By William Qualkinbush.
I took the under today.
Before Clemson’s first spring practice of 2015 concluded, I set the over/under at 0.5 interesting notes coming out of it. I took my own under. I’m not sure anybody else played.
Truthfully, spring practice is always a tricky time for me. There are actual games going on that involve Clemson, yet this always feels like the most important thing. Teams are playing games, and we talkin’ about practice.
I made a pact long ago when I started working in media to never pretend something is more important than it actually is. I just don’t enjoy lying to people. It’s not fun for me, and it’s not fair for you.
The truth is that spring practice matters very little—at least, in the ways that you or I might gauge what matters. There is very little tangible development that can lead to a conclusion. Players improve, coaches see personnel, schemes are refined and re-taught, but none of that can clearly be seen until August or September.
Heck, the whole team isn’t even on campus yet. How much can we possibly learn about a part-team?
So, I took the under. I’ve been in these interview sessions before. I’ve heard all of the canned responses you could hear, and I haven’t been doing this that long. Simply put, I just don’t care that much, and I wish games in other sports took precedence and bumped spring football coverage to the backburner.
That was my mentality going into interviews after the first spring practice of the year. I probably shouldn’t share that with you, but I feel like being real tonight. Those were my thoughts.
However, an interesting thing happened while I shuffled around from player to player inside the indoor practice facility. I stumbled upon a nugget that just might serve to illuminate why I’m both right and wrong.
Stay with me. This might get dicey.
Charone Peake was asked if it was nice to get out there and knock the cobwebs off after being off the practice field for a while. The canned response would be something to the effect of “Yeah, it felt good to be out there with my teammates again. It’s an exciting day.”
What Peake said, however, was totally different. He gave a “Not really” and then talked about how much time the wide receivers (and presumably the quarterbacks) had spent going through drills together since the season ended.
It was weird. I pondered it and moved on.
Then, Deshaun Watson—the king of canned responses, which is frustrating and shocking and impressive all at the same time—was asked if his workouts are any different now that he’s going through rehab for his knee. He responded by saying he basically hasn’t changed much, that he’s still progressing in his rehab and is healing well.
Both were good questions that needed to be asked. There was nothing wrong with either of them. The answers, though, were enough to knock me off of my game for a moment.
At that moment, it occurred to me that Watson’s offseason never really began. Next season began as soon as he had his surgery. The same could be said for Peake and his assertion that on-field work has continued since the season ended.
This really wasn’t day one at all. It was day 63.
63 is the number of days between the bowl win over Oklahoma on December 29 and the start of spring practice on Monday. (It also has additional significance from the recent past, but we won’t get too much into that. Chances are, your mind has already gone there anyway.)
This will be billed as the start of something, but it is actually a continuation. Next season started more than two months ago, and it will continue long after the spring game in early April.
Needless to say, I lost my bet. There was one good storyline that came from practice today.
God Bless!
WQ