Friday March 20, 2009

Friday E-Mail Bag

Friday E-Mail Bag
Each Friday I publish your comments and answer your questions. To submit a comment or questions please e-mail me at mickeyplyler@hotmail.com.

Mickey,

Kirk

Kirk,
I cannot argue any of your points. We are all extremely disappointed in the way the season ended. It seemed like the second half of the Florida State game was the turning point. Up until that time the Tigers were rolling. This team had issues but others arose. Defensively this team did not play well for the most part the last half of the season and effort was an issue to me. Turnovers were the other issue late in the year. However, Purnell and his staff fixed the effort issue and the turnover issue last night. Clemson only had 11 turnovers. I thought they played hard also. Last night the game plan was solid. The Tigers penetrated the zone. They skipped passes over the zone. The rebounded the zone with 20 offensive rebounds. Last night there was only one issue and it was shooting. Clemson could not shoot the ball last night. The Tigers shot just 32% from the field. If you take away Sykes’ 4-5 performance and Booker’s 7-10 performance then Clemson was just 10-50 from the field. I don’t care who you play, if you shoot like that then you will be packing your bags and heading home.

Mickey,
Enjoyed reading your blog on our great freshman baseball class the other day.

Bob

Bob,

With an in-state rivalry bragging rights go into recruiting as well. South Carolina has had the upper hand in recruiting in the state but Clemson did OK with players like Brad Chalk and Taylor Harbin. However, like you stated, you have to get other players from other states and most of Clemson’s best players in school history have been out of state players. Khalil Greene was from Florida, Kris Benson from Georgia, Shane Monahan was from Georgia, Bert Heffernan was from New York, etc. I think it is important to have a mix of in-state and out-of-state players but I the end it really does not matter where they are from. And you are right to be excited about this last recruiting class. It looks better and better with each passing week.

Mickey,

Rick

Rick,

I hear there are several good candidates including former Tennessee defensive line coach Dan Brooks, current Duke defensive line coach Marion Hobby, former Clemson coach Ron West and former Auburn defensive line coach Don Dunn.

Brooks had All-Americans like Albert Haynesworth and John Henderson at Tennessee. He is one of the most experienced coaches in the country. Brooks has recruited North Carolina and South Carolina very hard for many years.

Hobby impressed many in his first stint with Clemson. He has coached at Ole Miss and the NFL as well. I think was the best defensive line coach Clemson has had in recent memory.

West is another experienced coach that is very familiar with the recruiting territories here in South Carolina and Georgia. He is now at Tulsa but would comeback to his alma mater for this job.

Dunn was a highly respected member of Tommy Tubervlle’s staffs at Auburn and Ole Miss. Like the rest of these candidates he is considered an excellent coach and recruiter.

There may be another candidate or two that we do not know about as well. We do think Dabo will hire a new defensive line coach before the end of the month. This is an important hire for this staff and Dabo needs to hire a home run here.

The Brad Hughes All-State Insurance Agency

Prayer List
We have started a prayer list on the blog. Here are the guidelines:
*If you are offended by prayer or prayer lists then I apologize in advance. The blog is free and the prayer list will be on the bottom of the page so you don’t have to read it.
*If you would like to add someone to the list please e-mail me at mickeyplyler@hotmail.com
*If you want the reason for the prayer to be added to the name please specify in your e-mails.
*Please let me know when it is appropriate to take the person off of the prayer list

Those who need our prayers include:
Finn Brookover, Mrs. Kathleen Bowers, Larry in Naples, FL, RTG-Pawsitive Tiger, Mary-Louise Pawlowski (John's daughter), Sandy Wright, Jo Ann Bachman, Frank Taylor, Kenneth Bryant, Pruitt Martin, Got igers and his family, David Rowland, Leonard Gillespie and his family, Jim S, Christine Hepfer, Daniel Rosborough, Amy Murphey, Jack Huffman, Nancy Winkler, Dr. Nancy Strom Morgan, Edward Putman, John Reeve, Eileen Woodrum, Ethel Southard, Anna Rawl, Vinnie Brock, Jean-Pierre Bailey, Kaitlyn L, Fariba Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naemi, Saeid Rezaie, Mahvash Sabet, Behrouz Tavakkoli, Vahid Tizfahm,Vincent Lee.