pessimistic to be perfectly honest but this is where I believe this is what I would call I would put into the category of a fairly written article I mean tons of information about how this whole thing played played out timeline responses all of that he has documentation and the way it's presented first of all I think it just gives Greg a ton of credibility as a reporter on this because it would be very easy to to to forget things and a lot of the reporting we have seen about Tez Walker has omitted certain things from the equation this does not omit anything that at least I know but the NCAA never viewed Tez Walker's departure from Central to go to Kent State they never viewed that as well he wasn't going to play at Central because of the pandemic therefore we don't really count that we don't really count that as a transfer because they said that his situation was not unique I don't know I don't know if it was unique or not I don't even know if that's the right way to put it but at the time that Tez Walker left NC Central it was after spring practice he was under the impression a lot of people were under the impression that the MEAC was going to play football in the spring that year that was the pandemic year after they shut it down in the fall of 2020 there's a lot of a lot of conferences didn't want to play I mean the ones that make a lot of money from tv they played because they needed some money coming the networks needed money but Tez Walker decided not to take the chance that the MEAC wouldn't come back in the fall of 21 he didn't want to lose ultimately three college seasons because that's what it would have been remember he was supposed to go to East Tennessee State right out of high school he's a Charlotte area kid he was supposed to go to East Tennessee State but he got hurt his senior year East Tennessee State wanted him to gray shirt and ultimately they moved on and he moved on he ended up enrolling the following year at Central then the pandemic came and then he wasn't sure they were going to play the next year in the fall so he went to Kent State so that's where his football career started so it really should be in my opinion his first transfer which we were not we would not be having any discussion but he recognized that he would be considered a second transfer when he got to Carolina then the rules then the rules changed and all of the reasons that they were that the NCAA in the past had allowed players to transfer even a second time and become eligible automatically your coach leaving close to home these types of things no longer matter and that's tough when you were when you were initially transferred and thought they that they would matter but they don't so we have to find we have to wait until the NCAA says something today but I encourage you to read that article it's really well done and thorough and again I came out of it less optimistic than I was before but maybe the emotions of the day will get them and I hope Tez Walker can play against App on Saturday but if he's going to be declared eligible by the NCAA let's just do it I mean what else do you need I mean the committee that he spoke to is the committee that will make the decision that determination they don't have to report back we should just get an answer and probably we probably should have already gotten an answer but that's not the way the NCAA works all right I'll leave that alone we've got that's an important football game the wolf pack and notre dame are playing tomorrow rather on some it's not friday yet right graham no it is not I wish it was you and me both they're playing saturday at noon at carter finley stadium I keep thinking about what I saw last thursday night a week ago tonight I saw nc state struggle a little bit to stop connecticut's run game I saw nc state struggle a little bit to create their own run game now their own running game was okay wasn't great was okay mostly brennan arms right well it was mostly armstrong scrambling right wasn't a lot of design runs for armstrong was mostly armstrong buying time making plays with his legs a bunch of third downs that he was able to convert out of the pocket but my biggest takeaway was as I'm watching the game going because I had already watched notre dame the week and weekend before in ireland run the ball straight ahead on navy and I'm not saying that navy is a great defensive front but I saw connecticut have success a lot running the ball I think connecticut averaged over six yards of carry in the game now they obviously didn't stay with it for whatever reasons and state's defense made a lot of plays throughout uh the passing game was not there makes you wonder why they didn't just run it all the time they also had that 20 that what that 70-yard touchdown run which of course impacts the overall average but they had success a lot running the ball and all I could think of last thursday night was who notre dame's gonna run straight ahead yeah right uh estimay is dynamite he is a load running the football sam hartman is an elite quarterback that if you're the irish you're gonna run you're gonna run you're gonna run you're gonna play action pass that's just the way I would do it if I were them I know that's pretty basic but that's what I would run the ball until state stopped it and then I would let sam hartman make plays off that but state's got a great defense and hopefully they'll be better than they were against connecticut especially uh in the early going of that game connecticut went right right down the field their first drive which was concerning but we'll see how uh the irish play it and we'll see how the wolfpack defended uh duke's got a basically bye week against lafayette at six o'clock on uh on the computer uh and wake has a morning game against vanderbilt big game for uh for wake that's me you gotta because I didn't think they were great against elon they started off good first yeah they thought the game might have been over they were good in the first half but I don't I still don't even think they were great in the first half I mean wake wake has changed the way we look at wake I think we I expect wake to be really good dave claus has done a good job of setting a certain standard there over the last couple of seasons that's that's exactly competing for divisional titles which don't no longer exist yeah right can't do that anymore but still and can't do that anymore but still and actually they weren't really competing for division titles when clemson was doing clemson things a couple years ago obviously it was different um but the uh but they were just so uh in the second half that I think this week is a big week for wake forest um and then you've got you know it's a big week for app east carolina's got to bounce back I I know michigan is what michigan is but pirates still didn't get anything done offensively you had the one opportunity early right after you pin michigan deep and then you start the next possession in plus territory and you did nothing with it so they have to they have to be better um I still think they can have a good season anyway that's the that's our college football uh weekend coming up but I hope tes walker will be a part of it