Let’s think about the college football offseason as the development of unknowns.
Every team has plenty of them. Some are more problematic than others. With so many months to analyze each one, a sort of comfort zone can begin to form within the thought process for each program.
By this point in the calendar, we know this conversation by heart. We know the strengths. We know the weaknesses. We can recite them in our sleep, and chances are high that we already have potential solutions in mind, as well.
Every bit of schedule math takes into account these perceived strengths and weaknesses relative to every opponent on the slate. We already know how those variables will manifest themselves in terms of wins and losses.
Then, all of a sudden, something changes—for better or for worse.
In the case of Clemson, it was two somethings that changed, and the end result was a murkier overall picture with two weeks of camp already in the rear view mirror.
First, Korie Rogers decided to give up football. This was an unexpected development in every sense. A former four-star recruit destined to play some sort of role in the linebacking corps in his redshirt freshman campaign walks away midway through camp—the story doesn’t make sense.
All indications are that Rogers has career aspirations outside of football he wants to pursue. Whatever that means for him, Dabo Swinney and Brent Venables suddenly have to be a bit concerned about what they see at WILL linebacker. The attrition means returner Ben Boulware will have to shoulder more of the load on the weak side of the defense.
Speaking of Boulware, the junior was kicked out of the team’s first scrimmage of August camp after getting involved in a scuffle. The phraseology chosen by Venables wasn’t flattering: “selfish”, “undisciplined”, “he’s supposed to be a leader”. Those were just some of the highlights.
Make no mistake: Players getting a little rambunctious during intrasquad scrimmages isn’t that big of a deal. It happens all the time, albeit with ramifications. It’s a punishable offense, but if it wasn’t Boulware, there’s a good chance somebody else would have done something to get tossed. It’s the nature of the beast.
But Boulware isn’t any ordinary player. He’s the junior forced into a leadership role this year due to the loss of critical experience off of the 2014 defense. He’s the one being counted upon for the very first time.
Boulware has already been ejected once in his career: after a special teams play in a blowout loss to Florida State two years ago. His ejections became such a regular occurrence in high school that his coaches had to threaten him with a loss of playing time—or worse—just to keep him on the sidelines on Friday nights.
Skirmishes in scrimmages are a normal thing, but Boulware can’t be handled with a “boys will be boys” mentality. For the most part, he has kept his emotions in check at Clemson. He should be commended for that.
However, it’s somewhat troubling that he couldn’t contain his emotions in the first intrasquad scrimmage prior to the first regular season game in which Clemson absolutely needs Boulware to contribute in a major way. Leaders can’t act like that, and the Tigers aren’t exactly flush with leaders.
With no Boulware and no Rogers, I’m sure Saturday’s practice was interesting. Martin Aiken has already been moved from end to WILL, but that still leaves a very thin position group behind the volatile Boulware. Otherwise, it’s a hodgepodge of unproven, untested, or unready youngsters on the depth chart.
These two separate yet interconnected developments at linebacker aren’t cause enough to change Clemson’s season projections, but they might be enough to add a tiny asterisk to the 2015 season for a whole new reason.
As if any of us needed anything else to get bent out of shape about.
God Bless!
WQ