A longtime ESPN anchor and studio host recently joined Clemson alums Kelly Gramlich and Eric Mac Lain on the Gramlich & Mac Lain show.
ESPN’s Kevin Negandhi, who anchors the 6 p.m. SportsCenter and hosts the ESPN on ABC College Football studio coverage on Saturdays, shared some thoughts on Clemson as of late while speaking with Gramlich and Mac Lain.
“Clemson’s in a very interesting situation,” said Negandhi, who joined ESPN in 2006. “Because when we talk about star quarterbacks, they thought they had DJ, right, the star quarterback, and they’ve got another one. The kid that they got right now is pretty darn special, at least he’s noticed that he could be really special. Now we need to see a full season under his belt.”
Negandhi added that a team can have a stud quarterback like the Tigers have in rising sophomore Cade Klubnik, “but if you don’t have the right playmakers, it does not help” – and Negandhi said he was “stunned” by the lack of playmakers at Clemson’s disposal over the last couple of seasons.
“What Dabo has done — and previously, the Deshaun Watson era, he had stud playmakers everywhere. I was stunned, stunned over the last two years, how different this team has looked,” he said. “You could have a stud quarterback, but if you don’t have the right playmakers, it does not help.
“So we could talk about the quarterbacks, like we have. You need to have a star quarterback. But if you don’t have playmakers consistently helping and that turnover rate there – where you’re going to lose one or two to the draft, let’s get the next two, that pipeline – it’s going to haunt you. In the end, you can’t make the quarterback look good if you have nobody there who could stretch the field. And to not have that guy where who’s the guy that’s going to stretch the field and is going to be healthy on the field, right, and I was stunned by that dropoff.”
You can check out Negandhi’s full appearance with Gramlich and Mac Lain below:
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