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Dave Clawson Press Conference - 9/25

Ayo

Ayo

What up, Bird?
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This one's for you, Bud. Goes into some detail about the defensive coordinator situation.

 
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A lot of good info:

- WF has played 5 true frosh the 4 game limit before they can be redshirted: Hartman, Sciba, Smenda, Greer and Bergan. All 5 will continue to play and will not be redshirted.
- Dix has played in 3 games, and the staff is not certain whether they will play in more than 1 other game.
- There are several true freshman that they expect to play, but hope to also redshirt, by not playing them in more than 4 games; they hope to wait until deeper in the year to play them.
- Hinton will play a variety of roles (KR, Slot Receiver, QB); right now Hinton is Dortch's backup, but they may play them together.
- Hartman is starting on Saturday
- Went into detail on the Sawvel firing; said it was not one or two games that led to the decision, but a year and half evaluation; DC said that he respects Sawvel as a coach and a person, but he had to make the decision that was in the best interest in the program; the defensive flaws go beyond one person, and collectively they are working to fix it.
- Dave Cohen and Lyle Hemphill will be in charge of calling the defenses; interesting tidbit: Mike Elko worked under Dave Cohen, when Cohen was the head coach of Hofstra.
 
Clawson does excellent press conferences. Gives plenty of info but not too much.
 
Interesting comment from Clawson.
Pete Lembo is the special teams coordinator at Rice.
 
For as bad as we played, I was encouraged. If there's a way to fix our issues, I truly believe they keep Clawson up and night and have no doubt he will do everything in his power to fix the issues. At some point we may need better players, but he didn't suggest that. His explanation of guys just not being aligned correctly, eyes in the wrong spot, undisciplined were the reasons for firing Sawvel. And Sawvel may have been communicating the correct things, or coaching it correctly, but the team just wasn't receiving it. A different voice sometimes is necessary.
 
SDeacz said:
For as bad as we played, I was encouraged. If there's a way to fix our issues, I truly believe they keep Clawson up and night and have no doubt he will do everything in his power to fix the issues. At some point we may need better players, but he didn't suggest that. His explanation of guys just not being aligned correctly, eyes in the wrong spot, undisciplined were the reasons for firing Sawvel. And Sawvel may have been communicating the correct things, or coaching it correctly, but the team just wasn't receiving it. A different voice sometimes is necessary.
Click to expand...

Yes, the PC gave a little more insight into the comparison between Ruggiero and Sawvel - this wasn't a macro look at total results, but giving small incremental goals and seeing if there was progression towards those goals. Consistently improving on the small goals leads to a better overall product - a la Ruggiero and the offense. It seems improvement, even incremental in the smaller technical goals, was not being achieved under Sawvel.

He did also mention that if players are in the right position, playing the right technique and we're getting beat, then that's a recruiting issue - but that's not the most glaring issue now. We're lining up wrong and making the wrong reads.
 
Thanks for posting the PC. Clawson continues to impress. He hits the right notes, says the right things, and most importantly appears to make the right decisions for the right reasons.
 
Dekin said:
Doesn’t seem like that long ago the we played and beat a fairly decent UCONN team in the Belk - make that Meineke Bowl.
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UConn had a solid program for several years, made a BCS bowl one year.
 
Is it safe to say that UConn has been the school most impacted by the Big East falling apart? Seems like it really hurt both football and basketball.
 
Bubble Boy said:
Is it safe to say that UConn has been the school most impacted by the Big East falling apart? Seems like it really hurt both football and basketball.
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Probably so. The AAC is not the old Big East for Football and it is not either the old Big East nor the new Big East for Basketball. The men's basketball and football teams have lost a lot by not being in the old Big East.

Also, those two teams may have taken the brunt of the "sue Conn" image after UConn sued the ACC for breaking up the old Big East. The ACC will think long and hard if considering UConn for membership (if they even get considered.)

Women's basketball and other teams don't seem to have felt the impact nearly as much. Field Hockey is ranked #2 in the country. Women's basketball is perennial national title contender.
 
UCONN didn't join the Big East in football until after it fell apart. The last year of the Big East before the defections was 2003. This was the standings:


2003 Big East football standings


v ·
t ·
e


Conf





Overall


Team



W



L









W



L



No. 5 Miami (FL) $+ 6 – 1 11 – 2
West Virginia + 6 – 1 8 – 5
Pittsburgh 5 – 2 8 – 5
Virginia Tech 4 – 3 8 – 5
Boston College 3 – 4 8 – 5
Syracuse 2 – 5 6 – 6
Rutgers 2 – 5 5 – 7
Temple 0 – 7 1 – 11


$ – BCS representative as conference champion
+ – Conference co-champions

In 2004, Miami and VA Tech had already left for the ACC and BC (maybe Pitt too) had made plans to follow. The 2004 Big East added UCONN and Temple, but by that point, it was the beginning of the end for the Big East.
 
The sense I got was that Clawson was trying to be respectful to Sawvel by not immediately naming his replacement and avoid creating suspicion/media speculation that the move was some sort of back door deal making/defensive staff coup to oust Sawvel. He repeatedly emphasized consistent lack of results over time equals "next man up" whether it's a player or a coach. He fully understands he is in a highly visible, results-only-matter position and responded accordingly.
 
Bubble Boy said:
Is it safe to say that UConn has been the school most impacted by the Big East falling apart? Seems like it really hurt both football and basketball.
Click to expand...

Would still kill to have had the ACC take them over Louisville.
 
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