If you enjoy watching cop shows on television—as I do—then you’ll be able to easily relate to the frustration I’m about to describe.
A crime occurs, and within five minutes, you know who did it. You can see it coming from a mile away. You just know a certain character is lying, and it’s painfully obvious.
Except that the detectives can’t see it. They take the character’s statement at face value and trust it wholeheartedly, seemingly blind to any ulterior motives that may exist. Exasperated, you think, “How can they not see it?”
The fact is, they just can’t, and they’re not alone. Although we may be keenly aware of the solution as a viewer of a cop show, we put on blinders in other circumstances. We set our sights on one track, and it never occurs to us to consider anything outside that track.
This is why writers have others edit their own work. It’s why brainstorming sessions work well. It’s why we bounce ideas off of people outside of our circumstances, just in case we haven’t considered all possible outcomes.
I’m guilty of this with regards to Clemson’s kicking situation, and I’d imagine many of you out there are guilty, as well. It’s no knock on any of us. It was bound to happen.
Here was my logical reasoning: Ammon Lakip gets suspended. Either Alex Spence or Christian Groomes wins the job temporarily. If Lakip gets reinstated, he returns to a starting role.
It seemed to be the most likely scenario—actually, the only realistic scenario. As dissatisfied as some seemed to be with Lakip last season, he proved more reliable than these other options promised to be.
Even when new walk-on Greg Huegel inserted himself into the mix at placekicker, my thinking never evolved. The only thing that changed was the number of candidates for the temporary starting job.
Recently, however, Dabo Swinney did what makes brainstorming sessions successful. He did what editors do. He did what outside voices can accomplish.
He changed the nature of the conversation by opening up a whole new set of possibilities.
In my original logic, no plan existed that involved Lakip being on the roster as a backup. No plan existed that allowed an “outsider” to take the job away from him and hold it through the season.
Yet, Swinney said on Thursday that Lakip would have to compete for the job once again when he returned to the active roster following the September 17 game at Louisville. In fact, Swinney’s stated preference is for whoever wins the job in the preseason—Huegel has the upper hand at the moment—to take control of it and never let go.
I can only picture somebody listening to my radio show or reading my commentary and saying, “Why can’t he see it? Is he blind? Why isn’t he considering the possibility that one of these other guys could be better than Lakip?” It makes me laugh, because it seems simple and logical to at least entertain the thought.
I’m not sure if we’ll see Huegel, Spence, or Groomes in October or not. But thanks to Dabo Swinney, I’m now considering the possibility for the very first time.
God Bless!
WQ