Playerspeak
posted by LW, Tuesday, October 13, 2009
You've probably heard of the term "coachspeak," which covers exhilarating phrases like "giving 110 percent" and "BFE Tech has one of the best deep snappers I've ever seen."
The more you cover this stuff for a living, the more you get used to it.
Something less detectable is "playerspeak."
With playerspeak, everything is always wonderful when it's in the present. Even in the face of severe adversity, players claim everyone is together and committed to turning things around.
This is the case at Clemson during the Tigers' recent woes, and that's the way it should be. If players came out and unearthed disputes and dissension, it wouldn't be a good thing (not that there are in fact disputes and dissension taking place with this team -- just saying).
Or even if they came out and said something like, "Yeah, we might as well go ahead and give up on the season," that wouldn't be a good thing either.
Nevertheless, the last 3-and-a-half seasons have conditioned me to almost nod off when I hear players talk about how great things are, even during extremely difficult times.
As the ceiling caved in on Clemson's 2006 season, with the Tigers losing four of their last five games after a 7-1 start, we heard about all the seniors keeping the team together and all that.
When the Tigers suffered ugly losses to Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech in back-to-back games in 2007, we heard that things were different because the previous year's team was filled with seniors who didn't care.
Then last year, you could take your pick of debilitating moments -- Alabama, Maryland, Wake Forest, Florida State, Nebraska.
A year later, C.J. Spiller tells us that last year's team splintered. He says that won't happen with this team because there's much more chemistry.
I'm not discrediting what Spiller is saying. Just saying I don't put a whole lot of stock in playerspeak.
In The State, Post and Courier and Seneca paper, the Tigers take the glass-half-full approach. As well they should, given the sorry state of the Atlantic Division.
Also in The State, Paul Furlow, uh, Strelow, offers some blog thoughts after taking a week off. He says last week's dust-up between Dabo Swinney and Billy Napier was not an encouraging development.
More info on the changes on the offensive line here, here and here.
In the Independent-Mail, the Tigers' secondary prepares for a familiar face.
Rashard Hall remembers the last time he faced Riley Skinner.
It wasn’t pretty.
Five years ago, Hall was a freshman defensive back at Saint Augustine (Fla.) High School, facing off against The Bolles School — led by Skinner — in Florida’s state semifinals.
He could only watch as Skinner executed a perfect 80-yard hitch-and-go to Central Florida recruit Rocky Ross — against Florida-bound cornerback Jacquez Richardson, no less — the highlight of a 40-6 rout.
“He got the best of us,” Hall said, “which rarely happened.”
In the ACC Sports Journal, the same old problems for Clemson.
The thinking was that the 39-year-old Swinney, with his youthful enthusiasm and galvanizing leadership qualities, had what it took to guide the Tigers where Bowden couldn’t.
The thinking was that Swinney and 30-year-old offensive coordinator Billy Napier, with fearless play-calling and an insistence on physical play up front, would be able to breathe life into a stagnant offense.
So a 2-3 start, and how it was achieved, represented the sum of all fears for the folks who were quick to dismiss and even demonize the ways of the past.
Bud Foster has quite an assignment on his hands in Saturday's trip to Georgia Tech.
I really can't wait for the reactions after this game. Invariably, it'll be one of two extremes:
A) Virginia Tech will bottle up the Jackets' option, and the anti-Paul Johnson crowd will crow that his system is doomed to failure.
B) Georgia Tech will run wild, and the pro-Paul Johnson crowd will claim he'll win the next five ACC titles.
There's an element of ridiculousness in both camps. Paul Johnson isn't about to take over the world, but he's not going to be slumming it anytime soon, either. He's a darn good coach who will have the Jackets darn formidable as long as he's there.
Now if he can just get them to play some defense.
Caulton Tudor didn't like what he saw of N.C. State on Saturday night.
And man, I'm still amazed by Thad Lewis' performance in Raleigh.
I don't want to make too much out of one game, but this is easily the best Duke has looked on offense since some Young Ball Coach was drawing up ball plays in Durham.
LW
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You've probably heard of the term "coachspeak," which covers exhilarating phrases like "giving 110 percent" and "BFE Tech has one of the best deep snappers I've ever seen."
The more you cover this stuff for a living, the more you get used to it.
Something less detectable is "playerspeak."
With playerspeak, everything is always wonderful when it's in the present. Even in the face of severe adversity, players claim everyone is together and committed to turning things around.
This is the case at Clemson during the Tigers' recent woes, and that's the way it should be. If players came out and unearthed disputes and dissension, it wouldn't be a good thing (not that there are in fact disputes and dissension taking place with this team -- just saying).
Or even if they came out and said something like, "Yeah, we might as well go ahead and give up on the season," that wouldn't be a good thing either.
Nevertheless, the last 3-and-a-half seasons have conditioned me to almost nod off when I hear players talk about how great things are, even during extremely difficult times.
As the ceiling caved in on Clemson's 2006 season, with the Tigers losing four of their last five games after a 7-1 start, we heard about all the seniors keeping the team together and all that.
When the Tigers suffered ugly losses to Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech in back-to-back games in 2007, we heard that things were different because the previous year's team was filled with seniors who didn't care.
Then last year, you could take your pick of debilitating moments -- Alabama, Maryland, Wake Forest, Florida State, Nebraska.
A year later, C.J. Spiller tells us that last year's team splintered. He says that won't happen with this team because there's much more chemistry.
I'm not discrediting what Spiller is saying. Just saying I don't put a whole lot of stock in playerspeak.
In The State, Post and Courier and Seneca paper, the Tigers take the glass-half-full approach. As well they should, given the sorry state of the Atlantic Division.
Also in The State, Paul Furlow, uh, Strelow, offers some blog thoughts after taking a week off. He says last week's dust-up between Dabo Swinney and Billy Napier was not an encouraging development.
More info on the changes on the offensive line here, here and here.
In the Independent-Mail, the Tigers' secondary prepares for a familiar face.
Rashard Hall remembers the last time he faced Riley Skinner.
It wasn’t pretty.
Five years ago, Hall was a freshman defensive back at Saint Augustine (Fla.) High School, facing off against The Bolles School — led by Skinner — in Florida’s state semifinals.
He could only watch as Skinner executed a perfect 80-yard hitch-and-go to Central Florida recruit Rocky Ross — against Florida-bound cornerback Jacquez Richardson, no less — the highlight of a 40-6 rout.
“He got the best of us,” Hall said, “which rarely happened.”
In the ACC Sports Journal, the same old problems for Clemson.
The thinking was that the 39-year-old Swinney, with his youthful enthusiasm and galvanizing leadership qualities, had what it took to guide the Tigers where Bowden couldn’t.
The thinking was that Swinney and 30-year-old offensive coordinator Billy Napier, with fearless play-calling and an insistence on physical play up front, would be able to breathe life into a stagnant offense.
So a 2-3 start, and how it was achieved, represented the sum of all fears for the folks who were quick to dismiss and even demonize the ways of the past.
Bud Foster has quite an assignment on his hands in Saturday's trip to Georgia Tech.
I really can't wait for the reactions after this game. Invariably, it'll be one of two extremes:
A) Virginia Tech will bottle up the Jackets' option, and the anti-Paul Johnson crowd will crow that his system is doomed to failure.
B) Georgia Tech will run wild, and the pro-Paul Johnson crowd will claim he'll win the next five ACC titles.
There's an element of ridiculousness in both camps. Paul Johnson isn't about to take over the world, but he's not going to be slumming it anytime soon, either. He's a darn good coach who will have the Jackets darn formidable as long as he's there.
Now if he can just get them to play some defense.
Caulton Tudor didn't like what he saw of N.C. State on Saturday night.
And man, I'm still amazed by Thad Lewis' performance in Raleigh.
I don't want to make too much out of one game, but this is easily the best Duke has looked on offense since some Young Ball Coach was drawing up ball plays in Durham.
LW
For questions or comments on this blog entry, please visit The West Zone message board.
Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home
Donnie Patterson. Donnie Patterson is the founder of Patterson Tax Service, located in Easley, S.C. He has been active in tax preparation since 1970, and offers a full range of tax and bookkeeping services.
Larry Williams. Larry has covered the daily beat at Clemson since 2004. Williams, who worked for the Charleston Post & Courier from 2004-08, joined Tigerillustrated.com in November of 2008. He may be reached by email at ldubya08(at)gmail.com. Replace (at) with @.