The Clemson Dubcast

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...

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 man...

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...

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 gra...

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...

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 lov...

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....

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 thi...

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....

Longtime Clemson chronicler Matt Connolly joins the podcast to reflect on what it's like working normal hours now after years of being a one-man show covering the Tigers, and basically being on call at all times as he reacted to every piece of news. Connolly still covers Clemson, but more from a distance from his home in Spartanburg. The more regular structure has allowed him to spend more quality...

Ellis Johnson has been on both sides of the Clemson-South Carolina rivalry. As Tommy West's defensive coordinator from 1994-96, Johnson remembers facilities that were so bad that the Tigers once tried to practice in a nearby livestock arena. "That lasted about 40 minutes and we left," he said. "The reason most people have never heard about it is because we didn't want to let it get out and risk re...

When Laura Rigney learned her son was probably going to be good enough at football to play in college, she began making plans to move with him wherever he ended up. So in 2021 when Leigh left for Clemson, Laura sold their home in Fairfax, Va., and took the family with him. Leigh, a third-year sophomore who starts at left tackle for the Tigers, chooses to live at the family home 20 minutes from cam...

Not a minute goes wasted for Todd Summers on fall Saturdays as he grinds to fulfill duties for both the WSPA news show and the Dabo Swinney coach's show that is filmed and edited after the game. Summers frequently travels with the team for road games. And that means for games that end late at night he's making sure he doesn't get left by the team buses in the wee hours as he tries to finish his wo...

Mickey Plyler joins The Dubcast for an hour-plus-long conversation that features very little talk about Clemson's defeat at N.C. State, and not a lot of talk about the Tigers' 4-4 start. And therein, perhaps, lies the genius of Dabo Swinney bringing the heat to fans both Monday night and at his Tuesday press conference. Whether calculated or spontaneous, Swinney's sermons took the focus off the fo...

Eric Mac Lain's job with the ACC Network and ESPN is calling things like he sees them on the football field. And of late, that's meant calling out the program that he loves and played for. Mac Lain, who played his final season at Clemson in 2015 when the Tigers advanced to the national title game, joins the podcast to reflect on his process and how he navigates criticizing people he loves and admi...

Reggie Merriweather has a rather indelible memory of being recruited by Clemson. Tommy Bowden and assistant Rick Stockstill stopped by his home in North Augusta on a Sunday.  As the two coaches and the Merriweather family watched NFL football, Bowden took off his shoes and propped his feet on the coffee table. "My mom didn't like that," Merriweather said. "She asked him to please take his feet off...

Given the torment and abuse he suffered for years after his missed field goal late against South Carolina in 2006, it's a surprise to hear that Jad Dean is currently as big a message-board junkie as anyone. Dean is an avid subscriber to Tigerillustrated.com, refreshes the site non-stop through the day, and he even visits Saturday in-game message-board threads that can turn nasty in a hurry. It too...

Tim Cowan's seats at Death Valley are so low in the north lower deck that leaving via the field is his preferred route after every game. It beats having to wait until all the foot traffic clears from the steps above. Cowan became a sensation last week when it was discovered that he placed himself behind the last three coaches who have won at Clemson during their postgame TV interviews -- Pitt's Pa...

When he was a third-grader living in the projects of Tallahassee, DeAndre McDaniel learned his mother was taken to jail yet again. From there it took a village to keep McDaniel on the straight and narrow, as his grandmother Dot and godmother Kim wrapped their arms around him and protected him through middle school and high school. When Dabo Swinney began recruiting McDaniel in high school, that su...

Jeff Scott has coached on some of the highest-pressure stages imaginable -- five consecutive playoff trips from 2015 to 2019, four national championship games, and a load of other important games during the regular seasons. He finds that the pressure of coaching 4-and-under youth soccer brings its own stresses as other parents look on at practices and games. Scott, fired from South Florida late la...

David Pollack spent more than a decade carving a stellar reputation as a no-nonsense, entertaining presence with ESPN's college football coverage. And then he received a call this past offseason that he couldn't believe: He was laid off with a large group of other prominent personalities as Disney and The Worldwide Leader continue to grapple with the effects of cord-cutting and over-leveraging wit...

Matt Bockhorst was one of many people close to the team who bought into the offseason optimism about Garrett Riley and Cade Klubnik helping transform the mindset of not just the offense but the entire program. There was an air of rejuvenation and confidence that was palpable when Bockhorst made a trip to Clemson to watch an August scrimmage. Very little of that materialized under the lights in Cle...

After a crucial penalty call went against Clemson late in a 2007 loss at Georgia Tech, Lucas Glover threw his remote control through the screen of his brand-new HD television set. Yeah, you might say he's a big fan of his alma mater. Big enough to have subscribed to Tigerillustrated.com for two decades and made it a significant part of his daily routine. Big enough to pop in and post to the websit...

As the chancellor at the University of North Carolina from 2008 to 2013, Holden Thorp was front-and-center for some seismic athletics-related events. When he took the job he thought his main mission from trustees was to make UNC more like MIT academically. He soon learned otherwise as an NCAA scandal unfolded in Chapel Hill involving fake classes and a compromised tutor for the Tar Heels' football...

As not just the former president of Clemson University, but the former chairman of the ACC's Council of Presidents, Jim Barker had a front-row seat to many of the major conference realignment movements of the past. That institutional knowledge gives him some interesting and poignant perspective of the current shifts taking place -- and the possibly existential crisis facing the ACC. Two years ago,...